Prime Minister Chris Hipkins spoke this week on how the Government is acting to protect and advance the safety and security of New Zealand and New Zealanders while dealing with those countries that have most influence over us.
James Shaw’s speech to the Greens’ AGM is showing us this is the party with the actual plan for how to get through the crisis.
An excellent interview with a well-connected American who would like to see the US and China work together, and knows Xi Jinping well, provides some real insight as to why he is a serious leader. Interviewed today by Richard Harman, Tim Groser backs it up.
Yesterday in Parliament National attempted to embarrass Carmel Sepuloni in question time by asking her detailed economic questions. But the attempt backfired.
National has released a hotch potch policy of changes to Criminal Justice that is uncosted and seeks to achieve that which is already in force or proposed.
Fresh from news that Christopher Luxon ordered a State supplied Tesla when his household already owns one comes news that the household Tesla was upgraded, and that the clean car discount was obtained.
Another week and another example of National using dog whistle racism to stir up hatred and try and gain political advantage. This time it is to attack the notion that our health system should be seeking to look after those most in need.
Ad reports on Christopher Luxon’s meeting in Wanaka.
Over recent periods National has run a very tightly focused campaign against state support for Tesla owners. But news that Christopher Luxon actively sought a Government supplied Tesla when he already owns one suggests that he thinks that the rules should be different for him.
Christopher Luxon has gone onto the charm offensive by describing New Zealand as a negative, wet, whiny, inward looking country that has lost the plot.
According to National holding a modest shareholding can open a Minister to allegations of conflict of interest but owning seven investment properties and proposing beneficial tax treatment of landlords does not.
Last night I watched Christopher Luxon in a interview with Jack Tame on Q&A from youtube. My takeaway from it was that I don’t want this fool anywhere near actual policy. He exhibited a blissful ignorance about downstream effects of genetic engineering, climate change, and productivity in our economy. Even where I agreed with him like on GE – I didn’t want this idiot implementing policy on it.
Poverty is a political choice, and the Green Party is choosing to end it. – James Shaw
National continues to appease Federated Farmers and has just announced a policy of easing up of restrictions and safeguards on Genetic Engineering.
Michael Wood has been attacked today for some slightly sloppy handling of personal paperwork and not getting rid of shares as quickly as he wanted to.
The focus groups have spoken. National has performed a complete reversal on the bipartisan changes to the Resource Management Act amendments designed to improve housing supply and introduced only 18 months ago.
National’s promise to increase the age of retirement and likely cuts to Cullen fund contributions and state Kiwisaver payments have been seized on by Labour as evidence that National does not care about ordinary people.
Carmel Sepuloni’s speech to the 2023 Labour Party Congress.
Christopher Luxon had no idea that National has recently used artificially generated images in what appears to be a crude attempt to avoid historical issues National has had with respecting the intellectual property rights of artists.
National has hatched on its attack line which we will hear about a lot over the next few months. But it may have a problem. Because the phrase “coalition of chaos” clearly applies to its leadership team.
The Government has done a deal with the owners of New Zealand Steel that will see the company replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace and will significantly reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
When we continue to spend our money on stupid stuff, we get a dumb country.
National has promised to reverse the removal of prescription charges even though it has a strong policy support and is an example of the state taking less of individuals’ private wealth.
“All of these things were impossible, until they weren’t” – Chloe Swarbrick
Today is Budget Day with the proceedings kicking off at 2 pm.
The latest TV3 Newshub poll results are out. The major parties are neck and neck. No surprise there. But what is stark is the public response to Christopher Luxon. Basically he is tanking.
In case we just missed it, New Zealand really has picked a side. Prime Minister Hipkins will head to the NATO summit in Lithuania together with Australia, Japan and South Korean leaders. Also Vladimir Zelinskyy is intending to go as well.
Last minutes of this parliamentary term and all teams are subbing out.
Recent days have provided a further example of why Aotearoa’s response to climate change has been compromised by politics.
National has been caught out misrepresenting official data by claiming that 19,000 nurses had left public health when they knew that the figure includes transfers between health boards and the number of employed nurses actually increased by 4,108.
This week Chris Bishop announced National’s landlord policy and made the extraordinary claim that making evictions of tenants easier was a progressive pro tenant policy.
With the release by David Parker of a report showing that the wealthiest New Zealanders pay tax at much less than half the rate of other Kiwis is it time to again debate the virtue of a comprehensive Capital Gains Tax.
The Murdoch family’s decision to pay record damages to Dominion Voting Systems and to capitulate in its defamation case against Cricky Media suggest that they have had a very bad and a very expensive week.
Yesterday Statistics New Zealand dealt a rather large blow to National’s election chances when it announced that the latest rate of inflation was 6.7%, a significant drop below the previous rate.
So National has yet another candidate problem. His name is Stephen Jack and he clearly has difficulties in negotiating reality.
Musing after the recent IMF/World Bank meetings, Former White house economist and US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said “it’s looking a bit lonely on the right side of history..as others are increasingly banding together in a whole range of structures.”
