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6:00 am, May 25th, 2026 - 51 comments
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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 …
Nothing new under the sun, corporations acting above the law, Prime Minister's Office withholding information and lobbyists undermining and perverting democracy.
In this case it is retrospective legislation preventing Mike Smith from taking court action against pollution emitters.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/596197/a-co-ordinated-campaign-of-secret-lobbying-climate-activist
Where lobbying might be a good thing.
Late last week I heard a rail enthusiast say what Kiwirail needs is a lobbying arm or PR firm (I'm not sure which). This would make sense given the fuel restraints we are facing.
We should have stories in our news cycle talking about the solutions rail would provide-fuel efficient freight movement up and down the country, less trucks on the road, and with more investment this can be done by electricity.
Instead we get industry lobbying brainfarts like loosen the regulations to allow bigger loads and ease the times these trucks can run.
The same crowd providing ‘briefing notes’ to cabinet – Fonterra, Z Energy, Dairy Holdings…
Maybe leftwingers will try to transcend their habitual denial of conspiracies…
Although corporate lobbying is private enterprise, govts who lose the consequent files exhibit public secrecy motivations. Lux seems to think denying the evidence is a good look for him to use in public: the documents exist in between truth and falsity. Both corporates claim they were sent to Lux. Lux says we have no record of them.
Employing the goldilocks principle, we can guess that the truth is between the sending and the getting. Perhaps Deep State agents intercepted them, as per Lux's likely directive "Hey guys, these corporate advice docs are red hot. I need plausible deniability, so write me a summary of key points then destroy them, huh?"
Good to see Labour tackling the big important issues like "Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?"
This is good stuff, personally I would go for the one horse-sized duck.
Ayesha's version of the Lil Nas X song is worth a listen.
Leaked audio: Labour MPs mock National rivals as ‘duck-sized horses’ and ‘sitting ducks’ in unusual training session | Stuff
The basis premise seems to be that tiny wee Labour minds must be stretched to enable them to grasp political situations:
Clearly this member has leadership aspirations. You can imagine Hipkins trying feebly to get a grip on it, right?
Bomber gives the Labour masterminds a rev up:
He has hit on the best way to improve Labour performance: bombard them with difficult questions. See how he asked the last question, then followed up with another? Such mastery of how to confound left-wingers has to be seen to be believed, eh? Labour ought to hire him as a trainer.
Sun Tzu would pat Bomber on the head and say 'Good lad' (in Chinese of course – Hǎo xiǎohuǒzǐ yīngyǔ – Google says. I can't cope with the font artwork.)
Oh dear, people having fun, being silly and taking the piss during yet another training session. Deeply shocking. Why aren't they responsible like Nicola and work hard to deepen a recession by cutting government spending and gutting aggregate demand in the domestic economy, because that's the version of the New Zealand Initiative's Tory Finance Minister Software v11.0 (released 1991) that's running in her head?
I'm with you, AB and unwilling to pile-on at the flimsiest of opportunity. The hypothetical "horses & ducks" scenario is entirely valid as a way to express and work with the concept of how to portray challenges. Nothing at all about using that method is of any concern. The more personalised comment by one Labour MP is a very minor quip that she now, as a result of the leaking of the video, has to shoulder. Interestingly, the Stuff headline is quite reasonable and describes "duck-sized horses" and "sitting ducks". Ho-hum. This sort of incendiary reaction to the tiniest of matters seems to be what are to expect more and more of as the election nears. It's not possible for any party to guard completely against such trifles and when our own team gets caught up in the flurry that results, it's pointless for us to damn them for it. In any case, even if they don't slip-up, something will be manufactured to make it seem as though they have. There will be plenty of such "outrages" primed and ready to go, probably with a timetable for the release of each of them, pinned to some wall somewhere.
Sharpening the thinking eh. Reminds me of the trolley problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
But trolleys and trams running cleanly on electricity went out of popularity with the Great I Ams at the top of the tree. Now they cling on, along with their followers, afraid to let go and plu-u-unge to their poverty and the disdain of their contemparies.
The more important question is who took the recording and how was it leaked. Is this extreme clumsiness within labour ranks or dirty politics.
Nope, whilst all Right eyes are glued shut, all Left eyes should be firmly on D-Day when the wretched Coalition unveils its master plan to wreak destruction of the economy and this nation’s democratic fabric. Even AI couldn’t come up with the shit Nicola Willis and her fellow AI travellers come up with.
Jenna Lynch's second attempt at a smear in as many weeks after her ridiculus attempt to link Labour with a rather funny troll account.
It appears Lynch has outsourced her copy to Ani O'Brien/TPU.
Verity Johnson makes the comparison of Spain's energy investment essentially now paying off in spades despite their investment occurring at a time of austerity, and comparing to our own Government and its investments:
Verity Johnson: You can’t run the country like a struggling restaurant | Stuff
Fully with her on this one.
NZ Fist will take anyone…literally. (incl cookers,far right,dumped MP's and Mayors…)
And oh the Irony…did Wily, et al…..swallow diced dead rat? Or hey…thats in the past. Ol' Stu pussy and tits Nash is NZ Fist now !
