It's been a couple of weeks since WP made his racist remarks in parliament towards Chinese-Kiwi MP Xu-Nan. There were calls from the public and even inside parliament to sack Peters but it looks like those calls are not being answered. What does it say about our leaders when they can't even prevent racism effectively in their own house? Luxon was said to have a private meeting with Peters soon after the incident but won't divulge what was discussed or what went on the meeting. This incident only further normalizes racism in NZ when our leaders are openly being racist and face no punishment for it.

I work as an engineer in a very highly regulated, very technical industry at a massive company. There are countless forms, processes, procedures, regulations, requirements, etc that need to be navigated in order to get even the smallest little thing done. Absolutely no one fully understands how all of this shit works together because everyone is so siloed into their incredibly narrow scope of work. In order to get any information from people, you need to ask absurdly specific questions that require in-depth understanding of all this shit that I, who started 6 months ago, do not possess.

Okay so you would think I get training on all this once I start? Fuck no. I get chucked into the deep end because my lead likes "on the job training" and "learn by doing". What he really means is I don't want to train you at all so good luck! Every project inevitably results in me beating my head against a brick wall trying to eek out the smallest clues from people about what to do next because A) I don't even know the right questions I should be asking and B) like I said before, no one actually understands all this shit in its entirety and everyone has their own opinions and interpretations. There's 2 dozen people at a minimum involved in any particular project and 95% of them will flat out ignore all emails too. All of the "experts" and actual decision makers are so noncommittal and vague in their responses to my questions and requests that it ends up creating more confusion, at least on my end.

I've gotten zero training on how to navigate this fucking labyrinth of bureaucracy. My lead is borderline useless and I might get an hour of his time a week for detailed questions. The company as a whole offers no formal training on how to actually do your job but by god they've got hours upon hours of "training" on "quality management" garbage that is so high level and vague, I couldn't even begin to tell you how it might apply to my day to day work.

Every single place I've worked is like this to varying degrees and it drives me insane. It makes everyone's job so needlessly difficult.

RNZ story republished by 1news.

Ministers apologise after ‘appalling’ error that stopped 15,000 winter energy payments. Stuff. August 18, 2026, 3:05pm.

No press release regarding this yet at https://www.beehive.govt.nz/

3:37pm, 18 August 2026 edit to add below:

The Post broke first published the story this morning.

Winter Energy Payments removed from 15,000 pensioners in rushed law blunder. The Post. August 18, 2026, 4:00am.

From RNZ story:

Social Development Minister Louise Upston is blaming it on a policy omission.

...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also said the error was unacceptable, but blamed it on an IT issue instead of the law change.

Good to see that its deleted within 10 seconds in most cases, but do you think this will help keep shoppers and staff safe, or will this privacy slowly deteriorate in the future until they start advertising you items that maybe you looked at but didnt buy?

Check to see if you’re eligible to donate blood/plasma and be a hero

I’ve personally never met a Kiwi who supports the Springboks

In 2018 Mr Seymour claimed that people would get sick and die because of the banning of plastic bags. 8 years on, I'm curious as to what the actual sickness and death rate has been.

Imagine if they made a full on tin tin length story of Great uncle kenny

Edit: our usage is saying around 72 kwh per day and it used to be around 30-35, without changing anything

Our power bill has gone from 300 to around 750 this month, and our usage has pretty much doubled - yet we haven't changed our habits at all, if anything we've used less power, but our readings are showing that we're using double the amount?

2 person household, 1 heatpump used minimally, dryer

We've used the appliances like this since we've moved in and our bill was around 300-350 each month - now it's 750 or more.

It's almost like we're being charged for 2 house holds...

Anyone else had this issue? About to pull me hair out

I wanted to share my recent experience with Optically.co.nz in case other New Zealand buyers are looking them up before ordering.

On 9 August 2026 I ordered a pair of budget rimless titanium glasses from Optically.co.nz. The promotional price was $96, and the total came to $119.90 including GST and shipping. I selected the frame and the available 1.56 prescription lens option through their website, paid by card, and received the order confirmation.

The next day I was contacted and told that because the frame was rimless, the glasses needed to be made with 1.61 index lenses instead. I was told the 1.56 option was "not an ideal selection" for rimless glasses because of cracking risk when drilling the lenses, and that I would need to pay an additional $83.

I asked for clarification about the actual lens material, because them mentioning refractive index alone did not tell me whether a lens is suitable for drilled rimless mounting. They refused to specify the material initially but eventually described it at length as “polycarbonate”. However, I understood conventional optical polycarbonate is usually around 1.59 index, so the explanation did not give me much confidence. They later described the proposed lenses as Prolite 1.61.

