Author Archive
Hamish Rutherford always looks grim these days
The Prime Minister’s spin doctor Hamish Rutherford used to a lot of fun. We were Twitter buddies back when he was working at The Dominion (later Fairfax); then he went to the NZ Herald as Wellington Business editor, for a wider circulation/better job security (ha!), I guess. There I noticed his tone got more and […]
What does ‘entitlement’ look like, Chris Luxon?
Wow. A mortgage free apartment, but he claims ‘accommodation expenses’ (really a taxpayer-funded allowance) of $1,000 per week – on top of his $471,000 pa salary and other benefits, etc etc. The National Party CEO must be so used to the good life, eh? The Prime Minister will receive a $52,000 top-up to his $471,000 […]
Dark money has entered the New Zealand electoral scene at unprecedented levels
Radio NZ’s Farah Hancock has analysed the Electoral Commission returns of money paid to influence the 2023 NZ General Election. Her article $2m surge in election campaign spending by third-party groups (RNZ) shows that as well as the huge donations-directly-to-the-parties imbalance, previously reported, a large amount of untraceable dark money was expended by bodies established […]
Slow train of accountability for Cameron Slater
It’s an adage, almost a cliche: ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’, but genuinely, that has to be one’s response to news this last week: That dirty PR attack blogger Cameron Slater has (finally) been judged in the High Court to have defamed Auckland businessman Matt Blomfield. Further, that Slater’s false and damaging campaign of destruction […]
What if Generative AI isn’t the ‘benefit’ or ‘existential risk’ to humanity that it’s being painted as? Meredith Whittaker & Camille Francois will make you think
This is a fascinating conversation about the roots, the dangers and hype around AI. Both of these thinkers are so insightful about the issues, and raise issues in context with such clarity.I appreciate them so much. Watch the video from Al Jazeerah English at YouTube or below, and I have linked to a transcript (cough, […]
UNSOCIAL MEDIA – Following the Trolls
From TODAY FM archives — Wilhelmina Shrimpton and Simon Morrow take a deep dive into trolling and cyberbullying. From the high profile to the general public, Kiwis across all walks of life are being targeted, and some are paying the ultimate price. So what drives us to troll, who is behind the fake profiles, and […]
An apt warning for a blogger
I cracked open a fortune cookie with a family group after dinner. My loved ones got warm, inspiring messages such as my son’s: ‘You will be successful in business and society’. Nice. I got this one: “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” By coincidence, I had already drafted a longish blog post which detailed […]
Political propaganda dressed up as an opinion poll
Via one of my lovely Twitter sources, the sardonic and interesting @johubris … the following ‘poll question’ has been recently distributed: “Thinking about your life and your country now, what is the most important issue that you want to see the New Zealand Government addressing?” This qualifies as push-polling, as you’ll see, which is when […]
David Farrier’s unsettling new documentary ‘Mister Organ’ – a film to watch through your fingers
In this age of entitled white men behaving badly, it’s common to hear the term “malignant narcissist” Anyone who’s had the misfortune to be sucked into the orbit or one of these miscreants, (let alone been obliged to, say, sue one for copyright infringement) eventually learns that the ONLY ‘exit strategy’ is to completely disengage […]
The Wright Family steps into the spotlight. They’re what you probably expected.
Duncan Greive* at The Spinoff has published a really worthwhile interview with the rich, white, social conservative businessman Wayne Wright whose wealth is funding that internet radio platform, ‘The Platform’, which I cited recently. (And which seems to me to be inching its way towards Alex Jones InfoWars/Qanon/antivax ‘conspiracy’ territory.) If you’re interested in media […]
I hope next week’s anti-government protest doesn’t get as entrenched as the last one
I’ve been thinking about that 23 day protest at Parliament earlier this year, in the light of the Stuff Circuit ‘Fire and Fury’ documentary (highly recommended) and recent promotion by religious spruiker Brian Tamaki, and others, of another march to Parliament Grounds planned for next week. This one, apparently, promises mock “People’s trials” on the […]
Jane Kelsey, a lifetime of leadership
Here’s a fantastic interview by Moana Maniapoto talking with law professor and courageous public intellectual Jane Kelsey, on her retirement from university life. The whole 17 minutes is really worth watching. It’s good to place Prof Kelsey in context with this brief, accessible retrospective look. She has always struck me as an articulate, determined, fiercely […]
Facebook is a scourge. Convince me otherwise.
Totally worth watching: Robbie Nicol (of White Man Behind A Desk) explains …”After the protests [at Parliament Buildings, Wellington] in February, I tried to write a monologue about Facebook and radicalisation — and it ended up being 17 minutes long lol.” Surely Facebook’s twisted, evil, money-at-all-costs approach – radicalising users by placing a higher value […]
