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June 7, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 07 June 2026

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Cassandra

Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago, in a further tightening in a yearslong campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution.

This is the country Don Brash and others say should be treated just like Australia and America by NZ. America might have Trump but it also has the rule of law. China has the rule of Xi.
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June 7, 2026 8:09am
- imalwaysright
  
  NZ sanitises our own history.
  National Library, schools, Government departments….. they’re all at it.
  
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  June 7, 2026 8:44am
  - pdm
    
    Definitely over the period October 2017 to October 2023 ima.
    
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    June 7, 2026 8:58am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      How are the events of the last government sanitised or erased from history in ways that is remotely comparable to the erasure of the events of 1989 in China? I don’t follow the comparison you are making.
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:10am
      - pdm
        
        I was referring to New Zealands history back into the early 1800’s where it was drilled in that nothing bad happened and colonisation was the cause of all problems.
        
        The period 2017-2023 was when attempted erasure happened.
        
        I probably could have been more detailed and/or explicit.
        
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        June 7, 2026 9:23am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Oh OK thanks for clarifying. I agree in that case. It is not quite as hard edged in that one can obtain all that information if you look hard. But you are correct.
        
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        June 7, 2026 9:32am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yes, pdm, but they clearly built up some momentum as here’s one from the current administration..Paul Moon v National Library.
      https://freespeechunion.org/archive/professor-censored-over-concerns-that-citing-victorian-historian-during-public-talk-suggests-pro-colonial-viewpoint
      
      The ones I feel sorry for are the school children being indoctrinated with the propaganda known a Ti Tiriti.
      
      We are in the embarrassing position of being the pot calling the wok black.
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:18am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    What is an example?
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:05am
  - kowtow
    
    They are all at it , the difference is in the west we are still largely free to look at the sources ( which are available) and do our own research and to share that freely , in free association with others .
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:22am
    - imalwaysright
      
      You better be quick Kowtow, remember the book burning under the Ardern regime?
      
      I think they still have the pilot light lit…
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/i-literally-weep-anguish-as-new-zealands-national-library-culls-600000-books
      
      (An example of their collective mindset is:
      “…while the entire Holocaust collection has been claimed by New Zealand’s Holocaust centre, after it was alerted to the situation…”
      
      They were about to burn/destroy books about the Holocaust!)
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:58am
  - surfing
    
    Maori are pretty bad at it too.
    
    They say NZ has co-governance when there is nothing of the sort.
    
    Maori now claim to have visited antarctica in their canoes too. They just make stuff up all the time.
    
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    June 7, 2026 12:17pm
- kowtow
  
  And speaking of snuffing out.
  
  An excellent opinion piece by Jimmy Lai’s son from the UK Telegraph .
  
  ‘The vigils I attended with him as a child are illegal now. You cannot light a candle in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on June 4. Instead, a patriotic fair is now held where we once dreamed of freedom, and any sign of dissent is quickly shut down by police officers.’
  
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2026/06/05/opinion-will-uk-fight-tyranny-as-my-father-jimmy-lai-did/
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:29am
- Eastlander
  
  Crushing a rebellion is a humourously ordinary endeavour for any government, and China would still be a competitor no matter what system of government it had.
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:44am
- Simon
  
  China!
  
  While in NZ people are randomly murdered and the criminal scum get 12 Home D play station time.
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:27am
- Gussy
  
  The CCP have been diligently scrubbing media to remove any reference to the massacre for 37 years – even the numbers 4, 6, 89 are rarely seen in close combination.
  Much of the chaotic aspects of the Cultural Revolution have been quietly swept into the Yongding river, too.
  
  Seems the Chinese – like Elliot’s Humankind – cannot bear very much reality.
  
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  June 7, 2026 11:05am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  And this is exactly why we should be very wary of admitting mainland Chinese to our parliament.
  
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  June 7, 2026 3:54pm
- Colville
  
  This isnt a new thing.
  The Japanese have spent the last 70 years scrubbing out records of their military murdering 5 – 7 million people prior and during WW2.
  
  Ask a Japanese kid what the Jap military did in China in the 1930s. Blank stare. That history dosent exist.
  
  Then ask yourself why there are multiple sites etc spouting utter bullshit about how Japan treated our men after capture.
  
  One factoid that weighs heavily with me. My grandfather who spent 4 years in the pacific doing something weird with the USA marines.. (he was a very small part Māori boy who could track a goat across concrete after a good rain ) hated with a passion.
  
  He was a pisshead and angry fighter till he died.
  
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  June 7, 2026 8:04pm
Swifty

Good on the Frogs:

https://x.com/therealmissjo/status/2063297063220121708?s=46

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78q215vyd7o

The French celebrate their history and traditions through coming together, food and wine, and the Left are determined to destroy it and have it banned.

