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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, August 25th, 2026 - 66 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
At the risk of politicizing others misery…
There are no winners here apart from the balance sheet and the downward pressure on Health New Zealand's hiring freeze.
The doctor felt out of their depth, repeatedly asked for more training.
The patient's whanau said something wasn't right, wheel chairing the client/patient in and wheel chairing them out.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/1107128/doctor-in-senior-role-beyond-her-training-misdiagnosed-rare-stroke-commissioner-finds
It would be great if more pressure was applied to Simeon Brown over the net increase of 54 nurses hired.
Questions like 'What % increase in staffing numbers should there be to cover the winter illnesses?'
Speaking yesterday about our hospital with a nurse. Not surprisingly it is full of elderly folk with comorbidities, winter illnesses and nowhere to go. Can't go to nursing homes as their needs are too complex (impacts bottom line) and can't go home because there is a lack of support. This contributes too full, dangerous EDs.
Also discovered there are 2 new super bugs going round our hospital.
Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) and VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) they both thrive in full hospitals and nursing homes.
MRSA (Methylin Resistant Staphylococous Aureus) has recently increased too. This impacts heavily on staff as it takes around 6 weeks of clear swabs before being able to return to work.
https://www.healthnz.govt.nz/health-topics/conditions-treatments/infectious-diseases/antibiotic-resistant-infections
On the brink of collapse is no longer hyperbole.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361024108/deaths-confirmed-amidst-worst-flu-outbreak-decade
Yep.
I wasn't far from serious when I mentioned a citizens arrest on Simeon Brown and Lester Levy for vandalising our hospitals.
Rather than a mock guillotining perhaps a citizens Court session could be held, putting the relevant ministers on trial for damaging our health system.
They make a fuss about affording superannuation and yet actively underfund other important support structures which lead to bigger costs.
Bed blocking is a major component of the pressure on hospitals. Where patients no longer need active hospital care, but are too unwell (or don't have a suitable living situation) to be discharged. This can literally go on for months.
Perhaps it's well past time to look at the reintroduction of convalescent hospitals – including in smaller communities. Where ongoing nursing supervision can be combined with physio, nutritional support, etc. – while a longer term living situation can be sorted out.
Sometimes it just needs time for the person to be back on their feet. Sometimes it involves the recognition that the previous living environment is no longer suitable (wheelchair access now required, for example) or that the family can no longer provide the required level of care (progressing dementia, or frail husband/wife).
We certainly do need a system change.
Investment at appropriate levels. According to need. (Which makes Labour's debt to GDP, non horse frightening announcement particularly cowardly.)
Beyond that, wages moving to a level where a family can be raised and a mortgage paid on one working class income. Allowing a family/whanau be a family/whanau and assist with care where appropriate.
While redesigning the system, there needs to be a change to the practice of pouring patients into ED for non emergency care. As an example, my essentially blind father in law broke his elbow (while walking up town with his backpack to do the groceries, despite being ordered to rest 4 days post hernia op…).
An X-ray at the GP practice showed he may need surgery, screws etc. Rather than a refferal to orthapedics, he was tipped into ED, rife with RSV, influenza A and gastro bugs. Hours of waiting and putting further strain on an understaffed (in terms of numbers and seniority).
We can't vote our way out of this.
I agree that systemic change is needed.
Although I'm wary of shifting the cost and expectation of care back onto families. Nine times out of ten – that means onto women – and that is another tranche of unpaid labour for which they are expected to sacrifice their lives. Although having two people in the family able to work part-time as well as assisting with care – is an alternative. But, even then, most of the load goes on women.
Flexible working arrangements really do help with managing the load for the sandwich generation. My sister and I co-ordinate our work and personal schedules to manage our Mum's health care needs. But it is a juggle of competing priorities, and we recognize that this is a luxury not all individuals and families have.
Good point about women bearing the load.
With the desire of preserving a good korero I will not explore the undervalued and forgotten importance of this unpaid work…
Another day perhaps.
I must be the 1 in 10 – A full time care giver for my wife of 52 years with full blown dementia. We are both in our 80's. Our family either overseas or at least 3 hours drive away. So little help from family.
I can vouch just how tough care giving 24/7 with no respite is.
Have sought care givers but they are few and far between these days, and any full time respite care is miles away and very scarce.
