Random public info msg... The guys at Stats NZ work out how much each NZ industrial sector is spending, selling, and paying out in wages. Here's the 'utilities' sector for example. The whole sector spends $4,000 per kiwi on stuff, another $500 on wages, and makes a $1,300 operating profit. [🧵 1/n]

We've got a new #kakapo webcam! It's on Rakiura's nest on Whenua Hou. She laid an egg yesterday (we caught that on camera), but isn't incubating it yet. Follow to (hopefully) watch her lay more! #conservation #birds www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/kak...

The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization. This is a shameful move that puts both Americans and people all over the world at greater risk from disease outbreaks, which require international collaboration to contain.

Congrats to IIML grads Lynda Chanwai-Earle and Kyan Krumdieck who have been selected for the 2026 FilmUp Mentorship Programme

Back in stock also: pocomoto.co.nz/product/lego...

It's been hard to keep this under wraps. deadline.com/2026/01/lore...

Look at this BABY

Giles Dexter nededs to get some context around this *SHOCK* story. ACC has investments at NZ$51.1 billion (as of 2025), up from NZ$48.1 billion the year before. So their "deficit" has to be seen in that context. ACC is investing heavily in a portfolio that has a 9.1% return according to their...(1)

#nzpol Data released by Stats NZ today shows that the cost of living rose at its fastest rate for 18 months. Prices rose for 80% of items in the CPI basket, meaning growth in prices was broad-based. Minimum wage workers are now facing a 3rd year of real terms cuts in wages. A thread

This panui share it

This is a banger of an ad.

A wooden relief depicting the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, long displayed at an art gallery, has returned to the junior high school where it was created about 50 years ago after alumni restored it. 👉 ebx.sh/saALI5

I've been reminding myself of this so much recently.

Al Jazeera actually mentions climate change in the article

The calm after the storm(s). Sunrise, Friday 23 January, from Wainui Beach, Aotearoa / New Zealand. East Coast/te Tairāwhiti was hit hard by storms this week. We’re fine, others not so much. I’ll put a link in comments for whānau affected. Ata mārie / Good Morning ☀️

New #StrongMessageHere up on all Pod arenas, including #BBCSounds. Stewart Lee and I discuss Greenland, Trump’s Board of Peace, U-turns, and ‘When is a lie not a lie but a deployment of Wittgenstein’s theory of Rabbit-Duck Aspect Perception?’

This phenomenon - this experience - is best articulated in @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social's Paradise Built in Hell. When you are there, and you see an entire city of goddamn heroes around you, it is nothing short of a transcendent experience.

People. are. dying. A negotiator friend used to say that in the Paris Agreement carbon markets negotiations when the debate veered into obstructionism and game-playing. There were sometimes embarrassed laughs: it was hard to equate the bean-counting work being done there to life and death. 1/-

We're down a billion in revenue, but, don't worry, agencies are spending $2.3bn less than expected on people and services, so... we're winning $1.1bn! Govt will work out one day where the money to pay taxes comes from. Govt spends money into the economy, and *then* taxes it back out again ffs.

This is awesome! I've seen black coral at the Poor Knights (east coast of Northland) while on SCUBA at over 35m depth and freediving in Fiordland at around 10m (where the freshwater layer on the surface creates similar conditions to being below 30m).

Lunch time chat at mahi: Are you registered to vote? Voting Strategic voting in your rohe. #NZpol

Discworld QOTD, from Moving Pictures "‘Students?’ barked the Archchancellor. ‘Yes, Master. You know? They’re the thinner ones with the pale faces? Because we’re a university? They come with the whole thing, like rats-’"

First thought about the election date: November 7 is right when a lot of university students (mostly first time voters) will be finishing up and heading home for the summer. It’s really important to make sure your young people know what to do if they are out of their electorate on election day.

Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way. For context: I published my 15th book last year. The advance I received for it was considerably less than £6,600.

Watches & Warnings have now lifted in the North Island as the tropical low moves away to the east. They remain in place for the South Island, but rain will ease today. 🌩 This afternoon there is a risk of thunderstorms for some parts, as a region of unstable air follows the main rainband.

