@tootbrute
> South Korea recently passed a law that any outdoor car parks that have more than 80 spaces need to install solar panels
Wow. Instead of getting heated cars that use more fuel cooling their interior to a comfortable temp, you get a sustainable supply of electricity. That's so sensible!
Can any NZ political party that takes renewable energy transition seriously please adopt something like this as policy?
"If we want independent, lawful, merits-based appointments according to statutory criteria, then we should give the job to a permanent independent appointments panel. We already use such a process for appointing the Government Statistician (with criminal penalties for any Minister who attempts to interfere in it) ... Ministers cannot be trusted not to behave corruptly; we can fix that problem simply by taking the job off them."
@norightturnnz, 2025
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2025/12/unlawful-appointments.html
We're supposed to be living in a democracy in Aotearoa. If the vast majority of submissions on a bill are opposed, and the government passes it anyway, and then two of 3 coalition partners distance themselves from it, there's an obvious thing the Opposition must do. They must promise to repeal it in their first 100 days. Unless there's a very, *very* good reason not to.
(1/2)
People are being pushed into psychosis and in some cases even dying because of generative models. Given that, I think there may be a case for a moratorium on making them available to the general public.
(1/?)
I tried calling WINZ again today. This time the robot took me through the full rigmarole, including asking me for my client number, and botsplaining how websites work. It giving me every indication that someone would finally answer the phone. It really had me going.
Then, right after saying "let me hold while I transfer you", it read me the line about heavy call volumes, and hung up on me.
Pranked!
This has gone beyond ridiculous. It's time to allow beneficiaries to select the social service agency we want to manage our case. Fully funded, independently of WINZ, and with the same access to MSD systems they have.
Or, as I've said before, wipe the steaming remains of WINZ from the face of the earth, hand over benefits payments to IRD ("reverse taxation"), and move work brokers etc back to an employment service with no responsibility for benefit payments.
It's been well over a decade since I stopped using Goggle for web search, for reasons of principle. Everything I've heard about its enshittification since has supported that decision. But this description of the horrifying UX facing people these days takes the cake.
(2/?)
A platform that respond to keywords with "AI" slop and advertising is not a search engine; a neutral tool for sifting through an index of web pages. Which is what Goggle Search offered to build its initial reputation and userbase (myself included), before pivoting to helping fill the web with ad bait.
It's misleading to market misinformation and promotion engines like 2025 Goggle Search as "search engines". They should be regulated as the marketing businesses they are.
(3/?)
According to @pluralistic, copyright offices around the world have published clarifications that media created by generative models is not subject to copyright law. Not text, not images, not audio or video, and not code.
So every generative model that outputs media ought to add a public domain notice (eg CC0) to anything it produces. Either visibly within the media, or in metadata.
According to @pluralistic, copyright offices around the world have published clarifications that media created by generative models is not subject to copyright law. Not text, not images, not audio or video, and not code.
So every generative model that outputs media ought to add a public domain notice (eg CC0) to anything it produces. Either visibly within the media, or in metadata.
@eythian
> Oof that's a bit steep
Turned out Interislander is much cheaper than BlueBridge these days. By about $30. But because InterI are low on ships they're often booked out. So my only option yesterday was BB.
I've written before under the #PolicyNZ tag about how the terminal facilities for ferries need to be publicly owned and operated, like (most) airports. So any ferry company can use them on an equal footing. Ferry terminals, like airports, are a classic example of a natural monopoly.
"This BTW is why a mere normal repeal of fast-track is not enough. It must not just be repealed, but all outstanding applications need to be dumped in the bin, and any consents purportedly "granted" by this corrupt abuse of process need to be legislative cancelled, with no compensation to the donors. We can not allow corruption to be rewarded."
@norightturnnz, 2025
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2025/11/bulldozing-fast-track.html
I want to see Hipkins commit to this, and the Greens announce it as a bottom line if he won't.
NZ has Citizens Initiated Referenda, but they hardly ever get used and even when they are, the results just get ignored by governments. Maybe Citizens Initiated Assemblies would be more functional?
