Ani O'Brien: Labour’s BlackRock climate fund collapsed without investing a dollar

A case study in how announcement-driven climate policy collapses under scrutiny

The New Zealand Climate Infrastructure Fund was born at a moment of visible political scrambling rather than strategic confidence. By mid-2023, the Labour government was under pressure on multiple fronts including rising energy costs, slowing growth, public fatigue with climate rhetoric unaccompanied by delivery, and an approaching election with an air of change about it. Against that backdrop, the BlackRock partnership functioned less as the culmination of a coherent energy strategy and more as a high-impact signalling exercise; a way to demonstrate urgency, scale, and international validation without committing public capital or confronting domestic delivery failures.

Josh Stylman: Read Between the Lies - A Pattern Recognition Guide

When Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, announced during Event 201’s pandemic drill in 2019 that they would “flood the zone with trusted sources,” few understood this preview of coordinated narrative control. Within months, we watched it unfold in real time—unified messaging across all platforms, suppression of dissent, and coordinated narrative control that fooled much of the world.

Mike Hosking: How much attention should we give conspiracy theorists?

It's an interesting conundrum.

The Herald yesterday led for an extended period of time with a piece written by The Spinoff about a story that had semi taken off about Jacinda Ardern and her trip to America, but more specifically to a company called BlackRock.

I would not have mentioned it. In fact, I didn’t, given I got the emails early yesterday in what was clearly yet another orchestrated attempt by crazies to pedal the latest conspiracy theory. The theory is, I think, I'm not entirely sure because it’s a waste of time going down the rabbit hole.

But the conspiracy theory in the broadest of senses is there is a one world type project and we are all being manipulated. More specifically, BlackRock, which is a heavyweight investment company, is thought by the crazies to own mainstream media, all pharmaceutical companies, and are part of the overarching conspiracy about this new world order.