Watch this space. The PM spoke of a "govt position" re recognition of Palestine -- when pressed on whether ACT would be afforded the ability to agree-to-disagree. But, note the provisions of Cabinet Manual: formally, agree-to-disagree is the only mechanism allowing coalition ministers to dissent.

Our final substantive workshop for LAWS522 Public Law: Office, Discretion, Integrity LLB(Hons) seminar — our writing workshop. 🤓

Eeek. I had hoped our courts had eschewed the language of *nullity* etc -- but here it comes back with a vengeance... 😬 www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases...

Buried at the bottom of the order paper today: a sessional order on highly discriminatory e-petitions (there's a bit more to it, about application to existing petititons, but this is the core)

"The university will stop sharing the data required to be included in the ranking as of 2026. As a result, Sorbonne University will no longer feature in future rankings produced by THE, which include the World University Rankings, the Rankings by Subject or the Impact Rankings." Excellent!

Nonsense. On stilts.

🦇 Another all-stages urgency motion, for the Adoption Amendment Bill imposing an almost 2-year moratorium on overseas adoptions except for listed countries.

Behind a pay-wall until tomorrow, but I'm the "legal expert" gently pointing out that a party called "New Zealand First" arguing that we should have judges with no knowledge of our local conditions and values deciding our law is 💀🤡🤠

#cuppawithasideofibuprofen #stillretired

We are delighted to share Conor Gearty @lselaw.bsky.social’s reflections on writing: 8 tips for surviving (and enjoying!) academic writing. Many thanks to Conor for sharing his insights! Article: doi.org/10.53386/nil... Series: doi.org/10.53386/nil...

#retired 44 seasons of rugger has brought a lot of joy, memories and whãnau. Luckily it's #thegametheyplayinheaven. 🏉🌈❤️

#breakfastofchampions #purchascup 🏉🌈🦅❤️

Couple of old locks from the second row… 🖤

#tournamentlivery 🏉🌈❤️

#pretournamentfuel ☕️

✅* * With more than an hour to spare… 😅

🗓️📣 Save the Date! The ICON•S 2026 Annual Conference will be hosted by University College Dublin in Dubin, Ireland 🇮🇪 📅 June 29 – July 1, 2026 Stay tuned—the CfP and further details will be shared soon!

Great to join Sir Geoffrey for the launch of his new book tonight. #howtosavedemocracy

You can do the same for Norway ... yes, it has only 20 Ministers at the national level. But, it also has much, much stronger local government arrangements (which do a lot of the work that we in AoNZ have vested in our central government agencies). So, again, we're not comparing apples with apples.

I can save us all reformation stress by recommending our Cabinet Office invest in some commas and conjunctions. Eg, Hon Mark Mitchell can be rebranded as per:

So that's more ministerial portfolios in Ireland than Aotearoa New Zealand!!!

But a brief scan of the Irish list shows many of the portfolios are composites - sometimes with unrelated areas bolted together! And if my maths is right, a whopping 43 portfolios held by senior ministers (if the composite portfolios are disaggregated) and a further 61 held by junior ministers!

And it's interesting to see how quickly the comparative analysis starts to unravel. Take, eg, the Ireland exemplar: www.gov.ie/en/departmen... Sure, a statutory cap of 15 senior ministers and (now) 23 junior ministers of state.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer appeared on TVNZ's Q&A with Jack Tame to talk about his new book, How to Save Democracy in Aotearoa New Zealand, which hits shelves this Thursday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryVH...

Cuppa with the old man for Fathers day.

A week of feedback to LLB(Hons) students on their first full ~12k-ish draft research papers just finished. Common advice rendered: 1. Watch this video: youtu.be/vtIzMaLkCaM 2. Scissors ✂️: chop up your manuscript into paras, throw 1/4 away, and reorganise the rest (with a reader focus).

