Useful information in the link here, including the OIA response itself. It refers to a number of other OIA responses that are in train. Does anyone know if they have been received? Does anyone know if the Fonterra, etc. briefing was also sent to MfE? Because that would explain things completely.

Vote records in absolute numbers is a meaningless statistic. After Trump 2024 and Trump 2020, but ahead of Trump 2016, the third-greatest number of votes ever won in Texas for president is Biden 2020. The "record" is always in the last election or two because that's how population growth works.

Love it: the night after he was kicked off of CBS for good, Stephen Colbert hosted a public access show in southeast Michigan.

A throwback. www.popehat.com/p/who-judges...

Basically we are getting spammed by Ministers announcing baby business-as-usual investments in the hope we forget about the snatching away of proper funding. If we don't get distracted by whacko culture wars stuff maybe the pixie dust will get in our eyes.

This is a lower bound: the number of tests that could not possibly have been valid. It excludes a much larger number of tests conducted with not-quite-incredible speed and efficiency

Racism in Northland police and what sounds like a truly awesome young guy who deserves a small medal, not the nonsense he received... (Also, why it's worth keeping a Herald sub) www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/racism-cl...

Hahah, it's so much more ridiculous than you'd possibly imagine. Google has made their primary headline product so much more useless... for what?

Something to be said that all the canonical great cable/prestige shows were created/shepherded by veterans of the 22-episodes-year network trenches.

I encountered a case of spiders goerge in a real world dataset. More than 200 people did a thing a total of around 3000 times and stopping there is an easy summary statistic average thing/person, but 1 person did the thing 1300 times and all the others did it 1700 in total between them.

Lemee get this straight: $3m subsidy for Robbie Williams is a $50/head subsidy on Eden Park tickets. Nick Sautner says big events see 3000 people employed on the night - but that works out at only 8 FTEs. $375k an FTE is truly "job rich".

Twenty-two years ago, Alan Kent responded to a 911 call and helped deliver a baby girl, Chloe. They’ve maintained a special bond through the years, getting together to celebrate milestones like birthdays, his retirement and her college graduation. https://wapo.st/42x93yi

We should try not to turn select committee submissions into a very expensive way of conducting a bogus opt-in poll. The reason we don't want government just counting submissions with AI is that the arguments in the submission and who is making them are important.

Robert Harris, author: Happy 100th birthday to Sir David Attenborough. Doing some research on the Suez Crisis I discover he produced Anthony Eden’s live broadcast to the nation for the BBC nearly 70 years ago. What a career!

One of the advantages of the NZ Media Council is that they always order corrections or statements if they find a breach.

Not the main point of this racist move in Louisiana, but in my piece on this fiasco I dropped a chunk on JUST how common this vile move is: "oh, you're innocent? We can tell, but if you want to fight it you can spend five more yrs in prison doing so." It's really common!

I did the Life in the UK Test to get my UK Citizenship (currently depreciated to 1/28th of its original worth) which was originally practically-focused like 'how to register your dog' and 'how to open a bank account' but then had an ideological nonsense makeover and was just a tax on immigrants.

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 > Cheaper by the Dozen. Home Alone 3 is the best Home Alone. The Red Dawn remake was actually pretty good. The Day After Tomorrow is a great film. Maybe the best disaster film.

Watched Sullivan’s Travels for the first time. I was not at all prepared for how powerful the scene in the church is, especially after all the zany hijinks of the first half and the wonderful banter between McCrea and Lake.

A wholesome story for nerds: On Saturday, I was signing books at a local bookstore for Independent Bookstore Day. The store had a signing-palooza with new authors every hour; toward the end of my hour, a woman came up and asked what my book was about. "Dictionaries," I said, and she lit up. 1/n

It's my birthday, and as I often do on my birthday, I'd like to share a rec for an episode of TV that's special to me. This time: The @chrisgethard.bsky.social Show Season 2, Episode 9: "One Man's Trash." Watch for the first time, or watch again with someone you love! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwi_...

Featherston (the street in Wellington, New Zealand). Is it Featherstone? I check almost every time. (I did not check this time, but only because I checked this morning) Other spelling errors are mostly muscle memory or autocorrect.

