I feel seen… 🐈‍⬛🧛🦇 #aotearoapets

My fireworks display, during the day.

Again a systemic story that's bigger than the individual bits: a govt which ran into power in large part based on banging the localism drum about water has accelerated the pace of centralised - and personal Ministerial - decision-making. This is a big story about this govt. Someone should tell it.

Things I, a woman, have ruined, a partial list: - the frosting of a cake when I used too many crushed peppermint candies & it came out bright pink instead of classy white & frothy - many conversations that were nice and comfortable until I spoke up - a pair of wool socks that I washed in hot water

At every turn, the Government has opted for whatever would actually lead to more pollution and a warmer world – even if it costs more, jeopardises NZ’s reputation, overturns a campaign promise or clashes with the Government’s other priorities. The long retreat: newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/07/g...

So let’s get this straight. Lifeline is unfunded by govt & needs $2 million. But govt just hands $24 million to Gumboot Friday and is happy to give millions to the bloody Michelin Guide for tourism puffery of dubious value. Everything this govt does is run on vibes. www.1news.co.nz/2025/11/06/l...

I'm sure it's totally coincidental that the AoNZ government's changes to the Marsden Fund have been followed by successful applications led by female investigators dropping from 55% to 33%, and successful applications led by Māori investigators dropping from 13% to 5%. 🫠 🧪

Weird how we found a way to house everyone during Covid.

Two thirds of young men backed Mandani. Which challenges the media narrative of the past year that you have to be a white supremacist asshole to get the young guy vote.

Cuomo, the man who resigned in disgrace after a state attorney general’s report found that he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women, was asked if he had any regrets. He said he regretted not being better at social media.

As many have pointed out, Mamdani didn't stand apart from our trans brothers and sisters. He didn't play the "Gee, gosh, it sure is complicated," milquetoast moderate card. And he crushed. The way forward is together, not over the bodies of our own.

He won with joy and strong principles. Even when they used who he was as an attack, he smiled and stood for what he knew was right. This is the way.

Don't forget that Zohran Mamdani spent his entire campaign standing proudly beside the trans community. He went to trans rights rallies just to show support. He proudly waved trans rights flags without hesitation. He refused to back down in support of trans rights. That makes me happy.

Zohran was polling at six percent in January. Nothing is impossible

New map of the cool parts of NYC just dropped.

this is objectively hilarious

"The changes were included at the bottom of a press release put out at 8pm on a Government website but not emailed to all political journalists, as ministerial press releases generally are." Utterly Gutted by the Utterly Gutless. #nzpol

How many exasperated parents called you, Seymour? "The social media post was as ACT Party Leader. The ACT Party, as a political party funded by the Parliamentary Service, is not subject to the Official Information Act, therefore your request is declined." #nzpol #SeymourTrickery

When I wrote this just two-ish months ago, the premise was that the architecture of the CCRA (zero carbon act) remained, but the policies that sustained it had been hollowed out. With the CCRA changes today, I feel like that no longer holds www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-dept...

Rimmer plays the hat game to avoid admitting that - as always - he has no evidence, and those "phone calls from outraged parents" never happened.

Remember when this government got really mad about public musings on its growing resemblance to “a death cult that hates children”? One tries to resist hyperbole, but every day it gets harder to quibble with that take. *not just death: disability, denialism, dismantling democracy—what else? #nzpol

A bonfire of the climate policies. An emissions Guy Fawkes Day

The Govt quietly announced a loosening of climate rules at 8pm last night: - Decoupling the ETS from Paris - Shifting ETS resets to every 2 years - Delaying the public sector target by 25 years - Removing CCC advice from *before* emission reductions plans: www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

FYI today’s Chorus. I’ve opened it up immediately to all so those affected & can’t afford it can read & listen. Q3 jobs data is expected to show a slight rise in the jobless rate, but that disguises a jobs & mental health catastrophe for 15-35s since 2010. #nzpol thekaka.substack.com/p/wednesdays...

