Pye’s latest. The words apply to New Zealand just as much as the UK.
“What a shithole. Welcome to Britain. We spend millions papering over poverty…… If that isn’t a metaphor for what this government’s ideology has done for our country, I don’t know what is.”
With his shoulder-length hair, colorful ascot ties and spider brooches, Cedric Villani, a prize-winning mathematician is among the most recognizable faces on the campaign trail.
In 2010 he won the maths equivalent to the Nobel prize, the Fields Medal, for what the award called “proofs of nonlinear Landau damping and convergence to equilibrium of the Boltzmann equation”.
His more digestible work ‘Birth of a Theorem: a mathematical adventure’, is a journey through his unproductive lulls and late-night breakthroughs on the path to discovery. He entitled an online lecture ‘Why is maths so sexy’.
Villani won 47.46 percent in the first round, falling just short of the threshold to win his constituency without a run-off. In the second round, he trounced his conservative opponent with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Fuck Labour for jacking up the seat of Northland for the old windbag.
The old arse hole had pretty much faded into oblivion but instead of letting the old prick die those short sighted fuckwits in Labour decide to throw him a life rope because they were so desperate to get some sort of win over John Key.
Really BM, you are starting to sound worse than ‘Angry Andy’. Try to remember that the normal right wing troll is a happy man with his glass half full, not half empty, and that things are getting better all the time; failed targets were only aspirational, and that we still are on the cusp of something special which will herald a brighter future. It worries me to hear you starting to sound depressed..
Variables are the difference in number of voters, that NZF didn’t stand a candidate in 2014, and that in 2015 they stood a very high profile already in parliament MP. You can probably add in the GP votes to those variables if you really want to get into it.
But the change it made was before the by-election the Nats could pass legislation with any one of Poodle Dunne, Rimmer, or the Maori Party. After they needed Poodle Dunne and Rimmer, or the Maori Party. That’s an important difference and I’m confident it made a change to how the Nats governed. So from Labour’s perspective it would have been worth it even if it causes a headache now.
Mike Sabin inherited a 10,000 vote majority from John Carter, until he resigned for reasons no one’s allowed to ask questions about. This might be the weakest troll argument you’ve ever made, B. Movement.
Yeah – but Gormless’s points are mostly of the trivial (the coffee was terrible then) variety. And the ones that aren’t trivial (life expectancy) would have happened anyway and may even have improved more without the neoliberal revolution.
So good on Winston for using the right language, even if I’m not convinced he really understands the implications of what he’s saying.
And double good on Winston for annoying BM to the point of incoherence (above)!
So good on Winston for using the right language, even if I’m not convinced he really understands the implications of what he’s saying.
It’s not the first time Winnie’s taken a swipe at Neoliberalism – he’s well aware that the swing to NZF over the last couple of Elections has disproportionately come courtesy of former Labour voters … and he’s no doubt keen on that trend continuing.
“…surging home prices, rising household debt and sluggish wage growth pose a threat to the lenders.”
About 85% of our lending comes from those four banks.
With credit rating goes the price of money, and hence the price of money in the form of interest.
Locally we have been considerably more exposed to “saying surging home prices, rising household debt and sluggish wage growth” and the banks have kept hold of their hats.
It’s the tail risk that is the concern here … ie “in the unlikely event of an accident”.
The Financial Times reported last week that China’s coast guard has declared China’s sovereignty over Sandy Cay, posting pictures of personnel holding a Chinese flag on a strip of sand. The landing apparently took place ...
You might not know this, but New Zealand’s at the bottom of the global league table for electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and the National government’s policies are ensuring we stay there, choking the life out of our clean energy transition.According to the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Global EV Outlook, we’ve ...
We need more than two Australians who are well-known in Washington. We do have two who are remarkably well-known, but they alone aren’t enough in a political scene that’s increasingly influenced by personal connections and ...
When National embarked on slash and burn cuts to the public service, Prime Minister Chris Luxon was clear that he expected frontline services to be protected. He lied: The government has scrapped part of a work programme designed to prevent people ending up in emergency housing because the social ...
