UK to bring into force law to tackle #Grok AI deepfakes this week www.bbc.com/news/article... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social
12.01.2026 22:39
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UK to bring into force law to tackle #Grok AI deepfakes this week www.bbc.com/news/article... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social
National's Mark Mitchell accuses Chris Hipkins of personal responsibility for crime, will resign if it doesn't improve under him
In case Mark has forgotten
#nzpol
Where’s Mark Mitchell?
Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.
that about sums it all up
#NZPOL
What did Simeon Brown know about NZ's second major health cyber breach?
open.substack.com/pub/mountain...
Worth a quick look at the current Govt financial year (to June 2026). Labour scheduled in a chunky operating surplus this year (fantasy forecast). Treasury have up-doomed their forecasts as the prolonged downturn sends revenue well below operating costs. They might be right. [Ends]
A key reason that cutting spending into a downturn is a shit strategy is that it contributes to a tanking tax take - creating a doom loop of spending cuts and revised targets as Govt tries to hit it's operating balance target. [7/n]
What the 2024 and 2025 data shows is that Govts pulled around $10bn of investment in an obvious recessionary period. Even the ghouls would predict that this would cause a prolonged downturn - particularly given how high and long RBNZ held interest rates up. [6/n]
... the economy was tanking and Treasury were panicked into forecasting an operating deficit of over $8bn. Govt merrily chopped & delayed spending to constrain near-term debt forecasts. When the accounts were done, the capital deficit spend was down a chunky $6.4bn on Budget 24 forecast. [5/n]
Now, having stalled the economy proper by choking off investment (aided ably by RBNZ), how did the coalition handle 2025?
Well, May 2024 forecasts for year ending June 2025 were for $19bn of net capital spending and a sliver of an operating surplus. Seven months later... [4/n]
What Labour should have known (it was obvs) is that they were tightening into a downturn. The coalition then doubled-down and had even less excuse given the number of lights flashing red.
Worth noting that operating deficit (blue) was not actually as bad as predicted a few months before. [3/n]
By mid-2023, Labour were running scared of inflation and related attacks from ghouls. So, by the pre-election update we'd already seen about $4bn of capital spending (net) dropped or pushed back. The coalition pushed harder and the final data showed net capital spend down by $8bn at $16.1bn [2/n]
Finally had time to dive into last week's budget data and update previous work on deficit spending forecasts vs actuals.
Let's start with year ending June 2024. Grant's last budget in May 2023 forecast a whopping $30bn of deficit spending (op+cap) - but this fell to $22.2bn by Dec 24. Why? [🧵 1/n]
I know it’s click bait but, knowing people who quite literally cannot access a home in this country, and others who are deciding every week between paying for food, rent or power, and still more being targeted by this government’s policy with no end in sight, “cursed” doesn’t begin to describe 2025.
Happy Birthday Peggy Beans!
a photograph of a paddymelon, sort of a wallaby, with a little joey smiling in it spouch
took this pic of a lil joey a few years back in Tasmania, Australia
In today’s Weekend Herald
Real GDP Per Capita 2020 to 2025
#nzpol NBR reports the Min. of Finance saying a "Stronger economy will help the Government’s books". nbr.co.nz/politics/str...
The chart (from @labourcartel.bsky.social) might explain the government's current situation. Something happened in late 2023, and things have gotten worse since.
The Post - Where something that wasn't news in 2022, is somehow news in 2025.
Instead of outlets reporting the news, these days they're trying to make it.
#nzpol
Article about cost of mayoral inauguration in 2022
Article about swearing in
This is just getting pathetic
It’s like, stop using me for rage bait. How this paper will survive when I’ve left the country is beyond me 🥴
We have to get rid of them at the next election. The countryside will be in ruins if they get a second term.
#nzpol
#nzpol ⬇️🧐⬇️
I am absolutely gutted to hear some douchebag(s) has gone through my crowdfunding rewards and targeted at least one person at their workplace for offering a reward to support me. That is absolutely stink. Imagine being that nasty and petty. It’s the yin to today’s #SecretSantaAoNZ yang.
Two Zespri kiwifruit characters, one green and one gold
I’m going mad watching a Japanese programme that insists on calling kiwifruit “kiwis” 😩
Of course I blame the Americans 😒
A flu/ covid/ rsv test with a bright red line beside cov
Goddamit covid. My covid tests said negative so I went and bought one of these. That line went bright red straight away. I knew this wasn’t a normal cold!!
Oh shit!