In today’s NZ Herald

🐤 🐤 "quack" 🐤 🐤

The concierge at my apartment, so apologetic, told me about the woman who demanded to know who lives in my unit and why they were ordering vulgar blankets. She took a package not addressed to her, opened it, and was offended to find a huge woven blanket that says BITCH DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK

A list of five words (and their meanings) for children under six years-old… 1. Criancinha (Portuguese) = small child 2. Smábarn (Icelandic) = small child 3. Kleinkind (German) = small child 4. Pikkulapsi (Finnish) = small child 5. Sopliaci (Slovak) = snotling

Once again Maori across NZ are gathering to help those affected by floods, opening their marae, making Kai and beds available. www.instagram.com/reel/DTv68K2...

Not one of them a Living Wage Employer #villains #freeloaders #taxwealth #oxfamnz #nzpol

A key election date people don’t talk about enough is Writ Day (which for this election will be 4 October). If you’re enrolled at your current address by Writ Day you’ll be on the printed roll at voting places in your electorate, will be sent an EasyVote card, and can cast an ordinary vote.

And, for anyone like me who is a New Zealander living overseas, if you have been back to NZ at any point in the last 3 years, you are eligible to enrol and vote in this election (the extension of this provision to 6 years was for the 2023 election *only*)

Also make sure people are enrolled and have a way to go vote, and if you can help them do either or both, please do!

Visiting a prospective new rental (along with half of Auckland), & there’s quite a bit of water ponding in the back yard. Agent says “the tenant says it goes down when the rain stops.” 🤔🫣😬😲

Discworld QOTD, from Unseen Academicals “But, it was a funny thing: every day something happened that was important enough to be on the front page of the newspaper. She’d never bought it and seen a little sign that said ‘Not much happened yesterday, sorry about that’.”

Hey the voter suppression laws mean you can only vote up to twelve days before November 7 and have to be registered thirteen days before that. Twelve days before Nov 7 is 26 October. THAT IS LABOUR DAY. THE ELECTION VOTING STARTS ON LABOUR DAY.

WE HAVE A DATE... 7th of November. we have to organise and activate those in our lives that, for what ever reasons, may decide to not bother. vote.nz/enrolling/en...

We "deserve a regulatory framework that recognises AI-enabled, gendered harm as foreseeable and systemic. That means imposing clear obligations on companies that deploy these AI tools, including duties to assess risk, implement effective guardrails, and prevent predictable misuse before it occurs."

Here's an animation of the Aurora forecast oval model showing the past day. Rule of thumb, if the skies are clear & Bz is strong negative then Aurora Australis will be visible up to 1000km from the edge of the green... yeah baby

I'm honestly so sick and heartbroken watching incredibly passionate, skilled, and qualified healthcare workers being so burnt by the funding cuts carried out by this government that they're leaving the healthcare system altogether. #nzpol

Two more #kakapo matings on Anchor: JEM 💚 Awhero Kohengi 💚 Tuterangi Currently at least 12 females have mated on Anchor, 10 on Whenua Hou, and probably 2 on Te Kahahu/Chalky. Plus 2 new nests: Marian on Anchor and Tohu on Whenua Hou. #conservation #parrots #kakapo2026 Here's Awhero.

It's not Kāinga Ora that loses money, it's us the taxpayers. The ones that worked hard to pay their taxes. The ones that watched their hard earned savings being taxed God this Luxon government are wasting all of our money. It's not fucking theirs to waste #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Putanga Toi ki Aotearoa Arts Access Aotearoa has a fellowship open for applications from Deaf and Disabled Artists closes 5pm, Tuesday 3rd Feb Here's blog post by Kim Anderson, 2025 recipient of the fellowship:

Another successful 1080 drop in Te Ngāherehere o Kohukohunui / Hūnua Ranges. Possums are almost permanently nonexistent now, with rats again temporarily wiped out by the latest treatment. From 1 pair of Kōkako in the 90’s, to over 260 today. ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/news/2026/01...

💸🍡FIRST MARKETS👘🙏 The most important markets of the year fall just before and just after the New Year. Hatsu Kōbō (初弘法 'the 1st Kōbō market of the year'), held on the 21st of January at Tō-ji, is one of the city's largest. Nao-san ventured through snow last year to explore. #Japan

Albert Einstein visited Hiroshima more than 20 years before the atomic bombing — a journey that would later weigh on him. 👉 ebx.sh/j3RQP1

Oh hey new followers, hi I'm Paul from Ōtepoti Dunedin, NZ. I take photos & don't suffer RW cults. I chase Aurora Australis here in the South Island of Aotearoa NZ