NZ Politics

The Nats are going lower and Luxon is ruling out possible allies.....

I'm happy that opportunity is gaining regularly. Looking very likely that they will be in parliament after the election.

tldr: "our rate of emissions reduction needs more more than double" in the next two years.

National is promising to modernise laws on sexual consent, saying there must be consent before sex every time, rather than assuming it has been given.

The party says if it is re-elected, it will ensure that consent is actively given, meaning there must be a "yes" rather than the absence of a "no".

Both Labour and Greens have called out the National party for walking away from cross party support on the issue.

The Labour Party agree the government should crack on with tightening consent laws, by supporting a member's bill Labour has already drafted.

Greens co leader Marama Davidson said if National is so keen on the safety of survivors, the party could make it happen straight away with support from the Greens and Labour.

Typical bullshit from Peters, trying to manufacture anti-Māori conflict.

Acknowledging both the Māori and European discoverers of New Zealand is good. Both discoveries are, themselves for their peoples, true.

IMHO the interesting fact is that not all iwi have whakapapa that asserts Kupe as the navigator who discovered Aotearoa. Some iwi have whakapapa that asserts that it was Maui*.

This isn't a problem. Both Kupe and Maui could have independently done so. The same way that one might argue that Cook and Tasman both discovered this land mass for Britain/Europe.

* if you're interested: Maui fishing up the north island is an allegory to seeing the island rise up over the horizon as if being lifted out of the water. Maui was a navigator/wayfinder of repute, as was Kupe.

The Act leader has suggested smartphones could be banned for under-16-year-olds.

In a speech to a business leaders' dinner on Wednesday night, David Seymour said it's clear anxiety, depression and self-harm has increased in children and young people since the advent of smartphones.

He has suggested Parliament could prohibit the purchase, possession and supply of smartphones to under-16s, instead only allowing teenagers to use 'dumb-phones', which don't have access to social media apps.

"We already prohibit adults from supplying minors with tobacco and alcohol, for example.

"The object is tangible, the rule is understandable, and reasonable adults support the purpose of the law. A smartphone is just as tangible."

Citing political commentator Ani O'Brien, Seymour said that instead of regulating the platforms, the device should be targeted instead.

"Put simply, why don't we deal with the hardware instead of the software?"

The government is already considering a social media ban in line with Australia's and the United Kingdom's - but the Act Party has said it doesn't support it.

Seymour said a ban on social media is too hard to implement, and won't work.

We dont allow any nuclear ships in NZ because the ships are some sort of "boogyman". We dont let the ships in because you dont tell us which ones store the nuclear bombs! So we treat all the ships like they are carrying nukes and dont allow any of them.

This was just sent to me....I don't do facebook.

Roy Morgan from 6% last month to 6.5%. This is after the 4.6% Verian poll late last week.

Momentum is building. It is looking very likely that they will get into parliament this time.

RNZ is tracking the money flowing to the parties this election year and where it is coming from.

Here's where things stand.

Swarbrick's face afterwards is gold.

The increased contributions would only make sense if they closed the loophole they introduced themselves regarding total remuneration. Copying someone else’s policy from a decade ago while never acknowledging their own mistake. I guess nothing new here. :)

The successive governments could’ve prioritised narrowing the wealth gap and lowering the cost of living first. Then a policy like this would’ve made a much greater impact. So, while I think making KiwiSaver compulsory is a good idea, it’s a reminder of a lost opportunity.

Some interesting "Wealth Tax" ideas in there and proposed changes that would net an extra ~$5B (estimated).

• Big corporations tax: The corporate tax rate will be increased from 28 percent to 33 percent for big companies with annual turnover exceeding $30 million. This will impact about 0.7 percent of businesses (e.g. banks, supermarkets and energy companies).

And new income tax rates:

Current

Proposed

--

I wish I could get a job that kept giving me perks after I'd left/been sacked

I'm sure there's more nuance to it than that but fuck these cunts and their literally endless entitlements

I found this pretty funny, Labour accused of being a no-show at Fieldays, it turns out they didn't book a tent, and were indeed on site talking to people all day.

A bit embarrassing for the Tories.

Labour has vowed to cap public transport fares at $20 a week in main centres and $10 everywhere else if elected.

"This is real cost-of-living relief. It means cheaper commutes, more money left at the end of the week, and a public transport system that works for everyone."

The cap, which would be introduced on 1 July 2027, is $20 in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and $10 everywhere else.

The party said it was higher in main centres because they offered more services, that cost more.

The policy would cost about $65 million each year, using about 1 percent of the National Land Transport Fund, Labour said.

Why not, why shouldn't I post it.

What do people think about this one? It doesn't seem like a particularly great start to his political career.

Now, if you live in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom, you might be wondering why you should care about the real estate market on an island in the South Pacific. The answer is that New Zealand is basically a laboratory for what happens when an entire national economy is built on the assumption that house prices will just go up forever. It turns out that trading the same increasingly expensive boarded up bungalows back and forth with your neighbours does not actually generate any real wealth. You might ask how an economy gets into this position. The answer, as is so often the case, involves politicians. (~02:00)

Potentially putting them into the tie-breaker position that NZ First enjoyed in the past. Too early to say, though.

(some quotes from the article)

The government has framed its NZ$503 million budget spending on prisons as necessary to maintain public safety and manage a growing prison population, forecast to increase by 36 percent from the current 10,000 to 14,000 by 2035.

The appeal to public safety is tied to the goal of reducing violent crime, which most voters will understandably support.

But this broad messaging obscures two crucial facts. Most assaults in New Zealand happen inside private homes, not in public spaces. And the increase in the number of people in prison comes from an excessive remand population (people awaiting trial), not from an increase in serious offending.

From a fiscal perspective, it is a striking decision to build new prisons for the growing remand population instead of changing the law to release those who pose no risk on bail.

The remand population currently accounts for 41 percent of the prison population, up from 13 percent in 2000.

Over the past 25 years, a series of legislative changes has steadily increased the number of people on remand.

The most consequential change came when the previous National-led government amended the Bail Act in 2013 to tighten bail eligibility. Until then, most defendants were granted bail automatically.

This amendment shifted the burden of proof onto defendants. Instead of bail, remand became the new norm, because it is harder to prove something will not happen. For example, how can you prove you will not intimidate witnesses?

For the men and women held on remand, the consequences are often severe. People lose jobs, housing and family connections, all of which increase the likelihood of offending. Remand has become a costly and counterproductive system that harms both individuals and the public purse.

It is an old line, but it remains true: every dollar invested in early childhood support saves around 13 dollars in criminal justice costs later on.

A society that keeps expanding its prisons is admitting its social policies are not working. If we are serious about reducing crime, the government needs to invest earlier.

Parliament is currently considering a bill that would officially define what a man and woman are in New Zealand law.

The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, a member's bill introduced by New Zealand First MP Jenny Marcroft, passed its first reading last month.

The bill is open for public submission through 2 July.

It's likely to draw a significant amount of public feedback as it works its way through the halls of Parliament.

They can be made direct to Parliament through their website.

Parliament offers a guide to making submissions, urging people to be clear, accurate and relevant. Submissions that have offensive language can be rejected or returned.

Taxpayer money is wasted on services delivered to fit the artificial boundaries of departments and their ministers, rather than centred on the people, communities and businesses they are supposed to serve. This is the fundamental problem and an arbitrary plan to reduce the number of departments to 12 does not fix it. It just makes bigger silos.