Every part of this story is a mirror of how our health system has hobbled along for years. But seeing our health minister downplaying the delays to treatment and the suffering inflicted on these most vulnerable unwell kids is especially galling. It’s on his watch & should end his political career.

Bernard Hickey@bernardchickey.bsky.social · yesterday

I’ve opened this one up to all to read, listen and share after requests from paying subscribers as part of my public interest journalism mandate. Many thanks to subscribers who pay to allow me to do as much of this work in public as possible #nzpol thekaka.substack.com/p/this-story...

Supplementary question, Mr. Luxon. Seeing as you’ve ✌️ruled out ✌️ Opportunity, does ‘working with whoever’ now include the Greens and TPM? Or indeed Labour?* Or is this just a fig-leaf for caving in on another shitty coalition agreement that lets NZ1 & ACT to run riot again? *obviously it doesn’t.

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · yesterday

Election 2026 live: Working with 'whoever' doesn't include Opportunity, Luxon's office says

Welcome to Term 4. Please make this the last term our rangatahi have to endure #Seymour’sSlop. This was inedible today 😩🤢 #nzpol Description in ALT.

Too soon for Infantino to award him another FIFA Peace Prize? Surely there must be some other Totally Not Corrupt sporting body needing to award *their* Peace Prize to Mr. Peace? Could’ve avoided all this of course if the real estate industry had given him more awards decades ago.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7d ago

Trump fumes over Nobel peace prize snub and criticizes Norway

This is not about bike lanes. My vote goes to candidates who understand why we need to invest in public services to make them accessible, safe & attractive for all to use. Those who prioritise tax cuts seek to leave us with shonky, unwelcoming, useless public services that end up helping no-one.

Drug testing has (by design) captured all the attention, but it's nowhere near the worst bit. For more than 30 years, benefit levels have been kept lower than the cost of staying alive. On purpose. Campaigning on the back of cutting them even further is monstrous. The cruelty is the point.

A story of a systemic failure, by an uncaring edifice, to protect pedestrians by simply allowing them more time to cross a wide road. The ‘car-brained’ prioritising the flow of vehicles over people’s safety - by the local council in this case - ought to be considered wilfully negligent.

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · last wk.

Complaints about dangerous intersection before pregnant woman killed

The mobility of children is simply not taken seriously or viewed as important. Something illustrative is how people will often say that kids "don't count" when you remind them that children and young teens are nondrivers who deserve the right to get around without cars.

Tom Flood@tomflood.bsky.social · 2w ago

New ACT policy incoming: abolish school holidays to improve the nation’s productivity. Families will negotiate with employers, the school board, and the Minister of Truancy (if the kid’s been off sick for 5 days) to get approval for their once-a-year trip to see the grandparents on the Gold Coast.

Lew@lewsos.bsky.social · 2w ago

Impossible to invent something as absurd as the Minister for Cracking Down On Truancy And School Lunches not knowing it is the school holidays www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

In an election this tight, every vote matters But National changed the rules that always allowed Kiwis to register in a relaxed way in the 2 weeks prior to election This was voter suppression It is deeply undemocratic- potentially cutting 175,000 voters Get registered vote.nz/enrolling/en...

The Press@thepress.co.nz · 2w ago

National has plunged below 26 percent in a new RNZ-Reid Research poll, while the Greens have surged about a month out from voting day.

SONS: Streets Of No Significance. Any street that hasn’t been fully resealed, and widened* such that 2 cars can easily pass in opposite directions at 50km/h with cars parked on either side will be upgraded. *Existing cycle lanes, berms, and footpaths may be sacrificed.

David Slack@davidslack.bsky.social · 2w ago

Rocked by a nightmare poll, National takes massive pivot and announces 100 new roads of national significance

Yes! Good pragmatic plan, a good start. But, unable to resist a self-own: “Christopher Luxon did not want taxpayer funding going into a "white elephant"“ From the man who won’t release the BCR for his motorway to Te Hana, first of a herd of RONS-shaped white elephants he wants to inflict on us all.

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · 2w ago

Green Party announces plan for passenger rail between major NZ cities

Listen: I don’t want to minimize the danger of high e-bike speeds. But if the problem here is that stores sell e-bikes that can drive faster than legal limits, then where’s the story about how literally *every car dealership has been doing the same thing for decades*?!?