Sound familiar?
https://theconversation.com/to-avoid-future-road-rail-and-renewable-blowouts-costing-billions-australia-needs-these-3-big-fixes-282711?
“Australia has a remarkably poor record of delivering megaprojects on time and on budget. It is a predictable outcome of a broken system.
Earlier this year, consultants Deloitte found the cost of 13 publicly funded road, rail and energy projects had blown out by A$130 billion more than their initial estimates.”
”Here’s where Australia could start.
1. Do things in the right order
Mandatory independent assurance, modelled on Norway’s system, should be a legal prerequisite before any announcement. Premature announcements cripple an evidence-based appraisal process.
Cost estimates should also be independently validated before ministerial approval.
2. Set up an independent project authority, with real power
Infrastructure Australia was created as an independent advisory body back in 2008 under Labor. It was championed by now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a way to “stamp out the pork barrelling”.
Yet even today, Infrastructure Australia has no real power to compel, reject or delay risky projects.
Australian needs a truly independent statutory authority with real power to oversee major projects.
This would require the major political parties to surrender something they prize: being able to announce projects before the proper appraisal has been done.
3. Make transparency the law, not the exception
Full public disclosure of cost and benefit estimates should be a legal requirement, before projects can get financial commitment.
Norway publishes its project appraisals in full as part of its mandatory reporting requirements.
The argument that Australia cannot do the same is not a practical objection. It is a political one.”
When I 'misreached' for my "won the Lotto" metaphor, what I absolutely meant was that Kiwis in social housing are really very incredibly stupendously 'I should be so' lucky.
Right-oh, I'm done here – home, Gold$mith, and don't spare the public servants. Move-On!
"And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space… Can we have your liver then?"
Thanks for excellent succinct cartoon DMK. So good!
Move this man on officer, he,s already won Lotto
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Mod note
oops
Different Governments different services,
I have a condition called Barrets Oesophagus. Every two years I would be contacted and I'd go in and have the camera down the throat to check on it to make sure I hadn't progressed towards cancer, until this government, now it’s been three years and they ask me if I want to remain on the list to be checked and when I say yes they now tell me to ask my doctor to refer me to the hospital. The condition is the same but they appear to be greatly increasing the time between examinations and indeed trying to avoid making the procedure available, I despise Right Wing Governments. P.S. My oldest brother died from Cancer of the Oesophagus
Barfly, our sympathy.
Our youngest son has become an Australian citizen, as they deal with his pre cancerous condition sessile serrated adenomas with more regular checks and removal of these flat saw toothed growths of the bowel.
This is a reactive NZ health system, not a proactive one.
In a situation like yours, where preventative measures add to quality of life and save the patient from growing conditions.
Ask for a second opinion. All the best.
Aotearoa now has a political reform initiative in the public arena: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2605/S00170/democracy-reform-nz-launches-official-website.htm
Any tech engineer ought to jump on this bandwagon. If it runs effectively as a platform, scaling traction is likely to kick in. At the leading edge, you always get a blend of tech & design that fine-tunes processes and systems. Others of us will do rarified thinking instead (not in the engine room).
Sounds good thanks Dennis F. Some thoughts –
I can't stand Bomber's new platform and find it set in an a-mazing way also trying to direct thought to approved lines. I fear it is likely to be run by keen, impassioned, futurists with AI assistance – leading to a back passage I fear.
I don't go there any more, feel angry at cluttered style and direction; ('You may also be interested in' jumping up at end of post before comments); it's confusing, rebuffing to those who read, the emphasis now for Bomber and his supporters seems to be through tech and its wide popularity.
I am so sceptical at every political move; so good luck to democracy works – it is needed but may not lead to the cleaning out of the Augean stables that we need; they might have to concede that their horse has bolted! Looked up Pledge Me re game Democrasee which sounds good but am afraid of getting lost in the toils and coils of tech webs – a fly to a spider. So am in defensive mode ready to launch small sorties only – (Sun Tzu would that be effective)?
Art and Establishment are not meant to be bedfellows but when they do end up in the same bedroom it gets fucking wild.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/25/sam-mahon-on-the-mark-todd-stoush/
Most interesting thanks. Good to read what I think of as noble fire from this source.
3 Dames – Jacinda, Jools & Lynda.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1524325265729360&set=a.479142006914363
I think this 2026 Budget is going to get National to 25%, with further downside to come.
Hang in there Willis and Luxon the election needs you.
If so, it may be best to stay schtum for best results.
Anne Salmond is on fire and playing with fire.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/25/anne-salmond-sauce-for-the-goose/
This is a really bad idea but some will think it’s a really good idea.
Well. I've said several times in the past that treasury could be easily replaced by a talking Don Brash doll, endlessly repeating cut costs, privatise!
Also; why have a finance minister at all, when Willis simply does what fossil fuel and speculative business lobbies want.