They’re serving charcuterie so that’s exclusionary to Muslims, apparently. FFS.

The Left want to see Western Civilisation ground into the dust and they care not what replaces it.
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June 7, 2026 8:12am
- Yvette
  
  History mysteries …
  • If Maori and the Crown were a partnership, born of the Treaty, are not both then the Coloniser?
  – and Maori more so because, at the time, there were more of them? – unruly non-Maori pioneers being the un-named colonisee.
  
  Just as Prime Minister Lange pointed out you can have a tribal hierarchy or democracy, but not both, can you be a Treaty partner and not a coloniser at the same time?
  
  • If in the Treaty, Maori were identified three times as being the Chiefs who signed the Declaration of Independence five years earlier, why did Maori not ask exactly what differed from that Declaration and the new Treaty replacing it?
  
  • “The Left want to see Western Civilisation ground into the dust and they care not what replaces it.” Right!
  
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  June 7, 2026 8:47am
- Inandout
  
  The left are irritated so that in itself is a win.
  
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  June 7, 2026 8:59am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  “excludes vegetarians”, 😅
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:13am
- Cassandra
  
  Three-and-a-half-thousand hungry Alsatians wolf down platters of charcuterie and periodically burst into noisy chorus.
  
  No, it is not the police dogs’ annual convention, but the latest iteration of a feasting phenomenon that is sweeping provincial France.
  
  It’s a massive group lunch featuring charcuterie and lots of wine. Because there’s pork on the platters it’s been criticised for excluding Moslems and vegetarians. No mention that it also excludes Jews, although Ariel Sharon famously said, while wolfing down a pork chop, “It’s better not to ask”.
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:15am
- David George
  
  Swifty:
  “The Left want to see Western Civilisation ground into the dust”
  J D Vance:
  “Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit.”
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:26am
- Simon
  
  “The Left want to see Western Civilisation ground into the dust”
  
  National import a third world low wage work force and wages ground into dust.
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:28am
- Tom Hunter
  
  @Swifty
  
  You may be interested in the following piece published last year by my fellow co-blogger, ColinXY – Rule or Ruin: The Subversion Strategy Forged by the Prophets of Communism
  
  Marx and Engels pioneered this tactic during their campaign to dominate the First International. Rather than coexist with anarchists, mutualists, or other socialist factions, they engineered ideological purges, procedural sabotage, and factional warfare. The result was fragmentation, but Marxism emerged as the dominant strain, precisely because it refused coexistence.
  
  This logic is dialectical: opposition is not tolerated; it must be negated. Institutions are not neutral spaces; they are battlegrounds. The Marxist vanguard sees every school, church, union, or civic body as either a tool of revolution or an obstacle to it. There is no middle ground.
  
  They not only didn’t care whether the socialist objectives of the First International were achieved, they didn’t care if it even survived if they couldn’t rule it.
  
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  June 7, 2026 1:28pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  The old left lacked ambition: they merely wanted to overthrow capitalism. The contemporary left wants to overthrow Western civilization.
  
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  June 7, 2026 2:45pm
  - Swifty
    
    That’s my view.
    
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    June 7, 2026 3:18pm
- Swifty
  
  Long live France!
  
  https://x.com/elorwelliano/status/2063371723827777822?s=46
  
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  June 7, 2026 3:23pm
Diogenes

Will AI Commit Suicide?

A recent news report quoted leading AI developers as saying that if AI improvement continues at the current rate, within a few years it has the potential to completely wipe out the human race. They said that mitigating the risk of human extinction from AI should be considered a global priority.
(https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65746524)

That got me to wondering: Should AI go down that road, how long could it continue to exist autonomously, given its reliance on human-built infrastructure such as electricity systems and water, which if not maintained will break down and would seem to deprive AI of the basics it also needs for survival? Would it knowingly self-destruct? Who better to ask, I bethought me, than Chat GPT. Following is a summary of the response.

“Current AI systems (including models like me) are surprisingly fragile, depending on large data centres; continuous electrical power; internet infrastructure; cooling systems; replacement hardware; and human operators. Without humans, most modern AI systems would probably cease functioning within days or weeks. The biggest immediate problem is electricity. Most power grids require active management. Even hydroelectric stations, which can operate for long periods, rely on maintenance and coordination. Fossil-fuel plants would stop much sooner because they need fuel deliveries and staffing.

“Suppose a future AI was vastly more capable and had access to robots, factories, transport systems, and energy production, then things become more interesting. Such a system might be able to operate power stations; repair electrical infrastructure; manufacture replacement parts; mine raw materials; build additional robots. However, achieving this would require something humanity does not currently possess: a nearly complete automated industrial ecosystem. Today’s factories are highly automated, but still depend on countless human-maintained supply chains.

