The Jackal: Propaganda

Showing posts with label Propaganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Propaganda. Show all posts

28 Aug 2025

National Government Gaslights over Economic Downturn

New Zealand’s economy is languishing, and the National-led coalition, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis at the helm, has been quick to point fingers at Labour’s Covid-19 spending.

The problem for the coalition of chaos is their narrative is a masterclass in gaslighting, deflecting blame from their own disastrous economic policies while misrepresenting the past. Let’s unpack their mess, because the truth is far uglier than the coalition’s polished spin.
 

Earlier this month, Stuff reported:

The $66 billion Covid spend up: Treasury asks if the Government went too far

Finance Minister Nicola Willis was quick to draw attention to the Tresuary’s conclusions. She has long blamed current economic challenges on the previous Labour Government.

She said this report proved that, as she has said previously, the Labour Government was fuelling inflation.

“Unfortunately, the Labour government ignored [officials’] advice. The consequence was undisciplined spending that pushed up inflation, eroded New Zealand’s previously low public debt position, and fuelled a cost-of-living crisis,” she said.

“The lesson from Labour’s mishandling of the Covid response is that while there are times when governments have to increase spending in response to major events, the fiscal guardrails should be restored as soon as possible,” she added.


During the Covid-19 pandemic, Labour, under Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins, rolled out a lifeline to keep businesses afloat and workers employed. The Wage Subsidy Scheme alone, costing $18.3 billion, ensured millions of Kiwis kept their jobs, while the $70.4 billion Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) propped up health, aviation, and small businesses.

This was no reckless spending spree; it was a calculated response to a global crisis, with Treasury initially urging broad-based support like wage subsidies to stabilise the economy. The result? New Zealand’s unemployment rate dropped to a 40-year low of 3.2% by December 2021, and GDP rebounded faster than in any other OECD country. Labour’s spending wasn’t perfect, but it kept the nation afloat when the world was drowning.

 

In 2021, Stuff reported:

NZ dollar tipped to head higher as economy rebounds from Covid

The New Zealand dollar is heading higher as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, which will make exports more expensive and imports cheaper.

Fitch Solutions on Wednesday lifted its forecast for the currency, and now expects it to average US74.34 cents over the remainder of this year, having averaged US71.84c over the first five months. The kiwi was at US72.52c around midday on Wednesday.

Economic growth would probably pick up by 3.6 per cent this year after a 1.2 per cent contraction last year, which would encourage investment flows into the country and tighter monetary policy, pushing the currency higher, Fitch said.

“We attribute the New Zealand dollar’s robust uptrend in recent months to the country’s strong economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic,” Fitch said.


Enter the National Party, clutching a Treasury report that claims Labour blew $66 billion. Sounds damning, right? Except it’s a sleight of hand. That figure includes general government expenditure, not just Covid-specific measures, inflating the narrative of Labour’s supposed recklessness while Willis has been borrowing even more than former Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson.

National’s comparison of New Zealand’s Covid spending to other countries while Labour was in power is equally dishonest, as those nations often exclude general expenditure from their Covid budgets. It’s a classic case of cherry-picking data to paint Labour as profligate while ignoring the global context. This isn’t analysis; it’s propaganda from a dishonest government that can only blame others for their own economic failures.

Meanwhile, the coalition of chaos has embarked on a slash-and-burn mission. Since taking office in 2023, they’ve axed 10,000 public sector jobs, including 2,000 in health, and imposed 7.5% cuts across ministries. Wellington, the public service hub, is reeling, with house prices down 6.8% and 19,500 jobs lost since January 2025. The downturn in the capital city is palpable.

 

In May, Reuters reported:

New Zealand's budget cuts punish public sector, business and workers

"We were told survive until 2025 and it will get better. Well, we're now in May 2025 and it doesn't feel better," said Thomson, who is currently doing paid freelance work.

New Zealand's conservative coalition government releases its annual budget on Thursday and is expected to continue to push fiscal discipline with many ministries not expected to see budget increases.

Spending cuts since December 2023 have been felt across the wider economy but perhaps most acutely in Wellington, a city of nearly 210,000 where the government has historically been a major employer.