When the Emissions Trading Scheme was originally introduced, way back in 2008, it included a generous transitional subsidy scheme, which saw "trade exposed" polluters given free carbon credits while they supposedly stopped polluting. That scheme was made more generous and effectively permanent under the Key National government, and while Labour ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
The news of Virginia Giuffre’s untimely death has been a shock, especially for those still seeking justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Giuffre, a key figure in exposing Epstein’s depraved network and its ties to powerful figures like Prince Andrew, was reportedly struck by a bus in Australia. She then apparently ...
An official briefing to the Health Minister warns “demand for acute services has outstripped hospital capacity”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, April 28 are: There’s a nationwide shortage of 500 hospital beds and 200,000 ...
We should have been thinking about the seabed, not so much the cables. When a Chinese research vessel was spotted near Australia’s southern coast in late March, opposition leader Peter Dutton warned the ship was ...
Now that the formalities of saying goodbye to Pope Francis are over, the process of selecting his successor can begin in earnest. Framing the choice in terms of “liberal v conservative” is somewhat misleading, given that all members of the College of Cardinals uphold the core Catholic doctrines – which ...
A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 20, 2025 thru Sat, April 26, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
Let’s rip the shiny plastic wrapping off a festering truth: planned obsolescence is a deliberate scam, and governments worldwide, including New Zealand’s, are complicit in letting tech giants churn out disposable junk. From flimsy smartphones that croak after two years to laptops with glued-in batteries, the tech industry’s business model ...
When I first saw press photos of Mr Whorrall, an America PhD entomology student & researcher who had been living out a dream to finish out his studies in Auckland, my first impression, besides sadness, was how gentle he appeared.Press released the middle photo from Mr Whorrall’s Facebook pageBy all ...
It's definitely not a renters market in New Zealand, as reported by 1 News last night. In fact the housing crisis has metastasised into a full-blown catastrophe in 2025, and the National Party Government’s policies are pouring petrol on the flames. Renters are being crushed under skyrocketing costs, first-time buyers ...
Would I lie to you? (oh yeah)Would I lie to you honey? (oh, no, no no)Now would I say something that wasn't true?I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?Writer(s): David Allan Stewart, Annie Lennox.Opinions issue forth from car radios or the daily news…They demand a bluer National, with ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change? Climatologists made up only 0.1% of signatories ...
In the 1980s and early 1990s when I wrote about Argentine and South American authoritarianism, I borrowed the phrase “cultura del miedo” (culture of fear) from Juan Corradi, Guillermo O’Donnell, Norberto Lechner and others to characterise the social anomaly that exists in a country ruled by a state terror regime ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Chris Bishop has unveiled plans for new roads in Tauranga, Auckland and Northland that will cost up to a combined $10 billion. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from Aotearoa political economy around housing, poverty and climate in the week to Saturday, April 26:Chris Bishop ploughed ahead this week with spending ...
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have noticed that New Zealand’s government, under the guise of economic stewardship, is tightening the screws on its citizens, and using debt as a tool of control. This isn’t just a conspiracy theory whispered in pub corners...it’s backed by hard data ...
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...
You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a ...
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...
This article was first published on 7 February 2025. In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am ...
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news New Zealand abstained from a vote on a global shipping levy on climate emissions and downgraded the importance ...
Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...
For a while, it looked like the government had unfucked the ETS, at least insofar as unit settings were concerned. They had to be forced into it by a court case, but at least it got done, and when National came to power, it learned the lesson (and then fucked ...
The argument over US officials’ misuse of secure but non-governmental messaging platform Signal falls into two camps. Either it is a gross error that undermines national security, or it is a bit of a blunder ...
Cost of living ~1/3 of Kiwis needed help with food as cost of living pressures continue to increase - turning to friends, family, food banks or Work and Income in the past year, to find food. 40% of Kiwis also said they felt schemes offered little or no benefit, according ...
Hi,Perhaps in 2025 it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the CEO and owner of Voyager Internet — the major sponsor of the New Zealand Media Awards — has taken to sharing a variety of Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to his 1.2 million followers.This included sharing a post from ...