May as well save costs by “cutting out the middleman (sic)”
The Hasidim of New York have found god again, praise be. God is using his agent, a toad, to provide a medial channel from Cosmos to Gaia to us:
That's good. Seeing god would have been blinding, whereas Moses would tend to come through as skeletal, right?
Ultrarightists high on toads has become a contagious cultural trend, apparently. How soon till the Israelis invite Lux to a banquet, I wonder. Toadying, they'll call it. Will he have a divine revelation? Campaign in a fluoro-pink Marilyn Monroe wig, perhaps?
Amazing. How fascinating the world is, how volatile our minds, and playful DF! If we could make room for various personal practices without harming anyone and drop the chest thumping, pocket-filling urge to go and bomb some people how much happier we would be.
This man singing Drunk Drink could just fire us up with his rebounding energy. I'll have what he's having thanks. Alan Cooper youtube song about being drunk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc_hxJ6TXM8
Luxon demeans babysitters, implying they're not adults and that they indulge in lolly-scrambles. He also demeans the New Zealand public implying that when Labour are governing, New Zealanders are babies.
"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says Thursday's Budget will be a "grown-up" one and free of any "lolly scramble", unlike those produced by Labour Party "babysitters"."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/596232/budget-2026-no-lolly-scramble-from-grown-up-budget-luxon
It would demean eggs to call him one.
Let’s turn it on its head and call him a chicken for ducking ‘tough’ media interviews.
someone should cry fowl.
Yeah, Luxon cocked up and his chickens will come home to roost – he’ll just have to swallow it.
Such a cockwomble…
I'm expecting we are about to find out how this gas transition "loan" fund will be different from the grant fund that the Labour government already had operational and National chopped off in 2023.
Maybe they should recognise that the old programme was actually quite good and achieved things.
Maybe its time for this government to admit there's no more gas to be found across our entire EEC, instead of endlessly bleating about gas shortages caused by the stopping new oi land gas exploration licenses like the Labour government did.
James Shaw must be just laughing at the vacuous stupidity of this lot.
'Laughing', or crying? Because I'm not laughing, and it's no laughing matter, imho.
"Maybe they should recognise that the old programme was actually quite good and achieved things."
I agree. What I am struggling to understand is why I have just watched a clip of Hipkins on the
TV3Stuff TV News criticising the policy as it may be too successful leading to excessive demand on the grid.Edit. That contrasts with the coverage on the website.
Hipkins (rightly)says:”“On coming into government three years ago, the National Party dismantled support for businesses transitioning to renewable energy and away from gas. It’s good that they finally discovered that some of those businesses need that support it’s just a shame it’s taken thousands of job losses across the country for them to wake up.”
I would have thought footage of him saying that would be appropriate.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360983630/help-industry-ride-out-gas-transition-crisis-expected
National has been bereft of ideas for years, which is why they have no plan and which is why they hijack, retrofit, and rebrand Labour’s policies. An unknown source said (https://thestandard.nz/national-leaks-again-2/#comment-1756932):
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness
Is it necessary for Nacts to have a plan? The new political regimes took control over our ownership of the country and our business in the main. Our rights so hardly gained – all up for grabs, sold off to the well-heeled from overseas or funded from here, which means that National now just wait for orders, direction, as to the most appropriate supplier of everything we buy or do.
Is it necessary for Labour to have policy?
There are denial of service attacks going on at the site's hosting platform today. Looks like they started around 1130 and are still going on.
https://www.sitehost-status.net/
"Update – Services are currently operating normally for traffic routed within New Zealand. However, international traffic continues to experience degraded performance. Websites utilising CDNs or services hosted outside New Zealand may be intermittently affected, and external monitoring systems may incorrectly report affected services as unavailable. We continue to work with our upstream provider on mitigation efforts."
That is what I'm observing – considerable drag for offshore resources used on the site.
I guess it explains why my attempts to keep up with commentary were often thwarted. I could see Firefox exchanging preliminary loading dialogue, then aborting. I just kept trying & eventually got through each time it happened.
Seems better this morning.
Hat tip to Patricia and Anne.
Regrets, he's had
a fewnot one,That's right not one, he'd care to mention.
Yep, Kiwi public broadcasters better be very careful not to give voters the 'wrong' idea.
Selected comments from the 433 posted before commenting was closed 3 hours ago.
That's 'track', not 'path', as in "Let's get ‘our’ country back on [a Trump-Atlas] track"
Ukraine not quite civilised yet according to top Eurocrats: https://www.politico.eu/article/volodymyr-zelenskyy-rejects-friedrich-merz-proposal-associate-eu-membership/
This idea of baby steps usually works okay, but I haven't seen it used in geopolitics before. Perhaps these euroguys are trying to keep up with Trump, figuring that being audacious gets you to seem cool to the cognoscenti.
Of lollie scrambles and grown-up budgets…
Interesting TS post by mickysavage earlier today. Kinda worrying, imho – Move-On?
https://thestandard.nz/doing-their-masters-bidding/
Well, in almost everybody's interest, so why wouldn’t the CoC support an urgent inquiry?
Purely in the interests of transparency and truth, of course. Party Vote Green.