Paul_BarlowNZ

YouTube video by Paul… The Other One Asset Sales or Asset Security - the 2026 Election Choice

How much have asset sales cost us in the past? The answer is a lot - so of course National is reflating the idea…Asset Sales or Asset Security - the 2026 Election Choice
youtu.be/VX_5dra0y1w

But it’s not really possible to get an exact dollar amount of lost revenue and extra spending due to enshitification from the sales.

Buying back and upgrading rail infrastructure that has been run down for profit. The Fibre roll out of the Key years was due to Sparks corporate owners monopolising infrastructure and not upgrading it nationally. Air NZ was the same. That’s before adjustments for inflation, so it’s a lot

It’s a bit of a multifaceted answer tbh. The CTU estimated the sale of power company shares lost about half a million a year in lost dividends between 2014 and 2021. BNZ has posted between $10 and $12 Billion in profits in the last decade. But we also spent nearly a billion over 5 years…

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When I was in Manilla a couple of months back I fell in love with this Death Star looking Ikea lamp - finally had an electrician (Dad, who is a registered sparky) install it today in the studio! And it looks so good!

Sometimes a little joy can do wonders for the soul!

A speed bump. Or speed lump.

Ok, purely unscientific random question. I noticed during the local election there seemed to be some places that called this a speed bump and others that called it a speed lump. I’m curious what you call it and which part of the country you’re from?

YouTube video by Paul… The Other One By their own standards, is the National Party a bunch of liars?

By their own standards, is the National Party a bunch of liars? After all their anti-CGT tail spin is claiming Chippy is one 🤔
youtu.be/0w7u4k9q_f4

Jesus, Selwyn is so cooked! I give it 12 months before it’s either talking about seceding from the rest of the country, burning, flooding or the public are demanding a commissioner.

Or all of the above.

September 2025 polling data from Reid showed more kiwis support the type of CGT announced today than oppose it. And it’s far enough out from the election that voters will be able to see how it works while the party full of landlords profiting under current settings cry about it.

YouTube video by Paul… The Other One Is our MSM Shifting its Bias?

I dust off the old degrees in media to ask the question - Is our MSM Shifting its Bias?
youtu.be/oSqU6-6KBzU

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Aww thank you ☺️ that means a huge amount to me! Appreciate it!

Bit of a crowd today in Auckland for #oct23strike action! One estimate I heard was 15 to 20 thousand people!

No sound on it :) just a nice view on a lovely day - something to slightly brighten the darkest timeline

Had one last trip to the Waikato before the new Council gets in Wednesday - then HCC will have a pathologically lying conspiracy theorist, someone who kept misrepresenting themselves as a lawyer, and someone who gave out not drink coke straws as a marketing gimmick on it. That’s democracy for you 🤷🏼‍♂️

The law states they draw lots if a tie needs to be broken :)

Tweet about the shock of choosing to vote for leopards that then eat your face

This tweet is 10 years old to the day - feel free to save it and use it as you see the local election results get finalised and see who won, who promised impossible things like low rates and maintained services, fixing all the potholes and downplaying climate change impacts and road safety features.

With final election results starting to land tonight, gotta say I’m relived the people of Cambridge decided against letting in a conspiracy theorist who wanted to storm Parliament and gave out ivermectin for Covid - who got really upset at me when the things she said and posted were said and posted.

YouTube video by Paul… The Other One Is the outgoing Kaipara Mayor trying to pull a Trump style "stop the steal" move?

Is the outgoing Kaipara Mayor trying to pull a Trump style "stop the steal" move?
youtu.be/IeYQxlY2DBM

MP Shanan Halbert holding up vocational training legislation with MAGA dog whistle in it

MAGA dog whistle in New Zealand legislation about Vocational trainings

I really hate seeing MAGA bullshit being dragged into our government. It’s been two years to the day since the General Election - we have one more (ish) to go until we can flush this kind of stuff out of our government, cause we don’t want to go down that path.

Forced to take a day off due to lines work from Vector - so I did some adulting and went and got tomato plants and did some gardening because sometimes we all need a mental timeline cleanse!

She didn’t - she was one of the awful candidates who thankfully missed out :)

One final bit of good news - 234600 people across the motu voted to remove Māori wards, 245800 to keep them - 51.1% of all votes were to keep them, 48.9% not to. The majority of the country that voted were in favour so suck it coalition!

The founder of VFF gloating about today’s election wins for her candidates

Shocker, VFF out here celebrating because low turnout let them get in in way too many places.

a r2d2 robot is standing in the sand near a rock ALT: a r2d2 robot is standing in the sand near a rock

And finally - the most rewarding part for me, despite a raft of results I really dislike, was the sheer volume of people who messaged and told me this was the first time they’ve voted in local elections - that feels like a win no matter the results!

…like TERF Suzanne Levy in Hutt City, Christo Nationalist Caleb Ansell in Matamata, Freedom fan Walt Cavendish in Waihou, anti 1080 campaigner Clyde Graf in King Country, VFFs Dean Harris and co in Kāpiti, all of the Reform group on the West coast, almost all of the Together for Waimak team & more!

10) there was some truly amazing people elected, and they all tend to be community minded and supportive.
11) we lost a lot of very good councillors and missed out on some amazing candidates - and our communities will be worse off without them.
12) we also got rid of some really awful candidates

… give it to the electoral commission, have it run like a general election, look at online options, more education and tools for councils and candidates, much better and more media coverage, a uniform voting method and some better accountability tools for candidates.

6) the same people who vote in this election every time clearly did so again this year and low turnout got them what they wanted.
7) 9 elected Act candidates is 9 too many
8) if the left don’t mobilise, next year is going to be a shitstorm
9) the whole local government system needs an overhaul:

3) the huge swell in Saturday voters makes me more concerned about incoming disenfranchisement changes to same day enrolments for next year.
4) Selwyn should carry a travel advisory warning from now on, same with Cambridge and Hamilton.
5) the lack of civics education here is really showing.