In the sprint to deepen Australia-India defence cooperation, navy links have shot ahead of ties between the two countries’ air forces and armies. That’s largely a good thing: maritime security is at the heart of ...
'Cause you and me, were meant to be,Walking free, in harmony,One fine day, we'll fly away,Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day?Songwriters: Paul David Godfrey / Ross Godfrey / Skye Edwards.I was half expecting to see photos this morning of National Party supporters with wads of cotton ...
The PSA says a settlement with Health New Zealand over the agency’s proposed restructure of its Data and Digital and Pacific Health teams has saved around 200 roles from being cut. A third of New Zealanders have needed help accessing food in the past year, according to Consumer NZ, and ...
John Campbell’s Under His Command, a five-part TVNZ+ investigation series starting today, rips the veil off Destiny Church, exposing the rot festering under Brian Tamaki’s self-proclaimed apostolic throne. This isn’t just a church; it’s a fiefdom, built on fear, manipulation, and a trail of scandals that make your stomach churn. ...
Some argue we still have time, since quantum computing capable of breaking today’s encryption is a decade or more away. But breakthrough capabilities, especially in domains tied to strategic advantage, rarely follow predictable timelines. Just ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Pearl Marvell(Photo credit: Pearl Marvell. Image credit: Samantha Harrington. Dollar bill vector image: by pch.vector on Freepik) Igrew up knowing that when you had extra money, you put it under a bed, stashed it in a book or a clock, or, ...
The political petrified piece of wood, Winston Peters, who refuses to retire gracefully, has had an eventful couple of weeks peddling transphobia, pushing bigoted policies, undertaking his unrelenting war on wokeness and slinging vile accusations like calling Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick a “groomer”.At 80, the hypocritical NZ First leader’s latest ...
It's raining in Cockermouth and we're following our host up the stairs. We’re telling her it’s a lovely building and she’s explaining that it used to be a pub and a nightclub and a backpackers, but no more.There were floods in 2009 and 2015 along the main street, huge floods, ...
A recurring aspect of the Trump tariff coverage is that it normalises – or even sanctifies – a status quo that in many respects has been a disaster for working class families. No doubt, Donald Trump is an uncertainty machine that is tanking the stock market and the growth prospects ...
The National Party’s Minister of Police, Corrections, and Ethnic Communities (irony alert) has stumbled into yet another racist quagmire, proving that when it comes to bigotry, the right wing’s playbook is as predictable as it is vile. This time, Mitchell’s office reposted an Instagram reel falsely claiming that Te Pāti ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
In a world crying out for empathy, J.K. Rowling has once again proven she’s more interested in stoking division than building bridges. The once-beloved author of Harry Potter has cemented her place as this week’s Arsehole of the Week, a title earned through her relentless, tone-deaf crusade against transgender rights. ...
Health security is often seen as a peripheral security domain, and as a problem that is difficult to address. These perceptions weaken our capacity to respond to borderless threats. With the wind back of Covid-19 ...
Would our political parties pass muster under the Fair Trading Act?WHAT IF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES were subject to the Fair Trading Act? What if they, like the nation’s businesses, were prohibited from misleading their consumers – i.e. the voters – about the nature, characteristics, suitability, or quantity of the products ...
Rod EmmersonThank you to my subscribers and readers - you make it all possible. Tui.Subscribe nowSix updates today from around the world and locally here in Aoteaora New Zealand -1. RFK Jnr’s Autism CrusadeAmerica plans to create a registry of people with autism in the United States. RFK Jr’s department ...
We see it often enough. A democracy deals with an authoritarian state, and those who oppose concessions cite the lesson of Munich 1938: make none to dictators; take a firm stand. And so we hear ...
370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May – the same day senior doctors are striking. This is part of nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals, organised by ...
Character protections for Auckland’s villas have stymied past development. Now moves afoot to strip character protection from a bunch of inner-city villas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest from our political economy on Wednesday, April 23:Special Character Areas designed to protect villas are stopping 20,000 sites near Auckland’s ...
