The Standard

Politics

Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation

Categories under Politics

Why does National despise the poor?

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 11th, 2026 - 15 comments

Under National the MSD thinks that food is not an essential need. And it pushed through under urgency a botched up law change which cut the benefits for tens of thousands of elderly kiwis.

Labour to accelerate climate action

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, September 8th, 2026 - 17 comments

“Labour is fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New Zealand on course to meet its targets…. Walking away from it, as National and its mates are planning to do, would be giving up on our kids’ future and impose huge costs on our economy.”

The Right is winning the bullshit media narrative

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, September 8th, 2026 - 27 comments

Last weekend saw a continuation of right wing parties coming out with inane policy announcements that make a media splash without any hard questions being asked.

Greens launch plan to break up the supermarket duopoly and bring down the price of food

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 pm, September 6th, 2026 - 179 comments

“The Green Party has today announced a plan to break up the supermarket duopoly by creating a publicly owned supermarket chain called KiwiMart, as part of its Affordable Kai election policy”

Government makes Move On Orders Bill less shit

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, September 6th, 2026 - 4 comments

This week the Government reluctantly reversed its intent to allow homeless teenagers to be prosecuted if they did not move to somewhere less safe when required to move on by police.

New Zealand’s Gas Panic Was Entirely Lies

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, September 4th, 2026 - 32 comments

Anyone remember it was just a year ago that businesses and government politicians were crying about the loss of natural gas availability?

Who is to blame for Air New Zealand’s latest result?

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, September 1st, 2026 - 22 comments

Christopher Luxon has asked Air New Zealand to explain what caused its recently announced significant loss. The answer appears to be a decision made by Air New Zealand while he was Chief Executive.

Labour will guarantee a job for graduate nurses

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, September 1st, 2026 - 18 comments

“Nurses who trained here should be able to work here. A good job. A future here at home. Better starts now.” – Chris Hipkins

The Government suddenly wants to limit the damage it has caused to our climate response

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, August 30th, 2026 - 24 comments

After spending all term undermining the Country’s climate change response the Government now wants to improve the country’s ability to meet the Country’s Paris Accord obligations.

Could Kiwibank Buy TSB?

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, August 28th, 2026 - 5 comments

Kiwibank are proposing to buy TSB Bank, before Heartland get it.

Elon Musk would be pleased with Opportunity Party’s Data Centre policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 pm, August 22nd, 2026 - 69 comments

The Opportunities Party wishes to enrich Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison by giving them tax breaks to establish data centres in Aotearoa.

Homelessness kills

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, August 21st, 2026 - 16 comments

Very sad recent news from yesterday. Three homeless people in Aotearoa, the land of plenty, have recently frozen to death.

How To Ensure Power Shifts

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, August 17th, 2026 - 50 comments

There is now a 50-50 chance that the government will change in November 2026, and Labour must have the plan to fully shift power beyond Parliament. This is how you do it. 

Vote Climate

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 pm, August 16th, 2026 - 9 comments

When voting this year vote Climate.

Big Hairy Te Tiriti Debate

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, August 15th, 2026 - 13 comments

The debaters for the night are:
David Seymour (ACT)
Casey Costello (NZ First)
Willie Jackson (Labour)
Marama Davidson (Greens)

Also participating is:
Pat & Chewie (BHN)
Paul Barlow (The Collective)
Ripeka Lessels (NZEI)
Nathan Seiuli (Pillar NZ)

Winning the battle but losing the war

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, August 13th, 2026 - 48 comments

Christopher Luxon may have kept the National Party leadership yesterday but National’s chances in this year’s election just became much worse.

Will he stay or will he go?

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, August 12th, 2026 - 77 comments

Christopher Luxon’s decision to call a National Caucus meeting this morning to vote on his leadership may result in him being forced to walk the plank.

Protest against American Imerialism

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, August 8th, 2026 - 4 comments

Anti imperialism protest on this afternoon at 2 pm at Auckland.

Luxon, Yahoo and Numpty

Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, August 7th, 2026 - 3 comments

Christopher Luxon completed a week from Hell by calling his coleaders Yahoo and Numpty and obliterating Media coverage of the announcement of the opening of Auckland’s City Rail Tunnel and of new industry designed school subjects.

A Labour Government Is Good For Business

Written By: - Date published: 4:06 pm, August 6th, 2026 - 8 comments

In the week that the Prime Minister offended small business, unemployment rose to 170,000 and over 6% in the North Island, and the Reserve Bank continues to raise interest rates, Labour showed, again, why the public knows they are better for small business than any other party.

Does Policy Still Win the 2026 Election?

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, August 6th, 2026 - 20 comments

In a 2026 election beset already by bombast and hyperbole, is the big-policy-first approach of the left still working?

Uber Air Force One

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, August 6th, 2026 - 26 comments

It has been disclosed that Christopher Luxon used an Air Force plane to fly him from a National Party fundraiser in Whanganui to his home in Auckland.

Luxon’s biggest problem is Luxon

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, August 4th, 2026 - 25 comments

As we enter the home strait for the 2026 election National strategists must be thinking “what the f*(k do we do from here”? Because Christopher Luxon’s complete indifference to the difficulties businesses are facing and his inability to control Winston Peters are harming National’s reelection prospects big time.

TOP proposes cuts to Public Service that Act would be proud of

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 pm, August 1st, 2026 - 139 comments

The Opportunity Party has a hidden objective. They want to make huge cuts to the Public Service that even Act would look at and think “that is brave”. And they have been less than open about the cuts.

Winston Peters clings to a dying empire

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, August 1st, 2026 - 23 comments

It may feel to NZ First cultists that Winston Peters is being picked on this site. But if he chooses to act like an geriatric, erratic, and foolish foolish dickhead in the pursuit of the unthinking bigot vote.. Well, then opinion writers will notice and opine. Here is another opinion from Local Bodies which focuses on a foreign minister who appears to be out of touch with current international affairs.

Aotearoa’s very own Donald Trump

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, July 31st, 2026 - 37 comments

New Zealand First is peddling nonsense law changes straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. And engaging in obnoxious racist behaviour. And Christopher Luxon does not have the ability to stop them or control them.

Sack Him Christopher

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, July 31st, 2026 - 46 comments

After the 2005 election, the Chinese Embassy sent Zhang Wei to ask me if Winston Peters would follow Labour government policy. I said I didn’t know, but would ask.

Our Worst Recession

Written By: - Date published: 4:21 pm, July 29th, 2026 - 16 comments

The very worst crisis is the one from which you learn nothing. New Zealand has not had an economic stagnation and housing market price decline this bad since the 1970s.

The Greens in their own words

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 27th, 2026 - 12 comments

The co-leader speeches at the AGM, and the new policy of a 1 year moratorium on AI data centres.

Stuart Gnash

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, July 23rd, 2026 - 29 comments

With the demise of Stuart Nash’s planned resumption of his political career the question has to be asked, did Stuart Nash leave NZ First or did NZ First leave Stuart Nash?

Electricity Policy and Power Bills In Winter 2026

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, July 22nd, 2026 - 10 comments

The Green Party’s Kiwipower policy has a lot of similarities to the policy that the Greens and Labour jointly launched in the 2014 election. It will again be major issue in this election.