Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, December 12th, 2023 - 38 comments
So Christopher Luxon thinks there is too much immigration. It was not what he was saying last year.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, December 9th, 2023 - 15 comments
Another day and another leak. And this time it calls into question the Government’s commitment to informed decision making.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, December 6th, 2023 - 177 comments
It may have been coincidental but the day after there were mass protests against the new Government’s actions in undermining te Tiriti o Waitangi it was announced that National would seek to remove bonus payments for Public Servants learning Te Reo. Not only is this petty and vindictive, it may also be a breach of te Tiriti.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, December 5th, 2023 - 75 comments
Recent claims by Nicola Willis that the Governments Finances are full of fiscal cliffs is evidence either that National will cynically make baseless claims to attack Labour or that Nicola Willis has no idea about what she is talking about and has not been doing her most basic job of reading and comprehending previous budget documents.
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, December 4th, 2023 - 15 comments
The Cabinet Paper dealing with the Government’s proposal to do away with fair pay agreements has hit the media. And the advice suggests that Cabinet is completely disinterested in the on the ground reality of what their shitty policy will do to ordinary Kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, December 3rd, 2023 - 48 comments
This morning on Q&A and despite being pulled up on it Chris Bishop repeated National’s claim that under the Smokefree reforms there would only be allowed one tobacco retail shop in Northland when there would actually be at least 34.
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, November 19th, 2023 - 105 comments
Christopher Luxon has always talked the big talk about his corporate experience with mergers and acquisitions. But the media are starting to ask questions and his positive rhetoric may not be well placed.
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, November 11th, 2023 - 45 comments
One of the most democratic changes that Labour made to the electoral system was to allow people to enroll and vote on election day. The right hate it. And may be planning to change it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, October 27th, 2023 - 35 comments
National’s Mark Mitchell has proposed a law that will require Gang Members to apply foundation to any gang insignia tattoos before they can go out into the public.
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, October 12th, 2023 - 52 comments
Two new polls were released last night and they both confirm a tightening of the race with the right slumping and the left improving.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, October 11th, 2023 - 24 comments
Craig Rennie of the CTU has continued his excellent work analysing National’s proposed tax cuts and has come up with a doozie. Landlords who own multiple properties will get huge tax cuts if National’s policy is put in place.
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, October 9th, 2023 - 46 comments
National has over the past couple of weeks indicated that it will ring Winston if it needs his votes, then saying that if he negotiates too hard it will seek a further election. This is real coalition of chaos stuff.
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, October 8th, 2023 - 48 comments
Recent polls suggest that National and Act is going backward while Labour has stabilised. A win for the left is possible but this last week will be all important.
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, October 6th, 2023 - 31 comments
National has suffered further damage to its credibility with its promise of a $250 tax cut per fortnight for an average family only being realised if that family spent at least $300 per week on childcare and was a two income family with each adult earning between $53,500 and $66,000.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, October 5th, 2023 - 40 comments
National’s tax policy doesn’t add up, and they’re trashing election and media conventions to avoid accountability. UPDATED.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, October 5th, 2023 - 16 comments
National says it is not interested in meeting its financial obligations under the international Paris Agreement on climate change, signed by the previous National government. Reneging on the accord will have huge trade, diplomatic and reputational damage implications.
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 5th, 2023 - 9 comments
In recent times Goldman Sax has warned National that its policies will hurt the economy. And S&P has praised Labour’s handling of the economy and expressed a high assessment of various factors relating to the country.
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, October 4th, 2023 - 30 comments
In a week of weird events National’s decision not to debate Labour in the Press’s leader’s debate has been a massive own goal because the country will be able to see how toxic David Seymour’s and Winston Peters’ relationship is.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 1st, 2023 - 5 comments
Skyfall was 10 years ago but it has a message for all public servants local or central as you choose your vote.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, September 30th, 2023 - 38 comments
National has shown its real priorities with proposals to cut benefits that will pay for increased tax concessions for landlords and increasing prison resources in anticipation of the crime wave the increased poverty will cause.
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, September 29th, 2023 - 39 comments
Chris Hipkins has upped the ante in the election campaign by directly calling out the right’s use of dog whistle racism.
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, September 27th, 2023 - 26 comments
National’s failure to adequately explain how its new revenue policies will work has seen its support sag. And its problem is that if it depends on Winston Peters for confidence and supply he has expressed major reservations about these policies and there is no guarantee he will support them. And a significant majority of New Zealanders understand this.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, September 26th, 2023 - 63 comments
As the polls show a further slump in support for the right and as Winston Peters emerges as a kingmaker there is growing concern about the possibility of a real coalition of chaos being elected.
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, September 25th, 2023 - 39 comments
Nicola Willis has essentially confirmed that the design of National’s foreign purchase of land tax was and remains sufficient to be done on the back of an envelope.
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, September 24th, 2023 - 22 comments
After Stats NZ shot down National’s claim that the country is in recession National pirouetted by claiming that New Zealand WILL be in recession in the near future and that the Reserve Bank has predicted this. But according to the Reserve Bank this may not be true …
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, September 16th, 2023 - 19 comments
Despite repeated analysis that its policies do not add up National is refusing to release the costings behind its policies.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, September 14th, 2023 - 115 comments
Independent economists have calculated that there is a half a billion dollar hole in National’s foreigner land purchase tax policy.
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, September 5th, 2023 - 51 comments
National, which perfected the art of dirty politics, and which has spent the past couple of years being relentlessly negative and which has had its sock puppets attack individual Labour MPs mercilessly is deeply, deeply, deeply upset that the CTU has pointed out to the public what a Christopher Luxon led Government would actually mean.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 2nd, 2023 - 40 comments
When the history of the 2023 New Zealand Aotearoa general election is written and if Labour gets up to win historians will point to the events of this week as the turning point in what has already been a dramatic year in politics. Because I cannot believe how bad National’s tax cut policy release has been researched and structured and how bad its release is going.
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, September 1st, 2023 - 30 comments
National’s announcement of four new taxes to fund tax cuts rely on herculean assumptions that will never be met. And their proposal for climate change will undermine the slow but steady progress the country has been making to meeting its emission reduction goals.
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, August 27th, 2023 - 55 comments
If there was a change of Government the next Government could potentially be full of fundamentalist Christians, anti vaxers and all sorts of people whose view of Aotearoa is not conventional or reality based.
Recent Comments