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly transform the Indo-Pacific maritime security landscape. It offers unprecedented situational awareness, decision-making speed and operational flexibility. But without clear rules, shared norms and mechanisms for risk reduction, AI could ...
For what is a man, what has he got?If not himself, then he has naughtTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my wayLyrics: Paul Anka.Morena folks, before we discuss Winston’s latest salvo in NZ First’s War ...
Britain once risked a reputation as the weak link in the trilateral AUKUS partnership. But now the appointment of an empowered senior official to drive the project forward and a new burst of British parliamentary ...
Australia’s ability to produce basic metals, including copper, lead, zinc, nickel and construction steel, is in jeopardy, with ageing plants struggling against Chinese competition. The multinational commodities company Trafigura has put its Australian operations under ...
There have been recent PPP debacles, both in New Zealand (think Transmission Gully) and globally, with numerous examples across both Australia and Britain of failed projects and extensive litigation by government agencies seeking redress for the failures.Rob Campbell is one of New Zealand’s sharpest critics of PPPs noting that; "There ...
On Twitter on Saturday I indicated that there had been a mistake in my post from last Thursday in which I attempted to step through the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement issues. Making mistakes (there are two) is annoying and I don’t fully understand how I did it (probably too much ...
Indonesia’s armed forces still have a lot of work to do in making proper use of drones. Two major challenges are pilot training and achieving interoperability between the services. Another is overcoming a predilection for ...
The StrategistBy Sandy Juda Pratama, Curie Maharani and Gautama Adi Kusuma
As a living breathing human being, you’ve likely seen the heart-wrenching images from Gaza...homes reduced to rubble, children burnt to cinders, families displaced, and a death toll that’s beyond comprehension. What is going on in Gaza is most definitely a genocide, the suffering is real, and it’s easy to feel ...
Donald Trump, who has called the Chair of the Federal Reserve “a major loser”. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories shortest from our political economy on Tuesday, April 22:US markets slump after Donald Trump threatens the Fed’s independence. China warns its trading partners not to side with the US. Trump says some ...
Last night, the news came through that Pope Francis had passed away at 7:35 am in Rome on Monday, the 21st of April, following a reported stroke and heart failure. Pope Francis. Photo: AP.Despite his obvious ill health, it still came as a shock, following so soon after the Easter ...
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found the NIC to be highly capable and performing well. So, it is not a surprise that most of the 67 recommendations are incremental adjustments and small but nevertheless important ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkThe world has made real progress toward tacking climate change in recent years, with spending on clean energy technologies skyrocketing from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars globally over the past decade, and global CO2 emissions plateauing.This has contributed to a reassessment of ...
Hi,I’ve been having a peaceful month of what I’d call “existential dread”, even more aware than usual that — at some point — this all ends.It was very specifically triggered by watching Pantheon, an animated sci-fi show that I’m filing away with all-time greats like Six Feet Under, Watchmen and ...
Once the formalities of honouring the late Pope wrap up in two to three weeks time, the conclave of Cardinals will go into seclusion. Some 253 of the current College of Cardinals can take part in the debate over choosing the next Pope, but only 138 of them are below ...
The National Party government is doubling down on a grim, regressive vision for the future: more prisons, more prisoners, and a society fractured by policies that punish rather than heal. This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a deliberate lurch toward a dystopian future where incarceration is the answer to every ...
The audacity of Don Brash never ceases to amaze. The former National Party and Hobson’s Pledge mouthpiece has now sunk his claws into NZME, the media giant behind the New Zealand Herald and half of our commercial radio stations. Don Brash has snapped up shares in NZME, aligning himself with ...
A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 13, 2025 thru Sat, April 19, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
The Green Party has renewed its call for the Government to ban the use, supply, and manufacture of engineered stone products, as the CTU launches a petition for the implementation of a full ban. ...
Te Pāti Māori are appalled by Cabinet's decision to agree to 15 recommendations to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector following the regulatory review by the Ministry of Regulation. We emphasise the need to prioritise tamariki Māori in Early Childhood Education, conducted by education experts- not economists. “Our mokopuna deserve ...
