Data centres and the future of Artificial Intelligence are big issues in New Zealand, and we are devoting part of the Hoon podcast today to go in-depth on those issues and more, plus our usual look at local and international affairs.
Don Christie, managing director and co-founder of New Zealand technology services company Catalyst, will join us to talk about what he thinks the country needs to do to adapt to and adopt AI, including local data centres, and much else.
Don has been on before and is a serious thinker about issues such as over-dependence on big tech platforms and the need for a measure of tech sovereignty. He and the Catalyst crew have written an interesting manifesto — not political as such — but spelling out what they think politicians need to do on technology decisions.
The manifesto and Don’s expertise goes further than the controversy over data centres, including the fast-tracked decision to build one in Invercargill. However, we know you are interested in the topic and our regular climate expert Dr Cathrine Dyer has views on the environmental factors involved in the rush for AI and the Cloud.
Bernard and I will also talk about what seems to me to be a rash and intriguing call by National Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to campaign for a referendum on the MMP proportional representation system and a four-year electoral term.
He described wrangling his coalition partners — populist New Zealand First and more or less libertarian ACT — led by veteran Winston Peters, and energetic David Seymour — in rather florid terms that conveyed some of the strains.
“I feel like I’ve got responsible sensible ministers delivering...I’ve got amazing people doing incredible work who take it very seriously,” Luxon said when making an announcement that seemed a surprise. “The question I keep saying is, I don’t need some yahoo or numpty from some other party around that (Cabinet) table,” he said.
He didn’t quite explain whether Peters was the yahoo or Seymour the numpty — or perhaps it was various members of the non-National coalition line-up.
Peters, fresh from an impressive own goal in telling a Chinese-born MP to “go back to your own country” and doubling down to insult China, the country’s biggest trading partner — quite a feat for a veteran foreign minister — took issue with Luxon.
“Shutting down and taking away true democratic representation from the people of New Zealand should be seen for what it is - a power grab and an ignorance for what it means to be a democracy,” Peters said.
In the second half of the Hoon, Otago University international affairs expert, Professor Robert Patman will join us to discuss the fiasco in the Strait of Hormuz, the damage Peters may have done to the relationship with China, and the role of Israel within US elections after an overnight Democratic Party primary. We may also get to a potential New Zealand connection to the crisis between Morocco and Spain over a sort of pop up migrant crisis in the exclave of Ceuta.
Remember, you can watch us live with all the attendant idiosyncracies on YouTube from 17:00 local, or the edited show will be on podcast platforms on Friday.