Hidden cameras show some stores unlocking speed limits on e-bikes, selling e-scooters that go up to 120 km/h | CBC News

A new hidden camera investigation by Marketplace shows how some stores are selling e-scooters and e-bikes with top speeds much higher than provincial speed limits and with recommended rider ages young...

cbc.ca

Few (more) thoughts about Vancouver. 1. Apartments, everywhere ✅ ✅ ✅ 2. Heritage areas well kept / repurposed (e.g. Granville Is.) - an indoor market should be a no-brainer (hi Wellington). 3. The Seawall bike + pedestrian path is great (for Wgtn this is what Shelley Bay - Scorching Bay should be).

It’s remarkable how many people can move on a street when those people don’t feel the need to always take a massive car with them. Mobility in cities is about space.

At this point - given the contemptuous attitude shown by our current government to regulations, other tiers of government, official advice and treaties - I wish the litigants every success. Long past time they faced consequences: my only sore point is that they’re not held personally liable.

Nick Young@nickofnz.bsky.social · 2w ago

A Dutch environmental group claims New Zealand has broken its #climatechange promises in the free trade agreement with the EU and is lodging the first complaint of its kind through the European Commission. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Disturbingly I was able to identify 10/15 correctly. In my defence I’ve had to look at a great many icky / disfigured things in my professional life, including Compass “meals” like this in UK hospital canteens. (Never thought I’d be nostalgic for my school meals: at least they were made on site).

Nick Baker@nickbaker.digital · 3w ago

This is your school holiday assignment. Complete the school lunch quiz by matching the image to the name - a quiz based on the school lunch images sent by @ninjakitty.bsky.social this past school term. There are 15 images in total. forms.gle/et7qDL4VGBJH...

Every time a bunch of school kids, or a family group, or a senior citizen going to the shops want to cross Brougham St, they have to wait for many minutes to allow a few tens of spatially inefficient cars and trucks to whizz by, until they’re granted a paltry 15 seconds to cross.

The Press@thepress.co.nz · 3w ago

Each time someone hits the crossing button on Brougham St it brings hundreds of motorists to a halt. Not for much longer.

Mini holiday in Vancouver BC, Canada (first time). Good vibes. Skytrain from airport to city centre was easy & fast (AKL / NZ, please: build mass transit). Late afternoon walk along waterfront to Stanley Park, then trolley bus (remember these Wellington?) home. Looking fwd to the rest of the week.

Not to diminish the content of the original post, but surely the more important thing this map shows is that the entire country of New Zealand was busy walking out of the Tasman Sea.

Gregk Foley@gregk.co.uk · 3w ago

Don’t stop believin’, Abraham Accords

Oh, so NOW he’s back - when parliament has risen and he’s appearing as ACT party leader in full campaigning mode? Sure was a terrible coincidence that he was still boycotting RNZ when he was a minister and should’ve been held accountable. Can RNZ now boycott him, please?

Grumpy@grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social · 3w ago

thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-... 'Seymour told The Spinoff he was back because of staff changes at RNZ.'

There does seem to be somewhat of a theme with this govt keeping stuff off the record, I’m sure it’s nothing. And of course the minister will be horrified / disappointed / upset to learn about all of this happening on her watch

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · 3w ago

Another claim of Education Ministry staff trying to avoid OIA comes to light

They got energy policy totally wrong and now reality has bitten and they had to introduce subsidised loans to help businesses get off fossil gas and admit their stupid LNG import terminal is dead. We wasted 3 years and 1000s lost their jobs when we should have been racing to transition off gas

I'm at Unity Bookshop Wellington for the Nicky Hager book launch. The event is not due to start until 6 pm, but the room is mostly full already and filling up fast.

What I’d say to you is that many of the ACT party’s biggest donors are supermarket owners. And if they don’t like our newly minted slightly pro-consumer supermarket policy, then the ACT party don’t like it either. So the policy must go. After all, who am I to argue with David Seymour?

🦆 🦆 🦆 Sure is a lot of quackery in this. As the old adage goes: if it eats like a duck, swims like a duck, and steps like a goose, you can be sure that the noise it’ll make will be a load of old quack. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

New Zealand First reveals plan for 'bold shift' in healthcare

New Zealand First has released its plan to "Make NZ Healthy", promising to put prevention at the centre of healthcare if re-elected.

rnz.co.nz

An anthology of poems about Winston Peters.

kyle@kyledchurch.bsky.social · 4w ago

Nicky Hager's new book topic? wrong answers only

Love a wee train-race on the way home. 📍Wellington, NZ

Government for the upper classes, by the upper classes, with a singular aim of shutting up & trampling down the masses. (Looking forward to the taxpayers onion simultaneously supporting and being outraged by this).

The Press@thepress.co.nz · 4w ago

Exclusive: Justice officials have mapped out post-election changes to the OIA, including tougher refusal grounds, new fees and restrictions on frequent requesters - backed by a disputed $750m cost claim.