Timothy Gassin

While Aboriginal people were denied equal rights, killing them was still considered murder. Those involved in killings generally did not boast of their deeds or leave incriminating written accounts of them. Logue is unusual in having recorded his actions at all, even if in code.

The killing code: strange symbols in a WA settler’s diaries lay bare frontier atrocities Exclusive: Stories of murders passed down by Yamatji elders are confirmed by a cipher hidden in the 1850s journals of prominent pastoralist Major Logue. Now descendants on both sides want to break the...

Much in here is relevant to the consideration of the silences in Australia's history and the flawed and dishonest methodology adopted by Windschuttle (and championed by many conservatives) to deny the reality of frontier violence.

National pins re-election hopes on economy Analysis: Saturday's National Party conference set out an early 2026 challenge to voters - stick with what we've got or risk it on who-knows-what.

Brave (or delusional?) for the party that has put the country into a permarecession to seek to campaign on its economic management. #nzpol

The use of such differential pricing has long been more prevalent in NZ (e.g. Waitangi, Auckland Museum) and its extension to ever more places is particularly unfortunate.

Going down this path does seem particularly silly when NZ has just had a big win re its citizens' rights in Aus. It is worth noting that Australian tourist attractions don't normally have different prices for overseas visitors.

I wonder if they'll go down the Te Papa route of getting people to self-identify and leave the issue of who is an NZ resident somewhat vague.

This could be considered illegal discrimination on the basis of nationality and/or national origin.

Especially as NZ citizens are usually exempted (even if not resident in NZ), it creates a situation where the overwhelming majority of those who enjoy residence rights under NZ law but who are charged the fees will be Aus citizens and permanent residents.

I do wonder sometimes when NZ govts and institutions introduce such policies are opening themselves up to a possible legal challenge given that almost every Australian citizen or permanent resident will hold an NZ residence class visa at the time they are being hit with these new charges.

An analysis commissioned by the CBC a few years ago: site-cbc.radio-canada.ca/documents/vi...

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after US funding cut Closure of public broadcasting group follows House Republicans’ decision to strip $1.1bn in funding over two years

In the US, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting after its federal funding was cut. In this context, it is worth remembering that, among Western nations, NZ has the lowest per capita funding of public broadcasting second only to the US. #nzpol

When people ask about why more and more people are disillusioned with our current form of democracy, here's evidence for why they are: a 'democratic' government deliberately blocking access to information and participation.

This is what threats to democracy look like.

we are now on the same trajectory as the UK post-2008 with rapidly diminishing state capacity, and structural limitations in the economy, leading to an inevitable doom spiral

... so obvious, but that is what MoJ insisted on calling them! I was relieved that, with a change of CEO, such use of "customer" was eventually stopped.

During my time on the Waitangi Tribunal staff, I joked that, by the language of MoJ at the time, the rangatira who signed the Treaty were Hobson's customers. The complete inappropriateness of "customers" in relation to Treaty claimants, those facing criminal prosecution, and many others was ...

Let's not open the gate to US-style voter disenfranchisement Opinion from Victoria University: Making it harder for certain groups to vote isn’t traditionally how we’ve done things in NZ. Let’s keep it that way, writes Toby Moore.

"[T]he more fundamental concern here is the shift away from democracy as primarily a battle of competing ideas and visions towards a contest around the ability of particular groups to exercise their vote. The escalation of this process in the US should serve as a sobering warning"

Israeli author David Grossman says his country is committing genocide in Gaza Writer says for many years he has refused to use word but now must ‘with immense pain and with a broken heart’

Good to see more Israelis calling out the actions of the Netanyahu government. If only more Western leaders would similarly call out what is so clearly happening in Gaza. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Axe falls on history: Ministry for Culture and Heritage restructure sparks outrage As one of our smallest ministries is shredded to save taxpayer dollars, critics say it feels like cultural vandalism

"What they have said is they [the websites] will sort of go into cold storage, and what that means is that eventually they wither and die because a website that's not kept up is eventually a website that does die."

Broken links suggests they are already cooling! www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedeta...

Is it possible to be brown and just, you know, get a job and people are normal about it.

Project 10: How the government kept the pay equity law change secret Documents reveal how the government worked to keep sweeping pay equity changes hidden until the last minute.

"[T]he ministers and their staff acknowledged their plans would bypass public scrutiny, extinguish existing claims, and potentially breach people's rights.

They pushed on anyway, guarding the release of information, so the news would not leak out before the Bill was introduced in May this year."

#nzpol

Never fail to be impressed by the market "demand and supply" reasoning for high food prices; now (again) making a regular appearance in butter debacle☹️.

Love of market is touching🤔.

Trust there won't be calls for community (govt) rescue when floods, droughts, cyclones wreck havoc.😢

Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he’ll drag Britain down with him | Simon Tisdall Why is the prime minister chasing after Trump in Scotland? His time would be better spent planning for a world beyond the ‘special relationship’, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdal...

"Trump is ..., in key respects, a dangerous foe. Efforts to curry favour with this narcissist will ultimately prove futile. Trump always reneges. His unedifying career is littered with broken promises and relationships, personal and political. His only loyalty is to himself."

Stopping people who have the right to vote from voting, for bureaucratic reasons, is a kick in the guts for democracy. The government is rolling back our freedoms to strengthen their hold on power. This must be resisted, and if legislated, repealed immediately when the government changes.

Live: Deputy PM says electoral law change will only impact ‘drop kicks’ Ministers have just answered questions about the just-announced electoral law change that will stop people from being able to enrol to vote on election day.

Let me be clear-->No one, absolutely no one, is a "drop kick." That kind of dehumanising attitude and language by some MPs indicating that certain people are lesser and their rights can be moved to the side is precisely what's wrong with the Coalition. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Preventing people from enrolling to vote during advance voting is a draconian measure that could rob tens of thousands of Kiwis of their democratic right to vote, and there is no good reason for it. It’s anti-democratic.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage confirms 80 percent cut in senior historian roles Manatū Taonga is going ahead with cutting the jobs of most of its historians.

This would seem to be, in effect, the end of what was formerly the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, whose history stretched back to the end of the Second World War, and the beginning of the closure of important public resources such as Te Ara.

France to recognize Palestine as a state, says Macron, prompting criticism from Netanyahu – Middle East crisis live French president says ‘no alternative’ amid ‘urgent need to end the war in Gaza’; Israel’s prime minister claims announcement ‘rewards terror’

Criticism fron Netanyahu has to be one of the clearest signs you are doing something right.

For Bezalel Smotrich every possible action by others becomes yet another justification for ethnic cleansing and the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.

While NZers are unlikely to be similarly concerned about state surveillance at the moment, political circumstances can change quickly (just as many Americans are currently discovering).

It is also worth remembering that many of those who participated in the HK protests of 2019-20 took to buying cash fares when using public transport rather than using the convenient Octopus card to prevent the HK govt using card-related data to identify protesters.