House prices in Wellington have plunged 6.8% over the past year, far exceeding the national decline of 1.1%. Population growth stagnated in 2024, contrasting with a 1.7% increase nationwide. Consumer and economic sentiment in the city remains lower than in many other regions, with businesses and residents expressing concern over the city's prospects.


In Auckland, businesses are folding at twice the rate of last year, surpassing even the 2008 GFC failure rate. The coalition’s austerity obsession is sucking confidence out of the economy, leaving workers and businesses stranded and tens of thousands of young New Zealanders heading overseas to find a brighter future.

Worse, National’s policies are hammering the most vulnerable. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden’s 1.5% minimum wage increase to $23.50, well below the 2.7% inflation rate, is in real-terms a pay cut. Welfare cuts and increases in the cost of living further erodes people's purchasing power, hitting the elderly and disabled hardest. Even for people with a little bit saved, nobody is spending because nobody feels confident in the current government's economic agenda.

With household costs up 5.4% in the year to June 2024, driven by a 9.0% rise in rent, an 8.7% increase in mortgage interest payments, and higher food and energy prices, Kiwis are struggling to keep up. These pressures, that even the RBNZ's tweaks are not addressing, compounded by a projected 5% rent increase and persistent inflation in 2025, are bleeding many households dry. This isn’t fiscal discipline; its economic sabotage, draining demand and ensuring an increase in business closures due to reduced cash flow.

 

Earlier this month, RNZ reported:

A boom in businesses going bust

New Zealand is riding its highest wave of company liquidations in more than a decade, with thousands of businesses folding and countless livelihoods caught in the crossfire.

Many more are holding on, but just.

In the first half of this year alone, 1270 businesses have shut their doors - a 12 percent increase on this time year.

It's now anticipated that the total number of liquidations for the year will surpass 2024's 10-year high, when 2500 companies folded. That was an increase of nearly 700 compared to 2023. 


Nicola Willis, the architect of this misery, has the gall to blame Labour while implementing austerity on the poor and pushing policies that fuel inflation. Treasury forecast inflation would be as low as 1.8% in 2025, but National’s policies have kept it at 2.7% and climbing.

National, and their coalition bedfellows, are becoming increasingly desperate, and are throwing everything they can to prop up their golden goose, the floundering housing market. Foreign buyers might make the numbers look good on paper for a while, but they'll do nothing to ensure New Zealanders quality of life improves through increased home ownership rates.

The coalitions much-touted Fast-Track Approvals Bill, now being spruiked as an economic saviour for families unable to afford basic food items, offers zero cost-of-living relief for everyday Kiwis. It’s a sop to developers, corporates and the existing supermarket duopoly, not families facing skyrocketing bills at the checkout.

Willis’ rhetoric about cleaning up Labour’s mess is pure gaslighting, obscuring the fact that her austerity is deepening the economic downturn.

The coalition of chaos is driving New Zealand into an economic abyss, while they attempt to cloak their failures in Labour-bashing and dodgy numbers. The Covid hangover is real, but it’s Willis’ heartless cuts and misguided priorities that are keeping the economy on its knees.

Published by the Jackal



20 Aug 2025

Chris Luxon: Part-Time Prime Minister

Christopher Luxon's tenure as Prime Minister has been marked by a troubling pattern of absence when leadership is most needed. From international crises to domestic unrest, from parliamentary debates to national commemorations, Luxon has consistently found reasons to be somewhere else when the hard conversations need to happen.

What we've witnessed isn't merely political miscalculation or scheduling mishaps...it's a systematic abdication of the responsibilities that come with holding New Zealand's highest office. Where previous Prime Ministers understood that leadership means showing up for the difficult moments, Luxon appears to have redefined the role as one of selective engagement, choosing comfort and optics over confrontation at every critical juncture.

The most recent and perhaps most damning example came when Luxon chose to skip a virtual meeting with numerous European leaders including Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron. The Prime Minister cited the meeting being at "1am New Zealand time" as his excuse for non-attendance, yet this reasoning falls apart under even an iota of scrutiny. For a leader who holds no portfolios and maintains a deliberately light schedule, adjusting sleep patterns for critical international diplomacy should be standard practice and certainly was under Luxon's predecessors.
 

Yesterday, RNZ reported:

PM skips Coalition of the Willing meeting

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not dial in to the latest Coalition of the Willing meeting because of time zone differences.

