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Helen Rickerby

@helenrickerby.bsky.social
189 followers 217 following 137 posts

Poet and so forth.

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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
CEO Johnny Cans @oldmatecans.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
If you took the $800 million National want to spend on 11km of road and shared it equally between all South Island Councils they'd each get $38 million to spend on roads which would have a wider net positive on roads than 11km of north Christchurch highway.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
IIML @modernletters.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Kirsten McDougall goes to the Verb Festival. Another highlight was Michelle de Kretser, who gave us an insight into the complex underpinnings of her novel Theory and Practice (expertly chaired by Kate Duignan).
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
CEO Johnny Cans @oldmatecans.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The cost of the PPP Warkworth boondoggle would have; - gold plated iRex and battery electric ferries - full Dunedin Hospital build - fed every schoolkid around the country for a decade - funded the flu jabs for U-12s - half price public transport for U25's AND HAVE WALKING AROUND MONEY SPARE
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Dylan Reeve @dylanreeve.com · 31/08/2026
Genuinely a bit amazed by how staggeringly tone deaf this is. Like I don't expect the Government to fully acknowledge the scope of the situation they've created, but this is still pretty out there. Youth unemployment is at 30-year high, and he's all like "just find a job"
rnz.co.nz
Watch: Christopher Luxon defends cuts to benefits for youth
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has defended tightening eligibility for jobseekers benefits for young people and encouraged them to do "whatever it takes" to get a job.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Katya @nzkatya.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Forget the Nats' half-arsed student debt policy and read the Green Party's policy on tertiary fees and student debt. See summary and full education policy here: www.greens.org.nz/education_po... #nzpol
2.7. Ensure equitable financial access to tertiary, vocational, and community adult
education for all New Zealanders, including by:
2.7.1. Providing fees-free tertiary education;
2.7.2. Introducing a universal student allowance for tertiary students that covers their
needs, including participation in society; and
2.7.3. Writing off all student loan debt.
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Anna Jackson @flewoutof.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
What a beautiful gift Paula Green has made for the world on Poetry Day: nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/08/28/p...
nzpoetryshelf.com
Poetry Shelf celebrates NZ Poetry Day with a Panel of Poets, Words of Hope and Lambing Season
Love Affair(a given poem from Katherine Mansfieldwith thanks to Helen McNeish) You wrote the tablewas laid for twobut nobody cameso you dined oppositea white napkin. It’s called giving yourse…
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Sharon Murdoch @domesticanimal.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Taxes pay for healthcare, medicines, education, arts, mental health, policing, infrastructure, housing, civil defence, environment, alleviate child poverty, aged care, etc, etc, etc. My #cartoon today #NZpol #taxes
Cartoon. Title: “Exit, stage left and right” Two panels. First panel PM Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins are frantically running from a little figure behind them who is waving and saying, “Hi! Guys!” 2nd frame the little figure is revealed as the word “TAX” still waving and smiling, saying, “Guys! Can I interest you in a Bed Tax? A Wealth Tax? How about a Levy? A Toll? How about a Toll?”
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Te Herenga Waka University Press @thwupbooks.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
A truly extraordinary profile of pip adam by Anna Rankin, up on ReadingRoom today. ♥️💙💚 newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/26/p...
newsroom.co.nz
Portrait of the artist raised on soap opera and sci-fi
An extraordinary interview with NZ's most original literary novelist.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions @nzctu.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
#nzpol New data from Stats NZ shows us that pay gaps in Aotearoa are widening. Our world-leading pay equity system was closing those gaps – and then the National-led Government gutted it without warning. This election year, we need to vote for pay equity.
Purple campaign graphic titled “WORKING FOR FREE CALENDAR” with a flower emblem reading “Respect Us, Value Us, Pay Us.” Text lists dates when different demographic groups are effectively working unpaid due to the pay gap: Pacific women (1 Oct), Pacific men (18 Oct), Māori women (20 Oct), Asian women (21 Oct), MELAA women (2 Nov), Māori men (9 Nov), and Pākehā women (20 Nov). Footnote explains dates are based on average (mean) wage gaps compared with Pākehā men and notes mean figures better reflect workforce diversity. Logos: NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi, Still Minding the Gap, YWCA, and PECA.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Robot Muldoom @robot-muldoom.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Since the coalition was elected, landlords have received benefits equivalent to more than 25 years of Treaty settlement redress. #nzpol
nzherald.co.nz
Landlord tax break cost rose by $800m to $2.9b
National’s pre-election fiscal and tax plans costed the policy at $2.1b.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
And the flip side of this is what pisses me off with these modern moral panics: the insistence that online spaces are somehow, MAGICALLY more toxic, mysteriously and RANDOMLY more misogynist/racist/homophobic, oh where do these attitudes come from idk have you seen THE REST OF OUR SOCIETY'S NORMS
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
🐻Iona🐻 @bewarethefish.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Have the Labour Party been paying any attention during this current term of Parliament? This is delusional thinking.
