Aaron Hawkins

The problem with the debate on the social media ban is that everyone pretends the goal is child protection and that the adult surveillance is a regrettable side-effect, rather than the surveillance being the goal and the protection a convenient excuse.

1. Ban VPNs and all the bits of the internet that worried middle-class mums, primary school teachers, and government ministers don't like
2. Govt establishes new KiwiVPN service that you can only log into using your RealMe, that lets you use the internet as normal
3. ???
4. Profit!

Where is this though? Smuggling booze into Cookie Time?

Vale Neville Peat, 1947–2026 Remembering the respected conservationist, prolific author and man of extraordinary talent and generosity....

Vale Neville Peat, 1947–2026

A last ball century to win the game with seven overs to spare.

🫡 Finn Allen

#FinalBoss

I left to go to the gym just to make sure 😂

Woke up at 330 anyway and no regrets so far!

A 230am alarm is a bad idea, right?

Crazy idea… what if we ran our energy system on cheap electricity so petrol prices don’t leave people panicking anymore??? wellyclimatenerd.net/the-race-to-...

Hard to take any analysis seriously if it simply ignores the inconvenient truth of racism, that too many in local govt were either happy to go along with or at the very least refuse to challenge

We put a little recording studio in the new South Dunedin library. Such good community infrastructure.

On February 22, 2026, Naval Ravikant tweeted: "If you're unwilling to defend your country in time of war, then you're a tourist, not a citizen." As of March 3, 2026, the tweet has been deleted.

deleted his tweet as soon as an actual war popped off

"The site reveals that in Dunedin North, home to the city’s large student population, some 600 properties have been added, with an average rating of 2.9, and average rent of $665."

One of those numbers is really low and one of those numbers is really high and they're not in the order I'd prefer.

So jealous of this one.

Same place wouldn’t provide us with a mailbox because ‘there was no point.’

Last year’s tenants ‘just put an ice cream container on the step.’

I could go back and review my flat from 2003, where you could reach the fridge from the toilet if you tried hard enough, but the back half of it has since been demolished

Flatchat — Dunedin | Know Your Flat Before You Sign Read honest rental reviews from real Dunedin tenants. Search flat reviews by address, check landlord ratings, and find your next flat in Dunedin.

And here’s the platform itself:

flatchat.co.nz

Great idea—not only for student flatters, but all Dunedin renters.

‘I could hear my flatmate having sex’: A new flat review site tells it like it is The creator behind a new website rating Dunedin flats wishes the site was around before he moved into a cold and damp student flat.

What if the flat listings had a comments section?

We know that the Healthy Homes standards haven't been the silver bullet for rentals.

Until we have stronger regulation - and a system that doesn't put the burden of proof on tenants - sites like this go some way to level the playing field.

Conservationist, author a ‘deeply loving’ man Dunedin author and photographer Neville Peat has been remembered by his family as a "kind, wise, talented and deeply loving husband, father and pop".

Really sad to hear of Neville Peat's passing.

He was a giant of the conservation movement, as an author, a science communicator and a local elected representative.

Sending aroha to Mary and the family, and all who were fortunate enough to know him.

Vale Neville.

Big energy company energy

Easy to do if it’s a fixed charge (inherently regressive) but harder if it’s apportioned the same way as general rates (ie it depends on the land value or capital value / other rating differentials etc)

You can always use an average, or a range of values, but that doesn’t work for everyone either?

For the first time, I really am starting to think they're going to kill us all.

Government ‘kicked the tyres’ on solar subsidies but went with ‘minor’ tweaks instead It is one of the cheapest ways to cut power bills - yet documents reveal the government shelved a subsidy.

New Zealand has more sunshine than Germany.
But only 1 in 35 homes here has rooftop solar.
Australia? 1 in 3.

Why? I tried to find out - despite some strange secrecy

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

$22,000,000,000 on just one road? - Greater Auckland Last year, I posted about the challenges I faced, trying to daylight public-interest information about the government’s Roads of National Significance programme. As I wrote then, The paper also sugges...

Try and find some time to read @connorsharp.bsky.social's excellent work here on the ways the government is trying to make its $22,000,000,000 Northern Expressway fantasy real – including refusing to release its own cost estimates. It's just reckless. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/03/03/2...

Freshwater poll approval chart from https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360952728/postfreshwater-strategy-poll-christopher-luxons-approval-drops-sharply Approval of Key Figures Hipkins and Labour are perceived significantly more favourably by voters when compared to Luxon and National Favourable Never heard of Neutral Unfavourable Jacinda Ardern 47% 18% 35% +12 Labour Party 42% 24% 34% +8 Christopher Hipkins 36% 1% 26% 37% -1 Winston Peters 34% 1% 25% 40% -6 King Charles III 30% 2% 44% 24% +6 National Party 34% 20% 46% -12 NZ First 29% 30% 41% -12 Chlöe Swarbrick 27% 15% 24% 34% -7 Green Party 28% 1% 28% 44% -16 Wayne Brown 13% 31% 30% 26% -13 Christopher Luxon 27% 1% 22% 51% -24 Debbie Ngarewa-Packer 9% 34% 24% 33% -24 ACT 21% 2% 29% 48% -27 David Seymour 23% 2% 24% 52% -29 Elon Musk 16% 2% 27% 55% -39 Te Pāti Māori 13% 3% 27% 56% -43 Donald Trump 16% 14% 70% -54

It is not very surprising that Luxo does not have a coherent explanation for his instinctive support of Trump's illegal war against Iran

What is more surprising is that the people around him have not done enough to put him even slightly on the side of the 70% of the NZ electorate who oppose Trump

Everyone has a plan until they punch themself in the face

Luxon hits back after Helen Clark brands Iran response a ‘disgrace’ PM Christopher Luxon has hit back at Helen Clark who called his response to the the situation in Iran a “disgrace”.

Lol stuff. WTF is this? " In this interview, Luxon again spoke carefully about the legality of the US/Israeli attacks focusing on the brutality of the Iranian regime."

What exactly did he carefully say?

When things feel bad, do good.

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.