I had a look at the New Zealand Election Survey for the 2023 election at what voters issues were in 2023. It looks very similar in the major issues today. Economy and cost of living predominating, then health, climate change and crime. That has to be problem for the conservative coalition and especially for National. They haven’t moved the needle to anything except worse.
National’s announcement made yesterday to make savage cuts to overseas aid to pay for cancer treatments is a stunner. Imagining seeking the votes of those who want to have an improved health system and those who harbour racist thoughts at the same time.
A site called followthemoney.nz is worth looking at. It is beta site that tracks since 2019, the visible money directed at political parties. It includes declared donations, the broadcasting allocations, some details on the donations over and under 15k and a interesting list of declared donors in 2026 up to the end of September.
Normally the seat of Tamaki is won by the right but given a potential vote split, a Teal type response to the right’s culture war campaigns and an outstanding campaign by Labour’s Max Harris anything is possible.
Labour has promised it will not raise fuel taxes across the next Parliamentary term. That’s a basic cost-of-living politics move. But it’s going to hurt the transport system.
This week, a video emerged of a senior official telling staff not to document draft curriculum rewrites exchanged between Erica Stanford’s office and the Ministry of Education, to avoid OIA disclosure. Recent changes also suggest education is being politicised in an offensive way.
The most interesting thing so far about Hagers’ Dirty Work book has been revelation of the extent that the Tobacco industry funds the Taxpayers Union and the people operating it. It appears that the organisation should be regarded as an organisation dedicated to killing citizens with tobacco products.
This Tuesday Nicky Hager is releasing a new book. And there are some indications it may be about the role of astroturf organisations in Aotearoa and how they are funded.
Why does our media allow potentially foreign funded polls that are out of kilter with other polling results to affect local political discourse?
Plenty of politicians will seek credit when it opens, but none of them will have lifted a spade. The reason New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project exists is because over 1700 workers actually built it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Nurses who trained here should be able to work here. A good job. A future here at home. Better starts now.” – Chris Hipkins
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.
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.
Very sad recent news from yesterday. Three homeless people in Aotearoa, the land of plenty, have recently frozen to death.
A late police response to an OIA request concerning Labour List candidate Rakesh Naidoo raises concerns that the Police are acting politically.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Reza Nazar Ahari provides some fascinating analysis into why the Western strategy on Iran has been so disastrously flawed.
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?
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 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.
Norman Kirk once said people do not ask for much: someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.
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.
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?
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.
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.
