iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

7/15. Can’t believe that we pay for some of this food.

Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I go the other way on this. Given the significant amount of information out there about the nztu, including hagers book and my research team’s work, teachers will have a lot of stuff to put in front of students which does not promote the organisation.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is a pretty-good takedown of some of the claims that Jordan Williams made on Q&A over the weekend.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Some thoughts on Nicky Hager's "Dirty Work: The Taxpayers' Union and New Zealand's Hard Right" which was launched tonight. These thoughts are informed by a research project we did earlier this year looking at NZTU discourses which involved analysing two years of its media releases and other outputs.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just home from Hager's launch of 'Dirty Work: The Taxpayers' Union and New Zealand's Hard Right'. We did some work on the NZTU which may be of interest to people who want to understand some more about NZTU strategies. Report: tinyurl.com/WhoCountsANZ. 5 videos: www.youtube.com/@WhoCounts

tinyurl.com

OSF

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Unity books is packed for hager. Like I pity anyone who turned up to browse for a book. Definitely bigger venue required.

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Lew @lewsos.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Well if it isn't the stupid thing that everyone said would happen starting to happen as a result of the govt's stupid law changes Young man charged with assault after attempted citizen's arrest www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-a...

rnz.co.nz

Young man charged with assault after attempted citizen's arrest

A young man has been charged with assault after a citizen's arrest in Hamilton allegedly went too far.

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Reposted by Kyle Matthews

D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Destroying life-supporting capacity!!The absolute venal stupidity of these people. “Industry groups - Fonterra, Federated Farmers, HorticultureNZ - …argued that protecting the “life-supporting capacity” of ecosystems could give environmental protection too much weight in decision-making” #nzpol

thepost.co.nz

How Big Farm lobbyists helped rewrite new RMA laws

Documents show Federated Farmers, DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ, Fonterra and Horticulture NZ using a private meeting with ministers to push specific changes to the Natural Environment Bill.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Drove past this sign tonight. It is so well done, I had to look twice to figure it out.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Exactly. Its entirely possible that some working class guy believes that the beneficiary family next door gets more than he does on the benefit (note, both adults and the child earn money, so it's three people compared to his one income). But Henry shouldn't be amplifying such nonsense. Twit.

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Paula Penfold @paulapenfold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I spoke to Sarah Kapene at 7 on a Saturday morning as she finished her final shift in the emergency department. It was another 12 hour one and she feels relief at the decision to not go back. She and other nurses and doctors describe what it’s like on the frontline of NZ’s EDs.

stuff.co.nz

‘The system’s just broken me’: The pressure in ED is overwhelming

Emergency department doctors and nurses across New Zealand describe conditions they say are unsafe

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This place is getting 110% of our supermarket budget. I suspect I buy petrol at BP because of its green branding, and the signs are a bonus.

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Nick Young @nickofnz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Get this! Cleaning up pollution caused by the dairy industry’s nitrogen fertiliser costs NZ ten times more than farmers spend buying the fertiliser in the first place. One of the many ways we subsidise the dairy industry. #TooManyCows newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/01/t...

newsroom.co.nz

Costly, harmful and addictive – the huge hidden cost of our synthetic fertiliser habit

Comment: Cleaning up nitrogen pollution costs 10 times more than buying the fertiliser in the first place, freshwater ecologist Dr Simon Stewart argues.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’ve just been looking at health professional numbers in the Waikato for work. Māori make up only 2.4% of senior doctors in the region. We need to feed more Māori doctors into the system to fix this problem. That happens by med school admissions. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

MAPAS review hasn't proven scheme is discrimination - Seymour

ACT leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour says a university medical programme that targets Māori and Pacific students is built on "racial discrimination", and a new review hasn't proven other...

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I find it bizarre that MPs have to attend questions time, which is a completely waste of time and political theatre. This morning two iwi filled the gallery to witness their settlements being passed and there was maybe a dozen MPs present. Weird priorities here.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Apparently spending 3 years having a baby tantrum is bad for your professional career. Who’d thunk?

