Timothy Gassin
@timothygassin
Historian, former Chair of Oz Kiwi, and student of Hokkien/Taiwanese. A Melbournian living in Wellington.
Winston Peters likes to lecture people on how they should respect NZ's rules and values. He should be very glad he is entitled to NZ citizenship by birth. If he wasn't, he might find he failed the character test for NZ residency. www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#3...
I found this today pasted in the back of a copy of Jane Kelsey's 'Rolling Back the State' I bought second-hand a while back. Seemed strangely fitting as a new UK Labour PM criticises the neoliberal policies of recent decades.
For the second time in the last decade, we've just had an appliance power cord burst into flames. In both cases, they were modern Made in China items. Our household has quite a lot of appliances made in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s that, despite decades of wear and tear, have given no similar problems.
So much if what 'AI' is promoted for leads to people avoiding the intellectual work that builds wisdom and independent thought, strips out creative processes that feed the soul, and replaces meaningful and considered communication with endless slop.
The joys of having a job that involves translating legalese into somewhat comprehensible English. 😩
Could equally be said of the current NZ government, who seem to have bought the hype without any understanding of what LLMs actually are and how they work. #nzpol www.wheresyoured.at/premium-the-...
No, it's not a cut. They're just paying them in 1990 dollars. It's not just equivalent, but actually a slight funding increase, I assure you! 😉
It seems this provision was simply carried over from the Electoral Act 1956 when the Electoral Act 1993 was passed.
Quite bizarre that NZ electoral law still includes Samoan public servants in its definition of 'public servant' when Samoa gained independence in 1962. #nzpol
Who thought it was a good idea to have newly sworn-in ministers pose in front of a portrait of Charles I for official photos? Is this a result of complete historical ignorance or is someone at Government Housing taking the piss? 🤔
Are they going to try to blame the 'woke' governments of Savage and Fraser for this corruption of NZ's pure, colonial military culture? 🤔
My submission on the government's bill to overturn the High Court decision in relation to ACC backpay. #nzpol
A single image that captures NZ's dominant belief system and economic model #nzpol www.reddit.com/r/newzealand...
Macron recently appears to have been drawing style inspiration from Jean Dujardin's OSS 117 Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath - a dim-witted and arrogant French spy in a series of spoofs of 1960s spy films. I'm not quite sure what political message he is trying to send. 🤔
The Australian Government's argument that barring non-citizens from holding firearms licences or importing firearms is consistent with ICCPR is remarkably weak. www.ag.gov.au/sites/defaul... #auspol
Labour really needs to ask itself whether its message of 'Don't expect too much - you'll love it!' is going to do anything to stop the mass exodus of bright young people from the country. If it can't provide a more compelling vision, the country is in real trouble.
That Old Geelong Grammarians tie must be one of the most worn items in His Majesty's wardrobe. He has worn it regularly on his visits to Australia and when dealing with Australian affairs for decades.
After one of the more remarkable NZ foreign policy decisions in decades, the NZ Herald chooses to focus on the big issues. #nzpol
It is good to see the Public Health Advisory Committee putting out a substantial report looking at the broader determinants of health. I emphasised the need to use such a broader lens when considering health outcomes in the conclusion of my report for the Waitangi Tribunal several years ago.
- multiple uncompetitive markets in which prices are inexplicably higher than in comparable countries - limited, unreliable, and expensive public transport - failing infrastructure from years of underinvestment - run-down, but expensive rental housing stock
From a couple of books on my own shelf: The Australian Carpenter (1950 reprint, first published 1948) and Carpentry in New Zealand (1958). Expected standards in the US were almost certainly the same.
It may seem a bit pedantic, but this is another stylistic crime in the Oval Office. What are Phillips head screws doing in an early-20th-century neo-Georgian room?
The houses of National PMs say much about a party that seems increasingly out of touch and unconcerned by the hardships faced by society's most vulnerable. Muldoon's modest home stands in stark contrast to Key's mansion and Luxon's large property portfolio.
During my time on the Waitangi Tribunal staff, I joked that, by the language of MoJ at the time, the rangatira who signed the Treaty were Hobson's customers. The complete inappropriateness of "customers" in relation to Treaty claimants, those facing criminal prosecution, and many others was ...
For Bezalel Smotrich every possible action by others becomes yet another justification for ethnic cleansing and the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The Democrats are really mounting a strong resistance to Trump dragging the US into yet another Middle East war. 🤦♂️ Do the Americans never learn???
I know the word simply means "leader", but I couldn't help but find it a bit amusing/jarring to see Luxon and Xi described as "Führer" in this post. #nzpol