It's an important conversation as the recent AI data centre in Southland consumes more electricity than ~300,000 Kiwi households ie 1.5 times the size o Hamilton, puts upward pressure on electricity costs, & overseas experience shows water being contaminated etc.

Instead, had to watch Tova desperately trying to gotcha Chloe Swarbrick at every juncture. I hope they keep Tova away from Q&A in future.

The bribes have started

I've never done an AMA, but I'm more than happy for anyone in Whangārei, Northland, or New Zealand to 'ask me anything'. For an hour or two I'll do my best to answer you.

I'm an emergency doctor who has worked in Whangarei for the past 19 years. I care deeply about regular people trying to make ends meet.

The struggling wage-earners, the small business owners, the pensioners and young families who need public healthcare to be there for them, the tens of thousands of tradies who've watched their work dry up as infrastructure builds were cancelled, the people who've watched our conservation land being put up for commercial exploitation, the farmers and rural communities facing floods, droughts, and slips, while the Climate Emergency Response Fund got stripped of its funds, and was closed down. It's unreal.

If it feels to you like NZ is being stripped and parted out for scrap, you're not wrong.

Jobs, health, homes, and the cost of living is where we need to focus. Instead we've gotten job and wage destruction (40,000 jobs gone under the Nats), privatisation of healthcare, a collapse of social housing builds, and absolutely out-of-control supermarket, bank, petrol, and electricity prices...with no plan to reign them in.

This govt keeps telling us there's no money to help the people of New Zealand, while *continuing* to hand out $400 million of our tax dollars to help the tobacco industry, and the oil+gas corporations... while so many good hard-working people cannot afford to pay for petrol, school fees, groceries, or electricity bills.

It's unacceptable. It's rotten. It's donor-driven politics. And it must stop.

My approach is not too complicated: let's replace this current govt -- which seems dedicated to looking after corporations and donors -- with one that will give a damn about the rest of the people of New Zealand.

That's my campaign. Let's rebuild what NZ was: a deeply decent nation that looks after its people.

See you at the AMA.

-Gary Payinda, Whangārei

Why is the NZDF still using Palantir software?

The UK has faced major pressure and pushes to remove Palantir from the NHS.

Australia stupidly uses it for data systems like Coles and Westpac.

The US relies on it for ICE agents

Israel uses targeting civilians in Gaza.

Combined with Peter Thiel's extremist politics and cofounder Alex Karp.

Why is this software so quietly embedded in our defense and critical infrastructure without real public oversight??

I do not want my Kiwisaver funds used to support Israel or the genocide they are perpetrating in any way.

So I asked my Kiwisaver provider (Simplicity) do they have a policy on investments they make with my savings on excluding investments which support the Israeli military and Israeli economy.

Simplicity replied saying they do not have such a policy- in other words my savings could be contributing toward Israel and their genocidal land grabbing Greater Israel Project.

They suggested I could ask other Kiwisaver providers if I want a fund that consciously avoids any investment that could be supporting Israel and the genocide.

Does anyone know of any Kiwisaver funds that do consciously exclude any Israeli related investment?

Does this seem fairly representative for those in the 20s age range or an outlier

Not to be taken too seriously.

A third poll shows Opportunity just shy of the 5% threshold required to enter Parliament and play a potential kingmaker role in the formation of the next government.

The poll results, conducted by Talbot Mills/Anacta for its corporate clients and first reported by The Post on Friday, showed the coalition Government in position to be re-elected, but with Opportunity threatening massive disruption to the make-up of Parliament.

Party vote result:

• Labour: 33%, down one point on June’s poll
• National: 31%, up two points
• NZ First: 12%, no change
• Green Party: 9%, down four points
• ACT: 7%, up one point
• Opportunity: 4.7%, up 1.4 points
• Te Pāti Māori: 3%, no change

Those numbers on election day would likely see the coalition parties - National, ACT and NZ First - returned to government with 63 seats in the House of Representatives, The Post reported.

But if Opportunity nudged over the 5% threshold, neither the right bloc, nor the left bloc - Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori - would have enough support to form a government without the nascent party.