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As we enter the final days of campaigning, Labor leads with its nose in front on most polls, but the devil is in the detail of particular seats. To help get a read ...
Communities in Vanuatu are learning to grow climate resilient crops, 18 months after Cyclone Lola devastated the country. The category 5 storm struck in October 2023, generating wind speeds of up to 215 kmph, which destroyed homes, schools, plantations, and left at least four people dead. It was all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government has dug out last-minute savings of more than A$7 billion, to ensure its election commitments are more than offset in every year of the forward estimates. Its costings, released Monday, include savings ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra The federal budget will be stronger than suggested in last month’s budget, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers who released Labor’s costings on Monday. Many of the policies included in the costings were already detailed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra With the May 3 federal election less than a week away, voters have only just received Labor’s costings and are yet to hear from the Coalition. At the 2022 election, the costings were not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University WPixz/Shutterstock An antidepressant containing a form of the drug ketamine has been added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), making it much cheaper for the estimated 30,000 Australians with treatment-resistant depression. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne In front of a crowd of party faithful last weekend, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton referred to the ABC, Guardian Australia and other news platforms as “hate media”. The language ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Yellishetty, Professor, Co-Founder, Critical Minerals Consortium, and Australia-India Critical Minerals Research Hub, Monash University RHJPhtotos/Shutterstock The world needs huge quantities of critical minerals to make batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines, mobile phones, computers and advanced weaponry. Many of these ...
PodTalk.live After a successful beta-launch this month, PodTalk.live has now called for people to register as foundation members — it’s free to join the post and podcast social platform. The foundation membership soft-launch is a great opportunity for founders to help shape a brand new, vibrant, algorithm-free, info discussion and ...
"This is an abandonment of Pharmac’s commitment to the health of Māori and another breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi," said Janice Panoho, Te Kaihautū Māori for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication, Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology In the lead-up to the 2025 Australian federal election, political advertising is seemingly everywhere. We’ve been mapping the often invisible world of digital political advertising ...
This Aussie kids’ TV juggernaut has always packed an emotional punch, and the live stage show was no exception – giving one toddler and her mother a valuable lesson in dealing with disappointment. As a parent, a neat game to play is to think about which of your many failures ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra With the May 3 federal election less than a week away, voters still have little reliable information on the costs of Labor or Coalition policies. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said Labor’s policy costings will ...
We have three exciting new roles! The Spinoff is advertising for three new roles – one permanent and two fixed term opportunities. This is an opportunity for three creative people in vastly different areas to join our small team. Video journalistThe Spinoff has been funded by NZ On Air ...
As New Zealanders marked Anzac Day, Italians commemorated 80 years since the country was liberated from fascism. Have celebrations changed in the shadow of Italy’s first postwar far-right government? Nina Hall writes from Bologna. For Italians, April 25 is very different to New Zealand’s Anzac Day. It’s the day to ...
As Shortland Street’s mysterious new ‘Back in Black’ season starts tonight, Tara Ward explains exactly what’s going on in Ferndale. What’s all this then? Back in Black is the name of Shortland Street’s new mini-season, which begins tonight. In 2025, the long-running soap is dividing the year into four “mini-seasons”, ...
Approved building firms, plumbers, and drainlayers will now be able to sign off their own work, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced. ...
From 1 July, teachers will save up to $550 when applying for registration or renewing their practising certificate, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced. ...
Silicosis is a debilitating disease that cannot be cured. The evidence is clear that the only solution is to stop workers from being required to process engineered stone, which exposes them to the dangerous silica dust. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Hoyer, Senior Researcher, Historian and Complexity Scientist, University of Toronto Canada is, by nearly any measure, a large, advanced, prosperous nation. A founding member of the G7, Canada is one of the world’s most “advanced economies,” ranking fourth in the Organization ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Lakin, Lecturer, Clark University Memory and politics are inherently intertwined and can never be fully separated in post-atrocity and post-genocidal contexts. They are also dynamic and ever-changing. The interplay between memory and politics is, therefore, prone to manipulation, exaggeration or misuse ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeffrey Fields, Professor of the Practice of International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences A mural on the outer walls of the former US embassy in Tehran depicts two men in negotiation.Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Negotiators from Iran and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cora Fox, Associate Professor of English and Health Humanities, Arizona State University Joanna Vanderham as Desdemona and Hugh Quarshie as the title character in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ‘Othello.’Robbie Jack/Corbis via Getty Images What is “happiness” – and who ...