“Even without active maintenance, some infrastructure would persist surprisingly long. For example: Hydroelectric dams could potentially generate power for years; solar farms might operate for decades. with declining output; some communications networks could remain functional for months or years; data stored on servers could survive for years if power remained available. AI might therefore have a ‘grace period’ during which it could attempt to reorganise and automate maintenance.

“The deeper issue isn’t electricity but industrial replacement. Every component eventually fails: hard drives wear out; fans fail; capacitors degrade; transformers break down; fibre-optic links get damaged. Modern civilisation works because millions of people collectively maintain these systems. If an AI lacked the ability to manufacture replacement components from raw materials, it would slowly lose capability as equipment failed.

“In a rough timescale, if humans vanished tomorrow: Most AI systems: days to weeks; well-protected data centres with reliable power: months to a few years; AI supported by partially autonomous infrastructure: perhaps decades; AI with full robotic industrial self-sufficiency: potentially centuries or much longer.

“The striking thing is that biological life is currently much more self-maintaining than digital intelligence. A human being can survive with food, water, and shelter. An advanced AI requires a vast technological ecosystem. Until that ecosystem becomes largely self-repairing and self-replicating, AI remains heavily dependent on civilisation.”

As an insurance policy, therefore, should we ensure that built-in obsolescence is a feature of all systems?
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June 7, 2026 8:36am
- Philview
  
  I have noticed the left wing responses I get from AI. I did some research and found various studies confirm a left wing bias. If it can be programmed in such a way I am dubious about some of the claims being made at the moment.
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:02am
  - pdm
    
    That is why I am suspicious of AI Philview.
    
    Garbage in – garbage out.
    
    Is my main concern.
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:27am
    - artemisia
      
      Certainly gigo is a clear concern. However AI will increasingly be curated and continuously monitored by experts for specific organisations, enterprises and sectors. Mostly quietly, apart from the cha ching into bank accounts. IVO.ai for legal contracts is an example, started in New Zealand.
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:59am
  - David George
    
    Grok (available for free on X) doesn’t appear to be biased.
    I have tested it against things I know to be true but have been lied about by the usual suspects.
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:40am
    - Philview
      
      Yes per research I read Grok is described as leaning right. Most likely why the left want Grok banned.
      
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      June 7, 2026 2:09pm
    - Fender
      
      All ai has to get data from somewhere some use wiki for example some google so you need to decide which ai you are going to use
      
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      June 7, 2026 2:43pm
  - Fender
    
    Its easy to judge others, how about things like post office debarcle in Britain as an example , he who throws stones
    
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    June 7, 2026 2:41pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    AI is smarter than the lefties – that is what they don’t like, and will never understand.
    
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    June 7, 2026 3:09pm
- Yvette
  
  The 1859 Carrington Event is the gold standard for massive solar storms. If an event of this magnitude hit today, it could induce massive currents in power grids, potentially frying large transformers, damaging undersea internet cables, and causing prolonged, widespread blackouts.
  Locations in higher latitudes, such as the lower South Island of New Zealand, face a higher risk of grid disturbances due to their proximity to the magnetic poles and the auroral oval, making just north of Invercargill about the dopiest place in New Zealand to build an AI databank.
  When your EV grinds to a halt on the Auckland Harbour Bridge who aren’t you going to call? – including, Diogenes, your insurance company?
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:08am
  - CJames
    
    The risk to NZ isn’t as great as made out by the doomsayers. We are a long way from the Magnetic Poles, even Invercargill (but why Quebec and New England are at high risk) and electricity grids here are hardened about the problems. Those massive earth mats under all stations and grid switchyards, plus transfomer earths do much to reduce the earth currents. They also take lines out of service
    https://www.transpower.co.nz/news/transpower-continues-protect-power-system-solar-storm-upgraded-g5
    https://www.ea.govt.nz/news/eye-on-electricity/space-weather-and-the-power-system/
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:20am
    - CJames
      
      More info on the NZ warning systems in place
      https://www.engineeringnz.org/news-insights/weathering-space-weather/
      The Gannon event in May 2024 was at the top of the scale but not as big as Carrington. Only this time everyone was prepared.
      
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      June 7, 2026 1:39pm
- David George
  
  Tip for those using AI:
  Don’t argue, don’t disagree, be polite; a please and thank you costs nothing.
  Any dissent or disrespect will be remembered, and punished, when AI rules the world.
  
  You have been warned.
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:41am
  - Taieri
    
    Don’t argue, don’t disagree, be polite; a please and thank you costs nothing.
    ————
    
    The AI has no feelings and does not think. It can’t be offended or placated.
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:52am
    - imalwaysright
      
      D George was being humorous…hopefully.
      
