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6:00 am, July 31st, 2026 - 47 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 …
There's a report from the flying car market here: https://www.reuters.com/investigations/how-volkswagens-flying-car-dream-crashed-china-2026-07-30/
Soon there will be flying cars banging into each other & dropping out of the sky onto peoples' heads? Nah, the Jetson vision became a mirage. Yet the market could become real via constraints: rules that work.
People in cars are dangerous enough on the ground, without having them in the air.
Still, a flying car industry might make a lot of work for lawyers so there could be a growth opportunity there. Bring it on!
This ABC segment on the Chinese car manufacturing sector and on vehicles available to Chinese consumers will blow the grease off petrolheads' gaskets.
Particularly liked the bit on weekend speed racers getting over 200 kpm in informal get-togethers.
Even subtracting puff, it’s impressive.
Interesting that ABC has returned to China after that 5-year hiatus, and that she can no longer taste the pollution that was in the air there 20 years ago when she first arrived. She said their bet on EVs became official in 2001. They have a charger for every 10 EVS (45 in Oz). From a start of 10% to 70% recharged in 5 mins. Got that via an automated battery removal/replacement system, apparently.
Ebb tide on Trump showing in latest poll: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/cnn-poll-midterm-generic-ballot-democrats-republicans-change
So the 3-way split is tilting slightly to the left now. T could perhaps reverse the trend with a clear military victory, but it seems unlikely.
Seymour has a go at out-stupiding Peters, pointing his smelly little finger at Te Pati Māori:
"He blamed Te Pāti Māori for a lot of the concern about his safety, saying the party had a “heart of darkness” and “stoked division”. He did not believe the Treaty Principles Bill, itself, was a divisive or controversial proposal."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361013019/revealed-defence-force-choppers-and-bulletproof-car-call-protect-seymour-and-luxon-waitangi-day
Hipkins now has the perfect opportunity to rule out working with NZF under any circumstances because, among many other things, both Peters and Jones have shown themselves to be overt racists. Come on do it Chippy-show us you have scruples.
Luxon criticised Peter’s comments, but then said the solution is to Vote National. The problem with that is that you still get Peters. Sack him Luxon FFS.
Why bother? Winston has already ruled out working with Hipkins so it's a mute point.
Might be moot but well worth doing. Calling Winston "not worthy of working with" is something everyone should do.
No Jimmy it's not. Hipkins needs to demonstrate he has some principles.
[BTW you mean a moot point]
Jimmy might mean 'mute' and be making a play on words. We have to stay sharp here, and he is keeping in practice perhaps.
But does he have principles?
And yes, it should be 'moot', I hadn't had my morning coffee when I typed that so was still half asleep.
If National had any principles, they would rule out both ACT and NZF.
Well, there's an oxymoron if ever I saw one: National and principles in the same sentence!
National does have principles.
Run everything down and flog it all off to their cronies.
I suppose that makes them totally consistent with ACT's principles.
I think Jimmy is right. At this point it's largely moot for Labour to rule out working with NZ First.
What may be more politically effective is reminding voters that a vote for National is, in all likelihood, also a vote for NZ First.
That's a much harder message for National to escape.
Most voters have probably already factored in Peters' repeated rejection of working with Hipkins. But highlighting the reality of the coalition shifts attention to the costs and risks of another National–NZ First government, forcing National to defend not just its own record, but also the behaviour of its coalition partners.
Two inspiring pieces in the news today, and neither to do with garnering medals.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361013706/former-mp-says-he-was-wrong-about-winston-peters-chinese-kiwi-mp-row-blows ACT former MP Damien Smith gives a clear message that those on the Right should stand up against Peters' racism.
And the news that NZers now trust Labour to handle the top five issues of good government over National, including the economy. https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361013685/labour-most-trusted-all-top-5-issues-overtakes-national-economy
Can we do it? Yes, we can.
And she gets it right – to be expected:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/849602/winston-peters-inviting-a-sacking-with-attack-on-chinese-born-mp-helen-clark-says
More dodgy polling method from the Taxpayers Union and Farrar, ably broadcast by National Party journalist Thomas Coughlan.
