The claim in this korero that "the mechanism [the party hopping law] is available and it'll be up to TPM to activate that" seems a bit premature to me ... reckons below in a 🧵

Otago's Law community has struck gold once again, with 4 alumni and staff receiving Borrin Foundation awards 💪⚖️ Read about the recipients 👇

Shout out to Officers D, M, O and N and the Director of Police Legal Services though. It is people like this who will drive positive change.

The fundamental problem this Government has in responding to the McSkimming coverup report is that it's broader law 'n order programme relies on having an enforcement arm that exhibits these sorts of characteristics ... no "soft" policing that second-guesses its actions + does "what is needed".

Mark Mitchell on RNZ Morning Report saying "just a few bad apples, rest of the Police are all goods". But the IPCA doesn't really seem to agree with this assessment?

TVNZ news reporting that Andrew Costar is "on leave" from Chief Executive role at the Social Investment Agency.

What with the folks that will need sacked from this McSkimming coverup and those that should be sacked for adding fake clicks to their breath testing numbers, it's gonna be pretty tricky for Mark Mitchell to get his extra 500 cops, eh?

That's a shame ... guess there's not enough rubes in AoNZ alone to run the RWNJ grift on.

Some ranty reckons from me … to clarify, I am not the former TPM co-leader.

Posting on US politics from AoNZ is a mugs game, but can't help read this and be reminded of the old "fool me once, shame on you ... fool me twice, call me a centrist Democrat" line.

Oh boy ... the whole TPM expulsion issue looks messy (legally wise, let alone politically ... let alone in terms of party kawa). The Party constitution has a whole section on "Resolution of Differences and Disputes" requiring complaints to be sent to different bodies, etc ...

This, from OUSA's President, is very good and warrants reading: "For decades, governments of every stripe have treated universities as businesses to be managed rather than institutions of learning and curiosity. ... Students are rebranded as customers, research, degrees and graduates as outputs."

🍿 Were I to offer advice here, it would be to get into the High Court ASAP to seek a temporary injunction preventing this expulsion in order to complicate TPM being able to claim that there has been a "distortion of proportionality" in the House (thus enabling it to use the Party Hopping law).

Quick alternate view on this story from someone who sat the exam (+ her friends): “literally no-one GAF … it was the most interesting because it had the most language features to discuss.” Maybe RNZ (and those quoted) just need to take a deep breath and chill out a bit?

This would appear to interfere with access to Parliament (eg to ask your local MP to present a petition to the House) so someone should complain to the Privileges Committee? Maybe they can ask their local MP to raise the issue?

It should be requirement that any MP's office paid for by Parliamentary Services be accessible from a public place - the effect of this privately issued trespass notice is that all who have received them cannot now visit the MP's office at all (for protest or other reasons) for a 2 year period.

I get concerns about expanding laws relating to protest but I reiterate my view that this Bill simply isn't that bad. At the outset, let me note that there is simply no way that "this one-woman protest" will be illegal under the proposed law. 🧵

I asked and I received. Excellent stuff.

Look, anyone with the most basic understanding of supply and demand would realise that should the existing ecosphere become unsuitable to conduct business in, the market will provide an alternative. Why do you think Musk is so keen to get to Mars?

Lisa Owen on Checkpoint is ROASTING the NZ Police spokeswoman over the cops who faked indicative breath tests … any defence lawyer going forward should open their examination of police witnesses with “are you one of the 120 who just makes stuff up?”

There's a big lesson in this for #Election26: get your people on the electoral roll and make sure their details are correct...

If this were a bunch of Pakeha farmers having to go back to court to relitigate an award of water rights because the government had changed allocation rules the media, business and legal establishments would be united in decrying it as the death of the rule of law.

Having been shown a free way to access the KC-formerly-known-as-LADY-Deborah Chambers' views, I can report that the difference is that we currently tax bank interest and not increases in real property values and this is what people accept and changing it would be bad because Singapore doesn't.

Unlike Andrew I *did* read it and now everything smells like pennies and burnt toast.