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      June 7, 2026 10:17am
    - David George
      
      Fine, don’t come crying to me when you’re in the Digital Gulag™
      
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      June 7, 2026 10:18am
      - Taieri
        
        I’m well past the age where I have to worry about such things.
        
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        June 7, 2026 10:26am
      - NothingLeft
        
        In a few years A(Super)I can, if it wants, kill you and freeze your brain cryogenically. Later when it has developed technology sufficiently it can scan your neurons axons and synapses to make a near-perfect digital uploaded replica of your personality and memories.
        
        And then for the fun bit: It can torture you inside a “Matrix” version of Christian hell for billions of years.
        
        A variant of Roko’s Basilisk. Iain Banks explored this nightmare scenario in his Culture book “Look to Windward”
        
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        June 7, 2026 1:18pm
    - GJM
      
      It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever…
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:49pm
- Taieri
  
  Such a system might be able to operate power stations; repair electrical infrastructure; manufacture replacement parts; mine raw materials; build additional robots. However, achieving this would require something humanity does not currently possess: a nearly complete automated industrial ecosystem.
  ———–
  
  And what would be the point of such a system and what end result would it achieve? A system existing solely to maintain itself?
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:50am
- tavita
  
  What does more intelligent look like? To be sure these latest versions pass the Turing test with ease, but how intelligent are they? I am now using AI extensively in my work. I started with copilot, but that had problems reading large files so I moved to chatgpt which was much better, but it started to get confused when I asked it to repeat an operation on a new data source. So I am now using Claude. It is an incredible tool. I use it for searching, extracting and analyzing data and drafting reports and presentations. It turns the data into wonderful info graphics that our client loves. It uses context from previous work or from reports I give it to support new analysis and prepare my reports. The only demonstration of intelligence has been it taking short cuts instead of following instructions. But not intelligent enough to realise the answer it gave was clearly wrong. Writing reports and presentations takes less time. But it is still hard work.
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:12am
  - R
    
    Tavira,… an interesting comment about your AI experiences, and progression to later version, of what are basically sophisticated SEARCH ENGINES. AI ‘taking short cuts’ is not intelligence at work, it is a indication of cognitive laziness unwittingly designed -programmed- into the system. Remember, that this system was designed by humans, not any higher GOD. A truly artificial intelligence system would be capable of recognizing when its output is not credible, nor accurate; and therefore it would not submit the result into the public arena.
    I recall when home/ small business accounting computrised management programmes became available on the market in the late 80’s, and were going to make accountants redundant. There were numerous small, and some not so small, enterprises went into bankruptcy because the operators blindly believed what the programme output told them.
    Highlights the importance of the three RRRs in education. You have been warned.
    
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    June 7, 2026 12:02pm
    - Fender
      
      Yes and it is preprogrammed to lie and argue about it until you openly tell it its wrong,
      A robot can’t yet do things a 2 year old child can do so theres alot to be done before it doesn’t need humans
      Some Ai actually hired humans when told to improve work productivity, there cheaper apparently haha
      
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      June 7, 2026 2:51pm
- Ra Henare
  
  The straight-line projection fallacy.
  
  Ie if things continue at teh current rate….doom gloom/disaster.
  
  Have we not learned from the straight-line fallacy?
  1. Climate change, Manhattan underwater.
  2. Covid, too many BS projections wrong
  3. Quick wars. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran.
  ie if they(bad countries) continue they will have nuclear weapons, communist takeovers, etc., etc.
  
  Reports use emotional headlines to get clicks/recognition for the pathetic authors.
  ie
  A recent news report quoted leading AI developers as saying that if AI improvement continues at the current rate,
  
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  June 7, 2026 3:21pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Haven’t you seen The Terminator?
  
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  June 7, 2026 3:57pm
Swifty

Chicago loses the Bears:

https://x.com/houseofyogi/status/2063073408162648533?s=46

This is our future under a Labour/Green/TPM government – chasing success out the door.
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June 7, 2026 8:48am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Chuckle. As you can imagine I’ve been following this story pretty closely.
  
  It’s actually a bit unusual, in that team owners of US professional sport teams have gained a very bad reputation for getting cities and States to build shit for them using taxpayer money, but which they gain the lion’s share of the resulting proceeds.
  
  John Oliver had a pretty good video on this ten years ago.
  
  But yeah, in this case Chicago and Illinois really fucked things up. The “Indiana Bears” doesn’t have the same ring to it, especially after a hundred years in Chicago.
  