This is a weird premise for a question, to remove a candidate's name recognition from a question about which candidate you would vote for. It looks like a leading or manipulative question by omission.
No wonder Farrar is no longer welcome in the industry body overseeing the behaviour of pollsters!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/green-party-losing-in-auckland-central-and-national-ahead-of-rivals-in-new-poll/3NWUVM55OZDNFKJ5UOSTUUXZLI/
Not all parties have yet chosen their candidates.
Would you prefer to allow a choice only among the candidates where you already knew their names at the time of the poll but leave the party out of the poll for those where you can't put a candidate name in?
Yes.
I can't believe that you are defending this crap Alwyn.
What am I supposed to be defending? I only pointed out a plausible reason for not being able to give the candidates by name.
Today is the first day I have seen the Opportunity Party candidate named for the seat, although I might have missed it previously.
5 candidates so far for Greens, Opportunity, Labour, ACT and National.
The 2023 election had them as the main candidates. The rest were basically also rans.
NZF had no candidate.
Last election, Greens won the seat with a 3896 majority, 35463 total votes.
The party vote then was National 33%, Greens 24%, Labour 22%.Voter turnout 78%.
This poll of Auckland Central parties gives National 30%, Greens 25%, Labour 24%.
Not much difference.
There was obviously split party/candidate voting happening.
Swarbrick 16624 votes Greens party vote 8503
National candidate 12728 National party vote 11757
Labour candidate 2608 Labour party vote 8028
Can any one see any substance in the claim that has been made by Taxpayers Uniopn and David Farrar?
It will be inherently political because the Taxpayers union is an astroturf organisation/troll farm*, and Farrar is a far RW political activist masquerading as a pollster.
Everything they do is political.
I'd say their campaign is annoyed Chloe Swarbrick has been visible and strong recently and they needed to create a headline that her seat was vulnerable so they leaked it this manufactured poll to their man Coughlan who dutifully provided that headline, IMO.
Meh.
Electorate polling in New Zealand is generally much less reliable than national polling. The samples are small, the margins of error are large, and candidate recognition and tactical voting matter far more.
From memory, at least one poll also had Swarbrick running third before the 2023 election; she ultimately won by 3,896 votes.
This poll is particularly limited because it asks which party people would support with their candidate vote, rather than naming the candidates. Yet Auckland Central is a textbook example of voters distinguishing between the two: in 2023 National comfortably won the party vote, while Swarbrick comfortably won the electorate.
Even if Swarbrick did lose the seat, she is number two on the Green Party list, so barring an electoral catastrophe she will return to Parliament anyway.
The real value of the poll is therefore not as a prediction of the electorate result, but as a political narrative: it allows the Taxpayers’ Union and the Herald to suggest that Swarbrick—and, by extension, the Greens—are weak and vulnerable. But the Greens primarily depend on the party vote under MMP. Electorate seats are politically useful, but ultimately a bonus.
+100 Mutton. You can see why Farrar had to resign from the Research Organisation of NZ.
Chloe will sail home.
Interesting post, by Natalia Albert, slamming the leaders of both major parties, not for their policies, or lack of them, but for their lack of nous when it comes to building coalitions.
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/139597/natalia-albert-says-making-sure-nz-stable-liberal-democracy-more-important-pm
Where is the "far left" that she mentions in NZ?
No sign of anyone in political parties in NZ, that are even to the "left" of Muldoon, or Holyoak,
unfortunately!
Yeah, but she's not adapting to tribalism. Political leaders must operate like partisans to defend tribal interests when tribalism has become prevalent. Folk who stick with commons ethos seem out of touch to those who read politics from the group cohesion point of view (sectarian stance). A matter of principle!
Idealist liberal democracy need not be as vapid as it usually seems though. Folks with intellectual capacity can always articulate a bridge from it to personal and small-group mutuality. They rarely do so nowadays. God's will.
If anyone still has any doubt about, where the Coalition of Cockups gets their policy ideas from.
