Open Mike 29/09/2026

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 31 comments
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31 comments on “Open Mike 29/09/2026”

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  1. 1

    Just in case you are in need of any cobwebs to be blown out.

    Radiohead have an inaccurate reputation for being a bit of a down a band.

    Here is a topical, foot on the monitor, rowdy rocker from the 29 year old album OK Computer.

    "I will stop at nothing

    Say the right things

    When electioneering

    I trust I can rely on your vote

    When I go forwards, you go backwards

    And somewhere we will meet…

    Riot shields

    Voodoo economics

    It's life, it's life

    It's just business

    Cattle prods and the I.M.F…."

    https://youtu.be/3DtgWrFTtQk?si=Azg_ARZWc8rqOxI5

    Reply
  2. 2

    The Opp Party bottom lines for post election negotiations look to be more Lab/GP/TPM than Nat/Act/NZF.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1643401/health-supermarkets-and-political-lobbying-among-opportunity-party-s-bottom-lines

    Its five bottom lines are:

    • Giving the Commerce Commission more teeth and greater independence to tackle excessive market power in supermarkets and other uncompetitive sectors, bringing down prices. Wong said the problem was broadly agreed, and it was time to do something about it.
    • Regulating lobbying and capping political donations to "clean up politics". "New Zealanders deserve to know who is trying to influence their government, and no one should be able to buy disproportionate political influence," Wong said.
    • Developing a 10-year plan to "fix the health system" alongside health professionals, with clear commitments on funding, workforce and infrastructure. "A 10-year plan would give the health system a stable direction for its workforce, infrastructure and funding," said Wong.
    • Phasing out bottom trawling, working with industry, iwi and coastal communities to fairly manage the transition.
    • Recommitting to Paris Agreement emissions reduction obligations and protecting the Climate Change Commission's independence. "We will not support a government that walks away from our international obligations or undermines the independent Climate Change Commission," Wong said.
    Reply
        1. 2.1.1.1

          Luxon lost the election on July 27 2026. Historians should bookmark this …

          National rules out working with Opportunity Party | RNZ

          With astonishing incompetence, Luxon ruled them out on the basis of policies which are not now "bottom lines" for Opportunity after all. So it was all for nothing!

          That's why there was a challenge to his leadership afterwards. But National MPs followed up Luxon's incompetence with their own. What a gift to the opposition.

          (And I'm not doing hindsight, it was obvious at the time and discussed on here.)

          Reply
          1. 2.1.1.1.1
            1. "Rules out working with" does not rule out confidence-and-supply.
            1. Honestly, do you trust anything Luxon says?
            2. And, as I remember, that was Luxon's personal statement, and is therefore not an absolute for National.

            The initial result of Luxon's statement was to suck support away from Labour. Just look at the rise in OP and the correlated drop on a timeline such as

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graph_of_opinion_polls_in_NZ_by_party.svg

            Labour dips faster as OP rises from Jan 26. National dips faster as NZF rises from Jan 25.

            Reply
            1. 2.1.1.1.1.1

              "Rules out working with" does not rule out confidence-and-supply.

              It does. He has restated his position multiple times since.

              But of course it's true to say that won't mean anything post-election. That is not the point here. It is the position that Luxon has taken for the campaign, and therefore he will continue to be asked about it, when it is not what he wants to be talking about. The opportunity cost (no pun intended) is huge.

              No upside at all for Luxon.

              Reply
            2. 2.1.1.1.1.2

              do you trust anything Luxon says

              Of course not. But with every poll headline (see One News yesterday) the media have to take him at his word. (They probably don't believe him either, but never mind).

              So the headline is not "coalition lead, with Opp up for grabs", it's "coalition loses". Crucial difference. I really dislike horse-race commentary, but that's what we get, and in that context, Luxon has put the opposition in the lead. Framing the campaign narrative really matters.

              Reply
      1. 3.1.1

        This spud is called Luxon victus, which is a new variety that grows very well on BS and is highly resistant to facts & feedback. It’s great for roasting or mashing, but add some salt because it’s naturally very bland. A special release will be available from 8 Nov onwards in all but NZ’s major supermarkets.

        Reply
        1. 3.1.1.1

          Love those crispy chips, not yet a Luxury but wait for that result IF Natfactacjack shoots into power again. Cos they will try to shoot every thing worthwhile in sight.

          Reply
  4. 4

    Peters’ Freudian slip.

    " NZ First leader Winston Peters called Opportunity’s bottom lines a “wrinkly wrinkly derrière” and “flaccid”."

    Projection much!

    Reply
  5. 5

    lprent – Could you please put a follow on to next line instruction into the system. So when a sentence is finished and the writer wants the next line underneath, and presses enter that is what you get.

    At present automatically there is a line space put when enter is pressed. So there are a number spaced out, interrupted, gappy and hard to follow comments at present. I suggest that if there is to be a break in the lines, the writer presses enter twice and you make your own breaks. It is demonstrated in gsays comment at 1. There is too much screen space taken up by the present system. And where there are quotes, the quote should start right beside the quote icon, not two lines below or whatever. I hope you can do this, it will help in presentation and reading.

    Reply
    1. 5.1

      I just fixed that I suspect – see comment

      v1.0.17

      • On mobile post list; added excerpt in smaller font; gradient fading on last line if it over flows the space. Date and comments to smaller font. Separate line for comments count.
      • Fixed the right margin issue in single post content. It was arbitrarily max-width at 800px.
      • Increased the size of the non-featured post images by 40% when the list of posts still has a sidebar.
      • Added the comment text sanitisers. Got dropped when converting.