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

School Strike 4 Climate Wellington.

Front of school strike march in Wellington.

Keep the carbon in the ground banner at school strike in Wellington.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Approximately 10% of applications for Royal society postdoctoral fellowships are funded. Currently waiting to hear about my second attempt. Looking forward to picking up some walking around research money if it gets rejected.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Wasting the past decades by not ending fossil fuels so that we can keep on not ending them and make things even worse over the coming decades.

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Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 01/09/2026

Many of you know a core group of us have been working on a campaign for treating MSc and PhD scholars fairly. The core of that is for them to have the rights of employment and be paid a living wage. At the meeting tonight, we settled on a name: Research Is Work Please spread the word. 🙏

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

My wife has just gone through the worst flu she has ever had - we were close to taking her to ED. Here’s the political story behind that flu.

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Night of the Living Red Durkin @daedsider.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Lawn darts killed three children before they were completely banned in the United States.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Research estimates that 8 million people die prematurely from our burning of fossil fuels, mostly as a result of poor air quality. What happened in Nepal this morning was the most horrifying example of that figure - collapsing ice releasing meltwater lakes into human communities.

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Nyika @puzzledbyadream.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Just to say, if you are a neurodivergent ECR or grad student in AoNZ and fancy collaborating on a social sciences paper about neurodivergence and time in the university, there’s still time to get involved. Long shot, I appreciate, going to tag this with #NZPol so some people see it.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I start work as a public servant today, until the election, so my account might become less political and more research focused for a while. But this seems appropriate given the Labour party’s financial policy release as a last post before I wander into the beehive.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Between 1867 and 1996 the Māori electorates limited the political power of Māori relative to their population. Now that they're being used to increase political power in some tiny way everyone is waving the threat of removing them over Māori. Bugger off. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...

nzherald.co.nz

Labour MP says Te Pāti Māori strategy may threaten integrity of Māori seats

Te Pāti Māori says its approach gives the left the best shot of beating the coalition.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

New Zealand’s government plans to reallocate >$100m in science funding, partly justified by claims NZ “overweights” ag & environmental science vs peers, and underinvests in tech. I checked the numbers behind that claim. Some of it holds up. Most of it doesn’t. 🧵 www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...

mbie.govt.nz

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

An astonishing email today from the Stephen Franks at the FSU re: O'Brien's HDCA action against Bradbury: 1. The FSU found out that their board member was taking this action via the media. 2. Claims of FSU hypocrisy are ridiculous. 3. FSU wishes that Ani had not commenced this case because it has

Email from the FSU:
You may have seen reports of court action Ani O’Brien has brought against the blogger Martyn Bradbury under the Harmful Digital Communications Act.

The case has provided more mainstream media attention to the gagging orders which courts make under that Act, than any of the many cases we have highlighted. That attention is overdue, and it is welcome. Better late than never for them to come on board with our campaign for major reform of that dangerous Act.

As soon as I knew about the case and the Council discussed it, we confirmed our policy publicly, in a media release.

We commended The Post (part of Stuff) for not taking down their initial reports despite warnings from the judge. And we supported Mr Bradbury’s arguments that court suppression was dangerous.

That was to clear the air: to dispel any doubt about the consistency of our position on what should happen to that Act.

After the first day it became clear the media attention was not belated recognition that the HDCA suppresses freedom of speech, nor that it gags journalists who want to report truthfully about powerful people. They seemed little interested in the problem that the law turns on whether a statement is distressing to the subject. Truth is not the defence it should be, and the public interest in knowing carries too little weight.

Media did not ask us about the bad features of the law. Or the good elements that have meant that our policy is for reform, not repeal of the Act.

Instead, the media were driving to paint the court case as Free Speech Union hypocrisy. It was clear they thought the Free Speech Union was suing Mr Bradbury. They sensed a gotcha.

