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Written By: Craig H - Date published: 4:21 pm, August 7th, 2026
The last time an election actually swung on policy, arguably, was 2005 when interest-free student loans debatably got Labour over the line (along with turning out South Auckland). Before that was probably 1975 with dancing Cossacks, or 1960 after the black ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 4:10 pm, August 7th, 2026
I volunteer a lot, and having to do GST returns for smaller non-profits e.g. clubs is a pain in the rear. The administration isn't impossible, but it can easily be a sufficiently painful burden that non-profits lose volunteer time to do that instead of ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 1:54 pm, August 4th, 2026
Labour stood on this with 3 Waters and, unfortunately, people are now getting what they voted for. Labour's 2026 manifesto has not been released, so there is no formal election position on this at this point.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 10:32 pm, August 3rd, 2026
Labour already instituted Best Start which wasn't that far off. NZ First voted for that, then, as part of the current government, voted for the first year to be means-tested, and are now stating that, effectively, they would like to remove all means- ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 1:39 pm, July 20th, 2026
Don't know if McCaw owns a helicopter but he became a helicopter pilot after finishing his rugby career.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:13 pm, July 8th, 2026
OCR to increase by 25 basis points from 2.25% to 2.5%.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:58 pm, July 2nd, 2026
Our Policies - besides 3 free GP visits: Free prescriptions Free maternity and cervical screening Family doctor loan scheme (which includes a plan to add capacity for additional 4.5 million GP visits per year) Can appreciate it's not the big-ticket policy, ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 10:11 pm, June 19th, 2026
Those poor landlords!Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:17 pm, June 17th, 2026
That's part of it, but there's also something rotten in the water there. There is a longstanding management culture/desire to do more with less. Hoping to replace jobs with IT solutions which then don't deliver is one consequence of that. Vision 2015/2020 ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:04 pm, June 17th, 2026
As someone who used to work for Immigration NZ, Immigration NZ was part of the Department of Labour (was merged into DoL in 1954) and amalgamated into MBIE with the rest of DoL. While Nigel was the Head of Immigration NZ at the time, his other formal MBIE ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:49 pm, June 16th, 2026
If people want more radical TOP or Green policies, they have to vote for them in sufficient numbers to get them. There's no room in politics for small parties with a limited vision - it's more practical to join a bigger party and lobby internally for ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 11:58 pm, June 15th, 2026
May as well only vote for National or Labour since they will eventually be in a position to implement most of their policies. Ignore the other parties, they have no chance.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 11:55 pm, June 15th, 2026
If you want parties that will definitely implement most of their plans at some point, you're stuck with National or Labour.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 11:53 pm, June 15th, 2026
The original plan for the top-up when TOP was founded was to limit it to current superannuitants and people who were close to 65, and exhaust the Super fund to pay for it. The current plan references increased Kiwisaver contributions and balances, and ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 4:18 pm, June 14th, 2026
National Land Transport Fund 2024-27 - current allocation - total funding allocated to public transport services (infrastructure is separate) = $1,937,422,300 over 3 years or about $646 million per year. Business Case for National Ticketing Solution - page ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:22 pm, June 10th, 2026
Labour’s $20 Public Transport Fare Cap - NZ Labour Would start 1 July 2027 (in the press conference, it was noted that they would consider implementing it earlier if they could, but 1 July otherwise) by which time Wellington should be part of Motu Move ([ ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 11:23 am, June 10th, 2026
Labour reveals public transport fare cap in long-awaited election policy | Stuff Labour policy announcement - public transport fare cap of $20/week in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, $10/week rest of NZ. I'd like free public transport but this is a ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:01 pm, June 5th, 2026
That machine is still there (have been on or around the last few campaigns myself and that machine looks remarkably familiar...) but the paper lists etc. are now electronic (including electoral roll info) and there is so much early voting that the machine ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 10:06 am, June 5th, 2026
Labour had the machinery in 2005 and the machinery is still there. Having said that, there could be more despair than in 2005 which tends to translate to not voting, so maybe that's the calculation. In 1992, a policy of eliminating income-related rents and ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:25 pm, June 4th, 2026
I think my other comment covers the Greens, but the main reason Labour won in 2017 is because Jacinda replaced Andrew, and I say that as a Labour member who liked both of them. There were no significant new policy announcements, just a change in leader. I ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 3:19 pm, June 4th, 2026
The Green policy suite has a collection of universal services and heavy redistribution funded by more and higher taxes e.g. guaranteed minimum income and wealth tax. They have an intelligent, young, high-profile, articulate leader who generally puts ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 2:46 pm, June 3rd, 2026
Having been an active member in the NZLP for years and seen the policy proposals that make it through the process, and also given the lack of support for the Greens and TOP (both of which are proposing big changes), I think that the issue is not lack of ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 2:37 pm, June 3rd, 2026
Looking at it more closely, this one is probably in the 5% of outliers (the confidence interval is 95% i.e. 95% of polls will have a margin of error as stated).Written By: Craig H - Date published: 2:36 pm, June 3rd, 2026
There are tax changes and increases to pay for the UBI - obviously the tax proposals will see differing outcomes depending on individual circumstances, but the proposed UBI will not be extra money with no offset anywhere.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 5:25 pm, March 19th, 2026
The IRD rate is $1.17/km for the first 3,500km (business portion of 14,000km is 25% = 3,500km) then after that depends on the type of vehicle but is a lot lower. Many support workers drive a lot more than that in which case the legislated rate will not ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 9:03 pm, February 16th, 2026
It's possible to design UBI with progressive taxes to give the same mathematical effect as an abating GMI. One of the original points of combining UBI and flat income tax was that the effective marginal tax rate (EMTR) was similar for every $1 earned so ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 8:44 pm, February 16th, 2026
NZRP reducing to 85,000-950,000 was effective 12 October 2016. SMC increasing to 160 points regardless of job offer was effective 27 August 2017 as was the stand down period.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 2:26 pm, February 14th, 2026
I think we should follow Australia. Neither country is perfect but we are each other's closest allies and friends in the world.Written By: Craig H - Date published: 10:14 am, January 27th, 2026
I wasted too much time making point-by-point rebuttals of some of this kind of GestapICE apologism on X yesterday. Each time the MAGA-supporters came back with more of the same. Joys of online debate in some arenas I guess... Not sure how much you like ...Written By: Craig H - Date published: 10:09 am, January 27th, 2026
Some of those items I noted came in under National - SMC changes, reduction in the NZRP and the introduction of the stand-down period. Agree that National didn't try as hard to stem the inward flow of migration as Labour/NZ First, but National did reach a ...
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