Hey folks when you're writing emails to MPs about the Marcroft Bill, make sure you give Glen Bennett, Camilla Belich, Oriini Kaipara and those who denounced it in the house some love and support - they're being hit with awful transphobic emails, and they'll appreciate it.

For 2 years NZ Govt sold a fossil gas fairytale. Today reality has bitten and they have announced a new scheme to support businesses to transition off gas (similar to the one they abolished in 2023). But 2 years have passed and huge damage has been done by their delay.

Wrote a Listener column about the coalition's reckless, arrogant decision to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority without bothering to engage the people it's there for: the public. Fuck-knuckles indeed. www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener...

“In the space of a few years, the UK has moved from a broadly inclusive status-quo to being the most aggressively anti-trans developed democracy in the world.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

It’s about corruption. #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #NZ

I keep seeing the argument that the Woman & Man Definition bill "isn't about banning trans women from anywhere", and other similar statement, trying to argue that the bill is not targeted at trans people. However, here is the (very clearly anti-trans) official statement from the NZ First website:

If I was a journalist I would have also mentioned how funding for wilding pine control was cut by two thirds by the same government in 2023/24. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

I can't tell if he is being salty or is mis-speaking or dog whistling something about journalists' neutrality but it is so weird how Luxon keeps referring to Campbell 'campaigning' on certain issues. No lolly scramble in budget - PM www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

'Australian company Learning First was engaged to support and direct Ministry of Education work on the curriculums, but no contracts or terms of engagement had been published.' #NzPol

This Māori TTS project used under 8 hours of speech, open-source tools, and iwi governance to challenge how AI treats minority languages.

Minister Costello: I don't know where the documents on my desk in my private office came from Minister Mitchell: I didn't know about the emails repeatedly sent to my office PM Luxon: No one in my office knew about the documents that were delivered to my office I'm starting to see a pattern

Some people argue that particularists overstate the prevalence of conspiracies in contemporary governments, but meanwhile in Aotearoa New Zealand… www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

‘When the government replaces a New Zealand public servant with AI, what really happens is this: money that used to be paid to someone living in Wellington, Lower Hutt or Palmerston North gets paid instead to a tech giant in California or Seattle’ newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/21/b...

Māori-owned data storage network hailed as significant step towards data sovereignty

"The buck stops with the Prime Minister" - Mike Smith, thwarted litigant. (3m clip at top) #NzPol

Holy moly. Luxon on tv tonight denying his office ever saw the draft climate law given to his office by Fonterra & Z Energy; the companies confirm they handed them over. Language of our draft legislation almost identical. Banger of a story www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361... #nzpol

Today's Daily Cartoon for @newyorker.com by Kevin Maher and me.

More info:

This is the move of a Government that is lost and directionless, vapid and purposeless, vain and careless. They just DO NOT CARE. (1/5)

A welcome #disability #reading list from the folks at the DList. I would add. My Wide White Bed by Trish Harris, & the Crash, by Sally Wenley. Exploring each others' stories is important. #books #writing #reading thedlist.co.nz/newsfeed/spo...

Tamatha was right #nzpol

This gvt's reduced the brightline so they can sell their rentals & pay no tax earlier. It's given landlords $2.9b in tax breaks. And now landlords will be subsidised further by taxpayers on behalf of the poor. Most gvt MPs own rentals yet no media pt out these chgs benefit their incomes. Corruption🤬

The amount Upston claimed last year was $52,000, on top of her $320,600 ministerial salary. Upston says her crack down on poor people acquiring accomodation help is about being fair. But tell me, do you think its fair that Upston herself takes an even larger suppliment at the same time?

'The council announced yesterday that Wellington's CAB will go from receiving around $230,000 to $100,000 from the council.' - with no negotiation.

Congratulations to Ali Smith on the win! There are a couple of copies of Gliff currently available if you get in quickly! christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S3... ^MT

"I can't think of another scenario where we say ... here's a group who are really doing it tough, so let's make the 'kind of okay' people suffer more." - Upper Hutt financial mentor. ('Critic', RNZ?) #NzPol

'She pushed back on the suggestions the money would just go into landlords' pockets'. #NZPol

The same minister stealing support from our disabled community is taking $1000 per week off the poorest, as she personally sits on a salary of $327,000 per year? GET FUCKING MAD ABOUT IT, JFC. 🙄 #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #NZ

So very excited about Audition in Italian.

Louise Upston pushing down hard on state housing while claiming $1000/week to stay in her own apartment: #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

National MPs, with their six figure salaries, who claim accommodation supplements that are more than some state housing occupants earn in a year, stripping away accomm support for state housing tenants is some next level hypocritical cruelty. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360... #nzpol

Spoken like someone who's never had to live in social housing

I’m sure their personal housing portfolios are totally irrelevant in all of this, as are the private interests of their largest political donors, of the mega-landlord kind. 🤨 #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #NZ

Email 37 - Nicola Grigg - National

Bryan Roche describing the thousands of public servants whose jobs are under threat as "Human Capital" is a bit of a tell as to the worth they place on the working class.

IT DOES NOT GO TO FAMILIES. IT IS TAKEN FROM SOCIAL HOUSING PROVIDERS. IT IS GOING TO PRIVATE HOUSING PROVIDERS. FRAME IT AS ANOTHER BUNG TO PRIVATE LANDLORDS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT IT IS

THEY'RE TAKING $390 MILLION AWAY FROM SOCIAL HOUSING TENANTS AND GIVING IT TO PRIVATE LANDLORDS WHO HAVE TENANTS RECEIVING THE ACCOMMODATION SUPPLEMENT - IT WONT GO TO THE TENANTS, IT GOES TO THE LANDLORDS NATIONAL ARE GIVING MORE PUBLIC MONEY TO LANDLORDS, INSTEAD OF SOCIAL HOUSING PROVIDERS

REDUCING SUPPORT FOR SOCIAL HOUSING TENANTS AND INCREASING THE SUBSIDY FOR PRIVATE TENANTS IS GIVING MORE MONEY TO PRIVATE LANDLORDS www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...

New Zealand’s democracy operates on an implicit social contract. A government that repeatedly destabilises workforces, reduces services and creates widespread insecurity will find that contract beginning to erode, #nzpol

Remember to love. Love as hard as you can.

The same Bill that a majority of our parliamentarians chose to progress to a second reading today was introduced in Australia by Pauline Hanson and their parliament told her to fuck off. The absolute shame of it all.

It’s more than a fucking “distraction” if you’re debating the existence of actual New Zealanders and their friends and whanau!

They're right you know

With its new AI-based "search," Google is literally killing the infrastructure that its entire business is built on. Instead of linking people to the web, it will lock users into an "interactive" mode that slorps up data what is rapidly becoming the now-neglected and unvisited web. (1/3)

#nzpol Write to your local MP and/or party leaders. A very small minority of NZers support this. Their voices are amplified, their misinformation regurgitated, so don’t let their voices be the only ones NZ politicians hear. #nzpol

tough to overstate how quickly science funding in New Zealand has been blown to pieces - on Friday the NZ govt straight up disbanded the Marsden fund (our version of the NSF) it'll be replaced by a 'transition fund' with less money and zero information, as of yet, about what it will support #nzpol

Email those MPs, check in with a trans or takatāpui friend, chuck some money towards your local rainbow group if you can, offer to run some errands or make food together or something that'll make life a bit easier for each other. Get some sleep, make sure you're eating, take a deep breath.

Cis people we need to speak up when we hear hate & correct when we hear misinformation.

Thanks to everyone who is adding calming perspective on this. ❣️