They shifted gear when it became plain that we were not involved, that the case was entirely a private initiative by Ani. Their effort turned to trying to establish that the Free Speech Union should somehow be responsible for it nevertheless.

The Union did not bring the action, fund it, or authorise it, and it is not brought on our behalf. The first I heard of the case was the day The Post published its first story on it. The Council had never discussed the proceedings, considered them, or resolved to back them, and most of us learned the nature of the case from details extracted from the newspaper reports.

We explained our unchanged position on the law to enquiring journalists. The HDCA was obviously badly drafted and open to misuse from the time it was announced over 10 years ago. But it passed because it was well-intentioned. And there are some provisions that most of us would want to see continued. The law should give remedies for lies, deep-fakes and revenge porn.

It could meet the gap left by court decisions and processes that have destroyed the defamation deterrent to lying in social media. Only the rich can afford defamation law.

Yet HDCA orders are too easy to obtain, they reach too far, and they are made before the other side is heard. Courts should not be able to suppress reporting of the fact of a case. So we supported Melissa Lee MP’s Member’s Bill to reform the Act.

In the meantime, Ani voluntarily withdrew from the Council’s discussion of her case and the issue. That was appropriate because of the appearance of a conflict of interests. But combined with the court’s wide suppression order, it meant that the Council has lacked potentially important information. We have not seen the blog posts that are the subject of Ani’s complaints.

Ani’s own position is that the case was never about criticism of her politics, her work or her opinions. She has repeatedly stated that she still believes the Act is flawed and needs reform: you can read her statement here.

The Council was pleased that Ani chose to ask the court to lift the suppression on identification of the parties. That removed one of our concerns. We are strongly in favour of open justice. But most details remain secret. That is a key feature of the HDCA. I am glad that media have been frustrated by that. Not because it is a good thing, but because it shows how easily the law could be misused. The next hearing is on 9 December, so we’ll all be in the dark on the detail until then.

Some members will feel Ani should not have used this law, whether or not it was intended for her situation, because of our policy. We understand the concern. Applying to benefit from a law you have criticised can be a contradiction.

As a lawyer, I might be desensitised because I am frequently obliged to help a client benefit from law that needs reform, but probably everyone will do it at some time in their lives. National Superannuation is refused by few people who believe it should be means-tested, or the age of eligibility raised. People with strong views on tax reform will nevertheless claim deductions they think should not exist. They may become uncompetitive if they do not.

Law is of general application. Bad law does not get reformed any earlier if good people leave it to be used only by people who do not care that it is bad.

In the result, the Council decided that as well as firmly stating our policy, we must acknowledge the criticism flowing from the action, alleging Free Speech Union hypocrisy, by expressing our preference that the case had not been commenced. We understand discomfort that a Council member used this law. We cannot be indifferent to the complete suppression of the early interim order. But it is not our policy that the law should never be used. In this case we do not know important facts needed to pass judgment on the overall merits. Our own reform policy will result in continuing use of the HDCA.

Our Union of thousands of members, a Council of ten, and staff, is not a sect that demands that everyone think alike, or get Union permission to use law we have criticised. We don’t ask people to swear off personal benefit from a law while it is on the books, as the price of arguing that it should change. Or as a price of membership of the Union, or its Council.

I am grateful to Ani for many contributions. One effect of the case, whatever anyone intended, is that our campaign to reform the Act now has more public attention than it has ever had. It would not be the first time that reforms have gained momentum when reformers show their opponents how they can be caught by bad law.

Ani has served on our Council for more than five years. She has given this Union an enormous amount of her own time. This winter she hosted all ten Good Faith Yarns conversations, Queenstown to Nelson, on a tour built around the idea that people should be able to disagree well and in good faith. She did that work generously and she did it well.

Her term on the Council ends at our AGM on 12 September, and she will leave the Council then. That decision was made before any of this became public. We thank her for all she has done for the free speech cause, and look forward to continuing the association and the benefit from her eloquent contributions.