Yes, there are exceptions. But tons of social research has shown that the invisible labour of caring for family members falls predominantly onto women.
I'm not disputing that – I'm just saying as a full-time care giver I know just how demanding it can be.
Thank you for sharing that. You have my regards and respect.
I have only 'dipped my toes' into care. A finite time, my Mum and with a fairly bright prognosis.
To endure, with the one you gave your heart to, in a situation that is far from positive takes a strength of character that is to be admired.
Also a reminder, behind every anonymous commenter here, there is a human being living their life.
I agree. Having done this myself, I know just how demanding, isolating and exhausting being a primary caregiver is.
Respite care is frequently a mirage….
My most successful support care mechanism, was to find someone that we liked, trusted, and was available (for personal reasons) to work as a caregiver. And then get the 'provider' to employ that person, for our caregiving role.
We also topped up their salary, outside the employment agreement. Sadly, this was only needed for a relatively short time, so the financial cost was manageable.
The backlash against Data Centres is becoming a huge political issue in the USA.
"The swiftness and ferocity of the backlash has caught the tech industry on the backfoot, where it’s struggled to find an effective message that assuages voters’ worries that data centers will raise their power bills, hog their water supplies and blight the landscape. One result is the growing, bipartisan push for temporary moratoriums on data center construction,"
The Green’s one year moratorium on DC's, while rules are put in place to make sure they provide their own power and address landscape and water use issues, is looking good.
Everything I'm hearing makes me think that Labour should support a Bed Tax. It is a sensible solution to the infrastructure deficit in the major tourist towns.
It's an easy one to argue….it will keep rates down. So it will actually keep taxes down in the tourist areas.
I don't think that Labour should be bound by Nationals silly no-taxes agenda. It shouldn't let them boss the agenda.
Unfortunately it is far more embedded than just a silly no taxes agenda.
It is neoliberal ideology.
There are far more impactful ideas to spend the limited bandwidth on than a brain fart that Luxon dropped.
As a start:
Reverse landlord tax handouts.
Reinstate locally provided school lunches.
The Visitor Levy was doomed at the point it became referred to as the Bed Tax. A levy is a charge on a specific item or service, a tax is something that everyone pays on income or is universal on what they spend. The morphing terminology created the impression that everyone would be subject to some sort of tax based on their bed.
QLDC has been very careful to avoid the Bed Tax terminology and always refer to it as a Visitor Levy.
Back in the bad old days when councils were able to be a bit more lateral in their rating definitions QLDC 3 waters rating was based on how many toilets a property had. Accomodation providers had heaps. Councils could also charge quite arbitrary differentials on each rating category to collect what was required to meet the budget for that service. QLDC dealt with providing other visitor services by including them in the VA 3 waters rating differential. A hotel operator challenged this and the rating laws were changed to be more specific on how rating was applied and spent, 3 waters rates could only pay for 3 waters and public services (public toilets parks and litter) had to come from general rates. We can get away with a promotion levy because it's on a specific area and spent to promote area but not a visitor levy that's spent over the whole district.
The Regional Deals with Auckland and QLDC / CODC had provisions to fix this issue and take the costs of servicing visitor demands off the general ratepayers on put them, indirectly, onto the visitors. It's a small change to rating legislation, but, carries the perceived risk of allowing councils to impose seemingly arbitrary rates on specific sectors. A bit of a can of worms but something that one of the opposition parties should grab hold of and point out the idiocy of the current rating legislation. We've been enduring this for 20+ years, it's time something was done about it and it's supported by the industry and ratepayers, and quite strongly.
Just to get back to the bleating mayor of Twizel telling New Zealand that cleaning the toilets costs $150 on every ratepayer, he manages to avoid any political cost himself.
In Twizel the average 2016 property was under $300,000, and the average value this year is about $765,000.
It is entirely within his political power to raise rates and give McKenzie District some headroom.
Otherwise the new Central South Island Water will just meter the hell out of them all and there's no political recourse at all.
Oh good, so you'd happily pay more on your general residential rates to service visitor infrastructure.
And a fundamental misrepresentation of the relationship between property value and rating ability.
More and more, 3 Waters would have been a far better option
3 Waters, and WDW unfortunately make this situation worse because they completely seperate 3 waters infrastructure from the general and community services that councils provide. The Rating Act is very specific how rates can be levied and spent, councils can't levy in one area and spend in another, that's the issue here.
