Almost forgot to visit this classic too

Can’t forget to mention all of the bikeways, public transport all over the place and the greens spaces everyone seems to be enjoying, even on this chillier day.

Chur Christchurch 🤙

Popped to Christchurch for and industry meeting and was able to spend an afternoon wandering the streets of the CBD and caught a few buses around the burbs.
CHCH has such a good vibe and I’m loving the food and street murals and art pieces and all the live music! 🎶❤️

Sucky but not unexpected 🙃

At least they recognise Palestine as a country? 🤷

And of course the embedded quote from the PM starts with "to be perfectly clear", because unintended irony is his only skill

Luxon on LNG: "international commodity prices rise and fall, and you don't change your approach just based on that".

And this guy was in business, you say?

Election 2026: National’s Nicola Willis says New Zealanders are ‘impatient’ for expecting quick cost-of-living turnaround

Have you noticed that Nicola Willis is always blaming us because she can't do her job? #NZPol

Literally, at work this morning:

Clinician: Patient should stop medication A, but must keep taking medication B.

AI VR transcription of this: Patient should stop taking medication B.

Seriously NEVER LET A DOCTOR USE AI FOR YOUR APPOINTMENTS. NEVER. UNDER ANY FUCKING CIRCUMSTANCES.

This was one of their big campaign issues, remember.

Cropping the top and bottom old TV shows so they fill a widescreen display should be punishable by death.

Voyager 1 is currently more than 24 billion kilometres from Earth and getting 17km farther every second and hilariously it is not as out of touch with New Zealand as our Prime Minister

The point here about our most prominent talking heads eagerly repeating a baseless claim from a website run by notorious loons is well made. Of course, they won't apologise.

Luxon chooses to punish the homeless after making more people homeless We are building a future where we do more, faster, to protect our planet and make sure everyone is treated equally.

The Green Party is imploring the Government to choose actual solutions to homelessness, after Ministers today announced the Government’s plan to effectively criminalise it.

www.greens.org.nz/luxon_choose...

Tim Murphy’s “omg everyone hates Luxon” piece is so funny bro white bread is up 60%, there’s no jobs, there’s literal shit in the air in the capital city, people responsible for the engines of economy are leaving in droves, no workers rights, no action on climate change, voter suppression 🤷🏽‍♀️

The claim: Christopher Luxon’s parents let him stay up to watch State of Origin as a kid. Verdict: Highly unlikely. Does it matter: Not really, but if you can’t trust a man when he says his parents let him stay up to watch State of Origin as a kid, when can you trust him?

When they ask why we hate him; it's probably because he lies about stupid shit like this that actually means a lot to some of us #NZPol

Regular reminder that money is created either by Govt spending or bank lending. The phrase 'public money' for the former seems entirely appropriate.
Indeed, bank lending is effectively state licenced.

Failing to check the weather forecast ahead of their outdoor promotional event, then declaring themselves heroes for having to run out with an umbrella when it rains, seems symbolic of this government.

This is why electrification means more energy security:

In 2024, ~81% of EU electricity came from locally sourced fuels (57% excluding nuclear). Just 19% relied on imported fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are mostly imported.

Source @ember-energy.org

Holy fuck this is insane. An agentic AI is tasked with contributing code to matplot. The project maintainer says no. The AI then... starts an influence campaign against him?!?

THEY NEVER CONSIDERED RENEWABLE!?!!

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK

#nzpol

Map showing paths of four eclipses over Aotearoa New Zealand on 22 July 2028, 10 March 2035, 13 July 2037 and 26 December 2038.

I was reminded of this today so just re-upping for your long-term holiday planning.

Why not spend $2.7b on solar & batteries instead? Govt to pay up to $180m/year or $2.7b over 15 years to lease LNG re-gasification plant, paid for by $15-$30 'levy' per household per year. That $2.7b would build four Benmore Dams worth of electricity

FYI I’ve opened this up for full public reading, listening & sharing after requests from paying subscribers. Their support allows me to do this kind of public interest journalism on Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate & poverty in public. #nzpol thekaka.substack.com/p/why-not-sp...

Matt Nippert: Corruption klaxon blaring, but at least we can now hear it OPINION: NZ's fall in the least-corrupt rankings is because we are no longer ignorant.

Look at me, pontificating in my lane: www.nzherald.co.nz/business/cor...

The fuel of ‘last resort’: How imported gas became New Zealand’s first choice It's expensive, vulnerable to price shocks and terrible for the planet. So why are we importing gas?

Bit late to it but if you want to know the chain of events that led to us importing gas (and charging electricity users to pay for it!!), I did this deep dive for RNZ last year www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

An Elon Musk tweet saying "Whoever said 'money can't buy happiness' really knew what they were talking about 😒"

This fucking dickhead is so soulless that he doesn't realize that it's the endless pursuit of more money thats the problem.

Can you imagine how much joy you could give others with his riches?

I'd spend my days anonymously helping people out and id be the happiest fucker on the planet.

IT'S FEBRUARY 2026.

THE RAIL ENABLED HYUNDAI FERRIES FOR I REX WERE MEANT TO ARRIVE BY NOW.

Instead we have no rail enabled ferries, the two we have are clunky as fuck, and there will be no replacement ferries until 2029 at the earliest.

Why am I paying my water bill for thousands of miles of pipes? I only need to pay for the one which goes to my house. There's so many other pipes I'm not using at all, it's so wasteful.

NZ has fallen into a 'crisis and response' pattern on climate disaster, experts say. Billions have been spent on storm recovery since 2023, while key climate adaptation funding and planning tools have been cut.

My story looking at last week’s storms

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Always worth a re-post when we get an update.
Amazes me that Govt get away with saying they have done anything notable to 'tame inflation'. Our peak was relatively low (we weren't exposed to global gas prices 😌), and, over the last year, Govt decisions have demonstrably increased CPI.

Voter suppression is legal. And when it’s not, it can be legalized very easily. To the point that our government is doing it here (New Zealand) as well! Like it’s not some nefarious secret illegal conspiracy thing.