Chris Hipkins sets fire to Labour’s policy programme

The Spinoff Daily, Tuesday February 8

Feb 8

Ahiahi mārie, welcome to The Spinoff Daily.

Today on The Spinoff, Shanti Mathias asks New Zealand academics how they feel about students using AI writing tools like ChatGPT, Stewart Sowman-Lund joins the prime minister on his trip to Canberra and Hayden Donnell points the finger back at councillors using the Auckland floods to protest medium density housing.

But first, Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from parliament as the prime minister unveils what he calls a 'new direction' for the Labour government.

“We knew something was coming, but we perhaps weren’t expecting quite so much policy carnage at parliament today.

Prime minister Chris Hipkins, fresh from chairing the first meeting of his new cabinet team, sauntered into the Beehive Theatrette, first to reveal additional funding for flood-stricken Auckland and then to boulder straight into dismantling many of the government’s most high profile projects.

As expected, the media merger was first to be scrapped. But what else was thrown onto the bonfire?”

TVNZ, RNZ and NZ On Air respond to purging of merging

The truth about new housing and the Auckland floods

When Chippy met Albo: The PM’s six-hour whirlwind tour of Canberra

How worried are universities about ChatGPT?

AI writing tools are free, easy to use and already everywhere. But is it cheating to use them to help write an essay? Shanti Mathias spoke to New Zealand academics about AI’s place in education.

Auckland’s ferocious floods took the city back in time

After the flood: a Māngere evacuee recalls that Friday, and what happened next

Turkey-Syria earthquakes: a seismologist explains what happened

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