McKenzie District Council consistently charges some of the very lowest rates in the entire country and has done for over a decade. Even the Taxpayer Union likes them as lowest or second-lowest rating in the country.
Twizel is just a micro version of Queenstown: plenty of empty houses for AirB&B people, and a fascinating propensity by the Council to rely ever more on the state agencies to sort out their problems for them.
The McKenzie mayor needs to stare hard into the mirror and do his own political work.
McKenzie isn't just Twizel and Tekapo, there's still a lot of ratepayers who aren't in that value chain, and residents who are just a challenged by living costs as people in QLDC land. Know a couple of people who move up there thinking lower land values / rentals would make it easier, not the case.
And could they stay within the rates capping?
If visitor costs have to be covered through the General Rate part of rating then capping will exasperate the issue with having to slice more wedges out of a fixed size pie.
And then give that slice to users who haven't contributed to paying for the pie. Which is why it's such an issue in areas with large visitor demands. We've been dealing with it for 20+ years and only got traction in the last couple because it's become an issue for Auckland, and there because the numbers have got huge, much smaller as a % of rate take than QLDC, but the actual numbers and Wayne Brown has had enough.
At the risk of hijacking Open Mike, I've got a question I would like to group source.
My Mum fell through the night last week and was cast on the floor for several hours.
She was due to have a career call in around 10am to assist with a shower, the door would normally be unlocked.
I didn't hear from Geneva instead I got a call at work after 11 by the lady that was going to take Mum out for lunch saying she couldn't get in.
I want to find out from Geneva what happened about this and other issues. I've had conversations but I figure a paper trail needs to be created.
What sort of questions to ask, how to frame the enquiry (neutral, cranky etc)? To whom to address the enquiry. That sort of thing.
Nga mihi nui in advance.
My first reaction is to look at alert systems.
Such as this – link, there are others.
https://familyr.co.nz/medical-alarm-nz/
Simply ask Geneva, what their practice is when a carer cannot provide the service specified, such as contacting their relative.
Cheers, she does have a St Johns alert necklace but her arm was pinned and the pendant was out of reach.
We've got my mum living in a cottage on our property, she's 93 and can look after her personal care but has a short term memory issue so we do her meals.
We went through the fall thing a couple of years ago and navigated the situation and got her back in her cottage where she wanted to be. It was an interesting ride.
First question. Where does your Mum want to be, and is she receptive to moving into a residential care environment? This is where the system will want to go and can be quite coercive. Can also be downright constructive too. If residential care can work that's the easiest option for everyone, if it doesn't it can get hard work.
We found Age Concern very helpful in getting Mum back into her cottage, along with the rehab ward at Southland Hospital. The local DHB social workers and rest home much less so and they were a lengthy, methodical and at times heated war.
An area to look at with falls is medication, get an independent first principles review. Also a good physiotherapist that can click with your Mum can teach her how not to fall, how to fall safely, and then how to get up again. Mine's got quite confident and agile now.
Good luck with this, you may find you'll be getting a lot closer to your Mum and having to take on more of her care to maintain her independence.
And keep meticulous records, a solid dairy of interactions, witnessed if you can, and try and record everything you can.
Hi Graeme, thanks for that.
Mum is living in her own home and determined to stay and we are prepared to help achieve that.
Osteoarthritis has a strong grip and mobility is quite limited. This event has shaken her confidence and while she is on the mend everything is slow.
The physio is a good idea too.
You are right about getting closer, there is an odd intimacy helping closely with toileting. I am getting help with showering however…
Confidence is the key to independence. Regain that and amazing things happen.
That's terrible for you Mum, and not great for you either.
Do everything from now on in writing. You can still do phone calls, just keep a log and record of what is discussed.
write up a synopsis of the events as you know them, and of the call/s you've already had. Do this while your memory is fresh.
Get clear on what you want to achieve. Understanding what happened? Making sure it doesn't happen again? Assessing if Geneva locally are competent to manage your Mum's care? etc
You can email the synposis to Geneva, and ask for them to confirm their side of the phone calls.
I would go for neutral initially. It may be a glitch that they want to know about so they can fix their system (best outcome).
