Daily review 06/08/2026

15 comments on “Daily review 06/08/2026”

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1. 1

   After a 100 years CRL arrives in Auckland.

   Even Wayne Brown was not around back then.

   The Palestinians and Kurds are still waiting for the end of the Ottoman empire to deliver self-government.

   So not the last cab off the rank.

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/regions_auckland/900907/city-rail-link-opening-date-officially-revealed-but-billboards-got-in-first
2. 2

   Luxon is in freefall
   1. 2.1

      I don't like MMP (stamps foot).

      We are going to look at it!

      Decisive leadership, right there!
   2. 2.2

      Total speculation, but, when your colleagues are questioning your leadership ability, and ability to manage a coalition government, you're going to try and blame the electoral system that created that coalition.

      Totally agree, he's lost it, most likely the confidence of his caucus after this and maybe a few other things as well. I've seen more than a few incompetent blow hards come to bits, this guy's on the way. Just a matter of when.
   3. 2.3

      Labour made Mike Moore and Jacinda Ardern their leader 53 days before the 1990 and 2017 elections respectively. 53 days before this election is September 15th.

      https://x.com/Tiare_MP/status/2085191832338940355

      I hope they keep him.
      1. 2.3.1

         No talent, weka. Have you noticed how all the big National guns avoid each other? A dearth of beaming group photos.

         Seems to me the top tier heartily hate the sight of one another. Like they've spent several days too long on a wet boring camping holiday they thought was going to be such fun.

         So sick of it, they just all want to get out of there. Can’t even be arsed plotting the coup.
3. 3

   Luxon wants to pretend there is a future for National despite the disaster that has been the past 3 years under the coalition.

   He thinks he can con the public by talk of a referendum on MMP in 2029 – something that would require ACT & NZF party support to happen.

   This is so bad, it is like an early retirement – fall on the sword – moment.

   The National Party appears to be in disarray over leader Christopher Luxon’s bombshell comment that he wants a referendum on New Zealand’s electoral system, Mixed-Member Proportional, if re-elected.

   The Herald asked various National MPs on Thursday if they were aware the leader would announce his desire for a referendum and if it had been through the party’s caucus process.

   A variety of different responses included that Luxon hadn’t made an announcement, but had given a “view”, that it was an “announcement” and “position” that had been made “clearly” and also that it wasn’t something the party would be campaigning on.

   He is not even leading his own caucus in the matter, nor is it known party policy.

   If he thinks it is making him look tough, note this reaction

   Meanwhile, Luxon’s coalition partner, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, is warning there could be consequences for the National leader from his own caucus if they weren’t aware of it prior.

   Hipkins could note, Luxon is admitting the coalition is not a workable government for the country and voters should act to send all three leaders of it on their way.

   https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2026-national-in-disarray-over-christopher-luxons-sudden-bombshell-mmp-comments/A3HBO5LTORAP5CGDZO4FMU4RQY/
   1. 3.1

      https://frankmacskasy.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-editor-luxons-naked-af8?r=1s0xfs&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
   2. 3.2

      Great post SPC. What I (and I am sure many others) picked up on was the fact that Luxon said (paraphrasing) he only wanted National ministers around him in cabinet so that he could get things done.

      For this to happen there would have to be a return to the awful FPP system. That is what Luxon wants.

      Peter Shirtcliffe lives!
4. 4

   The FDA has approved the first mRNA flu vaccine for older adults (it was 27% more effective than existing vaccines). Using mRNA technology will make it easier (quicker) to update each season’s flu vaccine to keep up with new variants.

   It originally refused to consider it – earlier the HHS ended funding of all mRNA research programs.

   https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-approves-1st-mrna-flu-shot-moderna-rcna590599
5. 5

   "A weather station at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, recorded no rainfall throughout July, marking the first time in recorded history that the city has experienced a completely dry month since observations began in 1871."

   https://bsky.app/profile/osintradar.bsky.social/post/3msbaznoo4k2n

   …this green and pleasant land…
   1. 5.1

      And did those feet …

      Looks like they're in for a reckoning!
   2. 5.2

      Run out of water twice in past 33 years, both times in February. Until July this year.
6. 6

   [Bernard] Hickey pointed to a deeper structural problem underlying the numbers: New Zealand’s economy, he argued, “doesn’t know how to operate without house prices rising,” with around two-thirds of households owning homes that have now been falling in value for four years straight, compounding the effect of flat wages and job losses on how poor people feel. He also pointed out that, in New Zealand, “no government has been reelected with falling real house prices and falling real wages”.

   https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/06-08-2026/unemployment-new-zealand-the-numbers-the-regions-the-politics

   The wealth effect has worn off and the domestic economy that dominates the overall NZ economy has become flaccid and dormant. Falling real house prices, falling real wages, rising real costs, rising real unemployment, means failing Government by any logic and by any ‘vibe’. Arguing anything different would be hallucinatory, so Nicola, Chris, et al., stop using Claude immediately.

   Hickey was skeptical of the government’s framing that a recovery is already under way, noting the Reserve Bank’s post-June rate hike had already dented the more forward-looking measures of business confidence, and that Treasury and the Reserve Bank had wrongly forecast an employment rebound for four consecutive quarters.

   Darn! There goes the Hormuz excuse! What possible excuses are left for the Coalition? Flatfish, MMP, wet whiny woke Marxists (aka communists), solar flares, H5N1, any other?
7. 7

   Amid a falling out between the National Party and small business, it’s a better time than ever for Labour to try to woo a constituency that has never been theirs.

   https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-08-2026/luck-on-labours-side-as-party-eyes-up-small-business-partnership

   Timing is everything.

   https://www.labour.org.nz/news/release-labour-is-backing-small-business-to-grow/

   https://www.labour.org.nz/small-business-action-plan

   Oops, I just noticed that Ad has done a Post on this: https://thestandard.nz/a-labour-government-is-good-for-business/.

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