André Brett

I was deeply confused by "nice and fancy restaurant" and I've now learnt that unlike the Cheesecake Shop in Aus/NZ, which sells the desserts indicated by its name, the Cheesecake Factory in the US is a family restaurant chain with famously cheesecake-related menu items like steak, pasta, and salad

Just a reminder. Great first half for the Taniwha, let’s hope this second half is even better!

Can hardly watch this, I think Northland have choked

NZ used to have on-the-day voter registration but this year rolls close TONIGHT with early voting from tomorrow. It's interesting watching the discourse (which on here uniformly—and rightly—sees this as regressive) from Australia, where rolls close a week after writs are issued for federal elections

"Everything is worse" attitudes are untenable. Many people have posted huge global changes, so here's a personal one for me today. I'm soon having beers with my dad and his brother. Sounds unremarkable until you consider: dad is in the North Island, my uncle's in the South Island, and I'm in Perth

This would have been impossible the year I was born, 1987. If I wanted to talk to either of them, it would have been an expensive international phone call. Even them calling each other would've been pricey. Total cost today, besides the beers: $0 and we can see each other and talk as long as we want

Epic stuff with the bat from Boland. Love a bowler who's been taught a solid defence and can do a blockathon when one is needed

It's hard to fathom where these cuts can even come from. Archives NZ has already cut services that would normally be considered essential. When I tell Australians in the sector over here that in 2024 Archives NZ wound up its digitisation unit and digitisation-on-demand service, they're gobsmacked

If you want to know how bad public transport is in New Zealand, you need look no further than the fact long weekend rail services in the nation's largest city are a novelty and that NYE, in many cities one of the busiest PT nights of the year, *still* won't have operations on the entire network

South Africa going from 4/40 and then 6/110 to now be on 7/400 is simply unreal. Bavuma is playing a true captain’s knock, ably assisted by Jansen and Harmer

Nice to know my state minister thinks that my colleagues and I are offering a subpar education and poor campus experience (at three separate unis), apparently on the basis of a sole student's anecdote Let's run through his goals/complaints and whether a merger is a relevant way to address them...

"Dr Buti said greater accountability and transparency was needed to divert money from executive salaries and wasteful projects." Agreed! Let's start by not initiating another wasteful project, a mega-merger, and instead improve teaching conditions and research funding at our existing unis

Nice to know my state minister thinks that my colleagues and I are offering a subpar education and poor campus experience (at three separate unis), apparently on the basis of a sole student's anecdote Let's run through his goals/complaints and whether a merger is a relevant way to address them...

"university executives were getting paid too much" I agree entirely—but yet again, relevance? I wouldn't be shocked if the senior executives of this mega-uni, if it came into existence, demanded even *higher* salaries for the complexity of managing it

Nice to know my state minister thinks that my colleagues and I are offering a subpar education and poor campus experience (at three separate unis), apparently on the basis of a sole student's anecdote Let's run through his goals/complaints and whether a merger is a relevant way to address them...

"there was duplication in university offerings" That's the point! We *want* there to be competition for students. If Curtin+Murdoch+UWA merge, the only other unis left in WA (popn: 3m) are ECU and the private NDUA. The mega-merger will be the main/sole uni for many disciplines. That's not good!

Nice to know my state minister thinks that my colleagues and I are offering a subpar education and poor campus experience (at three separate unis), apparently on the basis of a sole student's anecdote Let's run through his goals/complaints and whether a merger is a relevant way to address them...

"attract greater research dollars than we are currently getting" Not clear what a merger has to do with this. The main limitations are small pools of funding and little time/support to apply for research grants. The $$ the govt would spend on a merger would be better spent directly on research

Nice to know my state minister thinks that my colleagues and I are offering a subpar education and poor campus experience (at three separate unis), apparently on the basis of a sole student's anecdote Let's run through his goals/complaints and whether a merger is a relevant way to address them...