Strypey

More evidence of the cozy relationship between NatACT First MPs and corporate extractors looking to turn public services into profit sources;

https://thestandard.nz/tend-healths-aratataki-a-fully-registered-charity/

I'm all for remote consultations as a first line of triage. So people don't […]

"In the face of the international legal and political systems' paralyzing silence and utter failure to hold Israel accountable for its genocide in Gaza, international civil society has refused to stand idly by.

...

The latest, and arguably most critical, expression of this global conscience is […]

"The marker dominance of the banking cartel and the supermarket duopoly have been left untouched. Far less attention though, has been given to what has been taken away. Routinely, all three coalition parties rail against Big Government. It is part of their political DNA. In reality however, the […]

I think it could be a good thing for Te Pāti Māori that this factional dispute in is coming to a head now, a year out from the next election. If they can resolve it before the summer break, and restore their kotahitanga, they can go into the election year with knives out for the coalition of […]

"Gen X's formative years coincided with the huge economic reforms of the 1980s, Spoonley says.

'But some of them got caught by that and some of them didn't - the generation divides up into the lucky ones that got through without incurring a lot of student debt and those born [closer to 1980]'." […]

"39-year-old Anna Reed has also reckoned with the “lazy” stereotype. Both she and her husband work flexibly, partly from home and partly from the office, which she says Gen X struggles to understand. 'They see working from home as not working'.”

#EmilyBrookes, 2025 […]

Zohran Mamdani's win in New York was impressive. Not only did he get about 10 times the votes of GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa, he also comfortably defeated centre-right Clintonite Andrew Cuomo, by about 150,000 votes.

This has been widely noted as a beacon of hope for the anglophone left. But […]

I hope Greens and TPM are setting up branches in major Ozzie cities, where much of the kiwi diaspora is sheltering during the NatACT First decimation of the Aotearoa economy. As well as identifying any other overseas cities with large populations of kiwi economic refugees, and doing the same […]

"...the Charter School model is just totally, fundamentally flawed. Labour will repeal the Charter School model, we'll deal with any schools that have been established in the meantime on a case-by-case basis ..."

#ChrisHipkins, NZ Labour leader, 2025 […]

"Such poor performance leads MacCulloch to ask a provocative and essential question: how is it possible that these executives are 'so incompetently useless they can’t make a buck even when they have no competition?'. He notes that it is difficult to find another developed country where multiple […]

"Auckland University economist Robert MacCulloch has identified the country’s business leaders — particularly those at the helm of large, incumbent firms — as the real drag on New Zealand and the primary “source of our malaise”. His research presents a stunning picture of corporate failure that […]

Jane Kelsey was making essentially the same point a decade ago in her 2015 book The FIRE Economy;

https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-fire-economy

FIRE here stands for Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Kelsey argued that the vast majority of economic activity in post-Rogernomics Aotearoa […]

“[Economist Cameron] Bagrie’s central diagnosis is that New Zealand’s form of capitalism has become fundamentally unproductive, addicted to an asset class that creates the illusion of wealth without generating real economic value. As he bluntly puts it, 'You do not get wealthy selling more […]

AI-tainted Deloitte report was worse than previously thought Paul Karp Paul KarpNSW political correspondent Nov 6, 2025 – 5.37pm Save Share Gift this article Listen to this article 6 min Documents released under freedom of information laws show the mistakes in a Deloitte report commissioned by the federal government and tainted by AI hallucinations were much worse than previously disclosed, and included dozens of incorrect references. Department of Employment and Workplace Relations staff identified 59 potential errors in a “quick review” of the report it reluctantly embarked on after The Australian Financial Review first reported claim

Among the concerns the department wrote to Deloitte about on August 29 was a reference to the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth) sections “42UC–42UO”. The department said those sections do not exist. It called out three footnotes referring to a speech by “Justice Natalie Cujes Perry” titled “Administrative Decision-Making in the 21st Century: Transparency and Review”. The department said it was “unable to find” the speech and that the citation appeared to conflate a Justice Perry with academic Dr Natalie Cujes. (The final report replaced the citations with those of a speech by Justice Melissa Perry titled “iDecide: the Legal Implications of Automated Decision-Making”.) The spreadsheet noted the original report cited several government documents that the department was “unable to find” including “Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Targeted Compliance Framework Overview”, and “Department of Social Services, Mutual Obligation Requirements and the Targeted Compliance Framework (Factsheet, 2020)”. References to these documents were removed in the final report.

