When is a Free Speech Union not a Free Speech Union?
When it is a right wing astroturfing front.
Media
making shit up
More fishy than a bait shop
Christopher Luxon has implied that a junior staffer met major polluters and received submissions urging him to sink Mike Smith’s bid to hold them to account which were then hidden. But it was his Chief Policy Advisor.
Doing their master’s bidding
Briefing papers from two of the corporates being sued by Mike Smith for damaging the environment urging the Government to change the law to stop the case were received but allegedly lost by Luxon’s office.
Lies, damned lies and Shane Jones’ Oil Refinery take
Shane Jones has been making a song and dance about how the previous Labour Government was responsible for the closure of the Marsden Point Refinery. But a perusal of the cabinet paper he cites in support shows that this clearly is not the case.
Should Luxon join Trump’s Board of Peace?
Donald Trump invited Christopher Luxon to join a new organisation to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza and eventually the replacement of the United Nations. How should Luxon respond?
The death of truth
The competing social media takes based on video that clearly shows that the shooting of Minnesota woman Renee Good was totally unjustified shows how dominant social discord is now considered to be more important than truth.
The Government wants to cheat the next election result
Christopher Luxon is sticking to his lines that the proposed changes to the Electoral Law will speed up the result even though this will disenfranchise an estimated 55,000 kiwis and even though the Chief Electoral Officer has said that if properly resourced the changes will make no difference.
“I did my own research”!
“I did my own research”!
“I did my own research”? No. You didn’t. You can’t!
Everybody is wrong except David Seymour *
* according to Seymour when it comes to International and Domestic condemnation of his Regulatory Standards Bill.
Climate Change and Bumper Sticker Politics
Christopher Luxon has engaged in a classic example of bumper sticker politics by blaming Labour for excessive power prices, not the structure of the power sector. And he has completely ignored the imperitave action that climate change demands the country takes.
Reality Check Radio needs a reality check
Reality Check Radio has on the eve of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s hearings into the Government’s Covid response released a petition suggesting that Jacinda Ardern and others have been put on trial.
The trouble with using AI bots
After David Seymour’s claim that 99.5% of submissions against his Regulatory Standards Bill were generated by AI bots it is relevant to review the time that he was implicated in the purchase of Russian sex bots to bolster his Instagram following.
Misleading Billboards Are a Threat to Electoral Integrity
Misleading the public never is good for politics.
But her emails
Recent events in the US involving the use of Signal to discuss top secret military news and accidentally including a reporter in the chat suggests that the US of A is currently resembling a dark satirical cross between Monty Python and The Thick of It.
Failed Conference
Luxon’s team have delivered zero deals out of the multibillionaire conference on infrastructure. This is a fail.
The Chinese Shadowboxing Show at Sea
The World is at war and the level of mind-control is mind-blowing.
Radio NZ’s bizarre handling of the Bayly fiasco
This morning on Radio New Zealand there was sharp questioning of Christopher Luxon by Ingrid Hipkiss and sharp analysis by Jo Moir. But they allowed Brigette Morten air time to spin the issue in a National friendly way.
About Karen Chhour’s youth offending claims
Karen Chhor has made two recent claims, that youth crime is at an all time high, and that serious and persistent offending has increased dramatically to justify her boot camps policy. Neither claim appears to be true.
The Los Angeles fires – could they happen here?
With large parts of Los Angeles burning and the right still trying to divert attention and blame the question arises, could the same thing happen here?
The great gaslighter
In the gaslight to end gaslights David Seymour is suggesting that anyone opposed to his Treaty Principles Bill is also opposed to fundamental human rights.
He is wealthy and he is sorted
“You just fake it until you make it. I have spent a whole career doing that” – Christopher Luxon.
The Hospital Dunedin needs?
The question has to be asked, can we trust National to do anything that it has promised?
Luxon loses his cool when asked about doctoring gang membership statistics
On the same day that National had Parliament pass onerous anti gang laws to address allegedly dramatically increasing numbers of gang members Christopher Luxon lost his cool when it was pointed out to him that the Government is purging the list to reduce the numbers.
Under National crime is out of control
Christopher Luxon yesterday celebrated a 22% reduction in crime in Downtown Auckland even though crime in the Auckland region went up by 7% during the same time. And later that day had to explain how the number of victims of violent crime had increased by 30,000.
Gormless Government releases confidential legal advice on Charter School law
The Government has mistakenly released confidential legal advice confirming that the Charter School legislation breaches ILO conventions, free trade agreements and potentially the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
Luxon is numerically illiterate
National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.
Rock Solid Financial Geniuses
The right has this belief that they are economic geniuses. Occasionally this belief is shown to be faulty. Like this week when National’s costings for tax cuts to Landlords was $800 million more than previously estimated.
National’s complete indifference to climate change
This is the only possible explanation. As well as celebrating all things car National has a pathological hatred of cycleways and walkways and public transport.
Shame Jones
In one speech Shane Jones has talked about the “hysteria surrounding climate change”, promised to disregard targets agreed to under the Paris Agreement, ordered the halting of work at the Ministry for the Environment, promised the lifting the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration at pace, and said that Mining on Department of Conservation (DoC) and Stewardship land is also in the pipeline.
Willis’s budget analysis is either deeply cynical or evidence she does not know what she is talking about
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.
Chris Bishop can’t count
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.
Let’s do the time warp again
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary Winston Peters has accused Jacinda Ardern of hiding the fact that her office received the Christchurch Massacre shooter’s manifesto shortly before the massacre occurred.
National’s credibility problem
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.
National really, really needs New Zealand to be in a recession
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 …
TVNZ concludes that Luxon’s pants may have been on fire
Fact checking by TVNZ has determined that much of what Christopher Luxon said in the recent leader’s debate was not true.
Nanny state National wants to ban cell phones at schools
National has this propensity of announcing policies that scratch conservative itches, cost nothing and hog media attention. Yesterday we had a classic example of this as they announced that cell phones would be banned at schools.