What if you’re not bad with money, you’re just working with outdated software? If you’ve ever thought, “why can’t I just stick to a budget?”, congratulations. You’re just like the other 90% of us.Our brains were wired for survival in a hunter-gatherer world, which means they start throwing up ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Chung, PhD Candidate, National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland Stenko Vlad/Shutterstock E-cigarettes or vapes were originally designed to deliver nicotine in a smokeless form. But in recent years, vapes have been used to deliver other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryoush Habibi, Professor and Head, Centre for Green and Smart Energy Systems, Edith Cowan University EV batteries are made of hundreds of smaller cells.IM Imagery/Shutterstock Around the world, more and more electric vehicles are hitting the road. Last year, more than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ehsan Noroozinejad, Senior Researcher and Sustainable Future Lead, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Australia is running out of affordable, safe places to live. Rents and mortgages are climbing faster than wages, and young people fear they may never own a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristian Ramsden, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide Apple TV In the second episode of Apple TV’s The Studio (2025–) – a sharp satirical take on contemporary Hollywood – newly-appointed studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) visits the set of one of ...
David Taylor, head of English at Northcote College, outlines why he will refuse to teach the latest draft of the English curriculum. “I’ll look no more, / Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight / Topple down headlong.” (King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6)Since 2007, New Zealand schools ...
The Ministry of Social Development said in a report this was because it could not cope with workloads, which included work relating to changes to the Jobseeker benefit. ...
Pye’s latest. The words apply to New Zealand just as much as the UK.
“What a shithole. Welcome to Britain. We spend millions papering over poverty…… If that isn’t a metaphor for what this government’s ideology has done for our country, I don’t know what is.”
Pike River.
New Zealand’s Grenfell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bJg1al1q0
“Once again it boils down to the divide between the haves and the have nots.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjNIzZOXjxQ
Hillsborough victims’ families’ 27-year struggle for truth vindicated.
27 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yIAGkOpzSk
Does Cédric Villani’s victory mean Peter Dunne and his ties are off the hook?.
CEDRIC VILLANI, MATHEMATICIAN
With his shoulder-length hair, colorful ascot ties and spider brooches, Cedric Villani, a prize-winning mathematician is among the most recognizable faces on the campaign trail.
In 2010 he won the maths equivalent to the Nobel prize, the Fields Medal, for what the award called “proofs of nonlinear Landau damping and convergence to equilibrium of the Boltzmann equation”.
His more digestible work ‘Birth of a Theorem: a mathematical adventure’, is a journey through his unproductive lulls and late-night breakthroughs on the path to discovery. He entitled an online lecture ‘Why is maths so sexy’.
Villani won 47.46 percent in the first round, falling just short of the threshold to win his constituency without a run-off. In the second round, he trounced his conservative opponent with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-lawmakers-fact-idUSKBN19910S
Peters positioning himself as a Corbyn? 🙄 (plus, lol being trolled by the Gormless Fool).
https://twitter.com/winstonpeters/status/876612358184894464
The man is a fucking tool.
Fuck Labour for jacking up the seat of Northland for the old windbag.
The old arse hole had pretty much faded into oblivion but instead of letting the old prick die those short sighted fuckwits in Labour decide to throw him a life rope because they were so desperate to get some sort of win over John Key.
Dickheads.
What did Labour do in Northland?
Wasn’t labour that did that but National as they ignored Northland yet again.
Bullshit.
Labour basically stood aside and said vote, Peters, turning the whole thing into a two horse race.
The media then ran with it promoting Peters at every opportunity while trashing the National candidate.
