Kirsty Johnston
@kirstyjohnston.bsky.social
Investigative journalist | The Crewe Murders 📖 | Nellie’s Baby 🎧 | I tell stories about people | kirsty.johnston@rnz.co.nz ✉️ https://www.instagram.com/kirstyjohnston_nz?igsh=bWU4a2pqemthYm5q
"Watts’ acknowledgement of the implications of the methane change for the rest of the economy in the Cabinet paper is notably different from the tone he struck weeks later ..." Another brilliant piece by @marcdaalder.bsky.social newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/28/m...
Ministers knew one thing on methane target rollback, the public another
An unredacted Cabinet paper included in a court filing shows ministers knew their decisions could lead to higher costs for households.
newsroom.co.nz
Ted Cruz is the #1 lifetime recipient of fossil fuel money in the entire U.S. senate, receiving over $1 million from the oil and gas industry in the 2024 cycle alone Now he's proposed a bill to give the fossil fuel industry lifetime legal immunity from climate lawsuits
Republicans introduce extreme bill to ban lawsuits against Big Oil forever
Shouldn't Democrats... be saying something about this?
heated.world
…having private equity involved in any care industry is incompatible with quality care. “Whether it’s at the end of people’s lives or it’s right at the beginning of their lives, the risks are just too high and we’ve seen that in Australia.” nzpol newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/21/a...
Australian childcare abuses a wakeup call to NZ – politician
An early childhood education summit this week discusses concerns profit is being prioritised over quality care, reports Hanna McCallum.
newsroom.co.nz
"Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it" Or till the background is the street you grew up in. Hits home.
Sam Neill says New Zealand goldmine supporters have threatened him with violence #nzpol
Sam Neill says New Zealand goldmine supporters have threatened him with violence
Actor, who has publicly objected to plans to fast-track project near his farm, says he has received personal abuse
theguardian.com
Experts say an emerging climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs. There is a high likelihood that the phenomenon known as “El Niño” will emerge this summer – and it could be exceptionally strong. #ClimateCrisis
Are we heading for ‘super El Niño’ – and what could we expect?
Experts say climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs
theguardian.com
The Tom Phillips doco is flawed journalism for many reasons but everyone keeps failing to mention the main issue: the permanent suppressions mean we will never be able to tell the full, actual story (particularly about the involvement of the Family Court) and therefore what’s the point?
Indonesia has started rationing fuel as the world's largest archipelago nation faces Iran War driven oil shortages. Civil servants will also start working from home every Friday to conserve fuel.-AFP
“The closures of Heinz Watties, Greggs, & McCain…will have implications for NZ’s #FoodResilience & security, will cause significant #JobLosses & threaten the viability of local vegetable growers…& NZ’s ability to feed itself with #LocalProduce” - Steve Abel, Greens My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol
New study links glyphosate to ‘superbug’ spread – Expert Reaction www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/03/25/n...
New study links glyphosate to 'superbug' spread - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre
A key weedkiller ingredient could help hospital 'superbugs' to spread, overseas research proposes. Scientists tested the antibiotic and glyphosate resistance of bacteria strains from an Argentinian wetland...
sciencemediacentre.co.nz
Anyway after spending the last year learning about energy, I’m now (as of today) on maternity leave ... right in the middle of an energy crisis 🤦🏼♀️ Thanks everyone for reading and see you in 2027 when ideally the war is over and we’ve fixed climate change and solved inequality ✌️
A year ago, ministers met to consider tightening NZ’s pay equity law. Their decisions went further than officials had advised, hardening the policy to the point some groups were cut out from ever making a claim. Why? And on what evidence? They won’t show us. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
How a crucial 45-minute meeting between ministers took pay equity claims away from tens of thousands of women
In a crucial 45 minute meeting, ministers decided to go beyond official proposals, making it even harder for 180,000 workers to ask for pay equity.
rnz.co.nz
This is fascinating. It all got a bit hard and the "facilitation strategy" didn't woo any foreign competitors to challenge the dominance of the duopoly. So they walked away.