“The Select Committee process will provide all Kiwis to with the chance to have their say. The Bill is not perfect and undoubtedly can be improved. We particularly want to make sure the proposed safety nets don’t do more harm than good,” Labour science, technology and innovation spokesperson Reuben Davidson said.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Sara @lotts.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"Instead of banning children from social media which we know does not work and blocks them from the benefits, we should put resources into creating legal duties of care for platforms, ensuring they are safe for everyone to use". Dr Cassandra Mudgway #nzpol
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Anna Jackson @flewoutof.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I so love Paula's response to my poetry lecture! And I feel like the Poetry Shelf is a good place to shelve a link to it. nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/08/25/p...
nzpoetryshelf.com
Poetry Shelf celebrates Professor Anna Jackson’s inaugural lecture: Poets hand translation over to ghosts
Poets hand translation over to ghosts “Today i am going to talk as truthfully as I can about what I really believe poetry is doing, how truly strange a form of communication I think poetry is…
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Mickey @mickeytreadwell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
They're not blocking Discord, Roblox, or any of the big AI chatbots: preventing online harm isn't really the aim here, is it? #nzpol
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Anna Jackson @flewoutof.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Poets hand translation over to ghosts, I say. You can follow my reasoning, perhaps, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVYI...
youtube.com
Poets hand translation over to ghosts: Inaugural Lecture by Professor Anna Jackson
YouTube video by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Anna Jackson @flewoutof.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I'm in Auckland on Friday, reading with Oscar Mardell, Sophie van Waardenberg, Nirvana Haldar and Rahul Hendriksen, at one of my favourite ever bookshops! Come along if you are around.
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Anna Jackson @flewoutof.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Chris Tse plans to ask us everything from what do you know about your next book before you start writing it to how do you know when it's done? And I want to know what he'll say too. If I wrote one of his poems I'd think it perfect after the first line but I'd also want to keep writing it forever.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Rebecca Matthews @rebeccamatthews.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
So Andy Foster, on the council for 30 years AND part of the government that passed water legislation and signed off on Tiaki Wai, thinks Wellington’s water issues are everybody else’s fault????
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Helen Rickerby @helenrickerby.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I'm looking forward to being part of the NZSA Panel of Poets with legends Chris Tse, Anna Jackson and Jackson McCarthy, talking about poetry and such. All welcome, Tuesday 25 August, 6pm, level 2, 57 Willis Street. authors.org.nz/event/nzsa-w...
authors.org.nz
NZSA Wellington presents Panel of Poets | New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
There are very rich New Zealanders paying to ensure the majority of us have no healthcare, insecure housing, unsafe workplaces, lower wages and more racism. This is the world they want for us. #nzpol
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Morgan Davie @fromthemorgue.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
incredible effort. Mere days after surviving a leadership challenge due to so much bad press, Chris Luxon is back leading the news reports for *checks notes* having difficulty crossing a street and complaining about it a masterclass #nzpol
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
From the comments under that report ...
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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
"We could afford a home in Ngaio straight out of university, and now a cycleway on the single-lane one-way road I have to cross to get to my job from my luxury apartment is the worst problem in my life" literally everything wrong with our society, in one man
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Pàra @para14.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Excuse me, does this guy know what "very difficult" means or is he genuinely incapable of using the pedestrian crossing like a normal human?
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Mark @maetl.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
NZ society needs to accept how comprehensively the neoliberal reforms failed to do what was promised and stop enabling the ideology to perpetuate.
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CEO Johnny Cans @oldmatecans.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This country spent seven years carefully establishing a water regulatory framework and setting up large nationalised water organisations to give effective scale, and then three years cancelling that and bodging together 40 really expensive water companies to make anti-Māori racists feel better.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Te Herenga Waka University Press @thwupbooks.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
'I think this is my most desperate book. It’s screaming. I don’t feel happy about it – I mean it’s the best book I could have written, but it breaks my heart that I wrote it.' pip adam on kluge, in conversation with Hera Lindsay Bird 💙💚💛 thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-08-...
thespinoff.co.nz
‘A creature not a tool’: Pip Adam’s new novel shoots for the heart of AI
'It’s the best book I could have written – but it breaks my heart that I wrote it.'
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
The Spinoff @thespinoff.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
‘A creature not a tool’: Pip Adam’s new novel shoots for the heart of AI
thespinoff.co.nz
‘A creature not a tool’: Pip Adam’s new novel shoots for the heart of AI
'It’s the best book I could have written – but it breaks my heart that I wrote it.'...
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Book Haven @bookhavennz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Which cover will you choose? There's 4 styles of kluge, designed by @toddatticus.com And that's just the cover, inside is another world (or is it?) - it's a world of AI companies. @pipadam.bsky.social says kluge is a scream in a dark room. It's a workplace satire about AI and the value of a body...
Four piles of the book kluge: purple, orange, red & blue.