There are a wide range of institutions (including several major climate advocacy groups) encouraging "responsible" and "ethical" use of generative chatbots, eg 'checking outputs'

This only worsens the harm: the people most compelled to trust ChatGPT are also the least likely to check.

The enshittification of YouTub continues. They're now applying Trained #MOLE filters to some videos - without the knowledge or consent of video creators - creating glitching that can cause seizures in people with epilepsy and other visual sensitivities […]

"The leader of the party of consumers and taxpayers argued against a measure to increase competition and lower prices because it might upset incumbent capital. In that single statement, the party’s modern priority was laid bare: protecting established businesses now trumps the creation of […]

"[Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa] believes that endless amendments to an unworkable law are not the solution. It is time to replace drug laws with a single, coherent Psychoactive Drug Law—one that regulates all drugs, including currently legal substances, such as alcohol. A modern drug law […]

Yes, some people sleeping in vehicles are inconsiderate to others;

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/577981/auckland-scout-group-fed-up-with-freedom-campers-defecating-leaving-trash

But laws against "freedom camping" often fail to distinguish between people who are responsible and […]

Politicians routinely lie to the public. They tell blatant porkies. They lie by using intentionally misleading language. They lie by gaslighting, persistently denying things that are true, but inconvenient to them. They lie by omission, eg echoing talking points instead of answering questions […]

Media Liberation Day is still coming atcha thick and fast!

Starting at 20:00 - Leaving Party / Welcome Party! Media Liberation Day Celebrations LIVE ONLINE!

Celebrating the first ever Media Liberation Day – the coming together of communities affected by malignant media – and a chance to start […]

Yesterday's Midweek MediaWatch covered the decision by police not to prosecute Stuff for publishing anonymised audio of the cops during the final minutes of Tom Phillips' life;

https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=22b39814-2065-4113-a6bd-587235737567

I guess the cops haven't heard of […]

The 16 Oct edition of The Elephant covered the controversy over allowing under-14s in contact sports;

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/experts-call-for-ban-on-contact-sports-for-under-14s-as-brain-injury-evidence-mounts-the-elephant/4CHVNSPLNNHTBPJ5DUQGRYKBNA/

When you get to the Mum justifying […]

Happy Parihaka Day! Today we celebrate 144 years of determined peaceful resistance. Against the confiscation of lands and resources, and the denial of unceded sovereignty, by the British Crown. Not only by tangata whenua, but by Pākeha allies too.

We also mark 144 years since the invasion of […]

What are you doing tomorrow night? Fancy an online party? With a live DJ? For #MediaLiberationDay tomorrow, 5th November?! SURE!!!

We're hosting a celebration of the migration to the open web, where independent media, tech privacy and activists unite!!

Optional Dress theme […]

NZ has Citizens Initiated Referenda, but they hardly ever get used and even when they are, the results just get ignored by governments. Maybe Citizens Initiated Assemblies would be more functional?

If enough citizens signed a petition on a question, the government would be obliged to commission […]

#Listening to Scared Old Men by Dick Move;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyfX7TtAYeA

Dick Move are ear-shredding, wall-climbing brilliance on stage, and this is the best punk song I've heard for years. The video absolutely nails it too. Highly recommend.

#music #punk #DickMove

"In 2024, Fonterra reported that emissions from its New Zealand dairy farms were 20 percent higher per kilo of milk than their Australian counterparts. This challenges the common refrain that New Zealand produces the world’s lowest carbon dairy." […]

#Listening to the Jawbox album For Your Own Special Sweetheart, released in 1994;

https://jawbox.bandcamp.com/album/for-your-own-special-sweetheart

#TIL that Jawbox opened for Fugazi as their first public show. Which makes total sense, now that I finally got around to listening to some Fugazi […]

grApple and Goggle vetting developers for the privilege of having their apps available on the iThing and Android OS they control is a protection racket. It's not a legitimate business practice, it's a shakedown. This is not business, it's organised crime, and these tech mafia need to be […]

#TIL about the #FULU Foundation;

"... born out of the Right to Repair movement and the assertion that if you can't fix something, you don't own it. But it doesn't stop there. If manufacturers get to dictate how long you get to use your device or what software you run on it, you don't own it. If […]