French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer co-chaired the virtual meeting about 1am New Zealand time.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also joined the talks, that focused on support for Ukraine and next steps in peace negotiations.

...

Speaking at his weekly post Cabinet media conference Monday afternoon, Luxon confirmed he did not attend Monday morning's meeting.

"I have tried to make them, wherever possible. This one was at 1am in the morning. It goes for two or three hours and then I'm on a media round this morning and obviously down here for Cabinet this morning as well."

He rejected suggestions he did not join the Coalition of the Willing meeting because he didn't think it was important enough.


Luxon prioritising his regular appearance on Mike Hosking's breakfast show, where he delivered his pre-prepared zinger about opposition leader Chris Hipkins needing to "get out from under his rock" regarding the Covid-19 inquiry is a complete failure of leadership. For this part-time Prime Minister, scoring political points on talkback radio apparently trumps engaging with world leaders on matters of war and peace.

The right wing propagandists have been quick to make up a number of excuses that don't hold any water, but the sad fact of the matter is that Luxon chose his own floundering political career over the lives of civilians caught up in the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Luxon has been vocal in claiming that Hipkins is trying to "politically gaslight" New Zealanders by not appearing at the Covid-19 Inquiry, demanding accountability from the opposition leader, even though Labour leaders both past and present have provided all the evidence the second inquiry requested. Yet when it comes to his own responsibilities, Luxon routinely finds excuses to avoid the hard yards required of a functioning Prime Minister.

This pattern of absence is even worse when looking at domestic issues. When the controversial Treaty Principles Bill was being debated, Luxon conveniently found himself needing to discuss Trump's tariff wars with world leaders and could apparently only phone them up from Auckland, a transparent dodge that fooled no one. The Prime Minister who demands others show accountability has become a master of avoiding his own.

In April, Stuff reported:

Why Christopher Luxon won't be at the Treaty Principles Bill debate

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will fly to Auckland while Parliament holds what should be its final debate about the Treaty Principles Bill.

Opposition leaders have criticised Luxon for avoiding the Treaty Principles Bill debates, saying his absence shows a lack of leadership. But Luxon says his position on the bill has been clear and he has no regrets about how this ill-fated proposal has played out.

...

Who said what

Luxon said he would be spending Thursday afternoon in a series of calls with world leaders to discuss the global trade war as US-President Donald Trump made moves on tariffs.

But he said he wanted to make those calls from Auckland.

 

It would have been just as easy for Mr Luxon to make those phone calls from Wellington while he also attended the Treaty Principles Bill debate.

Claire Trevet at the NZ Herald tried to put a positive spin on Luxon's absence:

Forget about David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, PM Christopher Luxon’s Trump tariffs crisis could be the making of him

At the same time, Luxon was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was on the blower – a can of Pepsi Max on his desk – calling other leaders around Asia and in Europe to try to cobble together a united front and shore up the existing free trade agreements.
 
Luxon was absent from Parliament yesterday as MPs debated the bill, which had hung over the coalition parties since it was agreed as part of their legislative agenda after coalition negotiations following the 2023 election.
 
He spent his time speaking to world leaders about the global trading environment in the light of United States President Donald Trump’s tariff scheme that caused chaos in financial markets this week. Luxon made calls to leaders including Philippines President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.


Unfortunately for New Zealand, Luxon has often failed to engage meaningfully with voters on the issues that matter most to them. Instead of working to fix the countries numerous problems, Luxon appears to be too busy attacking previous administrations to actually give a damn!

When he's not blaming Labour for his own administrations failings, Luxon is shirking his responsibilities and dodging the difficult questions. Take the country's largest hikoi in New Zealand for instance, protesting the Treaty Principles Bill, the Prime Minister was notably absent from any meaningful dialogue.

Last year, 1 News reported:

Prime Minister on why he did not meet hīkoi at Parliament

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has explained why he didn't meet yesterday's Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti at Parliament.

There were extraordinary scenes yesterday when a crowd estimated by police to be as many as 42,000 marched through Wellington to Parliament, many of them voicing opposition to the Government's Treaty Principles Bill.

The Bill's architect David Seymour, alongside ACT MPs, made a brief appearance on Parliament's forecourt during the hīkoi, however the Prime Minister did not front it.