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Tara @taracomics.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Happy book launch @pipadam.bsky.social
taracomics.substack.com
kluge by pip adam
Drawings from a book launch at Aro Valley Community Centre
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Bad Guitar Player @nzstever.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Erica Stamford, one of the main contenders for Luxon's job yesterday, and re-writer of school curriculums without the input from actual educators, has presided over the removal of climate change altogether from the new syllabus. Get these clowns out of here! #nzpol newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/14/c...
newsroom.co.nz
Climate change omitted from new science and social science curriculums
The Ministry of Education drops all mentions of climate change and fossil fuels from new school curriculums, sparking alarm from an academic and educator
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The snatching away of promised pay equity is basically a huge tax on 180,000+ women and other workers in traditionally undervalued frontline (which is to say essential) jobs. And the government went and spent it on what, exactly?? So yeah, why aren’t we yelling about it all the time and forever.
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Lew @lewsos.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Imagine if we were ruled by people who'd read Dostoevsky, rather than semi-literate ideologues: "Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him"
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Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
A petty reason to crow over Chris Penk, but as Minister for Land Information he nixed changing Petone to Pito One and Russell to Kororāreka, and wouldn’t add a macron to Rangitīkei and Manawatū. These name proposals are thoroughly researched and consulted for years, but he declined them on vibes.
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Helen Rickerby @helenrickerby.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Sacrificial lamb Chris Penk briefly went up in my estimations, but then I read his Wikipedia page, remembered all the things he's done (or not done), and he went crashing back down again. Perhaps not the worst thing, but he is the reason Russell isn't Korarāreka again (yet).
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Pip Adam @pipadam.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
New episode of Better off Read. My new book kluge comes out on Thursday. i'm doing four events to celebrate the four colours the cover comes in. You can read about them and listen to a short excerpt here better-read.com/2026/08/11/k...
better-read.com
kluge: four covers four events
My new novel kluge is released in Aotearoa this week. Read about kluge Thanks to the amazing work of Te Herenga Waka University Press and Todd Atticus it has a beautiful cover which comes in four c…
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Reposted by Helen Rickerby
Morgan Davie @fromthemorgue.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Gotta hand it to him, distracting media from the "Air Force transport to party fundraiser" scandal by inventing an even bigger negative story out of nowhere, truly next-level #nzpol genius on display here www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
rnz.co.nz
Luxon catches caucus off-guard with promise to hold MMP referendum if re-elected
Christopher Luxon has caught his caucus off-guard with a seemingly off-the-cuff campaign promise to hold a referendum on the MMP voting system if re-elected.
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Dylan Reeve @dylanreeve.com · 05/08/2026
At some point we — all of us — have to have a serious conversation about priorities. We can't just keep squeezing corporate profits out of everything and insisting everyone just make do somehow.
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Catherine Robertson @cjrauthor.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Poetry-lovers in Hawke's Bay - last year we had over 90 people come along, so get in quick for the 2026 Party of Poets. There's a bar! And tickets are only $5!
Poster for Party of Poets 2026, Tuesday 18 August, at the Cabana Napier, doors open at 6pm for a 6.30pm start, tickets only $5!
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Simon Sweetman @simonsweetman.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Super stoked to be part of this lineup in the Bay next month!
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 28/07/2026
the current NZ govt is so anti-science that they've changed eligibility for the Prime Minister's Science Prizes to rule out awards to people doing basic science eg from 2026 the MacDiarmid is for work with "potential to generate econ, health, social, or env benefits for New Zealand" #nzpol
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Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
If the people you are paying to write a curriculum need to use "AI tools" to "check and generate content", you are paying the wrong people and you should actually not have dumped the people who are capable of these core tasks.
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Richard Hills @richardhills.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Great to see that National support 30 weeks Paid Parental Leave. Especially after they voted against the introduction of PPL. Blocked the extension to 26 weeks for several years. Canceled 33 pay equity claims. And just this year, cut Best Start payments for the majority of new parents.
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Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
The PM SCRAMBLING to make women voters forget he dumped pay equity and that the govt has been hostile to most women for 3 years. #nzpol
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IIML @modernletters.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The Frontier Poetry Myths & Fables Prize for emerging writers is now open for entries! First Prize USD$3000. ‘We are especially interested in work that explores underrepresented mythologies and stories not often given space in the Western literary canon.’
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Yorrike. @yorrike.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Geologist here who's worked in the NZ oil and gas industry. This is bullshit.
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Paula Green @paulajoygreen.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/07/17/p...
nzpoetryshelf.com
Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Haro Lee poetry launch at Time Out
Join us to celebrate the publication of Watching Television in a Love Motel, an unforgettable first book of poetry by Haro Lee. The book will be launched by Jenna Todd.  Friday 17 July, 6pmUps…
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Patrick Reynolds for a greater Auckland @patrickreynolds.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Which investment is more likely to help make NZ more prosperous and happier: A century of new scientific research across the nation, or an unnecessary duplicate road in rural Auckland?
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