Interesting read; and it appears we’re on track for yet more regulatory capture by industry interests. Worryingly there’s no mention of reducing domestic aviation by e.g. building a modern railway network to run intercity trains. Flights like AKL - TRG shouldn’t exist. www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-...

Comment of the day (so far): "I would rather have a smaller road on my way to a high-class hospital." 🎯

So the Prime Ministers new attack on teachers is their 12 weeks of school holidays which we all know many teachers work through. Regardless. NZ Parliament has 20+ weeks of recess each year including a far longer summer break than most professions including teaching!!!

Now, don't ask 'where will we find the money', Govt creates $ with votes. Ask instead, where will we find the resources? Do we need fewer people doing bullshit jobs and more well-trained kiwis teaching and doctoring? Well, put up wages and design some taxes to rebalance the economy ffs! [Ends]

Dreadful use of the ministerial letterhead paper if you ask me. Demeaning her own Office. This government has lost its way and any credibility it may have had - all they have left is using their platforms to spout empty rhetoric and make snide comments.

Support the strike 23-Oct-2025 substack.com/home/post/p-... #nzpol

Adopt this simple rule to be a ghoul: Assets, whether they be financial, physical, human, or natural, exist only and always to provide a return to capital. Public ownership of assets is a breach of this golden ghoul rule and an abhorrence. Amen.

Does spouting nonsense not cross any ethical lines for a government minister, as in Mr. Brown’s case it appears he believes it to be a prerequisite. “he said he had been advised by Health NZ that the average salary for a senior doctor was $325,000” www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Surely these young people should “juSt gO wHerE THe joBS ARe!” Seriously, if this is the economic environment, a hiring downturn, then the govt kneecapping young people by removing their entitlement to benefits just seems unbelievably crass.

In my city famed for strong winds and sideways rain (though you can’t beat it on a good day) this article resonates - particularly during a time when the govt seems hell-bent on defunding walking and cycling and public transport. humantransit.org/2025/10/nobo...

The new Wellington City Council will include 5 Labour councillors and 4 Green councillors, plus Andrew Little, giving the two party "coalition" an increased governing majority - 10 out of 16 votes, compared to 8 under the previous council.

Congratulations to @andrewlittlenz.bsky.social on the Wellington Mayoralty. I hoping our city continues to be both progressive and & ambitious with the new occupants of the Council chambers.

There’s still time to vote Pōneke!

Just for fun they should give it to any of the following: - Volodymyr Zelenskyy - Joe Biden - Stephen Colbert & Jimmy Kimmel Or, more likely I hope, someone who actually deserves the recognition & respect of the prize. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

This is the main issue I have with so much of the coverage around e-bikes. It's not that there aren't legitimate issues. But there is a panic around e-bikes and crickets regarding the daily toll of cars. And that's because the harm of cars is just accepted. It's baked into our society.

Spotted this gem in a footnote on page 62 of Treasury's He Tirohanga Mokopuna "Between 25% and 30% of everyone born in New Zealand is living overseas by age 30, and emigration rates are even higher among those with tertiary qualifications" Radical idea here - how about stop shitting on our young?

What I'd say to the 65,000 unemployed young people in NZ is... move, and compete harder against the other 340,000 people wanting work or more work. Hell, there are 20,000 job vacancies out there! Nevermind that most of them are wholly unsuited to you. Try harder, bottom-feeders.

"The world doesn't owe you a living" One of those phrases that rolls off the tongue of, yes, monsters. Think about that phrase for more than a few seconds. The world doesn't owe you 'being alive'. And sure, you can say 'that's not what he means!' But it is what he says.

Strange that the world seemingly owes asset-owning landlords a living, but not our rangatahi setting out into the world as adults, often from a place of economic disadvantage. (Or their parents, who may only just be getting by).

I’m starting to think that our PM is not a very nice man, and that he may not have foremost in his mind the idea that he should be acting in the best interests of all the people of this country. Goes without saying for some of the others in his government, given their actions, mind you.

This is a policy with no basis in any analysis. It's designed to look tough. It actually makes them look thoughtless and out of touch. It's arbitrary, mean, and simply designed to disguise the fact that the government is failing young people. Is this what being back on track feels like?

It’s so good getting back to having a garden to look out at (even on a miserable Wellington spring day). Even better to see these characters (kererū and tūī) devouring our kōwhai tree. Hoping one day to get good enough with my ancient SLR to snap a kākā in its nanosecond of staying still.

FYI I’ll be on TVNZ Breakfast from 7:05am to talk about the age of eligibility for NZ Super. I say don't extend it. It’s not fair on manual workers, Maori, Pasifika, the disabled & those in 30s/40s without the unearned wealth those in 60s/70s are now sitting on. Land tax/wealth tax better. #nzpol

I wish every country had a leader like Jacinda Ardern. Including New Zealand. Maybe ESPECIALLY New Zealand. The world would be a better place. Watch the interview if you haven’t. #Leadership @jacindaardern.bsky.social

Cowards. www.1news.co.nz/2025/09/27/n...

