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Written By: AB - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 2nd, 2026
Luxon is simply showing how little he knows about his own country, his own society, and the realities of small-medium business in provincial NZ. Many of these businesses depend on the existence of buoyant demand in their domestic regions. His government ...Written By: AB - Date published: 8:01 pm, July 21st, 2026
"Disorienting" for sure - every flavour of radical right-wing nuttiness in more or less equal measure.Written By: AB - Date published: 11:39 am, July 18th, 2026
If they reckon they can't win by the usual (but less visible) tactics of voter suppression and gerrymandering, then of course something is on the cards.Written By: AB - Date published: 1:24 pm, July 8th, 2026
My suspicion is that 'financial sustainability' for KO comes down to counting only one side of its balance sheet and then pretending to be shocked by the result, i.e. counting the debt it incurs to buy land and build houses, but not counting either the ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:07 pm, June 29th, 2026
Plus there is the bonus to the right from their voter suppression tactics - not allowing enrolment within 2 weeks of voting day. That might be worth 1% at least.Written By: AB - Date published: 1:03 pm, June 29th, 2026
because TOP doesn't carry the same activist or moralistic reputation that many voters associate with the Greens Yeah - the default attack mode on TOP hasn't been worked out yet, whereas the most fruitful attack mode on the Greens is a well-worn path. Any ...Written By: AB - Date published: 10:50 am, June 25th, 2026
Steve Braunias knows. To paraphrase Braunias (who, as a proper writer unlike Barry) knows it's better to leave it unsaid: lifelong stupidity.Written By: AB - Date published: 11:21 pm, June 22nd, 2026
Starmer's resignation speech was a disgrace that exemplified why he had to go. He claimed that before he took over the Labour Party was politically, financially and morally bankrupt. Politically bankrupt. It was not. Labour got 40% of the vote in 2017 ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:28 pm, June 22nd, 2026
Ouch! I guess we'll see. My concern is that the constraints (real and imagined) on Burham's freedom to act are so great that he cannot reverse those things that are making voters turn to Farage.Written By: AB - Date published: 12:24 pm, June 22nd, 2026
Yeah. It was pretty clear as soon as they announced it that it was a precursor - the initial 'good cop' twin of the 'bad cop' intention to limit the future availability of National Superannuation. And it's entirely consistent with National Party belief ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:20 pm, June 21st, 2026
"Let's just call it the Green Party Envy tax" If I wanted to give it a silly name, I'd probably call it The Green Party Anti-Market Perversity Tax. Because by setting it at $10M, they are making a reasonable claim that wealth above that level cannot in any ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 19th, 2026
That might depend on which Party (NZF or Nat) received the donation.Written By: AB - Date published: 1:23 pm, June 19th, 2026
The Turing test gets misunderstood. (https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-trouble-with-the-turing-test) Turing said: The original question, “Can machines think?” I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion. Nevertheless I believe that ...Written By: AB - Date published: 11:46 am, June 18th, 2026
Yes. A couple of things going on here, I think. The first is a background where politics gets reduced into simply the most efficient delivery of outcomes. This is a politics eviscerated of content, because the whole substance of politics is a debate about ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 17th, 2026
Makes sense - and it might be an argument in favour of larger MBIE-style ministries, because internal expertise and judgment are expensive and you can't afford to duplicate it. Or maybe some 'all of government' programme office that puts projects into a ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 16th, 2026
Tangi Utikere needed to be much better prepared to address the talking points in his interview with Jack Tame Yes. I think he was especially weak on Tame's question of why public transport (ferries) should be subsidised for the wealthy citizens of ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:32 pm, June 15th, 2026
Looks to me like a case of what Steve Keen calls "The Curse of the Sincere Believer" She is so vehemently convinced that she is right, that no self-awareness kicks in to prevent the very bad look of a bit of Sunday afternoon madness.Written By: AB - Date published: 10:43 am, June 14th, 2026
Just like the poor, the spivs, shysters and charlatans are always with us. And those two facts may not be a coincidence. And still no arrest warrant issued by the UK government for his incitement of violence in Belfast.Written By: AB - Date published: 1:02 pm, June 10th, 2026
Yes - we should always look at systems first and the incentives and pressures they generate, before attributing moral characteristics to individuals. Though it is always likely that over time the former will have a degenerative influence on the latter. ...Written By: AB - Date published: 3:20 pm, June 5th, 2026
Of course she can't stay there and harm her neighbours - I would bever claim otherwise. But what happens next?Written By: AB - Date published: 1:24 pm, June 5th, 2026
The story about Jasmine first appeared (unsurprisingly) in the Herald - clearly as a defensive move to generate feelings that will lead its readers to support the CoC's recently announced changes to rents for KO residents. The headline does the job ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:38 pm, June 5th, 2026
[National] believes the electoral maths works in its favour. Agreed, and the policy to prevent voter enrolment in the 2 weeks prior to election day dovetails very nicely with this strategy.Written By: AB - Date published: 4:29 pm, June 4th, 2026
Why would an organisation called the Free Speech Union take any interest in the concept of neutrality? Speech doesn't have to be neutral to be free, nor does non-neutral speech have a suppressive effect on anyone else's right to free speech. If we want to ...Written By: AB - Date published: 4:11 pm, June 4th, 2026
Robertson expressed an opinion that a particular piece of legislation may be harmful to a portion of the student body at Otago. Student and staff welfare is within his remit as Vice Chancellor. He did not indicate that the University would act to prevent ...Written By: AB - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 4th, 2026
Did Robertson attempt to silence any student, academic or member of the administrative staff at Otago from disagreeing with him? Did he threaten any of them with dismissal, sanctions or expulsion? It appears he did not. Therefore, the substance of the ...Written By: AB - Date published: 6:58 pm, June 2nd, 2026
Not a defence PLA at all - just a cautionary note about jumping to conclusions. And it didn't take a major effort at all. I know enough about libraries and software development for that list to just drop out in about 10 seconds. And I also know how many ...Written By: AB - Date published: 5:45 pm, June 2nd, 2026
I'd want to know what this 'website' is doing before passing judgment. Is it just an informational website or an actual library system, i.e. Is it handling library membership such as expiries, reminders, issuing cards, issuing fines, processing online ...Written By: AB - Date published: 2:04 pm, June 1st, 2026
The myth of the household analogy (that debt is always bad), is being used by CoC to scare NZers into accepting the shrinkage of the role of the State in economic and social development. However, this does not mean that the State is actually spending less ...Written By: AB - Date published: 1:24 pm, May 31st, 2026
The freeloading accusation is interesting. What evidence is there that NZ has avoided threats to its territorial sovereignty since 1945 that would have occurred if the US umbrella was not present? What proportion of US defence spending since 1945 has been ...Written By: AB - Date published: 5:21 pm, May 29th, 2026
how many low income individuals think it is a sensible thing to heavily subsidise the hobbies of the wealthy such as Ballet or Opera? Alwyn, I think that's a rather misleading characterisation. In the past, governments wanted to supply 'public goods' like ...
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