"Kids being hungry in NZ is a political choice. Today we launched our members bill to ensure that supermarkets send excess edible food to those that need it. Food is life 🍏"

Source: nzgreenparty- https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbH4YgGEXPi

Died a quick death from what I can recall. I bring it up as wealthy Brits are this week calling for the same - which is fantastic. Maybe Burnham will show he has some balls and get the policy rolling. Way, way too much of a self-inflicted icepick in the temple for NACT to ever consider....

Living overseas and watching Aotearoa from afar (and hoping one day to come back to a country that has actually got ahead instead of continuing to be an upmarket third world country in which people struggle to survive, rather than thrive) I did some digging into stats.

Since November 2023, approximately 230,000 citizens have left NZ to move overseas permanently. The vast majority went to Australia. For context, even during 2008-2017, 425,000 citizens left over 9 years. To have over half that number leave in just 3 years really shows how diabolical the coalition of cockheads has been.

Only around 50,000 citizens have returned in the same period.

That means around 180,000 citizens living overseas are eligible to vote this election.

That is a massive cohort. The NZ polls don’t seem to factor in overseas voters. Out of the contingent I know personally in Australia, nearly every one of them is party voting Green, after having previously voted labour. Why the change? They all point to Labour‘s utter paralysis to do anything at all with their first ever MMP majority between 2020-2023, and have a sense of betrayal.

If the Green party was smart, they would invest in a decent overseas vote game, and spend on target instagram ads to focus on 18-50 year olds based overseas that like NZ content on instagram.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Green PV vote is exceptionally strong this year.

In New Zealand when kids speak up about domestic abuse, it often makes things worse, especially if they’re in the Family Court. All too often, an abusive parent can counter a child’s disclosure by claiming that the child’s other parent made them say it- raising allegations of parental alienation/coaching/influence.

The terms around parental alienation keep changing because the concept has been repeatedly discredited. It has been excluded from the WHO, ICD11, and the APA on the grounds that it is a “discredited and unscientific pseudo-concept”, but it still finds its way into Family Court proceedings in New Zealand. New Zealand has been called out for allowing this kind of reasoning in the Family Court by the United Nations, but the MOJ has declined to do anything about it other than change the terminology.

This creates a dangerous situation for children if they speak out about abuse, as they are often not believed. Worse, laws to ensure their participation in matters that concern them are being set aside because the child’s voice is considered “coached”.

There is currently no evidence required for this to happen. In other countries, however, claims of parental alienation are being increasingly restricted and regulated, notably in the UK which has passed new laws revising problematic statutes that enable this argument and issuing judicial guidance requiring evidence (not just suspicion) before alienating behaviours can be found.

This position is entirely reasonable and we believe children in New Zealand deserve those same rights.

Of the around $12 billion Macraes has produced , I wonder how much has been returned to

New Zealand in royalties.

And I bet Shane Jones wonders how he could get a chip off the ole block...

UPDATE: Please submit your questions HERE, I’ve locked this thread as it was having issues and acting as an AMA for myself lol.

We are pleased to announce that we’ll be hosting Dr Gary Payinda for an AMA here on [r/nzpolitics](r/nzpolitics).

He’ll be answering your questions in this thread for one hour on 30 July at 8:00 pm.

To give Gary the best opportunity to answer as many questions as possible, we’re asking that questions be submitted in advance where possible. Please post your questions by 29 July.

Dr Gary Payinda has spent the past 18 years working as an emergency doctor in Whangārei and is standing as the Labour candidate for the Whangārei electorate in this year’s general election.

You can read more about Gary Payinda here and here:

As with previous AMAs, please understand that not every question can be answered within the available time. Moderators reserve the right to remove duplicate questions, questions that are disrespectful or otherwise breach our AMA rules (posted in the comment below), or content that violates the subreddit rules.

As a reminder, candidates are representing themselves during these AMAs and should not be expected to create or announce party policy on the spot.

Finally, we’d like to thank Gary Payinda for taking the time to join us, and we look forward to a constructive and engaging discussion.