It’s hard to overstate just how urgently this ‘politics-as-a-game’ reporting of everything needs addressing. Especially so for subjects like health or climate change which are significantly based on empirical evidence. It’s good to see the case put so cogently.

Advocating that women have to put up with pain, & that kids must suffer from preventable diseases (on the basis of absolutely nothing) is just so on brand for this man and the evil clowns who surround him.

I think it’s really great we engineered a recession to bring down inflation but food prices keep going up. The one thing we need to keep being alive. It’s great I love it we can go to space but we can’t solve this. It just has to be this way. There’s enough food but some people have to starve.

"In my view, the Government choosing lower mortgage rates over healthier people, homeless people and more investment in future economic growth is a political choice. It is not a financial necessity. It’s also a sociopathic choice." #nzpol open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/...

Getting the vibe that choosing to move back to NZ from Australia is viewed locally as a borderline mad thing to do. Prices in the supermarket are not helping to disabuse me of that niggling fear.

People talk about "ideological diversity" in universities but never in the police or finance or media ownership or any of the many institutions dominated by conservatives. The whole concept is a crock of shit.

Random taxpayer rant: This is how the reckonomists want you to view Govt... scrounging around for tax revenue, or begging rich people to lend them a few billion dollars to build a 4-lane road or pay Ed Sheeran to play at Eden Park every Saturday for the next 5 years. It's bollox... [🧵 1/n]

I’ve a sneaking suspicion that, with a simple change of the characters involved, the same story about where the far-right’s money comes from could be written about NZ, Aus, and many other places. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Game changers for people travelling to and from the Wairarapa & Manawatū regions, great stuff.

7. Hope lies in the recognition that the left can also change the system. That the left too can mount a radical challenge to business as usual. It lies in twigging that elections here haven’t been won from the centre in years, and that this, if we can grasp the potential, can be used to good effect.

6. “Elections are won from the centre” is a mantra used to try to block challenges from the left. It says “you can’t win if you want to change the system”. It ignores the fact that first the neoliberals and now the far right have completely transformed – in some respects replaced - the system.

Western leaders have appeased Donald Trump since he returned to power, only to be hit with new demands after every concession. On Tuesday, Trump declared economic war on countries that regulate its tech companies. It’s time for the world to break from the US and aggressively target Silicon Valley.

ACT is the party of death. Oh the value of human life is too high. Oh we should make it easier for disabled people to end their life. Oh childcare regulations need to be more lax. Oh speed limit is too low more road tolls please! Death death death.

Finally, NZ govt policy getting the international attention it deserves. Cutting the Marsden Fund is shortsighted, narrow-minded policy. Funnelling cash to US-based tech companies on the basis of their flimsy promises and economic fantasies is directly harmful to NZ and just plain dumb.

NZ has now paid 120% of the full cost of 2 next generation, hybrid ferries for *checks notes* nothing at all. Those ferries were on track for 2025 & 2026 delivery. Extra points: our only rail enabled ferry is being retired on Monday & maintenance costs have doubled Should be sackable #nzpol

Ditto for hospital rebuilds. Their halting then scaling-back of Dunedin Hospital; and their shenanigans around the Nelson & Whangārei Hospital rebuilds is atrocious. We’ll end up with too-small, less efficient hospitals, built at a higher cost, with more cost added down the line to rectify them.

So $671M for ghost ferries, and no replacements in sight. 🤦‍♂️ I'm also side-eying this figure, as this government has a track record of hiding details in the fine print. #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Everything about this article is heartbreaking, and breathtakingly bleak. I’m aghast at the arrogance of Meta’s “guidelines” (screenshot from article) and the warped worldview they have which seeks to impose this malware upon us with so few guardrails. www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

This is unforgiveable incompetence: NZ has spent $671m to get no ferries, rather than $551m to get new ferries that would be arriving within months to replace clapped-out ferries. This sort of mismanagement should bring down a government; amazingly, it's not even the worst example of their failings

The ferry thing is pure bullshit of the exact same type as the Dunedin hospital build. Even if you don't count the cost of breaking the existing contract, which you should, starting a megaproject from scratch after years of high inflation just locks in higher costs for everything

Slightly diminish a band: Radioheadache

Sure, gas heating needs to be replaced ASAP. Compared to the shitshow of the failure to reduce the massive emissions (& related health impacts) associated with too many motor vehicles in our cities this is nothing. At least swimming (mostly) benefits people’s health. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

My least popular (and most correct) view is that cars should be automatically limited to the local speed limit. Put the pedal to the floor and you still can't go over 25mph in a residential area. (15 in Manhattan btw)

This ⬇️ (& the rest of the thread)

Hostile takeover by the same cruel, selfish, corrupt ideology thats infected the Libs in Aus, the GOP in America & the Tories in UK. Amplified by their pandering to the likes of Seymour & Peters (Farage in the UK) out of fear of irrelevance. Shows weakness IMO. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3607...