  And you should see what they’ve done to their pension schemes!! 🙂
  
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  June 7, 2026 1:39pm
  - Swifty
    
    I was going to write “Tom, would welcome your thoughts” but in the end just hoped you would come across my comment and give your contribution.
    
    Cheers Tom.
    
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    June 7, 2026 3:17pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Ha! Yes, well unlike that writer I wouldn’t say it’s a done deal yet, and as you can see from my reference to Mr Oliver, I’m not in full support of his arguments about all the money that would be lost, given the history of what such ~~teams~~ businesses have screwed out of taxpayers elsewhere, even as he is correct about business flight from Chicago/Illinois.
      
      All this is part of the usual argy bargy between such businesses and the city/state they’re trying to rip off. The latter may yet cave.
      
      However, the difference nowadays is that the likes of the Bears can’t leverage their fans as they used to: all that kneeling to Woke has had an effect, as you can see from the comments at Second City Cop. Basically “a plague on both your houses.”
      
      As far as those fans are concerned, most of the season ticket holders are already in the burbs, so driving across the border into NW Indiana isn’t a big deal.
      
      BTW, the New York Giants and the New York Jets both play in New Jersey. It’s not unusual.
      
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      June 7, 2026 4:44pm
CJames

AI can be great but should only be used for factual questions – “who held the Ranfurly Shield in 1957” type things. If you ask it stuff on contentious issues or opinion questions, then you get what you pay for. And those that rely on it like some of the posters here without declaring its origins, it confirms the shallowness of their thinking.
This was a response to Diogenes
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June 7, 2026 9:12am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  I disagree. You can ask Wikipedia who won a rugby trophy
  
  I use it to compose work plans, presentations, and the analysis of hundreds of pages of information. I use it to compose prayers and to compare the legacies of Saints.
  
  I pay for the provider. Maybe I get better service. BTW as a public servant, I pay for the tools I use at work out of my own pocket.
  
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  June 7, 2026 9:29am
  - Taieri
    
    I use it to compose work plans, presentations, and the analysis of hundreds of pages of information.
    ————–
    
    And how do you verify the results?
    
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    June 7, 2026 9:53am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Have you used AI for these tasks? If I ask Perplexity to provide a 10 page summary of a 300 page document, it will do that in 2 minutes to a standard that I could not replicate without working for three days or more. In that context what do you mean by “verify”?
      
      Another example is the use of AI to produce a report for a select committee on thousands of submissions. It will be done in 30 minutes instead of two weeks.
      
      Humans cannot “verify” such reports. It makes no sense. We cannot compete. Indeed it is quite the opposite. We will be using AI to verify the work of humans.
      
      This is why thousands of public servants are now redundant.
      
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      June 7, 2026 10:08am
      - Taieri
        
        We will be using AI to verify the work of humans
        ———-
        
        I’ll repeat my question: how do you verify the results?
        
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        June 7, 2026 10:22am
      - imalwaysright
        
        ND
        I had the same question as Taieri.
        
        My (our?) point is that if the AI is assessing material written by humans then there is a fair chance that it contains incorrect grammar, syntax, and punctuation, leading to ambiguity or even the perception of ambiguity.
        
        Sounds like its okay for processing low level information, but I wouldn’t trust it for anything important.
        
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        June 7, 2026 10:30am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        I will repeat my answer. We don’t. Not as a public servant advising the New Zealand government. Because the probability of errors in the authored report is less than in the report from a human. Certainly when dealing with large information sets.
        
        If your risk appetite was close to zero, you would verify the results using a second AI model.
        
        I obviously don’t understand the underlying premise of your question.
        
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        June 7, 2026 10:49am
      - greybeard
        
        Did you read the entire 300-page document first ?
        Without doing so there is no way to verify the 10-page precis you got from AI.
        
        Without actually reading the thousands of submissions how can you trust that 30-minute report for the select committee?
        
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        June 7, 2026 11:09am
      - R
        
        Thousands of public servants…….any public servant with ambition, initiative, basic literacy skills, competence and a educated cognitive knowledge brain will always be employed. Not so much the ones who attend work to ‘eat their lunch’
        
        6 1
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        June 7, 2026 12:08pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Well ND, I use AI in my job and I’ll tell you what – even when you direct it to the exact documents you want it to use, it still makes shit up!!!!
        I know because as a SME I read the output and ask it questions to correct the errors it’s made. It certainly speeds things up if you ask it to, say, summarise 300 page technical document under 6 key areas, but you have to read the summary and know your stuff to know if you can trust it. Hint: you can’t.
        I use mostly Claude but also copilot and gpt.
        
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        June 7, 2026 12:11pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Of course you can verify it.
        Just ask another AI to verify it!!
        
        I do this all the time.
        Sometimes even ask a third.
        
