Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, and her Health and Safety reforms. My #cartoon today #NZpol #HealthAndSafety #PikeRiver

This is a man who fundamentally sees not a single solitary valuable thing about research except any monetary return it can provide, and what his government is doing to our research system illustrates this perfectly

Explainer: Could the Conservation Amendment Bill really lead to billionaires buying up the national estate? TLDR - Yes, and corporates, both NZ based and from overseas. And did you notice DOC needing to turn a profit, like a SOE, being snuck in there? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... #nzpol

"In some cases, the very same companies selling detection tools are also making apps that allow students to cheat, including by writing papers for them or rephrasing text written by others." Sylvester McMonkey McBean approves.

A friend of mine has built this very cool tool which will show you the impact the various parties' tax policies will have on you. Well worth checking it out. yourtax.nz #nzpol

The most dangerous thing about AI is not that the machines might one day think. It is that we are being trained, by men with enormous financial gains riding on our acquiescence, to stop thinking for ourselves.

'cultural safety and competence improves the health of all New Zealanders. It is fundamental to an equitable model of care and accepted as a key competency for all RACS Fellows and members of all other medical colleges.' So proud of @racsurgeons.bsky.social ✊️ www.surgeons.org/News/media-r...

This article lays out the issues we face in healthcare. We are not keeping up with current cost pressure, let alone dealing with the $33bn of underinvestment following the GFC. The choices of the past are now coming home to roost. #nzpol theconversation.com/nzs-health-s...

Dr Rachelle Love, the first woman Māori ENT surgeon in the world, will remain highly regarded in the medical community. But not this tiny man and his government's actions to worsen the health of all NZers. Bring on the November election! 😤🗳 www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Good outline of current issues in the economy. "Cuts do not grow an economy. They shrink it" www.nzherald.co.nz/business/bus...

Tui in the flame tree on a Winter's day Tāmaki/Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand #RespiteSunday #birding @davidjvaughan.bsky.social

Interesting seeing "Machines are good at: Humans are good at" discussions about AI. Also: -the "unanticipated" cognitive impacts on developing expertise -how it can fail in complex, multi-level work. It's like people have never heard of Joint Cognitive Systems ai-frontiers.org/articles/how...

"I think that when resource is limited, as it is in our health system, that maximum benefit is gained when you target therapies to New Zealanders that are most at risk of disease and of disease complications," HealthNZ saying Cardiac Society can't oppose?! #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/...

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #TheGathering #birding #birdsky

The govt consulted a senior law professor who told them that legislating over Smith vs Fonterra would provide "immunity from accountability" for corporate defendants, and was inconsistent with its own Regulatory Standards Bill and common law rights They did it anyway. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Good to constantly remember the 5 Laws of Stupidity from Cipolla (1976). Seems relevant to much of the inexplicable stuff we see today. We presume nefarious competence but should remember that stupid people are found in all groups, including tech leaders and politicians...

Of all the things to waste money on, this is some of the dumbest. #nzpol Health NZ staff face second email address change within months www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/health-nz...

“It’s the most damaging collection of legislative Treaty proposals I’ve seen in my career, breaching Te Tiriti on a scale and breadth that we haven’t yet witnessed in our lifetimes.” — Carwyn Jones.

Awful truth, unknown to 99% of the population... NZ Govt adopted an economic management model in the 1980s that MAKES SURE: 1. We always have tens of thousands of kiwis on the dole. 2. People with work / little work live in abject poverty that keeps them desperate for crap jobs. Why? [🧵 1/n]

the thing that’s been painfully obvious for years is that unchecked capital accumulation paired with gutting the social safety net and public goods was going to lead to commerce without customers. an economy built on consumption when no one has money to consume.

“If you are running a country as a CEO of a business, then ‘customers’ who lack the ability to pay aren’t worthy of serious attention – the disabled, the homeless, those on welfare, children living in poverty – even if your own policies are responsible for their predicament.” #nzpol

Report author Shamubeel Eaqub said the research challenged the assumptions that stopping projects saved money. "The surprising finding is how expensive pausing or cancelling projects really is. Delays create inflation costs, productivity losses and defer public benefits that compound over time."

