This article by @quinnypig.com nails it www.theregister.com/2025/10/20/a...

A timely reminder.

Yes, of course. Here's our spending on education as a % of NZ GDP. It's a useful case in point. Let's say that we decided to spend as much on education - relative to our economy - as Denmark and Finland. We would be spending about $4bn per year extra. [10/n]

The next time someone says the Atlas Network is just a figment of our left wing paranoid imagination show them this X post:

Handy to know that now Hate Speech includes "the consequences of my own actions"

98.7% of approximately 166,300 public submissions opposed the RSB But the majority of the committee has recommended it go forward with only really cosmetic changes.

Yep, it's the same old "bash a beneficiary" or "lazy youf" rhetoric to gain a couple of votes. Lazy Luxon chasing 4000 kids to save approx $1.3M year but won't chase Destiny church charitable trust or Gloriavale, with charities estimated to be avoiding $2.0B year in tax avoidance.

Me reading half the internet lately:

Totally out of touch with reality. This "report" from Treasury omits any form of wealth or capital gains tax. As usual, workers would be targetted and the wealthy untouched. It should be binned. www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

The hypocrisy as an expression of power is a thing, so the contradictions don't actually matter, but if David Seymour really wants to commemorate people killed for free speech in parliament, there have been over 270 journalists killed in Gaza. But I understand David Seymour might object to that.

JKR just called Charlie Kirk a Totalitarian. Surprising! His quote: “Directly confronting the left, and promising to fight their illiberal ideology with state power when necessary, is the key to winning everyday Americans.

How much income would it take from the richest 10% of people in the world to match that of the poorest 10%? As the chart shows, it takes less than 2 cents out of every dollar. That's less than *one-fiftieth* of their income, or one week of income in a year.

Damn, the banks are getting absolutely buried by the recession.... Just kidding, another all time high 🫡

When we see things like this, there's reason to be concerned that some madly grinning clown is coming to kill you. But, and however, as with many ACT announcements there's probably lots less to this than meets the eye (remember his whole "unapproved medicine advertising is now legal!" lie?)

Snap.

At the risk of starting the obvious, if you're hitting concrete barriers with your car then perhaps you shouldn't be operating a motor vehicle. Fortunately, cycling is now a safer way to travel in NP... www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

Legitimate question: is the 10% inflation of dairy and egg prices translating into greater profitability for farmers? Is the agriculture sector seeing growth that bucks the trend of the wider economy's performance?

#nzpol Data released by Statistics New Zealand today shows that the Consumer Price Index rose to 2.7%. This marks the 3rd straight quarter in which annual inflation increased, up from 2.2% in December 2024. The data underneath this figure suggests some troubles ahead. A🧵

These bilingual signs are so confusing. Nobody knows what these words mean. It makes me - an otherwise mild mannered average kiwi guy - furious.

Business decision makers believe the Government will deliver on its ‘growth, growth, growth’ mantra, but every quarter they keep being disappointed by the actual results. And that ‘delusion'‘ gap has widened to its widest level ever. thekaka.substack.com/p/behold-ano...

Here’s what a housing market with bits tacked on looks like. The bits are getting smaller and smaller.

The message “Driving is a really complex task… and people don’t think of it as risky anymore” is a very, very important message, but it's being shouted down in this article by a singular focus on young drivers. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

It shows.

Sorry, can you please explain this like I'm five... - A bill gets proposed - Experts speak out against it - The bill proposer gets angry & personally targets them online - A city Mayor calls it out as dangerous and unprofessional - "Free Speech Union" plays the victim card on the proposers behalf?

I, for one, am shocked that the org whose core business is remixing everyone else’s work ran into an intellectual property issue.

Tell me your pet's name with a gif

I guess it's entirely appropriate that Ruth is being honoured today. After all, we are in the middle of another permanent scarring of the economy for misguided, ideological reasons - a missionary-era bout of self-flaggelation. Let's have a quick look [🧵1/n]

Just imagine if there was a country where capital gains were not taxed at all.

"Both the first and second most expensive properties are owned by Luxon; his Waiheke property alone is worth more than the total real estate holdings of the bottom 18 MPs in Parliament, including the entire Te Pāti Māori caucus."

Didn't I see Peters (& Seymour) walking amongst the Parliamentary protesters back in 2022? The ones who had effigies of Jacinda being hung? Those twats? And he's now clutching his pearls? JFC, he is such a cockwombling gobshite. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Austerity in action: newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/21/a...

I have that thing where some people have a genetic disposition that makes cilantro taste like soap, except it's being asked to consistently use LinkedIn and treat it seriously

Hard not to read this as “please send novel prompt injection attacks to the Microsoft CEO.”

Handy guide for progressives on the 'Govt books are a mess' nonsense. The facts are readily available. Sunday 🧵 Here's NZ Central Govt net financial position. Govt financial liabilities (grey) have gone up, but the increase is easily offset by Govt having more cash in the bank & share values [1/n]

This article highlights how hard & expensive it has become to close roads for events. Waka Kotahi's requirements for road closures only consider road works, meaning event organisers need to engage road works companies to generate TMPs - which costs $$. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

A timely reminder that Facebook actually *want* scam ads because it has a positive effect on their engagement metrics, which is how they measure success. Protecting users from scams, hate speech, stalking etc. does not factor into Facebook's success metrics.

Wrote about this many years ago on Twitter, but your actual goal should be 5 trains/buses an hour - so a 12 minute interval. This breaks a couple of important psychological barriers for people, based on research by TfL (London's transport operator). Will explain. 🧵 /1

Look, I know these people's brains work differently to ours, but I would be embarrassed to be a grown person calling things "woke" all the time.

I love these silicon valley bros that think ChatGPT has achieved some kind of sentience and therefore might have rights. Like dudes, you don't even think poor people deserve rights, let's try to achieve that before giving person-hood to the autocomplete algorithm.

Oh no, how sad. www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

If we’re looking to address the “protection, progression, and safety of women” New Zealand First are pursuing the wrong conversation.

I’ve been laughing about this all morning

In 326 tweets by Nick Mowbray since 1 January 2024, interesting to study, esp. in light of the self-pity theatre du jour, a list of what, & who he targeted with the execrable language used. As the Bard wrote, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Liars. The average weighted interest rate on NZ mortgages in October 2023 was 5.61%. It is now around 6.1%. Kiwis with mortgages are currently paying over $436m per week in interest compared to $381m in October 2023.

A great piece on the end-times politics: “To put it bluntly, the most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i... @naomiklein.bsky.social @astra.bsky.social

Here are the US reciprocal tariffs against all the territories mentioned in Enya’s Orinoco Flow

A flu strain has likely gone extinct since 2020