Look at the by-election results
http://www.elections.org.nz/news-media/northland-election-official-results
and compare them to the election in 2014
http://archive.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2014/electorate-35.html
Labour was and still are idiots, they have the tactical nous of General Haig.
Really? Is that why National lost 7,000 votes in Northland in six months? And the nat still got more in the byelection than Labour did in 2014.
Maybe the cockies just found NZ1 more palatable than Labour.
Really BM, you are starting to sound worse than ‘Angry Andy’. Try to remember that the normal right wing troll is a happy man with his glass half full, not half empty, and that things are getting better all the time; failed targets were only aspirational, and that we still are on the cusp of something special which will herald a brighter future. It worries me to hear you starting to sound depressed..
lol.
It’s all Labour’s fault!
You do remember that National was responsible for Peters entering politics?
their bullshit also killed him in 08 and revived him in 2011 ,
It was a secret plan to ensure they had the third coalition partner that they needed.
Labour are more cunning
2014 GE/party vote, 35,707 votes
Nat 17,412
Lab 5913
NZF 4546
2014 GE/seat vote, 35,707 votes
Nat 18269
Lab 8969
NZF 0
2015 BE/seat vote, 29,590 votes
Nat 11,648
Lab 1389
NZF 16,089
Variables are the difference in number of voters, that NZF didn’t stand a candidate in 2014, and that in 2015 they stood a very high profile already in parliament MP. You can probably add in the GP votes to those variables if you really want to get into it.
IIRC, it was the National candidate that trashed himself along with help from the rest of the National caucus.
The outright bribe that National promised probably didn’t help.
BTW, how are those bridges going?
Weren’t they all supposed to be built in a few months?
“The outright bribe that National promised probably didn’t help.”
Absolutely on the nail here.
Remind me what NACT have been doing in Epsom for years now.
But the change it made was before the by-election the Nats could pass legislation with any one of Poodle Dunne, Rimmer, or the Maori Party. After they needed Poodle Dunne and Rimmer, or the Maori Party. That’s an important difference and I’m confident it made a change to how the Nats governed. So from Labour’s perspective it would have been worth it even if it causes a headache now.
Mike Sabin inherited a 10,000 vote majority from John Carter, until he resigned for reasons no one’s allowed to ask questions about. This might be the weakest troll argument you’ve ever made, B. Movement.
so National failing to retain the seat, or put up someone who could have won the seat instead of the dude they set up to fail, is Labours fault.
right.
sure.
National can’t fail, National can only be failed. Sure.
Yeah – but Gormless’s points are mostly of the trivial (the coffee was terrible then) variety. And the ones that aren’t trivial (life expectancy) would have happened anyway and may even have improved more without the neoliberal revolution.
So good on Winston for using the right language, even if I’m not convinced he really understands the implications of what he’s saying.
And double good on Winston for annoying BM to the point of incoherence (above)!
I think it’s the most opportunistic thing I’ve heard Peters say.
agreed, BM’s reaction was surprising and funny.
It’s not the first time Winnie’s taken a swipe at Neoliberalism – he’s well aware that the swing to NZF over the last couple of Elections has disproportionately come courtesy of former Labour voters … and he’s no doubt keen on that trend continuing.
Wouch!
Moody’s just cut the credit rating on Australia’s four biggest banks:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/australian-big-four-banks-ratings-cut-by-moody-s-on-housing-risk
Reasons?
“…surging home prices, rising household debt and sluggish wage growth pose a threat to the lenders.”
About 85% of our lending comes from those four banks.
With credit rating goes the price of money, and hence the price of money in the form of interest.
Hold on to your hats folks.
NZ banks have been in that territory for some time now:
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/regulation-and-supervision/banks/prudential-requirements/credit-ratings
Locally we have been considerably more exposed to “saying surging home prices, rising household debt and sluggish wage growth” and the banks have kept hold of their hats.
It’s the tail risk that is the concern here … ie “in the unlikely event of an accident”.
The same Aussie banks who hold the bulk of the house loans in little NZ?
79 reported dead now at Grenfell.
42 bodies in one room