I would address it to the person co-ordinating your Mum's care. If you are unhappy with their responses, you can start CCing the CE of Geneva.
Are you familiar with the HDC Code of Rights?
https://www.hdc.org.nz/your-rights/the-code-and-your-rights/
You might also want to talk with whoever did/does your Mum's needs assessment.
Thank you very much weka.
Some great advice there. You are right about getting clear with what I want to achieve. There is an fear of punching down, as in consequences tend to go down a hierarchy rather than up.
However the comms from Geneva have been very poor. Including the regular career not being able come, unbeknownst to Mum, so she started with her shower only to have a total stranger turn up in her bathroom part way through.
that's not good 🙁
Are you able to change provider? Sometimes the smaller organisations are better than the big ones.
Provider change hadn't occured to me. They are driven from Auckland and the manager offered up traffic as a reason for being late. 3 cars at an intersection is peak flow in Filly.
Since I started the thread, a relief carer came, showered Mum and she was a saint. I will ask if she can be a regular.
Sadly the experience your Mum had with a total stranger turning up to shower her – is par for the course. There is an assumption that all carers are equal – and it's easy to substitute one for another, with no impact on the person being cared for.
My elderly Mum has different people each time, and this includes showering. It's horrible. I dread the thought of being elderly in NZ unless we make major changes.
Yep, the situation has only gotten worse over the last 20 years – when I was dealing with this with my partner.
I really do think that it's time that we (as a society) recognized that people needing care are not interchangeable widgets – and nor are the caregivers.
Coincidentally and tangentally, I was reading this article yesterday – about a totally different model of community based care – which emphasises the 'community' element.
https://theconversation.com/what-if-we-stopped-treating-social-care-like-a-service-a-small-village-community-in-yorkshire-showed-me-another-way-288401
Reading this, I was struck by the way that two intellectually disabled people in my wider community would have enormously benefited from this model. Both lived with parents until old-age took its toll. And then into 'independent living' which has proved isolating, lonely and expensive.
But this model of true community-based care would also work with older people. Preserving their independence, and staying in their own home and community – but anchoring them in a group of people who watch out for them.
Sage advice from Weka, a bit more independent than mine, it's a very affecting situation to go through.
Keeping through notes / logs is very handy, you can just about garruntee that care agencies and social workers are that overworked and strung out that they don't have good records, or there are obvious errors. Establishing that gets things going up the hierarchy very quickly. Always try and be the most reliable witness, in these situations it's often not that hard.
I'm sorry that your Mum had such a bad experience. Falling and being unable to get up again is scary.
I would be asking Geneva what their policy is for escalation if a carer can't get access, and they (or their supervisor) are unable to contact your Mum directly. At what point do they contact the emergency number listed (I'm sure they have one) for a welfare check?
If this is not currently mandated in their care instructions – then get it added. (e.g. if carer is unable to enter, and Mum doesn't answer the phone; immediately call this number for a family member to take action)
If all of this is currently in place, then ask them to review what went wrong – and provide you with the review. Make sure your request is in 'writing' – and that you receive an acknowledgement.
NB: elderly people often don't want to initiate this process – as they don't want the 'lovely woman who looks after me' to get in trouble. Do talk this through with your Mum first.
Geneva should have provided documentation that your Mum has (as the client) – specifying who to contact over issues. Make sure that you are listed as an emergency contact and/or power of attorney (if you have that already in place). Because otherwise they don't have to discuss anything with you, as you are not the client.
Chur Bella, in korero with Mum's manager I have ascertained if the carer can't get in, they are to try looking in each window, try the neighbours then not to leave until they have contacted their manager
I am asking for a review of this event as well as when the stranger turned up.
I am EPOA.
As an aside, dealing with Mum in her senior years is a walk in the park compared to the proud, stubborn, lying, independent but incapable of coping on his own father in law. Not uncommon apparently.
It sounds as though you have it all well in hand.
I agree that blokes are often unable/unwilling to accept what they see as restrictions – to a *much* greater degree than women.
I do wonder how much of this is signs of early dementia – where they simply don't see the problem. And how much is that women of that era are a great deal more used to being 'bossed around' (and whether that will change when the emancipated women of the 70s and beyond hit the old age sector)
From my observation of the age care sector with Mum's internment something will have to change in the sector's attitude and methods or all hell will break loose. Some people absolutely thrived in the environment, but they were generally the trad wife generation who had always done what hubby said. The more independent were a hand full for the facility and Mum's got a few emotional bruises. Some clients really struggled and didn't last long, which was a sad end to what were previously quite full lives.