I hope that public attention to her case in the lead up to the next hearing on 9 December will help focus a new government on the need to purge and remodel the Harmful Digital Communications Act.

Suppression should be the rare exception. The defences that statements are true, or merely opinion, should have near conclusive weight.

Thank you for your support,

Stephen Franks,
Council Chair | Free Speech Union of New Zealand.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Writing a journal article on the FSU is in my list of things to get to once I get two or three other journal articles out of the way. I'm thinking that it'll be titled along the lines of "The Principles of Hypocrisy: The FSU and 'Free Speech' in Aotearoa".

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I think the key issue this election is, if Opportunity hovers around/just over 5%, whether otherwise Labour/Green/Te Pāti Māori voters strategically give them their party votes in the context that National has ruled them out to ensure they make it into parliament. 4.9% of the vote is a lot to waste.

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Finn Illsley-Kemp @seismologyfinn.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This morning I spoke to RNZ about the problem of insecure work at our universities. Research staff across the country are made to work under perpetual fixed-term contracts with no clear route to secure jobs. www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

rnz.co.nz

What's driving the growth of "Frankenjobs" in our universities?

Researchers working in the university sector say their fixed term contracts are more like "Frankenjobs", pieced together with short term funding and limited hours.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Not only are we reducing who can vote with pointless rule changes, we're not even bothering to understand how much worse this makes our democracy.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This is a lovely story about families in housing need moving into the papakainga at Ihumātao, which was the goal of the group who occupied it a decade ago, and their supporters: www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/08/06/i...

teaonews.co.nz

Ihumātao today: How a decade-long occupation turned into papakāinga and reclamation

Ten years after one of Aotearoa's defining land occupations, Te Ahiwaru whānau are turning land reclamation into reality through papakāinga, food forests and mahi toi

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Charlie Mitchell @comingupcharlie.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Second part: a senior figure in Young New Zealand First has ties to a neo-Nazi group and online accounts that praised Adolf Hitler www.thepress.co.nz/politics/361...

thepress.co.nz

NZ First youth leader linked to neo-Nazi network

A senior figure in New Zealand First’s youth wing has links to neo-Nazi groups and online accounts praising Adolf Hitler, an investigation by The Press has found.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Just noting that the hypocrisy clock struck a few days ago when the Minister appointed people associated with the FSU to fill these positions. Apparently the FSU abandons its principles when developments are self-serving for their political benefit.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

'Remigration' starts from the underbelly of racism that exists in Aotearoa and people's concerns about migrants that "don't look like us" and targets minority communities. It's often an entry point to far-right movements but it's also just hateful and intimidatory by itself so it has no place here.

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I found this ranking useful in terms of my starting point for InternetNZ board voting. I dragged one person up a couple of spots. Vote now!

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

In our recent report on the NZTU (tinyurl.com/WhoCountsANZ) we noted that it had been deregistered from the Incorporated Societies Register, but that we didn't know why. Here is the answer: it's now a company with three shareholders (Williams, Farrar & Richardson) and five directors.

tinyurl.com

OSF

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Some comments about the appointment by Simeon Brown of Manoja Kalupahana and Roderick Mulgan, who are entangled with the Free Speech Union, to the Medical Council board, by someone who researches the FSU. First, one of the right's strategies is not to destroy the institutions of governance, but

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Kyle Matthews @kylermatthews.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This UK story remains an astounding documentation of the abuse of state power which has particularly targeted female activists. The NZ angle is particularly disappointing: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

How the Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partner

Spycops inquiry has revealed how Helen Steel was secretly monitored in her search for undercover officer who deceived her into relationship

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Charlie Mitchell @comingupcharlie.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Wow, it’s as if the FSU uses the language of free speech selectively to shield favoured speakers and ideas from scrutiny, who could have predicted this www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361...

stuff.co.nz

Free Speech Union attacks reporter for asking minister questions

The Free Speech Union ‒ which exists to defend free speech ‒ has attacked a journalist for asking Health Minister Simeon Brown questions over email.

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