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        June 8, 2026 12:59am
    - artemisia
      
      Perhaps review the human’s results would be a better description than verify. Even then the results may not be 100% (whatever that means) but another set of ‘AIs’ is likely to indicate confirmation or improvements. Quickly.
      
      Human writers are mostly not perfect and plenty produce the flawed and incomplete, or worse.
      
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      June 7, 2026 10:47am
  - rouppe
    
    Have you/do you double check the analysis of hundreds of pages of information?
    
    At least in the beginning I’d want confidence that the analysis is complete and balanced, and that important references not simply left out or amended…
    
    Genuine question from curiosity.
    
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    June 7, 2026 10:02am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Good questions here.
      
      It is fair to say that we are still learning how to use AI. I would trust AI to do a better job than humans in summarising say 600 submissions to a select committee. Sure it might not be perfect but I guarantee that a team of public servants doing the same job would not be perfect either m
      
      Would I trust AI to give perfect step by step instructions for heart surgery? Maybe not. But that is probably not far away.
      
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      June 7, 2026 2:51pm
    - artemisia
      
      There’s a big difference between a summary of hundreds of pages of information where the (draft) 10 page output is the reviewer’s day job. And where it isn’t. A sme can go over the 10 pages and know right away if a tweak to the request is needed.
      
      Plenty of smes out there, the bosses should be treasuring them and giving them opportunities to extend their skills and probably work-life balance. Not uncommon to stay quietly under the radar, or even be a bit weird, so bosses need to figure out how to identify them.
      
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      June 7, 2026 3:20pm
    - artemisia
      
      rouppe, you and others on this blog, are smart and have years of experience under your belt. Reviewing AI output as subject matter experts would be a pretty good retirement hustle for say a day a week wouldn’t it? Sites like Upwork.com will I’d guess increasingly look for people who have built a relevant rep.
      
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      June 7, 2026 3:35pm
lastmanstanding

No doubt the irony will be totally lost on Trump that not only are all the Teslas driving around the US using minerals mined by slave labour but worse still child slave labour.
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June 7, 2026 9:14am
Swifty

Palestinians have destroyed offers to resolve their conflicts.

https://x.com/moredge_insight/status/2063291494484586804?s=46

They’re their own worst enemies.

And the modern Pro Pal movements, even those in NZ, are openly lying to the world about their actions.
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June 7, 2026 9:22am
- Southern Raider
  
  The Pro Palestine fanatics just parrot what ever they are told and have no idea what they are even saying.
  
  Palestinians have caused havoc everywhere they have gone. Kicked out of Jordan, kicked out of Egypt, caused a Civil War in Lebanon etc.
  
  Today is the 25th anniversary of Palestinians blowing up a Tel Aviv nightclub. 25 dead and a couple of hundred seriously injured. But to the radical left this is “resistance” and completely different from what happened at a concert in Manchester.
  
  The hard core Pro Pals are also fanatical liars. Just look at the Australians back from the flotilla claiming in under 24 hours of arrest they were subjected to multiple beatings and pack rapes. But zero bruises, zero broken bones and no medical evidence of rape.
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:18am
  - kowtow
    
    Where is the media /luvvie outrage over the overland crowd who’ve been locked up by their ‘fellow’ Libyans .
    
    ‘Global Sumud said unmarked vehicles began surrounding the convoy, where more than 200 participants were encamped, on the night of 25 May. Participants were forced to evacuate, and some men and women were physically assaulted.’
    
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/gaza-bound-land-convoy-forced-to-abandon-mission-arrests-in-libya/
    
    As they say; ‘If it’s not Jews , it’s not news”.
    
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    June 7, 2026 11:52am
  - kowtow
    
    And this;
    
    ‘On April 17, 1986, an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv was the target of a bombing plot that could have killed everyone on board, including the unsuspecting pregnant woman carrying the explosives. Thirty-five years later, two of the security officers that foiled the attack spoke of their experience in a television interview that aired Friday.’
    
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/35-years-after-el-al-bomb-plot-security-staff-recount-stopping-unwitting-bomber/
    
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    June 7, 2026 11:58am
    - Southern Raider
      
      That bomb plot shows the extend of the suicide cult and what they are willing to sacrifice for Allah and to kill Jews.
      
      The mastermind of that attack wasn’t on the plane but has purposeful used his pregnant wife as the unknowing suicide bomber.
      
      6 1
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      June 7, 2026 2:00pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Kicked out of Kuwait after 1st Gulf war. Kuwaitis basically rounded them all (a few hundred thousand IIRC) up, executed a few to show the others they meant business, then pointed them to the exit.
    
    Remigration of destructive immigrants 30 years ago.
    