Kirsty Johnston@kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 5mo agoThis time last year finance minister Nicola Willis came out all guns blazing saying she was going to fix the supermarket duopoly. Except she didn’t. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
This time last year finance minister Nicola Willis came out all guns blazing saying she was going to fix the supermarket duopoly. Except she didn’t. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Why the government backed away from breaking up supermarkets
Why the government backed away from breaking up supermarkets.
rnz.co.nz
Your tax dollars at work: the Trump Administration wants to pay Total $1 billion NOT to build wind farms.
Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms
nytimes.com
Key point ⬆️. Discarding the waste heat of geothermal per MBIE, our energy is 70% fossil and has been for decades. (Fossil has gone down, but so has biomass – I think due to decline in the pulp & paper industry). The action in ERP1 to target 50% renewable by 2035 (ambitious, but doable): canned.
The irony of the government being taken to court for cutting climate policies that would have significantly reduced NZ’s oil consumption from cars - our biggest user - and freight, just as the country faces an oil shock is ... difficult to ignore www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...
Man gets a traumatic brain injury. ACC downgrades it to a concussion, then suspects him of lying about his persistent symptoms and spies on him. www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/i...
A car crash, then a nine-year struggle with ACC who thought he could be faking his symptoms
Jeremy Buxton’s life changed forever after a car accident left him with a traumatic brain injury. But he says the hardest battle wasn’t recovery. It was fighting the system meant to help him.
rnz.co.nz
‘The scheme recouped more than its net cost of €72m through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other welfare payments, according to a government-commissioned cost-benefit analysis.’
Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent
When piloted, initiative that provided €325 a week to eligible artists recouped more than its net cost, study shows
theguardian.com
“Keat maintained the current global energy shock should be viewed as a strategic gift by the government.” www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
NZ has lined up with 'MAGA US states' on oil, former Marsden Point boss says
While others are switching to renewables, we're "going down the 1980s path", David Keat says.
rnz.co.nz
Image 1: reasons given for withholding the information I requested on solar from MBIE Image 2: the reason given in the House today by energy minister Simon Watts today These two things are not the same
A spike in the price of LNG because of the conflict in Iran highlights how risky the Luxon government's plan is to import LNG as a back-up. #climatecrisis #cleanenergy www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Conflict in Iran shows 'risk' of government's plan to import LNG as back-up to Taranaki facility
Energy experts say an immediate leap in prices after US-Israeli strikes on Iran should prompt a re-think of the government's push to build an LNG import terminal.
rnz.co.nz
Try and find some time to read @connorsharp.bsky.social's excellent work here on the ways the government is trying to make its $22,000,000,000 Northern Expressway fantasy real – including refusing to release its own cost estimates. It's just reckless. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/03/03/2...
$22,000,000,000 on just one road? - Greater Auckland
Last year, I posted about the challenges I faced, trying to daylight public-interest information about the government’s Roads of National Significance programme. As I wrote then, The paper also sugges...
greaterauckland.org.nz
New Zealand has more sunshine than Germany. But only 1 in 35 homes here has rooftop solar. Australia? 1 in 3. Why? I tried to find out - despite some strange secrecy www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Government ‘kicked the tyres’ on solar subsidies but went with ‘minor’ tweaks instead
It is one of the cheapest ways to cut power bills - yet documents reveal the government shelved a subsidy.
rnz.co.nz
NZ is an international outlier in that more than half of those experiencing homelessness are women, often with dependent children. A "housing first" approach makes a huge difference to their lives (and men's), writes @universityofotago.bsky.social's Brodie Fraser theconversation.com/new-police-p...
New police powers to ‘move on’ rough sleepers only mask NZ’s deeper homelessness problem
Women make up half of the people experiencing homelessness in New Zealand. A study shows access to permanent housing improves their health and lifts their income.
theconversation.com