What if we did tho, what if we didn’t means test disabled people on the SLP and just paid it like we do for NZ Super? Not related to your partner’s income, not related to your income, and just, well, supported people?! #nzpol open.substack.com/pub/drbex/p/...

I'm sorry, it's actually embarrassing that a senior minister of the Crown is resorting to op eds to get her point across without critique If your policy is defensible, defend it under questioning by an actual journalist, without a paywall in the way

"Let me be more specific Get out of the Pacific Quittez la Pacifique"

So if the state has a duty, but it repeals every law requiring its components to give effect to that duty, that kindof suggests it doesn't think it has a duty at all, right? It's treating te Tiriti like it treated climate change targets pre-Zero Carbon Act.

As a former school board member, this is fucking outrageous. If you are a parent, find the details for your school board members and email them immediately to tell them you expect them to give effect to Te Tiriti whether it's mandated by legislation or not.

So a key part of the next government's coalition agreement needs to be "erase this government and everything it did" #OmnibusRepealBill

It's starting to look like a lot like the only ACT line item in the "coalition agreement" is "erase Māori" #nzpol

We often think of problems as separate buckets: disease, malnutrition, affordability or economic development. But “Climate change is not a separate bucket,” Hayhoe says. “The reason we care about climate change is that it’s the hole in every bucket.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,”

'I usually vote for whoever promises to cut the most tax'

Voting for tax cuts is voting for broken hospitals and broken firetrucks, road potholes, a population with no access to mental health services, a generation under educated, broken/missing ferries between our islands, rampant inflation and high costs to do everyday things.

Company to customers: Due to inflation we will have to increase the cost of our product by 10% Company to employees: Due to Inflation we are offering all employees a cost-of-living pay increase of 2%

"yet another example of the hostility to history, humanities and social sciences that the current coalition Government has repeatedly demonstrated" www.thepost.co.nz/culture/3608...

We can’t let this government walk all over us #nzpol

A visual summary of inequality. Cartoon from last year. #wealth #poverty #inequality

Every policy of this government shows us their worldview: other people, including children, have no value but economic value. Drive everywhere. Eat slop. Pay more for everything. Learn the right words, not how to think. Don't worry about your health or your neighbours, that doesn't generate revenue

National so far this term: Getting to your meeting 30 seconds quicker is a higher priority than protecting kids from cars on their way to school Keeping school attendance up is a higher priority than protecting kids from measles Saving a few bucks is a higher priority than a decent lunch

At some point wouldn’t it be great to talk about expert advice to treat mitigation of airborne diseases as a logical piece of obvious infrastructure that requires investment, like roads, as opposed to say, consistently communicating that kids must be at school with none of said mitigations in place.

If it requires speed they dawdle and trudge, conversely anything needing careful planning and design - like say a curriculum - is done headlong at a full sprint. Many examples: fair-pay agreements; ferries; school lunches; cancel KO builds; public sector cuts; smoking unban; yellow-legged hornets.

Now we know how National would have handled the Covid pandemic. The 20,000 we saved would be dead.

Folks, people who appreciated Siouxsie's work during the pandemic and/or who like free speech and academic freedom should help out here if they can. And that's all of us, one way or another, right? www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/852...

i hate that AI has now caused me to question the authenticity of cute animal videos online, which is my primary use of social media. i don't even know if this baby penguin actually wore a beret to go buy a tiny baguette in paris

"All mimsy were the borage groves..."

Such a collective neighbourhood treasure: Kelmarna Community Farm, a “climate-friendly food system” happily thriving in a peaceful pocket of inner-city-adjacent Auckland. kelmarna.co.nz #nzgardens (Just one of several spontaneous stops on a lazy local bike ride this fine day… ☺️🚲)

Morning peeps! I’ve written a piece for @thespinoff.bsky.social on why I ended up taking legal action against my employer and a little bit about how it played out. The whole story needs a book to tell but this is a good start 😂 thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-1... thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-1...