I don't have premium access and don't care enough to pay to read reckons like these, but if DC KC can explain why a CGT is "punishing thrift" while taxing the interest paid on a term deposit isn't then she's probably worth whatever hourly rate she charges.

To the person who writes nasty messages to NZLII: fuck off.

I assumed that whole "men think about the Roman Empire every day" kerfuffle a few years ago was just more social media nonsense but apparently some men literally will start a charter school rather than confront just how weird it is to do that ...

The Andrew formerly known as Prince ...

My daughter is reporting important news from the mean streets of the citizens’ republic of Ōtepoti… “BRUH A TESLA JUST DROVE PAST AND SOMEONE HAD PAINTED FUCK ELON ON THE SIDE OF IT”

If this does escalate into a full-on legal dispute, I suspect it will not be resolved easily. The party constitution is ... not well constructed or expressed. For instance, there is no express power in it to "suspend" an MP or a party membership.

vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18... Come join me and my good chums in the Law School here… This is where we work You could even work with me, trying - sometimes succeeding - to convey the joys of Public Law to 1st years

Plaintiff’s lead argument: “Because iocaine comes from Australia, as everyone knows. And Australia is entirely peopled with criminals.”

You'd think a political journalist of Andrea Vance's experience would know what law applies to local elections, and therefore how (non-) seriously to treat these claims www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

To me, this temporal shift really weakened the movie’s storyline … the background radical activity (left-wing group blowing up shit and carrying out armed raids) was meant to be taking place in Obama-era America. A time less Weatherman, more Williamsburg.

Bertold Brecht (1953) "... the people Had squandered the confidence of the government And could only win it back By redoubled work. Would it not in that case Be simpler for the government To dissolve the people And elect another?"

Parliament enthusiasts may be interested to hear that MPs in Aotearoa NZ just unanimously agreed (without debate) to adopt this amendment that removes the House of Representatives’ power to imprison for contempt …

Strong winds + new spring growth + wet ground from recent rains = 😬 (Will be interesting to now see if there's a "like-for-like" replanting or effort to bring more native trees on to campus)

Why stop there?

This is somewhat careless and as an experienced MP Davidson should have done better, but ultimately the governing parties were going to vote the Bill down anyway. It would have been good to get that position established on the parliamentary record.

I had a law school prof whose running gag through his class was that the parties' names determined the outcome of each case. We even formed a corporation in class called "Winning Party in Lawsuit LLC" (to show how easy incorporation is). Thing was, he knew it was just a bit because he wasn't crazy.

Thank you to @melissastewart.bsky.social for pointing out that one of my papers is in the Jessup basic materials this year I have now peaked and will be retiring

I mean, putting to one side Brownlee's claim that this is "the dumbest thing you could possibly do" (an open invite to "hold my beer" if ever there was one), he's kinda boxed himself in with regards doing anything about this ... 🧵

The Kaipara Council election is the contest that just will not end! That said, unless the firm running the election has really stuffed up, 21 votes out of 6,300 should be too many to overturn (electorate recounts at national elections with 4x more votes usually produce this sort of margin of error).

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.

Dunedin's perennial loser candidate for mayor, Lee Vandervis, is mad that the STV voting system keeps demonstrating that a majority of voters would prefer anyone to mayor except him. His solution? Change the voting system, of course!!!

Stuff has piece up today raising legitimate issues with how the Harmful Digital Communications Act has been weaponised by people trying to shut down scrutiny. But in the middle of it, there is this one line drive-by allegation with no further context/discussion.

No, this is how Nazis talk in their own spaces. I don’t know abut this dude, but I never talked about gassing people and raping women when I was hanging out with my pals.

In my opinion, this is nothing more than political theatre designed to pre-emptively sow doubt about an election result that a majority of the incumbent council do not like ... it is legally meaningless and asks for action that is not available.

"Nice set of fundamental rights to collectively organise and advance your interests that you've got there. Shame if something were to happen to them ... ."