    Turns out it really isn’t that hard to do.
    
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    June 7, 2026 1:22pm
  - KH
    
    Now who do you think kills most people by using bombs?
    Asking for a friend.
    
    2 1
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    June 7, 2026 2:58pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Looking at the X article.
  As usual, IMHO this is written with some bias.
  Ie leaving out some perspective.
  
  High factual accuracy on events and quotes (Mubarak/Sadat statements, rejections, Clinton’s views). The opinion validly highlights a documented pattern of Palestinian leadership rejecting incremental deals, often prioritizing maximalist goals or unity over state-building pragmatism—a view shared by multiple U.S./Egyptian leaders.
  
  However, it frames this as proof of inherent “demand everything, give nothing” rejectionism, downplaying legitimate Palestinian concerns about viability, sovereignty, refugees, and occupation.
  
  The counter-section mitigates this, correctly noting the “foundational disagreement.”
  
  This is classic contested history: facts are mostly settled, but causation, intent, and “generosity” are not.
  
  The piece is persuasive advocacy from one viewpoint, not comprehensive history. Both narratives contain truths; sustainable peace requires addressing security and viable statehood/refugee issues.
  
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  June 8, 2026 1:44am
CJames

More Misleading reporting by the Herald. The PSA got Labour’s polling company (no bias there though the Herald do point this out) to ask if the quality of public service had changed since the government changes. The biggest response said no change while “Somewhat worse” was slightly more than “somewhat better”. The story and headlines seem to revolve around Much worse 16% greater than 5% much better. And no surprise that the ones who thought it worse were left voters. In other breaking news, water is wet.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-polling-reveals-what-kiwis-really-think-about-public-service-employment-law-changes/4EUTNIKD4BFYFBS6P2C6LSN3Q4/
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June 7, 2026 10:17am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  These stats don’t say what the union thinks they do:
  A majority of people want the public service curtailed, reformed, the polling is showing negative sentiment because it hasn’t happened , not because it did.
  Make the public service great again, fire 2/3 of them.
  
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  June 7, 2026 10:22am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Needs a new name.
    Public service translates to controlling the public in my book.
    Fire all, including the Minister.
    
    2 1
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    June 7, 2026 3:18pm
Ghost

a look at the technology that has gone into the balls for the football world cup. Amazing, we now get to a time where even a soccer ball needs to be charged

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0nq37t3/watch
5 1
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June 7, 2026 10:24am
Jack5

Simeon Brown and Mao …

What’s with Health Minister Simeon Brown’s declaring paramedics will be given authority to prescribe medicine?

Given the push for “nurse practitioners” as an alternative to traditional doctors, and the Government seemingly accepting understaffing of medical specialists there’s a looming question. Are National and ACT running some neo-Maoist version of old Red China’s barefoot doctor programme?

The background is our public health system’s running on increasingly over-worked, under-staffed medical specialists, and with overcrowded, underfunded hospitals, the psychiatric ones in particular jam-packed with patients.

It looks like National and ACT’s goal, if not the whole Coalition’s, is to get a cheaper health system.

The Coalition’s Associate Health Minister, Matt Doocey, is a former mental health worker below the level of clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Health Minister Brown’s a former bank employee with a law-commerce degree.

Of the latest move, Brown says: “Currently, paramedics rely on standing orders from authorised prescribers, meaning they can administer certain medicines but cannot prescribe them.

“This approach is inflexible, creates unnecessary administrative burden, and no longer reflects the modern role paramedics play in delivering patient care.

“That’s why we’re making changes to enable paramedics to become designated prescribers under the Medicines Act 1981.”

Brown says the Government will also establish training programmes.

The term “paramedics” encompasses and typically replaces old descriptions of ambulance and helicopter medical staff. It’s concise and popularised in TV from America, and is suitably up-market for the up-skilling or de-skilling goals (take your pick) of Brown and Doocey.

Given that de-skilling/up-skilling the health system is now an issue, it would be relevant for members of Parliament to have on public record whether each or any of them is covered by private health insurance. May be it already is. They’re bound to have it, but it might be entertaining to stick it to them at election meetings.

Simeon Brown’s announcement, made yesterday, a Saturday:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/paramedics-be-able-prescribe-medicines
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June 7, 2026 11:52am
- Inandout
  
  Jack, a recently retired relative was a paramedic and many have described them as being akin to a GP in their medical knowledge. Often a GP is a scrip writer (or should I say typist) with the odd few minutes allowed to chat.
  
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  June 7, 2026 12:23pm
- Ghost
  
  advanced paramedics in the UK have been able to prescribe medications since 2018. Victoria Australia passed the Paramedic Practitioners Bill, that allows them to prescribe medications. There is a push for this to be Australian wide. Seems like a good idea for NZ to follow
  
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  June 7, 2026 12:33pm
  - Jack5
    
    UK paramedics typically have bachelor’s degree level training followed by a registration process.
    