      If not then link me to a comment demonstrating it after a hard page refresh. It may take a wee while to get uncached otherwise

      Reply
  6. 6

    The books have been opened and it looks like treasury is singing form the WIllis’/Nats’ song sheet:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1647005/treasury-gives-willis-pre-election-boost-as-surplus-forecast-improves

    Nicola Willis has been given a pre-election reprieve, with Treasury painting a brighter picture of the government's finances in the short term.

    But the update comes with a sting in the tail for voters, with the recovery largely driven by an increased tax take due to "higher and more persistent" inflation.

    And longer-term risks remain.

    The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (Prefu) – released on Tuesday – forecast a deficit of $6.8 billion in 2026/27, down from the May Budget's $11.4 billion prediction.

    Officials expected that to narrow to just $0.8b the next year – what Willis described as "within a hair's breadth of a surplus".

    The books were still picked to return to surplus in 2028/29, in line with National's election pledge. And it's a larger-than-expected surplus too – $4b, compared to the Budget prediction of $2.6b.

    Reply
    1. 6.1

      The optimistic forecast is a statement in time and does not reflect the expected impact from current world reality (such as S of H impasse, the month or more loss of East-West pipeline oil, closure of the Red Sea to Yanbu oil, the rising debt cost on world bond markets etc)

      Economist Cameron Bagrie said the Prefu contained “heroic assumptions”.

      That Willis claims the modest growth derives from fiscal discipline is economic nonsense – she needs to stick in the budget deficit forecast lane.

      But the Government was entering the period up to June 2030 in a better fiscal position than had been predicted in the Budget, thanks mainly to higher tax revenues, he said.

      Finance Minister and National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis said the update reflected the work the Government had done to “restore fiscal discipline” and noted the Treasury expected to issue $15b less debt than previously expected over the forecast period.

      https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/361088746/treasury-brightens-forecasts-they-dont-account-recent-global-downturn

      Reply
      1. 6.1.1

        NZ proceeds on its way to its destiny making 'heroic assumptions'. What a great term – two words sizes up 5 million sentences that could be uttered. Staggering onward, but not to Frank Worsley's achievement of success, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Worsley. Another time Oates left the tent saying ""I am just going outside and may be some time."" and the remaining three including Scott, carried on but were halted by severe climatic conditions and died.

        Jacinda has left and will stay away from this hostile climate, but don't let the 5 million left be decimated by the present troika of unparallelled climate damage, a malevolent kleptocracy with treacherous government, and wealthy management corporations using administrators, many crafty or under imposed strictures.

        Reply
  7. 7

    The poll last night was good news for the left but Chloe getting excited and talking about the Finance portfolio (and then again today) is not good politics. The Green Party being in charge of the economy is what scares people and while I personally have no concerns about it speaking too loudly right now is the wrong choice.

    Reply
    1. 7.1

      National’s fear-mongering tactics do still hit some targets, with a little help from its Dirty Workers, no doubt.

      … a Freshwater-The Post poll result which found Swarbrick is more trusted to run the economy than the incumbent Nicola Willis.

      Just. She edged Willis 24 percent to 23, with Labour’s Barbara Edmonds back on 9.

      The poll was taken ahead of Swarbrick winning some plaudits at the Deloitte election conference in Wellington on Tuesday. Her back-up session at the EMA – her first before that group – saw her emphasise a number of EMA election year policy directives on which the audience might have been surprised to find much common ground with the Green Party.

      https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/18/chloe-swarbrick-why-wouldnt-i-want-to-be-finance-minister/

      Reply
    2. 7.2

      The people "scared" by the prospect of Chlöe in the Finance chair, are not going to vote Green ever. Those who are considering doing just that will be mightily encouraged by the prospect. In point of fact, Chlöe didn't make the proposition; it was implied as part of a Great Green Presence in the new, on-its-way Government.

      The Kiwiblog crew will be going all asymmetric on it, but the average person will be thinking, well, perhaps she would be good in that role – certainly the present one is shite 🙂

      Reply
      1. 7.2.1

        I’m pretty sure she did (make a great proclamation) and again today. It’s a gimmee to the right and that’s my point. Far better to get elected, negotiate the responsibilities, and then show that the sky won’t fall with Greens having influence.

        Reply
        1. 7.2.1.1

          The "Right" would say it anyway, in order to terrify their troops -Chlöe might as well own it and make it hers, not theirs. And she has. Seems she's more favoured for the position than Willis; speaking out and saying. I can do this, earns points from me.

          Reply
        2. 7.2.1.2

          Na I like this new attitude from the Greens, National and Labour are historically unpopular and at 28% and falling neither should expect the precedent that the largest party in a coalition gets the PM and finance portfolio to remain when you can't even get 1/3 of the vote LMAO

          The Greens have always been to nice to Labour, demanded very little and gotten crumbs.

          They sat meekly and smiled in 99-02, 17-20 to prove they are good coalition partners, but the Labour party doesn't respect them, I haven't respected them because they do stuff do deals with labour in 2020 for literally nothing.

          What labour does respect? A party that throws its weight around and threatens to sit in the cross benches if it doesn't get policy wins.

          We've just watched the national party let two minor parties ride roughshod over our constitution and economic and public service and people, Labour traditionally once in power just shrug and refuse to change anything national did, the greens are saying "not this time"

          Labour is weak, with a horribly weak leader and weak caucus, weak policies and running a "vote positive" level weak caucus, the gap between labour and the greens is narrowing, the greens need to throw their weight around or their voters will think they'll get hoodwinked by labour again and not turn up.

          At 16% vs 20%? The Greens should be demanding to be present during the major party debates and ruling out labour policies themselves "we absolutely rule out keeping the landlord tax cut" who the hell does labour think they are to rule anything out, they can't rub two votes together lmao

          Reply

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