Having just returned from Australia, robo debt was an absolute scandal… which the govt knew about for 3 years before they did anything! Ministers were vindictive and carried on with the program when frontline stuff we’re telling them it didn’t work (& and pubic servants gif advice that it was ILLEGALL!). …. But according to Scott Morrison, he was the real victim of robo debt & the royal commission FFS
"Computers are but dumb machines; they have no intelligence, and must not be considered as having a right to take any decision concerning man; but must only perform with perfect accuracy the simple calculation that is pointed out to them in their instructions."
"Attention is a form of power. Choosing how much you take in, and when, is a way of holding on to agency.
Governing through overload is designed to make people feel that politics is something that happens to them. Democracy depends on participation, even if it's imperfect, partial and shared.
The choice between overwhelm and engagement is not abstract.
It is unfolding in real time"
Māni Dunlop
From her essay:
"Would You Like Urgency with That?"
Drive-thru Politics, Governing Through Overload and Flooding the Zone.
Published in:
The Far-Right Playbook
A collection of essays describing tactics used by the far right in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Loved this mini-Hoon series Bernard. What a great selection of guests! The last one on the possibility of a Robo-debt scandal here was especially hard-hitting.
It crystallises the attitude of our government towards those at the bottom of the heap. Insulating heartlessness behind a technology that means nobody needs to be discomforted by dealing with the consequences of their actions. All for a few $$ at the margins. It will be the new normal now AI is burrowing its way into all of our lives.
NZ has, alas, a storied history of adopting changes just in time as everyone else in the world are furiously back-tracking from them, having tried them and then found them wanting. We have seen this in education, the census and now this reform.
There is a bigger issue here - which both Qiulai Wong and Tex Edwards touched on too - transparency of decision making, the democratic process ("ramming legislation through on a Friday under urgency" - a method for emergency legislation that should be the exception but is becoming a default), Lobbyist control (none) and political financing control (no longer adequate).
Thanks for doing what you do - and for continuing to highlight these stories.
Having just returned from Australia, robo debt was an absolute scandal… which the govt knew about for 3 years before they did anything! Ministers were vindictive and carried on with the program when frontline stuff we’re telling them it didn’t work (& and pubic servants gif advice that it was ILLEGALL!). …. But according to Scott Morrison, he was the real victim of robo debt & the royal commission FFS
"Computers are but dumb machines; they have no intelligence, and must not be considered as having a right to take any decision concerning man; but must only perform with perfect accuracy the simple calculation that is pointed out to them in their instructions."
Ada Lovelace
Good gracious yet another mean machine being setup by COG. Another great NZ’r Nick Ruane. Thanks Bernard.
This is very disturbing, what as individuals can we do about it?
Māni Dunlop wrote this and I think it is true:
"Attention is a form of power. Choosing how much you take in, and when, is a way of holding on to agency.
Governing through overload is designed to make people feel that politics is something that happens to them. Democracy depends on participation, even if it's imperfect, partial and shared.
The choice between overwhelm and engagement is not abstract.
It is unfolding in real time"
Māni Dunlop
From her essay:
"Would You Like Urgency with That?"
Drive-thru Politics, Governing Through Overload and Flooding the Zone.
Published in:
The Far-Right Playbook
A collection of essays describing tactics used by the far right in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Loved this mini-Hoon series Bernard. What a great selection of guests! The last one on the possibility of a Robo-debt scandal here was especially hard-hitting.
It crystallises the attitude of our government towards those at the bottom of the heap. Insulating heartlessness behind a technology that means nobody needs to be discomforted by dealing with the consequences of their actions. All for a few $$ at the margins. It will be the new normal now AI is burrowing its way into all of our lives.
NZ has, alas, a storied history of adopting changes just in time as everyone else in the world are furiously back-tracking from them, having tried them and then found them wanting. We have seen this in education, the census and now this reform.
There is a bigger issue here - which both Qiulai Wong and Tex Edwards touched on too - transparency of decision making, the democratic process ("ramming legislation through on a Friday under urgency" - a method for emergency legislation that should be the exception but is becoming a default), Lobbyist control (none) and political financing control (no longer adequate).
Thanks for doing what you do - and for continuing to highlight these stories.