🌽🥔🫛🥕 🏉 🌈 ❤️ 🚌 > palmy

Someone wants to come on the Mixed Veges end-of-season road trip… #mrleo 🦁

The Covid inquiry reboot is inspiring all sorts of revisionism on LinkedIn, including this little gem from Covid Plan B stalwart Ananish Chaudhuri “By October 2020, we knew that the vaccines did not prevent transmission”. This is not true, but how did he even come up with this? Thread. 1/N

Hmm. Another over-egged policy paper from #NZInitiative, no doubt for ideological aim of promoting smaller govt. Problem “diagnosis” purports to paint picture of fragmentation/confusion etc. Yet fails to refer collective coordinating role of Cabinet. 🤷🏻‍♂️ www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-...

These people seem to see the power of state solely as something to abuse. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...

Top law firm Simpson Grierson says it did not endorse a controversial document circulated nationwide by Kaipara District Council (KDC). #nzpol

This one is only for Blueskyers of a certain age.

Roger Partridge responds to my recently expressed concerns about mischievous hyperbole unsettling the balance in our constitutional ecosystem. open.substack.com/pub/rogerpar...

'councils are not just service delivery agencies – they are critical partners in helping communities realise their own aspirations' - Penny Hulse, the best mayor Auckland didn't have. @thespinoff.bsky.social

Cmon etc. 🖤💛💚🤍

I’ve left X because it had become a moral vacuum. However I’ve seen a X post from The Egalitarian - #DissDisinfo (lacking the courage to use their real name or photo). For the record I was invited to the Covid-19 Inquiry public hearings & was set to attend. Also met with them for 2 hours privately.

Pre-rugger scribbles. #lionsvturbos #showgroundsoval

Ginger beers… for the last ever Wests Roosters prizegiving. 🐓

#BREAKING: We are calling on the Prime Minister to show leadership by removing Brooke van Velden as Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, following her recent comments that politicise the Employment Relations Authority and breach the Cabinet Manual. 1/6

There’s a weird comment from minister in this episode that shows a worrying misconception re local govt (~14’30”). First, govt, not industry; hint is in name. Secondly, no regulatory body? what about, like central govt tax, this thing called democracy? 🙄 newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/21/o...

Hmm. Ministers beating up on court-like quasi-judicial tribunals — fast-track panels and Empl Rel Authority. While Cabinet Manual only speaks directly to (and warns against) judicial criticism etc, an analogous principle also surely applies to these bodies. Ministers should pull their heads in.

Multi-tasking tonight, one ear on the Chief’s Lucinda lecture at Monash on “Continental Drift”; one eye on SOU v BOP NPC rugger match… 😅

The tone of this video is completely wild. It's filmed like a high school media class project. It looks like it too; the presentation and graphics are amateurish. And yet it's chilling, because she's a real government spokesperson dismissing reports of abuses in detention with finger quotes.

Meaning that the Union's case for a declaration probably has legs ... they'll be asking the court to tell the Government what officials already have (but Goldsmith then chose to override). That the retrospectively acting changes to pay equity law unjustifiably breaches the rights of female workers.

As such, the fact that Goldsmith has put his own view onto the website in place of his official's advice effectively tells us that they thought the Government's changes to pay equity rules were inconsistent with the NZBORA ... but the government didn't want that fact made public.

Well, the only previous occasions when an A-G has personally authored one of these "why this Bill is consistent with the NZBORA" documents have been where officials gave contrary advice. That happened, i.e., with the Foreshore & Seabed Bill in 2004 and the Public Protection Orders Bill in 2014.

Instead, hidden away so you have to specifically search for it, is this document. In it, the Acting Attorney General - Paul Goldsmith - gives HIS view as to why the rights limits in the Bill are all quite justified. Why is that interesting (beyond the specific reasons that he gives to us)?

So, I went away to look at why the A-G thought that. Because, rights advice given to the A-G by their officials gets put up on the Ministry of Justice website (so we can see why any rights limits are considered to be "justified"). Except ... that's weird ... there's no advice listed for this Bill!!!