Maybe we need more people elected who know what it's like to do battle to get your bare minimum "entitlements" at WINZ than we do people who are well practiced at protecting their wealth through loopholes and technicalities.

"it's cheaper to house people, so it's just cruelty"

This is excellent

Good to see this is at least being reported, but how has this not broken the news cycle wide open?

“Local stores next to the protected bike-lane have seen a 49% increase in sales, compared to an average of 3% for Manhattan as a whole.” (Among MANY other public benefits.) Want To Make More Money? Build A Business On A Bike Lane. #CityMakingMath via @fastcompany.com #BikeLanesMeanBusiness

New media release published on Scoop Parliament: Luxon Quietly Borrows $1.4 Billion More To Hide Climate Failure

RNZ released stats showing that over $1m in donations to this government were directly linked to Fast-Track projects pushed through by this government and approved by this government without the due oversight and often rejected and advised against by experts. Let that sink in. $1,000,000 #nzpol

So Luxon said this (headline below) yesterday. Today its reported as "Matt Burgess served as Luxon’s chief policy adviser from January 2024 to May 2026." This month is in no ways "a while ago". This is a proven lie, will he be hounded by the gallery for it?

So NZ’s biggest climate polluter, Fonterra, gave a paper to the PM’s Policy Guy, who used to be at the far right NZ Initiative, asking Luxon to block a specific common law case currently b4 court. And then PM’s office illegally kept the document secret. NZ Govt is a corporate protection racket

A decade ago, analysts were calling Spain a cautionary tale. Too much solar, too fast! Today, Spain is rapidly on its way to having the cheapest power in Europe. Maybe this time, solar naysayers will learn... haha, jk, they'll just move the goalposts.

Of course they did. NZ Government scrapped English requirements for all Golden Visa applicants i.e. the wealthy Not only that, these wealthy don't have to stay in NZ much at all, but are allowed to buy our sensitive lands, houses and farms

Briefing to the Minister of Justice: "We recommend that the reforms are applied prospectively in line with rule of law principles, the separation of powers, and the convention that legislation does not deprive litigants’ fruits of their victory. This would mean that Smith v Fonterra would continue."

Worth a read as NZI is a go to for media & they publish a lot of ‘independent’ ‘objective’ reckons. “The NZ Initiative claims to be a non-partisan independent research and policy think tank. The reality is that it is a lobbying group for international and New Zealand corporate interests” #nzpol

Nicola Willis admits AI plans put Kiwis and our data at the mercy of offshore companies and overseas regulation

The NZ Govt acts to protect polluting corporations against people who are harmed by that pollution. Late-stage-climate-disaster-capitalism. Officials told government not to intervene in a climate court case www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

World Wildlife Fund WWF #Climate

NZI CEO Harwich is also a member of the RW Montpelerin Society. NZI is an Atlas Network member. Harwich previously worked at Atlas member think tank Policy Exchange in London (where Luxon gave that awful speech), the Atlas member Centre for International Studies in Sydney before coming to NZ.

Lebanon's Health Ministry reports that Israeli attacks have killed 3,213 people and injured 9,737 since March 2.

Via @jricole.bsky.social, reminder that Israel’s savagery is unrelenting & US is still complicit. www.juancole.com/2026/05/isra...

The beloved 25-year-old photographer Fadi ElMeghari was murdered today in an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp. The world continues to be fooled that there is a ceasefire in Gaza, as the colonizers continue to wipe out the Palestinians from their land.

That’s insane heat.

Terrible report out from the ghouls at TPU today - including this blatant lie. Remember, if Govt run a budget surplus of $84bn, the private sector by definition has to lose $84bn in savings ($ or Govt Bonds). Equating a Govt surplus with extra money in household budgets is off-the-chart misleading.

Brian Gaynor said Muldoon abolishing 1st Lab Super fund was poss the worst economic decision ever. Key stopped paying into Lab's 2nd Super attempt & reduced KS contribs which Willis copied. Both cld be seen as raids on KS as they spend that money elsewhere. Being good w economy isn't in their DNA.

"Luxon's Govt keeps saying there's 'no magic money tree' for basic public services and child poverty - but there is one for landlord tax cuts and new military spending?" - Chlöe Swarbrick @greens.org.nz 27 May #nzpol

The Chief Archivist should be having a look too, cos prima facie either a breach of s17 or s18 of the Public Records Act

Excellent from Alexandra Sinclair. Real expert on this stuff (and I should note despite the plethora of overseas academic garlands, a kiwi).

This BBC documentary by Jonathan Renouf on abrupt climate change due to ocean circulation tipping is one of the best. From 1999, with top experts like Jonathan Overpeck, Richard Alley & the late Wally Broecker, it's surprisingly current: that risk looks much higher now. 🌊 youtu.be/PF-MMxkG9fg?...

“Palestinians in Gaza have starved to death while surrounded on all sides by food and supplies that were prevented by Israel from getting in” ~Sarah Clancy Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

. The climate solution for India, Brazil, and Indonesia: Change farms and forest-use, There is #hope, because we have the solutions 🛠️⚖️🔍 to take #ClimateAction. More: researchmatters.in/news/cli... .

Shit's getting real #nzpol

A vast corruption scandal involving our PM and some of our biggest private companies and its not even on the front pages of the news sites any more already #nzpol

Whānau - keep clicking these links so this corruption doesn't fall off the radar: www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609... www.1news.co.nz/2026/05/24/a... www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/... www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Am I right it's worse than 4x? Those who had made donations: 21 bids (7% of 300) 7 were approved (30% of 23) i.e. 33% chance of success No donations: 279 bids 17 were approved (79% of 23) i.e. 6.1% likelihood So donors seem to be more than 5 times as likely to win

As of today, firms linked to donations to National/NZ First parties are four times more likely to have received approval under the fast track process than firms not linked. Currently 7% of all 300 FT applications are linked to donations, but 30% of the 23 FT approvals are linked to donations.

Exactly how can wording that wasn't recorded in anyway, from two separate corporate lobbyists, make its way to cabinet where it was added to law. Someone had to propose that wording, who the fuck was it?

Mike Smith on IG today 👀

On the contrary, he's blaming someone who no longer has to fear losing their job working for him and so is in a better position to defend themselves.

Protest illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Please sign #nzpol secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...

LOL, Joel Maxwell in fine form... www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Marc Daalder taking down the coalition's fossil fuel fetish article by article.

What some of us have been warning of for decades is happening, faster and fiercer than most imagined, even in the mildest and most temperate corners of the world. #ClimateBreakdown

#nzpol Time for citizens to vote is nearly here. Hat tip to @robdickinson.bsky.social ( I think?) Try it out at trek.epicrandomness.com

“A World Wildlife Fund for Nature New Zealand and EY New Zealand analysis found that protecting nature could save Aotearoa more than $270 billion over the next 50 years by avoiding the costs of degraded water, declining fish stocks, and impacts on tourism and primary industries.”

So many of our electricity supply system issues could be sorted by strategic placement of large batteries and investment in rooftop solar and batteries its not even funny.

‘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...

I'll end with a balance sheet showing all the signs of being milked by offshore creditors - Greece. The Govt is running deficits to pump cash directly or through the economy to offshore investors, while a few households do very nicely indeed. This will be us in 2040 without a plan. [Ends]

"Researchers found undisturbed primary forests store 83% more carbon per acre than the managed forests that are replacing them." This study is "shocking" - as in "we've been lied to by the forest industry" and... it's not in our climate models. sustainability.stanford.edu/news/shockin...