NZ Politics

Any thoughts on what those measures may be?

God I hope they tax churches.

Really solid call, and timely comments about the divisive politics being imported from America at the moment.

I'm curious to know what others think of this.

I'm personally for keeping it as I see the benefit coming in a few years having many more EV's available in the second hand market. Currently it's pretty much dominated by mainly Nissan Leaf's at the lower end of the secondhand market.

I know of a few people as well who have bought EV/Hybrids recently that would not have even considered going for EV's or even hybrids without the rebate.

Full video: https://twitter.com/rugbyintel/status/1694180437533605918

David Seymour looks like he got hit by a bus.

I warned people not to dismiss Waititi back when he was ejected for performing a haka in parliament. He is acutely aware he is very much inside a white man’s system at parliament, and he’s quite happy to face down kāwanatanga with rangatiratanga. He knows exactly what he is doing. So fun to see this kind of cultural clash in parliament.

You mean they weren't already?

Even Labour's own ministers have spoken out against this policy, it genuinely baffles me why they decided to go ahead with this.

Wellington CBD to Airport - second Mount Victoria Tunnel and upgrades to Basin Reserve/Arras Tunnel

Kinda looks like we will be getting this no matter what. About bloody time, too.

A very long and very qualified list of people who think this is a bad idea.

Also, the infamous Jaffa cake lawsuit.

Just one example of working out edge cases costing a fortune.

Back in 1935 the first Labour government came to power and faced a severe housing crisis. It didn’t fiddle and tinker – it rolled its sleeves up. By the late 1930s it was building 3500 state houses per year for a population of around 1.5 million.

I think this is an excellent policy, and a long time coming. This is done overseas with good effect. While I don't think it's a magic bullet, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

First (ever) NZ poll by the The Guardian. Shows National/ACT with a majority, and NZF above 5%!

We should of course remember this is just one poll, and the overall trend shows National/ACT are ahead but it's very close.

Do you think the criticism of this plan as being "too gold-plated" is fair? I'm not familiar with the area, so I'm not sure if light rail is really needed.

Usually their hot topics are bitching about housing and simping for TOP but these days I've noticed a lot more posts to the extent of "labour sucks and now I have no choice but to vote for national >:(". Unsure if this reflects a general change in sentiment or if certain parties are spending their excess donations on buying out accounts. Worth mentioning I've noticed inflammatory topics posted by accounts that have been dead for years.

With how close the two blocs are, this is a big shift.

Labour: 32.3 percent, down 3.6 points
National: 36.6 percent, up 1.3 points
ACT: 12.1 percent, up 1.3 points
Greens: 9.6 percent, up 1.5 points
Te Pāti Māori: 2.7 percent, down 0.8 point
NZ First: 4.1 percent, up 1.1 points

TOP is down 0.5% to 1.5%

Also, ardern is still at 3.7% for preferred prime minister somehow, just behind Winston Peters.

Why are the greens like this? How is being prepared to defend ourselves and help our allies "a concern"?

He's got a point, in my view. They've been losing ministers left, right, and centre lately, and I don't think it will get better bringing TPM into the relationship.

For those able to do so, listening to the 15 minutes of interview from RNZ this week is worthwhile (audio link is a few paragraphs in). Otherwise RNZ's text is an okay summary.

For me the most interesting part of this is Geoffrey Palmer's logic for wanting more MPs in Parliament. In short, he's arguing that we need more MPs, but a smaller Cabinet, to protect our democracy from populism and perhaps authoritarian populism. His reasoning is that most of NZ's process relies on the government being accountable to Parliament. Back-bench MPs presently, however, are drastically overworked when it comes to being able to process and understand everything needed for effectively holding the government to account between the other work they have to do.

He thinks we need at least 150 MPs, and that the size of Cabinet should be capped at 20 to increase the ratio of back-bench MPs over Cabinet MPs. (Presently we have 120 MPs but 30 are Ministers.) It'd mean Ministers would hold more portfolios, but also that they'd not be so siloed from each other. It'd also mean that the task of understanding the complexities of legislation that goes through the House, and through Select Committees, would be shared among more MPs.

He's also shared thoughts about Parliamentary process and the electoral system, wants better civics education, and expresses thoughts on misinformation.

For those who don't know him, Geoffrey Palmer is a former MP and Minister known from the 1980s Labour government. He took over as Prime Minister for about a year after Lange stepped down, but left that role shortly before the 1990 election. Apart from the controversies of that government though, he's also an obsessive legal nerd when it comes to constitutional law and Parliamentary process.