Tamati

This is jaw-dropping. Mahuta’s husband received $28,300 of funding from TPK’s Rangatahi Suicide Prevention Fund of which $15,500 was earmarked to pay a group of ‘experts’ and ‘panellists’. When we received the application form via OIA those names were redacted but who were they?

Tired, need sleep. Noticed that Sam Whitelock has his actual position in his name. Can't think of any other examples though. There must be.

Some background to Thursday's story as it seems interesting. I've been approached by a number of msm journalists over the last 12 months enquiring about doing a similar story - all have been very good to deal with and have respected my wishes that the focus remains on my stories…

i think if we can establish a strong defensive line here we can keep peter jackson from the rest of wellington. it’s a natural choke point with lots of good higher ground nearby.

Decided against an April Fools gag this year. Just can’t compete with yesterday’s announcement from Labour that they’ll build a second Auckland Harbour crossing more quickly than expected …

The government has been attempting to entrench the anti-privatisation provision since the working group met at the beginning of this year at the more usual 75% level. When National and Act refused to support that proposal Mahuta announced that the government would not entrench.

Three Waters reform is having a real problem. Yesterday Min Mahuta changed Te Mana o Te Wai definition, as per legislation.govt.nz/sop/government… After this, what is going on with meaning of TMOTW now, considering the two bits of legislation mean very different things, as highlighted below?

Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr 🤣🤣

However Mahuta’s Te Mana o te Wai statements can only be issued by mana whenua. And previously they would only relate to freshwater bodies. Now they relate to all water bodies. See the massive deal creep that’s happening?

A hasty change to the definition of Te Mana o te Wai by a govt under pressure to refer to the National Freshwater Policy has highlighted a major problem with these reforms. The NFP requires Te Mana o te Wai to be implemented by engagement with communities and tangata whenua.

Cabinet loses grip of Five Waters. The speed at which the government is attempting to ram through the Water Services Entities Bill into law is exposing Cabinet's lack of grip on the details of these reforms. open.substack.com/pub/cranmer/p/…

Whoa - why can’t he and other Democrats talk like this all the time? This is powerful from Jeffries:

So if a Western made in Italy is a spaghetti western! Whats a Western made in New Zealand called? #AcademyAwards

Just a reminder that this exists. #arnoldschwarzenegger

Fiona Hill actually tried to get Arnold made the US ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, thinking he was one of the few people who could talk sense into Putin. Judging by this, he’d have done a hell of a job.

as a die-hard ex-pat Wellingtonian even i'm really finding it hard to have sympathy for Wellingtonians moaning about, what are we at, 6 days of 2 small streets closed down?

Well done Dr Shane Reti. It was his message to Elon Musk, sent on the basis that Musk could only say “No” that set this initiative in train. That is the kind of proactive leadership New Zealand needs, @DrShaneMP

Very pleased. Elon Musk providing satellite to Tonga. Fiji Minister for Communications, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum confirmed to FBC News that the team from SpaceX are in Fiji to work on an internet gateway for the Kingdom of Tonga. fbcnews.com.fj/business/space…