Julie O’Toole

Wow! The Regulatory Standards Bill could force taxpayers to compensate polluters, stop any efforts to help nature/climate & cost tens of millions of dollars a year?! Treasury and Ministry officials confirm Seymour's Regulatory Standards Bill is a hot mess. #nzpol

"It's fundamentally not true that the less government you have, the more free you are. If you have poor government, people are not free. People are then subject to arbitrariness and violence... subject to the rule of the wealthy." Talking with @anneapplebaum and @peterpomeranzev

This government is a joke. Governing by gut instinct: when science surrenders to ministerial reckons #nzpol thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350440…

Counterpoint: NZ's true potential will only be realised when the adaptability, connectedness, energy, and knowledge that Māori bring to the table is invested in through the return of stolen land and economic power. Until then we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

What I'd just say to you is, let them eat cake.

Rod Emmerson’s cartoons: Week of August 26 - September 1 nzherald.co.nz/nz/rod-emmerso…

In 1968 Finland banned for profit education, the few private schools that exist in Finland have to reinvest any profit they make or pay it back to parents. It has been in the Top 3 in education for the last 20 years. There should be no profit in education or healthcare.

Alarm bells should be ringing: “a new departmental agency, independent of the Ministry of Education, would be created to implement, operate and monitor the performance of charter schools.” Brian Tamaki’s enthusiasm for these schools is also telling. newshub.co.nz/home/politics/…

The repeal of Three Waters is proving to be the self-inflicted debacle we all knew it would be. The (small) TLAs that would benefit the most opposed it. In the week when AKL smugly carves out its deal, Northland ratepayers are suffering. This should have been a joint effort.

Folks, NZ govt is pulling the few safety nets communities have to even identify where online threats are coming from & getting rid of digital teams in DIA, the NZ Police and who knows where else. NZ has higher posters per capita than the USA (according to DIA's own research). 1/

NZ political donations data for 2023 just published. Rightwing parties raised $15m (Nats $10.4m, Act $4.6m), almost double the left's $8m total (Labour $4.8m, Greens $3.3m, Māori $160,000). NZ First raised $1.9m. elections.nz/democracy-in-n…

#BHN There isn't a "fiscal hole" the previous Government funded Pharmac in three year cycles, the next round of funding was due this year and prices have gone up. Don't believe ACT's bs, they're setting up the health system to tamper with it and blame Labour #nzpol

ACT is a neoliberal #AtlasNetwork party. As such it recognises only one motive: greed, & serves only those who excel at greed: billionaires & giant corporations. The beauty, creativity, diversity & complexity of human culture, and of the biosphere, means nothing to these vandals.

Buying influence: 101 through use of cronyism - appointing "cronies" to positions of authority regardless of their qualifications. Major requisites are a lot of gall, a thick skin and a willingness to always serve the paymaster. No moral compass needed. stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350259…

At the start of their term Labour were following the trend of paying back debt from the pervious few years...then COVID hit and they borrowed to keep businesses open and allow people to stay at home when they were sick giving us an amazing per capita death rate. They could have borrowed less, but that would have equalled more dead NZers. What many are leaving out of the conversation is why the debt is around 100 million and not nearer $50 million after COVID...and it's because National in their previous term took debt from about $25 billion to $70-$75 billion...how much of the blame for what we are paying in interest right now does one put on that explosion of debt by National? What did we get for that debt because what we got for this debt is more alive people and more businesses that survived the economic downturn? No one's arguing that Labour didn't make a decision to borrow more, but one has to include in that conversation one of the reasons we are, where we are, right now is thanks to John Key and his team who seemed to borrow for...well I'm still looking for the reasons. #nzpol

The disaster unfolds

How three men get unprecedented power from a coalition bill rnz.co.nz/news/political… Why isn't there huge outrage about this? From the Opposition from the media @1NewsNZ @NewshubNZ @NewstalkZB @nzherald enabling these 3 to override decisions made by the judiciary isn't democracy!

Giving it our best shot, d te whānau. Would love your help 🙏🏽together.org.nz/save_our_stori…

If this doesn't make NZers unite in protest, nothing will Govt wants to lock NZ in to paying oil companies for financial damages should a future govt put sanctions on the oil industry. #Fight4TheFuture #StopLuxonsGreed nzherald.co.nz/business/gover…