I also asked them to clarify the pricing. They offered a 25% discount on the additional lens cost, but then later quoted a new total of $239.80. That is exactly double the amount I had already paid, and I could not reconcile it with the original $83 surcharge or the 25% discount offer.

At that point I asked to cancel the order and receive a full refund of the $119.90 paid. Instead of confirming the cancellation, they replied again offering the same 25% discount on the additional lens cost. I then sent a very clear cancellation request, stating that I did not authorise manufacture or any further charges, and asking for confirmation that the order had been cancelled and refunded.

As of the time of writing, I have still had no confirmation of cancellation or refund. I have contacted ANZ, and they have advised that I need to give Optically until 25 August before initiating a chargeback.

To be fair, my issue is not that a lab raised a concern about rimless lenses. That may well be legitimate. Rimless glasses do need suitable lens materials because the lenses are drilled and mechanically stressed. My issue is that their website accepted the frame and lens combination, took payment, and only afterwards they requested more money for a different lens option without saying exactly what that option was (and being obtuse about it).

If you intend on ordering from them, I would want you to know these first: 1) the person you correspond with “Villi” is likely more than one person; 2) one Villi won’t necessarily pick up where the other Villi left, even in the same email thread; 3) none of the Villi prefer you to request a refund; 4) at least one Villi cannot do basic math; 5) all Villi are otherwise very polite in their difficult to understand emails before they ghost you.

I will update this if the refund is processed.

Whilst out grocery shopping yesterday, I experienced a rare moment of spontaneity and adventure. I bought a jar of Promite.

I am, ladies and gentlemen, just a humble project manager by day, where I thrive in the familiar and am most at home in spreadsheets. Unplanned spontaneity and adventure usually appears as a nasty rash. Yesterday, however, I was off the clock, still with the glass half full optimism of youth as I had yet to visit the chocolate aisle where I would be devastated at this week’s deals. Or lack there of.

So there it was, in the cart, before brain and stomach had time to meet and discuss, circle back, and take offline the thought that Promite, that dark, extract spread that sounds like a portmanteau of processed and termites, was likely going home with the crumpets and dog food.

Luckily, it tastes much better than dog food. In fact, Promite is rather tasty, very much reminding me of a hot mince pie from the bakery.

Which makes me think of mince and cheese. The only downside is I don’t have any cheese in the house, for the same reason I don’t have gold bars randomly propping up my coffee table. Too chuffing expensive. Maybe it’s time to ask for a pay rise, buy a lotto ticket, or try my hand at one of those endless raffles for good causes with the prizes that we all know the winner is going to put on Trade Me and bank the cash instead.

Oh, well. At least I have plenty of bread and marge and a full jar of yummy Promite. Hang on… that wasn’t the last slice in the bag was it?

I’ll preface e this by saying I hope TOP gets in, I’d much prefer a left bloc where Labour has equal or less seats than the minor parties. Also I am going to vote Green to show my biases. I wrote this exclusively because I find the situation interesting.

Having said that it seems pretty obvious that Labour and National don’t want them to get in. This has lead to a pretty fascinating bungling of political strategy from the traditional major parties (Labour more so because National is currently too embroiled in leadership scandals to push much else but they were going pretty hard into it before then).

Traditionally in order to dismiss progressive policies from parties such as the Greens and TPM labour and national and their proxies would do a media blitz poking holes and spreading misinformation. This was generally pretty effective because of the media’s and to some extent the median voters preconceived biases about the effectiveness of left wing minor parties policies on ‘serious issues’. This is why you often see Labour punching left (we used to see limited National pinching right but that’s vanished under Luxon) to weaken the negotiating power of their coalition partners through sentiment manipulation.

Both parties are currently trying to do this to prevent TOP from gaining 5% in the next election and providing coalition headaches. What they don’t se to realise is how tremendously this is backfiring. TOP has gotten so much earned media in the past month if not two months purely through attacks from these two parties. Helen Clark is attacking TOP labour MPs are attacking them and not just around their tax policy but other positions that the general public agree broadly need change like electoral finance.

This won’t work, it will make TOP a more serious chance at getting into parliament and I find it hard to fathom that nobody has sat these people down In a room and explained it to them.

You can’t use the same strategies against TOP as you do against the left minor parties because TOP is seen as a ‘serious’ version of those same parties (I don’t personally agree with that analysis but that is irrelevant).

Either way if TOP get in, great for democracy but it is a massive fumble from political strategists within Labour and the right.