Drug tests at dawn, LA28 ambitions by day — Kiwi Olympic kayak champ Alicia Hoskin balances elite sport with a growing voice for cleaner competition.

These are the pay equity claims that the government wiped out in just two days to make its budget balance. It's appalling that tax breaks for tobacco companies are being funded by cutting women's pay rises and backpay.

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#nzpol The pay equity decision today – just before Mothers Day – takes employment law back decades. It will likely impact the earnings of hundreds of thousands of women, often working in some of the most poorly paid work. It will cost us all in the long-run. A 🧵 www.beehive.govt.nz/release/chan...

“We found there’s this perfect one-to-one relationship. If a city increased its road capacity by 10% then driving in that city went up by 10%.” Still one of the best articles on why building bigger roads leads to more driving. Understanding #InducedDemand Via @wired.com

This, in a single paragraph, is why the global far right had such a deep hatred of Jacinda Ardern.

And why it was imperative she be taken down whatever the cost.

The rest is history.

Sigh.

Luxon Lying again to support his own narrative ... 😔

Wake up NZ.... this is how it can be done 👌

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

We really need a more sensible, rational transport strategy in NZ. To do that, we have to develop a more balanced national conversation on transport that isn’t just dominated by a one dimensional transport industry, but that actually represents the needs of everyday people. This is totally possible!

News from USA is disturbing. What makes it worse are other signs the #EndTimes are approaching, like news from the Arctic. A 1/3 of Arctic’s green lands are now a source of GHG emissions as global heating ends 1,000s of years of carbon storage in the north. #NZpol
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This really is a shocker. Even if they weren't *intending* to do corruption, there's an apparent conflict of interest that is in no way remedied by Chris Bishop handing the job of nursing Mill Road into the fast-track bill to Simeon Brown. It's just an appalling process in multiple ways.

Google, OpenAI and Meta all increased their water consumption by 17-22% within a year when they started running training models on new Nvidia chips

I wonder if LA residents are still cool with that
www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog...

In case you also need a list:

✍️ Treaty Principles Bill - 7 Jan
✍️ Oranga Tamariki Amendments Bill aka Military Bootcamps - 9 Jan
✍️ Regulatory Standards Bill - 12 Jan
✍️ Puberty Blockers Consultation - 20 Jan

I have posted my submission on the Treaty Principles Bill here. Submissions close at midnight on 7 January and I have included a link to where you can make your own in the post.

www.meetingplace.nz/2025/01/trea...

Getting in your submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill is still the most pressing priority (before 7 Jan) but while you’re holding the pen here’s a submission guide (closes 13th) on its “dull but dangerous cousin” the Regulatory Standards Bill: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Cycleway close to home increases property value, study finds

www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

Do you want to know what a loss of hope looks like? This is the percentage increase in the number of people migrating away from NZ since the election. The 131,100 migrant departures in the October 2024 year are, provisionally, the highest on record for an annual period

November benefits data is out. Will post more later.
It is important to understand the harm being done here.
We have added 50,000 people to working-age benefits in the last 18 months. It has typically taken us five fking years (and a housing market boom) to get back from that #NZPol.

So it turns out $900m is > $551m. And Windows 2012 is ok for Health NZ. And defunding a charity wrapped around 4k vulnerable children is ok. Here's what happens when a Government unnecessarily panics about a non-existent 'Budget Crisis'. When hast makes waste. thekaka.substack.com/p/when-haste...