Responsibilisation: a process in which responsibilities shift from the state to individuals or communities. This can lead to governments relying on unpaid or poorly paid community members to fulfill roles traditionally held by state agencies. #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Anne Salmond: Democracy for sale newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/16/a...

This thread is an excellent example of why inserting into public grants to do scientific research an assessment criterion of ‘immediate economic contribution’ or the like is such a bad idea.

This is the automated decision making at work. It'll likely get worse, given the Bill National is seeking to pass under urgency - open.substack.com/pub/drbex/p/...

"It’s going to be people with substance versus people with shallow knowledge. It’s going to be mastery versus faking it. It’s going to be people with good taste versus tacky. I trust you will put in the work necessary to be on the right side of those battles.”

Babel versus Jerusalem, pope's AI encyclical now in infographics www.cbcew.org.uk/magnifica-hu...

Remember, a government which intentionally runs a surplus by definition has a contractionary fiscal policy. They're celebrating a deliberate contraction of the economy. It's ghoulish behaviour.

We've written about AI-induced physician deskilling that has already surfaced thelancet.com/journals/lan... @tberzin.bsky.social AI-induced never-skilling among newly trained doctors, while not yet proven, is a serious concern that needs to be addressed nature.com/articles/s41...

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Another version:

New this morning: Two of the Government’s key energy policies are fossil fuel subsidies, breaching New Zealand’s international trade obligations, a new legal opinion has found. newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/26/l...

Poverty is a policy choice. Concentrated wealth is a policy choice. Inequality is a policy choice. None of it is natural or inevitable. Remember: We have the power to build a system that serves the many, not the powerful few.

Bernard Hickey "This is a clear income transfer from state tenants to private landlords of ~$500 million and this is on top of the $12.5b tax breaks that have been handed to landlords in the last 2 years, and that was taken from the Climate Emergency Response Fund" www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5u0...

For any of my trans pocket freinds seeing this tonight. Just wanted to say I'm glad you're here, you all being goodness to my timeline. Seeing people find themselves and be happy that they did is a wonderful thing. But like, just as people, not because you're trans, just, you're good eggs.

"Everyone just wants a decent cost of living, secure home and their privacy. Today the Government has instead chosen to import another culture war to try confuse and divide us." Chlöe Swarbrick @greens.org.nz 20 May #nzpol

In light of current discussions: "Because these programs cannot themselves be concerned with truth, and because they are designed to produce text that looks truth-apt without any actual concern for truth, it seems appropriate to call their outputs bullshit." From: "ChatGPT is bullshit"

It seems genuinely pretty embarrassing for the government that they're so vague about this technology they're asserting will deliver savings and efficiencies. But it's also totally reflective of the way AI is promoted. It's modern snake oil.

Now in my third year of posting this little doom loop graphic.

"..the government’s primary objective was to enable greater economic development on public conservation land, while mitigating the risks of legal challenge was a subsidiary objective." Opinion: The quiet but major shift slipped in among the conservation law reforms thespinoff.co.nz/atea/19-05-2...

I'm so mad, this Supreme Court victory was DECADES in the making aaaaaagh

Simplistic short term solutions often create complex and diffuse risks that can be hard to anticipate. Climate law change is a dangerous trade-off - Newsroom share.google/HRnvRYuHtt30...

"...the New Zealand government decided to change the law, choosing to ignore international law, global scientific consensus, and cutting out our own Supreme Court." The Spinoff: Opinion: Is the climate law change this government’s jump the shark moment? thespinoff.co.nz/science/14-0...

#nzpol I’ve just seen an advert from Te Whatu Ora about vaccination. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen for a long time. Take 3 minutes e te whānau, feel a little bit of hope. Go on 💚 www.healthnz.govt.nz/health-topic...

'If litigation is foreclosed, a question arises: who pays? The costs of climate harms will fall on someone. Is the burden to fall on taxpayers, rather than on those whose activities contribute the most damage?'

I share Dame Anne's incredulity that there has not been more pushback and outrage about the massive changes to what are meant to be democratic processes. A focus on extractive efficiency over the needs of people and our environment Anne Salmond: Democracy for sale newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/16/a...

Billboard potential? I mean, if it’s accurate, it kinda blows up the entire NZ National Party campaign narrative, right? 👀🤷‍♀️ #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #NZ