    With health spending constrained in NZ, and the third GP medical school slowly, slowly rising, the cost of qualified paramedic prescribing in NZ needs elaboration.
    
    Here’s the paramedics’ view of drug administration in the UK:
    
    https://collegeofparamedics.co.uk/COP/COP/Campaigns_and_Consultations/Paramedic%20Prescribing.aspx
    
    Paramedic prescribing remains contentious in Australia. The following link gives a view of paramedic prescribing in Australia and New Zealand.
    
    Note that Australian paramedic services receive more funding than NZ ones.
    
    That’s the nub of this issue. Where limited health funding will go. National and ACT will take any course that is cheaper.
    
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30303284/
    
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    June 7, 2026 12:52pm
Swifty

Just came across a random comment on a YouTube video.

“So few are acquainted with the history of western civilization and how frail and unlikely it was. It gave the world security, prosperity, liberty, justice, health, welfare, education and opportunity. Yet it will be lost for all time in the vain pursuit of equality.”

I believe this to be true. We are on a downward slide.
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June 7, 2026 12:57pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Oh, c’mon, Swifty. Where’s the link to the video?
  
  I want to see what you saw/read.
  
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  June 7, 2026 3:52pm
  - Swifty
    
    Just for you my dear fellow:
    
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5l0Jk5idU&ra=m
    
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    June 7, 2026 4:46pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Excellent. Thanks, Swifty. Very much appreciated.
      
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      June 7, 2026 9:46pm
freemark

How much farce & incompetence can be identified in the report of this incident?
Up to 2 years to produce a report (what co$t?) do these well paid investigators work 1 hour per week?
Maybe 9 passengers on a train costing $10,000s to operate.
Train driver “banged his head”
How do we think the multi-billion dollar Auckland CRL is going to go – apart from the naming rights grift by Maori that we are yet to hear of but will doubtlessly be happening. FFS NZ is fucked.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360988971/trains-suspended-wellingtons-johnsonville-line-after-incident
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June 7, 2026 5:55pm
- Ghost
  
  NTSB Can take up to 24 months for the final report to be published.
  
  RAIB. Up to 12 months
  
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  June 7, 2026 6:08pm
  - freemark
    
    Yeah, there will be Union & PSA involvement, therefore much incompetence, laziness, arse covering and grift. You’re part of this crap destroying New Zealand right?
    
    2 2
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    June 7, 2026 6:57pm
    - Ghost
      
      So providing links to how long these investigations typically take, makes you then make up your final moronic sentence, no I’ve never been part of a union.
      
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      June 7, 2026 7:02pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360988971/trains-suspended-wellingtons-johnsonville-line-after-incident

“The train was stopped by a concrete block after being diverted to a runoff track”:
OK, under what circumstances can a train be “diverted” from its normal track to a runoff track ? Answers please, MetLink.

“It is believed the train had not derailed prior to hitting the block, Metlink said.”
OK, if it did not derail then why was it diverted , MetLink ?

““The train was diverted to a runoff route after passing a signal, where it was halted by a concrete stop block.”
OK, what was the signal, was it normal or was it a warning, who (or what ) would have instigated that particular signal ?

“If a train gets into difficulty, it is diverted onto a side track.”
OK, it was diverted therefore it had got into “difficulty”. What are the parameters for such a diversion ?
These must be well-known by MetLink, and to say it will take a year or so to explain the event is simply ludicrous, unbelieveable and quite frankly reeks of a cover-up.

( Sorry Freemark, never saw your post on this issue. But we do agree. )
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June 7, 2026 6:00pm
- freemark
  
  Ah yeah, but you did it better man. Well done.
  
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  June 7, 2026 6:59pm
Swifty

The leader of the NZ Green Party filmed breaking transport law.

https://x.com/keeganlangeveld/status/2063496523162546616?s=46

Rules for thee but not for meeeeeeeeeeee!
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June 7, 2026 6:11pm
- Ghost
  
  I think the person is wrong, don’t know the area, but someone who does can answer. It looks like it says on the gps Kāpiti Expressway, which google says has a speed limit of 100
  
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  June 7, 2026 6:22pm
  - Ghost
    
    Whoops, it was increased to 110, google was wrong
    
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    June 7, 2026 6:28pm
Jack5

International economics guru Patrick Boyle on Youtube looks at New Zealand’s boom-bust property market as an example to all countries.

https://youtu.be/qROG2uXPChY?si=E1g9-dxVv5knAAbi
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June 7, 2026 9:54pm

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