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6:00 am, May 24th, 2026 - 19 comments
Categories: open mike -
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Just for "won the Lotto" laughs, although I reckon only callous Kiwis are laughing.
Publicly mocking the poor is a thrilling but politically perilous NAct pastime – Move-On!
What big teeth you have Grandma!
Link to "The Bottom Feeders have won the Lotto" image that was in the comment @1
https://vote.nz/
Nact gimps have gone there. They're circulating an offensive, sexualised AI generated video featuring a young woman prominent in the global green movement and a sitting green party member.
Vile POS.
Better news for The Greens (and all of us).
Green Party bill to ban mining on public conservation land drawn in Parliament
"A Green Party bill aimed at banning mining activity on public conservation land has been drawn from Parliament's ballot, reigniting debate over the future of New Zealand's protected areas.
The member's bill, introduced by Green Party environment spokesperson Lan Pham, would prohibit new mining, prospecting and exploration permits across New Zealand's 8.5 million hectares of public conservation land.
"Conservation land belongs to all of us. It is set aside to protect native plants, wildlife and the places New Zealanders love, not to be dug up for private profit," Pham said."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/596169/green-party-bill-to-ban-mining-on-public-conservation-land-drawn-in-parliament
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/22/poll-four-in-five-nzers-say-govt-has-no-clear-plan-for-climate-change/
Actually, I think that the Coalition does have a plan that is to stall and minimise cost to businesses at the expense of taxpayers, i.e., the economy first and foremost. The Coalitions hopes that technology and AI will do much of the work required to reduce emissions, e.g., by making processes more efficient – pumping up tyres to reduce rolling resistance so that we can drive faster, with heavier loads, that’s more cost-effective. Ironically, AI has a larger carbon footprint than a belching & farting yeti.
Quite true, though strictly speaking, that's actually a plan to put one part of the economy first and foremost before all other parts. And even more strictly speaking, it's a plan to wreck the economy, because the effect on business of citizens bankrupted by having to pay the costs of recovery from climate-induced disasters that have happened either to themselves or to others, will not be pretty.
Yes, you’re right. I had qualified “businesses” as farming & trucking, but then deleted this before I submitted the comment.
The Coalition is not as hapless and clueless as some Lefties make them out to be; stalling is a well-rehearsed and effective tactic used by the tobacco lobbyists who happen to visit the Beehive frequently.
"Actually, I think that the Coalition does have a plan [to tackle climate change] that is to stall and minimise cost to businesses at the expense of taxpayers"…..and at the expense of the planet.
You are right about AI data centres/factories. There is massive opposition to them brewing in the USA-see links below.
“$64 billion in U.S. data center projects have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition. What was once quiet infrastructure is now a national flashpoint…”
Labour/Greens should pass legislation next November that requires 100% of power used by data centres to be suppied by means of a solar/wind power development fully funded by the data centre applicant/owner and that the data centre cannot open until this power is available.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesbroughel/2026/05/20/why-americans-are-turning-against-data-centers/
https://www.datacenterwatch.org/report
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/596172/live-luxon-seymour-hoggard-make-pre-budget-rural-announcement
What can it be? Have they found a yellow-legged hornet in the Beehive and are they gonna smoke out David Seymour?
More likely a slime mould in the walls of Parliament: Seymour's its fruiting-body.
They are restoring some of the money they previously took away from clearing wilding pines and claiming credit for this.
And even then they are raiding the visitor levy for the funds. This fund should really be going to DOC to maintain and fix up tracks and huts and fund trapping as part of predator free NZ.
Wilding pine eradication is a good use of the $100 tourist levy. I heard Hoggard on the wireless saying they are going to go after the big seed source pines.. makes sense. The huts and tracks do need work though… just not the 30 huts that the Urewera eco vandals burned down with no consequence. That really put back pest eradication and rural safety but neither of those things are tikanga so go figure.
"I heard Hoggard on the wireless saying they are going to go after the big seed source pines.. makes sense."
How do you kill a "big seed source pine" with an arbor-cide – that is, chemicals powerful enough to kill a full-grown, healthy tree! And where does the "wash" go, I ask? Who's monitoring where that chemical cocktail washes to once the rain sluices it down from the needles? No-one, that's who.
The announcement is cynical shite. They know there's concern so they are directing (some, little) money towards it. It's a waste of funds. So much has been poured into the effort to turn back the tide. But those guys love to kill things and be seen to be killing things (trees).
I love that the budget announcement had to be in queenstown ffs both mps are in the north island, but yip lets slum it in queenstown.
Queenstown – that well-known farming-hub; gumboots, swannies, the reek of dags.
The Queenstown announcement gets max traction with the aspirational National voter, so they like to swan on down here. Also an issue that has caused National a bit of grief locally, all their own doing too, so probably fitting that the announcement was here.
What are some of the measures that need to be addressed in the Budget, 28 May? Brian Easton put some of them in his post on Pundit thinking widely. Here he refers to water and climate change resilience, or not.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/the-future-creeps-up-on-us-are-we-prepared May.1/26