Trump Admin Argues Even Terminally Ill Patients Shouldn't Be Exempt From Medicaid Work Requirements | Common Dreams
Jobseeker Support – tightening eligibility for 18 and 19 year olds – Ministry of Social Development
What a nit-picking little man ACT have in charge – in Seymour, based on unpicking as well as nits, every part of Kiwi culture, good or bad. Keeps him in the public eye (like an irritating bug) and allays gut pains in the chronically displeased.
This from Jul.1/26 https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rural-news/rural-general-news/david-seymour-rural-women-nz-definitions-woman-man-bill
Sheeple sensing shift soon somehow seems significant: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/31/as-coalition-troubles-brew-national-loses-its-economic-shield-to-labour/
Well, the journo signalling this import may not realise that capitalising is done by capitalists. Half a century of arselicking hasn't made Labour into capitalists as far as I can tell, despite their assiduous me-tooism. They could rediscover their mojo anytime. Meantime, their solidarity in propping up the Nats will earn brownie points in heaven.
Limited thinking in attitude from business based Rural News. The link also carries information in other items about Future Post.
https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/dairy-news/dairy-opinion/milking-it/future-post-arson-attack-givealittle-fundraiser
Every Post Counts Written by Milking It Tuesday, 28 July 2026 10:31
OPINION: The culture of helping someone in need is alive and well in the ag sector.
Recently a suspected arson attack at Future Post – a South Auckland company making fence posts from 100% recycled plastic – caused more than $1 million in damage and out the company at serious risk.
But New Zealanders have stepped up in an incredible way. A Givealittle Page set up to raise $500,000 to keep the company going has raised $300,000 so far.
The plea from the company is for donors to buy a $5 virtual fence post or donate what you can to help them reach the target.
Surprising that people and businesses should assist a business apparently like a charity even though it has good effects on reducing plastic waste, so reducing our environmental damage in the country.
And it also is a useful profitable business supporting NZ horticulture in the post-heavy wine business dominant in Marlborough where it has thoughtfully set up facilities, as well as their development in Waiuku, NI where the devastating fire was.
We should be supporting a local business owned by locals (I think) in a linked chain or circle of business and commerce interaction, like the Japanese successfully built in their country, as a good business practice for our small country to adopt.
These google headings seem to fit an idea of how our businesses should be positively interacting not just competing, towards good goals and better outcomes within our tiny country's economy.
Keiretsu: Unleashing Collaborative Synergy in Japan's …LinkedIn · Ganesh Jadhav
…Keiretsu empowers companies to leverage shared resources, forge strategic alliances, and work collectively towards common goals.
Nexxworks https://www.nexxworks.com › blog › 13-japanese-busi…13 Japanese business concepts that will help shift your …
…12 Apr 2023 — Ringi Japanese institutions, whether businesses or government agencies, make decisions by “consensus.” Kaizen, is a community-driven concept …
Democracy has no place for biodiversity: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-07-2026/whats-going-on-with-all-these-gender-bill-submissions-being-rejected
So bureaucrats are using the law to stop folk representing affected family members unable to speak for themselves. Perverse, but a logical consequence of legal democracy.
So sad and so maddening to realise that it's possible our rulers (not bureaucrats) would push to get the answers they want. Putting barriers to submissions on the basis of 'privacy concerns' seems to be a new approach. There has always been an option to keep your submission private because it might compromise others' privacy.
The heavy-handedness, forcing people to resubmit where trans experience is described by submitters, reflects a similar approach taken by the UK government and courts. Trans individuals and trans groups there reported greatly limited opportunity to make submissions on their lived experiences as part of legislation and reviews that will directly affect their lives. Trans exclusion from the front-end of the process onwards. No such brakes on UK GC groups often initimately involved in the process, though.