To the facilities credit they had some quite young clients who weren't capable of independent living through illness or injury. There was a very different dynamic here from both sides.
I'm dreading the day the sector has to deal with me, and I it, but we often don't have much control once we get to that stage of life. Many people I saw there had suddenly lost control of their lives and ended up in a situation where they had to fit in or be crushed into submission.
Poor Mum – Poor you – in that order.
I've had a bad run with my mother this winter – I think many adult children have. I'm an only child so it all falls on me. Hence the "Poor You". Remember, you're only human and if you run yourself into the ground, your ability to help your mum goes with you. Take Care of yourself and your own energy levels.
You've asked how to frame it. I think you need to remember both that the caring organisations are being stretched and underfunded, just like the hospitals. The carer did the right thing by calling you when she wasn't able to get into the house. That's the way it sounds from what you've said.
I would do four things:
1. Check with the home care company (is that Geneva?) and see if you can fit a lockbox at your mother's house. I'm guessing she couldn't get in because the door was locked, not because your mother was blocking it. With a lockbox, even if the home carer has to call the head office for the code, no-one needs to wait for you to arrive before they can get in. You could put a key for the front and back door in the lock box, so whichever door might be blocked, entry is possible.
2. Get mum to the GP asap. A couple of weeks back, my mum sounded terrible, so I got approval to work from her house. She fell, and I was there to press the St Johns alarm. I didn't think too much about the fall, because her knees gave way and she crumpled rather than fell, but the hospital said that old people have thinner veins and so they tested her for concussion and/or brain bleeds.
3. From 2. above, does she have a St Johns' monitor? WINZ can help with the cost, i think, and it is a good backstop for her and for you. They're not perfect, but they do their best, I think. If only my mother would wear her neck thing.
4. Think carefully about whether the home carer had something in place that didn't happen or whether they did their best under difficult circumstances. That will tell you who to call and how to frame the call.
5. Labour is promising 3 free GP visits each year. Help to get them elected and make sure mum takes advantage of her entitlement.
Thanks thinker.
I've become aware of carer fatigue, but I think I can see a finish line. I certainly have compassion and empathy for the carers. It's not their fault the fall occurred but if Mum wasn't due to go out for lunch that day it could easily been a tragic outcome.
Yes she has the st John alarm but couldn't reach it to use it.
The Oz economy is responding to a higher OCR (rising inflation) and unemployment has risen to 4.5%.
Their inflation is 3.8%, ours is 4.1%.
Their OCR is 4.35%, ours is 2.5% (because we have high unemployment already – now 5.6%)
Our wage growth is 2%, there's has fallen from 3.4% to 3.2% in the past year.
By every metric, we are doing worse despite our far lower OCR.
But if it gets harder for Kiwis to find employment over the Tasman, unemployment here will not be going down.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/08/25/australia-too-expensive-some-kiwis-moving-back-home/
Hipkins finally calls it what it is.
National are outright lying in their advertising campaign
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019049008/weekly-interview-with-opposition-leader
Hey, aj. Did you listen through to the end? Up until John Campbell's final question, which he had to ask 3 times! Hipkins did pretty well, but when asked why Labour are polling so poorly, he avoided answering by rolling out his party-political broadcast!
I thought it was extraordinary! Why did he do that? Hipkins is usually quite capable of answering any question, but this time, he was as bad as Luxon.
Deeply disappointed, I was. I hope that doesn't happen again.
Absolutely agree. I wanted to scream at the radio "Answer the question". No wonder Labour are not rising in the polls. Luxon light.
Damn missed that, will listen to complete link
Yes a little honest introspection would have been better. I don't think they want to answer that question directly. . . .
Hipkins might have said, "There are many things that influence voters at this point in the cycle, so it's understandable, however, one significant influence comes from the lies that National are broadcasting through social media that I referred to earlier. National is misleading New Zealanders and its unfair for them to be using their millions and millions of dollars of tobacco, gun, oil and landlord money, to fool us.