That said, why didn't the FSU make a submission on the Armed Forces Discipline Legislation Amendment Bill? It gives military officers the (name etc.) suppression powers of a court. Seems relevant!

The problem is it's just not true The Race Relations Commissioner (also famously a FSU council member) actually was not silent on it www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Every time this tailor posts a photo of their workspace, it looks like their dog is a tailor and he's showing off the garments he made. IG z.o.e.y.a.t.e.s

Passing the legislature twice with an election in between and then also passing a referendum is common but on the more difficult end of state constitutional amendment methods.

Check out a first look at Disney’s ASL re-animated songs from 'Encanto,' 'Frozen 2,' and 'Moana 2,' coming to Disney+ next week. The studio reworks key musical sequences using performance-driven signing. www.cartoonbrew.com/music-videos...

Th government isn’t amending Treaty clauses in good faith, obviously, but it’s true that descriptive/specific clauses are preferable to general/operative clauses

77mm in one hour in Berhampore. That’s just an incomprehensible rain intensity anywhere at any time, let alone in Wellington in Autumn. We used to use 7mm an hour as a threshold for “heavy rain”, and this was more than 10 times that.

Whether Starmer goes is more a matter of politics than about the constitution, but the Prime Minister should properly account to Parliament for his own decision to appoint Mandelson. His current approach of ducking, and blaming and sacking others, is a failure of prime ministerial responsibility.

Sir Geoffrey has replied! He says: What I said was "New Zealand is an irredeemably pluvial country." Of course because of climate change it is even more pluvial now than when I said it. All the best, Geoffrey

Great to be able to hear from an expert in handling challenges that arise in a setting that is difficult for others to see.

OIA response received: DPMC holds no advice given in relation to the PM or a previous PM about whether the acceptance of Matai title has any implications given Electoral Act rules around MPs accepting foreign appointments.

This is delightful

The Tom Phillips doco is flawed journalism for many reasons but everyone keeps failing to mention the main issue: the permanent suppressions mean we will never be able to tell the full, actual story (particularly about the involvement of the Family Court) and therefore what’s the point?

In a highly centralised system like New Zealand, without the dual sovereignty of states like Australia or internal countries like the UK, the length of the term of local government will be settled by one issue: the length of the term of Parliament.

Americans quick to shriek that Magyar is a conservative might want to sit this one out and just let Hungarians celebrate tonight. Promise you Hungarians from the LGBTQ community who voted for Magyar know, and have understood opposition politics against autocracy better than you.

If you're getting a walk in before the rain hits you, take some before photos :-)

i wonder if AOC’s early clashes with the democratic establishment PLUS the unhinged reaction to her from republicans have given her some of the “both sides hate her so she must be Independent” vibe that goes a long way with low propensity voters

Few people are aware of how much progress has been made against cancers. Leukemia is probably the most striking example. Before the 1970s, most children affected by leukemia would soon die from it. Now, most children in rich countries survive. ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

*movie trailer guy voice*

I see TVNZ internal emails about the 1News gangs story have come out, and honestly I don't understand the criticism. It essentially amounts to the Government saying it's unfair not to have their press release broadcast on the news.

This is earnest and not an April Fools: Manned space travel is a bit like $2 billion football stadiums -- a debatable use of money, but rich countries should have some hobbies and do cool stuff just because.

Boosting this as people should sign the petition! Further explanation in Graeme's thread, quoted below.

This is Molly. She was finally found a week after her human fell down a 180-foot waterfall while hiking together in New Zealand. Her human was badly injured and rescued by helicopter, but Molly was missing. A week later, Molly was found at the base of the waterfall and reunited with her human. 14/10

NEW A failed military police investigation? The Afghan war crimes inquiry continues to throw light on alleged crimes by UK special forces and their possible cover-up By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Have started a petition to the New Zealand Parliament asking that the Official Information Act be extended to Crown Prosecutors. Crown Prosecutors exercise immense public power and their exclusion from the OIA is a historical anomaly. Signatures welcome! petitions.parliament.nz/b6459024-f98...

For Sale. Mission Accomplished banner. Never used.

My job is planning public transport services, and every time a crisis generates free fares discourse, I think about the cost of free fares, and longingly think about what we could do if you gave us the same money and let us spend it on improving service quality