Marc Daalder

1 week ago | newsroom.co.nz | Marc Daalder

A world-first legal challenge in Wellington is targeting the decades-long reliance of successive New Zealand governments on planting trees to offset climate-warming emissions from burning fossil fuels. The judicial review filed on Tuesday by the advocacy group Lawyers for Climate Action has a broad focus, arguing the current Government has erred in how it revised its predecessor's climate plan and how it assembled its own.

2 weeks ago | newsroom.co.nz | Marc Daalder

An influx of foreign liquefied natural gas is looking less likely, after a report commissioned by the gas and power industries found the costs of an import terminal would be prohibitive. The much-hyped solution to New Zealand's gas supply woes was first raised by industry during the spike in wholesale power prices last year, before the Government offered its enthusiastic support.

2 weeks ago | newsroom.co.nz | Marc Daalder

Artificial intelligence is set to take over the changing of power retailers, as popular tool Powerswitch's public funding is switched off and replaced with a new "next-gen" service. It's the first step in what the Electricity Authority (EA) calls the transition to a "digitalised" power system, where consumers have more choices, some of which could be made by artificial intelligence. Already have an account?

3 weeks ago | newsroom.co.nz | Laura Walters |Marc Daalder

“Vindictive”, “unprecedented”, “disproportionate”, “arbitrary” – some of the words used by opposition MPs to describe the punishment handed down by a majority of Parliament to three Te Pāti Māori MPs.The MPs’ Treaty Principles Bill haka was “utter contempt”, “orchestrated” and “breaking the rules”, Government MPs replied. Among the impassioned speeches and barrage of interjections was a considered warning from Labour Party MP and former Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe.

3 weeks ago | newsroom.co.nz | Marc Daalder

Comment: The dead internet theory posits that the majority of online activity is automated: bots writing content to be viewed by other bots, monetised by bots advertising products to yet more bots. We're not there – yet. But in Wellington on Wednesday, Parliament took a lurching, zombified step to making "dead select committee theory" a reality. Already have an account?