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- Date published:
11:13 am, July 21st, 2026 - 8 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, national, nz first, racism, Shane Jones -
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Donald Trump has a lot to answer for.
Throughout the Western World careerist politicians who are wedded to public funding and the perks offered by public office think that being as obnoxious as possible is a career preserving and enhancing option.
They generally rail against vested interests while receiving huge amounts of cash from vested interests.
They cultivate culture wars endlessly. Getting ordinary people fighting against each other is the best way to preserve their power. Those who can be sucked into the latest culture war are the targets.
They rail against the science and suggest that
And a bit of dog whistle racism is always an added bonus.
We saw all of this during the weekend at the recent NZ First convention.
From Adam Pearse at the Herald:
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones claims political leaders need to “take off your kneepads” when receiving a visit from foreign leaders, one week after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon welcomed his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to New Zealand.
Speaking at the NZ First convention in Auckland, Jones ranted about immigration and “climate alarmism” as he blasted his political rivals, including mocking the National campaign chairman for his age.
…
He delivered a crass, veiled dig at Luxon, who often has an affectionate nature when meeting with foreign leaders with whom he has a rapport, such as Modi, who visited New Zealand last weekend.
“Labour Party, National Party, Act Party, Green Party, the next time you go to an ethno-nationalist rally to receive a foreign leader, take off your kneepads.”
Modi’s visit was the first by an Indian PM in 40 years and was described by Luxon as historic. The two nations recently signed a free trade deal.
Jones defended his party’s opposition to the India free-trade agreement, declaring it was “not racist” to hold concerns about social cohesion and the infrastructure deficit, promising to call out a rising Indian population “every day, every week, every month”.
“Labour, National: you can sign as many dodgy trade deals as you like and import people from wherever you like. Unless they’re citizens, they will never vote in the New Zealand election,” he said in reference to his party’s policy to prevent non-citizens from voting.
“To have foreigners running slave gangs in our kiwifruit industry, never paying tax, owing more to the IRD than the GDP of Kaitāia, put them on the first plane and send them home.
“That’s not racist, that’s standing up for the hinterland.”
Obviously the speech was scripted and approved by NZ First’s leadership.
Accusing the leader of your coalition of supplanting yourself to a foreign leader would normally cost you your cabinet position.
But we do live in strange times. And Luxon is the weakest Prime Minister I have seen in my time.
Remember last election when there was continuous talk about the left forming a coalition of chaos?
This is exactly what we have. A three headed taniwha that is fighting among itself and which is happy to engage in dog whistle attacks on cultural groups for political advantage.
And a Prime Minister being insulted publicly in a scripted way and not being able to respond except to say that the comment was “crass and unprofessional”.
And this is only going to get worse leading up to the election.
He should. He won't.
It would be a disorienting country with a 2026-2029 coalition-Cabinet in which National got 25%, NZF got 17%, and ACT got 10%.
Illustration: Goldsmith complaining today that the English-language dominance bill will take precedence through legislative passage over the sexual consent bill.
It would have been so, so easy to reverse this order paper.
Except for NZF being really clear that they run the Order Paper now.
Imagine voting for a government like that, far worse than we have now.
Goldsmith can say whatever he likes or get the former CEO and/or the former captain of the debating team to defend him, but actions speak volumes and more than empty words – the tail is beating down on the dog, again.
Can NZ survive another term of a 'strong and stable' CoC defending division by wealth?
"Disorienting" for sure – every flavour of radical right-wing nuttiness in more or less equal measure.
NZF is fully maga now with the woke ranting and general behaviour of Peters, Jones etc.
Winnie claimed a 90% chance of a commercial gas discovery where none has been found in the decades anywhere around these Islands for over 50 years.
Strap in as the BS ramps up. Love to see him defend this 90% confidence if anyone has the cojones in our media poodle pack as the Industry doesn't share that view.
Like Winston Peters Shane Jones has been a Long-Term Trougher on the NZ Taxpayers.
Recent example has him practically Double Dipping on travel expenses to Toronto and all he could do in response was to Blame Someone Else for that Mistake On HIS PART.
Blaming Others seems to be the Well Rehearsed Response from those like Peters, Jones, Willis, Luxon, Seymour, Brown etc because it's Text-book Honed over a long period of time Reaction and Habit when caught in a corner of their Own Making.
Luxon of course is that Weak, Gutless and Cowardly so-called prime minister who only views the roll as being one Photo Opportunity after another and send the NZ Taxpayers the bills eg the Pavlova Photo Opportunity. He is a Do Nothing Self-Serving sort of prime minister.
I think we should now take whatever Luxon etc says and promises with a pinch of salt as we get one day closer to the election. They are currently throwing insults upon each other instead on getting down to the more serious Business of dealing with all that is happening here in NZ. It all seems to be One Vanity Project/Quest after another by those MPs in this Coalition government as each seems to want to Out-Do the other in how to insult others and get away with it thanks to Weakling Luxon.
We have a government comprising of Opportunistic, Self-Serving, Photo Opportunity Seeking Troughers and NOT a Government that is Here for the People and Serving the People.
It's hard to resist the NZFirst tactic of simply controlling the media coverage with a bit of controversy.
Nash's comments today about his Napier National opponent are making sure he's the Number 2 candidate rather than Labour polling way above NZFirst.
It's grubby and effective as a tactic (so long as its not overdone);
election at T-4 months is about profile.