The Standard

Social issues

Categories under Social issues

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.

The robots are coming to get us

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, September 11th, 2026 - 24 comments

AI techies are sound the alarm on where AI is going and how dangerous it will be. We can and should act now to prevent that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Naidoo deserves an apology

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, August 16th, 2026 - 15 comments

A late police response to an OIA request concerning Labour List candidate Rakesh Naidoo raises concerns that the Police are acting politically.

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.

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.

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.

Iranian Ambassador: why the US blundered so badly, the state of diplomacy and ways forward.

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 pm, July 23rd, 2026 - 18 comments

Iranian Ambassador Reza Nazar Ahari provides some fascinating analysis into why the Western strategy on Iran has been so disastrously flawed.

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.

The World Cup final, and Defence double standards in the Pacific

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, July 21st, 2026 - 17 comments

The World Cup is over and the good guys won, geo-politically speaking. When China fired a test missile a few weeks ago, it was as if the sky had fallen in.

Four Promises, Fifty Years On

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, July 18th, 2026 - 6 comments

Norman Kirk once said people do not ask for much: someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.

Dead Cats everywhere

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, July 18th, 2026 - 28 comments

Winston Peters has engaged in classic dead cat political behaviour by publicly announcing that one of the new Interisland ferries will be called “Cook” and diverting the debate from the cost to the name.

Does Parliament really need more shock jocks?

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 pm, July 14th, 2026 - 13 comments

Michael Laws and Paul Henry are planning a return to Parliament. Laws as a potential New Zealand First MP and Henry as an Act MP. Does Parliament really need more shock jocks?

Sam Neill you believed in us

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 14th, 2026 - 6 comments

It is no longer a trivial thing that a person makes their fortune in the world and still chooses to invest and stay in the land of their childhood, New Zealand. For this, and many other good reasons, we can all be proud of Sam Neill.

Let’s celebrate Kiwi music

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, July 10th, 2026 - 18 comments

Something to do on Matariki Day, celebrate Te Ao Aotearoa. RNZ has invited people to vote and comment on the list of the 100 best Kiwi songs and the top 50 will be played today.

Hate speech laws threaten free speech – Keith Locke memorial debate 2026

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, July 6th, 2026 - 39 comments

The second Keith Locke memorial debate was held in Auckland on the 2nd. There is a live stream of the debate on youtube, linked here.

Where the Fight Against the DSS Bill Now Stands

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 pm, July 5th, 2026 - 1 comment

On Thursday, Victoria Coleman handed over a petition at Parliament calling for the Disability Support Services Bill to be scrapped — 16,458 signatures got in five weeks while she cares full-time for her seven-year-old son Levi. Campaigning on top of that responsibility tells you whats at stake for thousands.

This Government’s war on the homeless and the young

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, July 3rd, 2026 - 10 comments

In a land of milk and honey you would think that every kiwi would have plenty to eat and somewhere to live. But this week has shown the Government wants to refuse emergency to some poor people and feed young children inadequate school lunches.

Opportunity knocks.

Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, July 3rd, 2026 - 115 comments

Denmark produces excellent beer, world class design, unmanageable open sandwiches and an object lesson in the operation of proportional representation. A particular interest in Denmark is triggered by the emergence of the Opportunity Party as a possible threshold party in the NZ system. It may, at a stretch, arrive at 5%, which, as commentators have […]

The cut to Total Mobility doesn’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, June 29th, 2026 - 8 comments

7 days after petitioning parliament seeking proper funding for Total Mobility, the government instead cut the funds.