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Written By: AB - Date published: 12:44 pm, September 1st, 2026
that a government increasing taxes will make inflation worse That's an interesting take, and I see why you make it. If taxation takes the form of regressive levies that everyone has to pay, yes - it does increase inflation because some things cost more ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 1st, 2026
As far as I know, the payments go to offshore providers of carbon credits who do things like plant trees to sequester carbon emissions. How credible these providers are and whether they really achieve what they claim to, who knows? It would be far better ...Written By: AB - Date published: 6:52 pm, August 30th, 2026
"And they cannot avoid having to pay for excess emissions." I would have thought the logical place that their inaction leads to is reneging on our Paris Agreement commitments precisely to avoid making those payments and effectively withdrawing from the ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:34 am, August 29th, 2026
I think that's right and I'd assume that the trade-off calculation for this policy goes something like this: 1.) Sickness beneficiaries will be better off than they were by getting 3 free visits, but not as well off as they need to be in terms of access to ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:39 pm, August 27th, 2026
Oh - (Sir) Ian Taylor frothing with excitement at suddenly realising something that anyone with half a brain saw instantly years ago. Specifically, that when Seymour states that the basis of Maori rights under the Treaty is 'race' rather than indigeneity, ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 27th, 2026
OK - this isn't going to be popular at the moment, but it needs saying. Charity is not enough. To sing its praises is to normalise the wildly disproportionate wealth that enables it to work. All those good causes that Dolly Parton championed should be ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:22 pm, August 24th, 2026
Yep. There's a general principle in that. Avoid taxing socially useful economic activity so that we get more of it. Instead, tax economic activity that is socially useless in order to destroy jobs in that area - thereby freeing up real resources that can ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:22 pm, August 24th, 2026
Yep. There's a general principle in that. Avoid taxing socially useful economic activity so that we get more of it. Instead, tax economic activity that is socially useless in order to destroy jobs in that area - thereby freeing up real resources that can ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:02 pm, August 24th, 2026
Any poll that has National in double digits is disappointing.Written By: AB - Date published: 11:58 am, August 24th, 2026
Quite right. When National parrots their "no new taxes" slogan they actually mean no new non-regressive taxes, i.e. no new progressive taxes. The wording also gives them wriggle room to increase the rates of existing regressive taxes such as GST. And it ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:55 am, August 23rd, 2026
I think we need to distinguish conventional data centres from AI data centres. Conventional data centres provide cloud-based storage of software, services and data that government agencies, businesses and their customers depend on every day. There is a ...Written By: AB - Date published: 4:35 pm, August 20th, 2026
Luxon is like a Stalinist apparatchik declaring that the 5-Year Plan is 'exceeding expectations' or 'on-track to exceed expectations' or 'unfolding in line with targets' - when in reality the needle is not moving. And that seems to me to be in line with ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 20th, 2026
...Chris Bishop told RNZ’s Morning Report ... “The fast-track system was designed to facilitate developments that are out of sequence, so the system was working as intended,” Facilitating things that are out of sequence is just a way of saying that you ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:56 pm, August 20th, 2026
Thanks for that. The critiques are stacking up, but the mainstream dial is not shifting.Written By: AB - Date published: 11:41 am, August 17th, 2026
UBI is a far right idea that for some reason has gained some purchase amongst lanyard class liberals. A UBI in the hands of the right would simply become a voucher system that allows the government to wash its hands of its obligations. Yes, pretty much. I ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:58 am, August 16th, 2026
I watched. There was a lot of description of the problem, and a little bit of diagnosis of the origins of the problem, but nothing much about solutions to the problem. A good diagnosis of the origins of the backlash Maori are now facing would have helped. ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:53 am, August 14th, 2026
I've long insisted the impressiveness of AI in a domain as perceived by someone is inversely proportional to that person's competence in that domain. That's probably an iron law of AI. A machine without a 'mind' of it's own that works by the synthesis and ...Written By: AB - Date published: 4:44 pm, August 13th, 2026
Bradbury must have made multiple posts about her that fall foul of both Netsafe and the HDCA. Nothing she's posted herself would be in that category. Can we say that yet? It's an assertion that what Bradbury said about her was worse than anything she said ...Written By: AB - Date published: 4:27 pm, August 13th, 2026
Yep - they are still sufficiently regulated for some of their products to have real efficacy. Many of us experience that efficacy every day. But we do know that they try and deceive their way around those guardrails by funding clinical researchers, ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:53 pm, August 12th, 2026
It's comforting to know that he will keep saying to us that he has things to say to us. We would all be like lost children without it.Written By: AB - Date published: 8:52 am, August 12th, 2026
Is the spill on Luxon motivated by bad internal polling? If so, who did the polling? Was it David Farrar's Curia, whose polling last week was quite positive for National and terrible for Labour? Is it possible for there to be a discrepancy between a ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:12 pm, August 11th, 2026
Makes very good sense - but only if voters are rational beings. The fact that your very good sense took four well-written paragraphs to explain, means it's probably not what happens in real life.Written By: AB - Date published: 7:55 pm, August 11th, 2026
Stanford with nothing to say would be a rarity. Normally, her gibberish-filled windbaggery is second only to Luxon's. And like Luxon, she's also falsely cheery and 'positive', wildly overestimates her own ability and achievements, sometimes has a tenuous ...Written By: AB - Date published: 3:34 pm, August 11th, 2026
Best of both worlds if Luxon stays: his own party will have publicly acknowledged his inadequacies, but not lanced the boil. The problem is highlighted, but left unresolved.Written By: AB - Date published: 7:31 pm, August 10th, 2026
"It's just weird to me that National appears to be ignoring the received wisdom for an incumbent government campaigning during a downturn." True. But I think it also makes sense psychologically, The Nat-ACT part of the coalition is intensely ideological in ...Written By: AB - Date published: 7:04 pm, August 10th, 2026
Polls are not simply measuring instruments, they’re influencing what they’re measuring, feeding a feedback loop that can be used to steer towards a desired outcome. Yes - ban the publishing of them in election year. Political parties and other ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:00 pm, August 6th, 2026
Christopher Luxon has promised a referendum on MMP if he's re-elected, because he doesn't want to have to work with "numpties" who hold a different view from the National Party. In troubled times, it's no surprise when closet authoritarians start outing ...Written By: AB - Date published: 2:53 pm, August 5th, 2026
To the contrary, she is apparently the the best Finance Minister we are ever going to have. Just close your eyes and you will feel that salvation is nearly upon us - as the animal spirits of market entrepreneurialism, freed from 'crowding out' by the ...Written By: AB - Date published: 2:15 pm, August 5th, 2026
He has approached the FSU to test whether they truly are defenders of free speech, i.e. whether they'll defend the free speech of people they detest. No doubt Bradbury has calculated that if he can both win in court and demonstrate that the FSU are bad ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:12 pm, August 3rd, 2026
Yes - how short are the historical memories of people who respond like Tinetti? It's only 80 years ago that NZ introduced the Universal Family Benefit. Something like Winston's scheme is part of our own past. It's clever politics from NZF. There are a ...
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