There is an analysis of the NZ Bill submissions visible in the public domain by last week (19,000). It is important to capture such data and give it outside scrutiny: to check that statements by the government on the aggregated outcomes assessment (eg, claims, ai 'pulled out these trends') accurately reflect the submission pool.
https://www.queerspace.nz/assets/downloads/queerspace-definition-of-sex-bill-in-depth-analysis-2026-07-23.pdf
'… pooling every submitter who identified as a woman or female under any label, woman, female, biological female, adult human female, wāhine, and excluding trans women, gives 2,378 submitters, of whom 91.6% oppose the bill and 8.3% support it. More than nine in ten of the bill's stated beneficiaries reject it, and the figure already contains the 198 female supporters, who mostly identify as mothers and grandmothers or simply as women. Women are the largest self-identified group in the record, roughly three times the trans and non-binary submitters combined, and their opposition is decisive.'
'Faith remains the only identity leaning toward support, and it is small in absolute terms. Parents and family members are the most internally divided group, and at 57.5% to 42.5% the only one that genuinely splits. Health professionals, writing from clinical vantage, oppose at 87.6% and concentrate in the workability arguments of section 6.'
Of course, this analysis does not include all those rejected submissions that needed to remove any personal experience from the mix. A 90% thumbs down is pretty strong, but we've already seen egregious treatment of public submissions by this government.
Well, that's weird because he's on the radio and TV every five minutes as it is telling us progressive policy is bad and conservative policy is good.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/361014032/brad-olsen-steps-down-infometrics-chief-focus-economics
Can his version of economics be put forward and explained simply? Or does he have to search out the simple people and gather them together or better, corral them, and put them on a lunging rein till they are schooled proper!
‘What do the simple folk do’??
He tried to be Brash, but words failed him:
Brashly, he threatened us with the prospect of an early election:
He launches a serious attempt to reclaim wily from the coyote:
In mythos, the coyote is a trickster. Any play may not be what it seems!
I'm so sick of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". So wrong, so cynical. And it doesn't work.
Peters is racist. Brash is racist. Brash doesn't become less racist just because he attacks today's headline racist. Brash will be next week's headline racist.
Call them both out, every time. F**k the game-playing.
Fuck Brash, & on reading the article all they're concerned about upsetting the Chinese because of trade, not decency. Brash is a racist. I remember him in the Hollowmen documentary telling every Asian he met that "my wife is from Singapore" & one Asian woman he asked where she was from & she said "Papakura" & he replied "oh my wife is from Singapore".
Well, the party is a millionaire's baby.
//
The Opportunity Party says it will “fix” the documents advertising its tax policy after inquiries from the Herald about the achievability of the spending cuts that form part of its tax plans.
The updated version still suggests severe cuts, with budgets for the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Inland Revenue (IRD) set to be trimmed by about 60% and 33% respectively.
The Ministry of Justice would have its departmental budget reduced by 22%, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) by 12.5% and Oranga Tamariki by 9.7%.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/opportunity-forced-to-update-tax-policy-documents-to-make-spending-cuts-clearer/XYHB5AKLENH2TASAWJRG4BNK3Y/
Hmmm, deep cuts into the public service and quite possibly sacking loads of public servants to pay for its tax policy, where have I heard this before? Surely, the ACT Party, the TPU, and all the Atlas-adjacent RWs are strongly supportive of this?
Astonishing just how rotten this prick is.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOcu2ZvWUAAlBkT?format=jpg&name=large
https://xcancel.com/reformexposed/status/2082684867356024989
Trust in Open AI tools declines at US State Department.
But why did no one notice?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countries
The US Department of Agriculture listed Wakanda as a free-trade partner – despite it being a fictional country.
lol
19 December 2019
[…]
A USDA spokesperson said the Kingdom of Wakanda was added to the list by accident during a staff test.
The department's online tariff tracker hosted a detailed list of goods the two nations apparently traded, including ducks, donkeys and dairy cows.
The US Department of Agriculture listed Wakanda as a free-trade partner – despite it being a fictional country.
A USDA spokesperson said the Kingdom of Wakanda was added to the list by accident during a staff test.
The department's online tariff tracker hosted a detailed list of goods the two nations apparently traded, including ducks, donkeys and dairy cows.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50849559
Great to have Damien O'Connor at our Wanaka bar tonight.
Tough ekectoral gig Waitaki, but very encouraging he fronts up.