If enough citizens signed a petition on a question, the government would be obliged to commission a citizens' assemblies on it. Unlike a CIR, the legislation could require carefully specifying the question, and make the outcome binding on the government.
The NZ government must follow the example of the EU DMA, and regulate swiftly and firmly against DataFarmers using their control of OS development to control and limit how NZ citizens can use the devices we own. Both grApple and Goggle must be banned from forcing us to use their app stores only, and obliged to allow us to use our app store of choice
Goggle's move to ape grApple's control over iThing users cannot be allowed to stand;
"Another recommendation was increasing the number of MPs in Parliament from 120 to 170, and cutting Cabinet from 20 ministers to 15."
Corporatist reputation launderers the NZ SpInitiative are proposing a Cabinet that looks less like a democratic government and more like a corporate board. How unexpected. I've got a better idea.
(1/2)
Cabinet, like Parliament, should be proportional. If a party gets 5% of the vote, their MPs should make up 5% of Cabinet.
At the very least the leaders of all parties with at least 5% of the vote should be in Cabinet, with a relevant portfolio.
The idea of "The Opposition" is a UK import and doesn't really make sense in an MMP Parliament. What if we did policy by consensus rather than the dopey tug-of-war we inherited from Boomers and their FPP habits?
Ardern and Labour weren't wrong that the existing system is groaning under its own weight, and leaking at the seams. They were right that it's insufficient for our digital era multimedia reality. So the NatACT First solution - do nothing and blame Labour - isn't really up to snuff either.
So what's a highly polarised 21st century constitutional monarchy to do?
(14/?)
My 2 cents is that a forward-looking media regulation overhaul bill would;
* repeal the HDCA
* where necessary, formalise and extend the jurisdiction of existing bodies, clarifying the boundaries between them, and their lines of accountability to the public good
* clarify that their jurisdiction covers digital media as well as analogue
* to fill any gaps, extend some bodies' mandate, or create new ones
* create a one stop shop that forwards complaints to the relevant body
(15/?)
"Fonterra has agreed to sell major brands like Mainland and Anchor for $3.845 billion."
#GilesDexter, 2025
I strongly believe trademark law needs reform, so trademarks can't be sold as tradeable assets. The whole point of a trademark is to allow customers to buy from a consistent source. If they can be transferred from one operator to another, who can slap it on whatever garbage they like, it defeats the whole purpose.
Speaking of resisting digital colonisation, here's a policy I'd like to see passed into law. Any device sold in Aotearoa must be set up with a default localisation, including both a NZ English and Te Reo Māori dictionary, and support for tohutō (macrons). All online services supplied to kiwis must be the same.
No more auto-uncorrecting my text to US English misspellings! Or Te REO words to some other random nonsense.
If a commercial operator hosts an online service, it should be obligatory to allow each account holder to BYOD (Bring Your Own Domain). Also to export all data associated with their account, in standard formats. Especially if they're paying customers.
But even if they're not. Copyright law says the person who authors the data owns the data, right? That's why the ToS for platforms always include a permanent license to store and distribute the data.
One of the biggest problems with local government in Aotearoa is that central government have devolved a whole lot of responsibilities to them, without passing on sufficient funding to fulfill them. So they either need to hike rates, increase council debt, or both. Or cut services.
A lot of this is effectively creative accounting by govts. Moving public spending and debt onto someone else's balance sheet, so their own books look healthier come election time.
(1/?)
I have a few ideas for how we might fix this;
* half of all tax taken should be passed on to local government. Based on the residential address each taxpayer has on file at IRD
* half of all rates taken should be passed on to central govt
* devolve as many govt functions as possible to local bodies. Especially things like running schools, hospitals and other public medical services, Kāinga Ora housing, etc.
Give local people the responsibility and the necessary resources.
(2/?)
Kāinga Ora should be operating a not-for-profit electricity retailer for their tenants. Buying electricity on the spot market, and selling it to their tenants at-cost.
In fact, such a not-for-profit retailer could buy and provide electricity to all public entities. This would give them huge leverage to negotiate a low wholesale price. Reducing the operating costs of public services, as well as the household costs of Kāinga Ora tenants.
