Angus Dowell: Politicians love comparing NZ’s economy to Singapore or Ireland – but it’s simplistic and misleading

Unveiling Amazon Web Services’ long-awaited NZ$7.5 billion “cloud region” – a cluster of local data centres – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon specifically referenced Ireland and Singapore as “two economies we often look to for inspiration on investment and technology”.

This kind of comparison has been a familiar refrain in New Zealand politics. More than a decade ago, then prime minister John Key imagined the country as the “Switzerland of the South Pacific”.

Nick Hanne: Is the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill a risk for our democracy?

Our politicians are scared of Big Tech, and so they should be. But at some point they’re going to have to address it in a way that not only keeps the marketplace competitive, but also democratic.

The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill is set to have its second reading in Parliament next week. What happens next has significant implications for the right of all New Zealanders to "seek, impart and receive information and opinions" as guaranteed under section 14 of the Bill of Rights Act.

Joanne Nova: First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity.....

First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity, and launches into nuclear power

All those sustainable dreams, gone pfft

Google, Oracle, Microsoft were all raving fans of renewable energy, but all of them have given up trying to reach “net zero” with wind and solar power. In the rush to feed the baby AI gargoyle, instead of lining the streets with wind turbines and battery packs, they’re all suddenly buying, building and talking about nuclear power. For some reason, when running $100 billion dollar data centres, no one seems to want to use random electricity and turn them on and off when the wind stops. Probably because without electricity AI is a dumb rock.