👍 perfect
Maybe instead of screaming, labour not polling well, we could all put our big people pants on and realize this is a normal to be expected consequences of an mmp system!
Well, yes, bwaghorn, this is normal enough and I don't think it's right to say we're "screaming"anything, however, I do think Hipkins should have been straighter and not done a "Luxon".
Accepting that hindsight is always 20:20, I would have said:
Labour is doing poorly in the polls because people have had a gutsful of National and Luxon and they are currently suspicious of both of the main parties. Labour is getting a bit of collateral damage.
Then, there are the lies (aka Dirty Politics) that National is spreading about Labour, because it has nothing about the past 3 years to claim credit for, so its only chance of re-election is to discredit the opposition. The fact that they have to lie to do it is actually a compliment.
Also, as we get to this point in the election cycle, many swinging voters think that the best use of MMP is to cast their vote for a smaller party, arguably to hold the bigger parties to account. When we get closer still to the election, and voters get to know what they're voting for and what is and isn't achievable, there's likely to be a swing towards Labour, as the party that can put people first and also has more chance of implementing the policies it is espousing.
Joel MacManus at The Spinoff has written a nice explainer on how the NZ electricity market works and how AI data centres would fit into this.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/25-08-2026/what-ai-data-centres-could-do-to-your-electricity-bill
MacManus puts the finger on a likely pain point, which is timing, e.g., the difference between building an AI data factory and a power plant.
The comments (8 at present) are good too.
More Sociopath behaviour from the US. Time to send the US diplomat home.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/361024300/us-strikes-vessel-eastern-pacific-killing-2-people
Watts is a dumbarse!
"Presented with the criticism, Watts was insistent that councils will be able to make it work."
Watts was insistent…Watts was insistent…Watts was insistent…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361024446/government-moves-ahead-cap-council-rates-increases
For years Wellington has had a Nat/ACT group of candidates for Council places that has consistently said "We will keep your rates low" – and indeed they did, until the inevitable happened and the "deferred maintenance" became too evident with broken pipes and stormwater / sewage in the streets. Water problems have become urgent, and much has been done. Like many services, water problems are not neatly packaged to suit city boundaries; the previous government wanted groupings that would cover reasonable catchment areas that enable efficiency, even if that was not the same as local authority groupings – and in many areas that would not exactly match local authority areas. But ignoring reality, the Nat/ACT types are trying to fool the public again – and they have done so badly with NZ finances that they are effectively leaving local areas to fix major public developments through annual rates. Borrowing for some costs would make sense, but National have spent it all on roads of Nat Party significance, cigarette companies and other similar donation generating decisions.
Correct Ed1.
But the general public are going to love sticking it to their local council.
+1000 Ed1
That's a …. charitable … interpretation of the Three Waters proposal.
The initial proposal was for four entities. One of which straddled the Cook Strait (it would be hard to describe Wellington and Nelson as being in the same catchment area). Nor was Nelson at all enthusiastic about paying for Wellington's historic infrastructure underfunding.
The revised plan – after severe push-back from the Councils – roughly approximated the unitary authority boundaries. Although it still included both sides of the Southern Alps in a single authority.
https://www.russellmcveagh.com/insights-news/three-waters-becomes-affordable-water-changes-explained/
Wellington, historically, has had a left/green council majority (my opinion, and general journalist commetnary) Focused on progressive urban development, and captured by huge price tag renovations of historic buildings. Really, I don't think you can blame this one on the National/ACT councillors.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1118015/labour-promises-to-reinstate-smokefree-generation-policy
I reckon Simeon Brown and National will be falling over themselves to accuse Labour of introducing a new tax!
Yes they will. They've chosen a strong, simple attack that even the dimmest of their MPs can fire off at any time.
Paul Barlow, aka Paul… The Other One, has taken the time to fact check the lying sacks of shit.
https://paultheotherone.com/factcheck26/
https://substack.com/@paulbarlow
https://bsky.app/profile/paulbarlownz.bsky.social
Have others seen this? Rankin on Luxon – I'll put up and we can read later.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2608/S00063/is-mr-luxon-contemplating-a-grand-coalition.htm
Tuesday, 25 August 2026, 5:03 pm
Opinion: Keith Rankin
Add to this the interview with Ganesh Nana, distinguished economist, and Jack Tame. 'How to fix the economy'…