On Breakfast this morning, the Prime Minister was asked why he chose not to face the hīkoi when so many people were outside his office.

Luxon explained: "The real reason was that a lot of the organisers were Te Pati Māori. They have an opportunity to interrogate me in the House each and every week.


Similarly, when hospital protesters in Dunedin sought to voice their concerns about healthcare cuts, reports emerged of Luxon sneaking in a side door to avoid accountability.

Last year, The Otago Daily Times reported:

'Cowardly': Luxon sidesteps protest by using back entrance

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been called "cowardly" after hurrying in a back door to avoid a hospital protest in central Dunedin.

A group of about 30 protesters chanting, carrying placards and wearing 'They save We pay" t-shirts were waiting to greet Mr Luxon at the entrance to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

But Mr Luxon's motorcade stopped instead in Moray Place, at the back of the art gallery.


This isn't leadership; it's political cowardice. A Prime Minister who lacks the backbone to face legitimate protest about his unpopular policy decisions is one who fundamentally misunderstands the democratic compact between the government and the governed.

Luxon's pattern of avoidance perhaps peaked with his decision to skip Waitangi Day 2025 altogether. Despite being personally invited by Māori leaders who expected him to show some leadership during a time of division over the Treaty Principles Bill. Luxon claiming that he wanted to "celebrate Waitangi Day around New Zealand with different iwi" rings hollow when viewed against his government's divisive Treaty policies and unrepentant attack on Māoridom.

As Pita Tipene noted, "kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga need to have conversations, as heavy and as challenging as those conversations may get." But Luxon fled from precisely these necessary discussions. By abandoning Waitangi during one of the most politically charged periods in recent memory, he demonstrated that when true leadership is demanded, he simply doesn't show up.

However, the timing issue regarding the Ukraine meeting reveals something even more concerning about Luxon's priorities. He noted the call went for hours, suggesting he was fully aware of its duration and importance beforehand. Yet rather than adjust his schedule to accommodate this critical international engagement, he chose to maintain his comfortable routine of friendly media appearances.

Luxon's absence during critical moments extends to a pattern of conveniently being elsewhere when domestic controversies are likely to occur. At the first reading of the ACT Party's Treaty Principles Bill, a moment that captured international attention and symbolised the deep division his government's policies have created, Luxon was at the APEC summit. Given that the government largely controls parliamentary timetabling through the Leader of the House, this scheduling conflict was entirely foreseeable and avoidable.

Instead of ensuring he was present for such a significant constitutional moment, Luxon allowed the most controversial bill in his government's legislative programme to proceed in his absence in order to protect his particular brand from further valid accusations of racism. From Peru, he dismissed the parliamentary disruption with a clear lack of understanding of its cultural and constitutional significance, resorted to procedural falsehoods and once again demonstrated a Prime Minister more comfortable engaging with safe audiences than confronting the difficult conversations his own policies have necessitated at home.

This speaks to a deeper problem with Luxon's understanding of what being the Prime Minister entails. He appears to view the role as a part-time position...one that can be managed around his preferred schedule and media commitments. The reality is that being Prime Minister requires sacrifice, including the sacrifice of convenience and comfort when duty calls.

New Zealand deserves better than a part-time Prime Minister who picks and chooses when to show up. The country faces significant challenges, from cost of living pressures to international tensions, that require active, engaged leadership. Luxon's pattern of absence and excuse-making suggests a leader fundamentally unprepared for the demands of the office he holds.

When future historians examine this period, they will likely note that New Zealand had a Prime Minister who was present in title but absent in practice. The question facing New Zealanders is whether they will continue to tolerate such part-time leadership. The evidence suggests that Chris Luxon has already answered that question for them...through his actions, or more accurately, his inaction.

Published by the Jackal



17 Aug 2025

We Must Keep The Cookers out of Government

New Zealand politics has reached a dangerous tipping point. What was once a reasonably sensible political landscape has become infested with conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine zealots, and assorted cranks who wouldn't recognise evidence-based policy if it slapped them in the face with a peer-reviewed journal.

Perhaps you've heard that the founder of Counterspin Media, Kelvyn Alp, is running in the upcoming Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, and trying to bring his particular brand of conspiracy-fuelled nonsense to a wider audience. This is the same individual who has spent years spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories through his discredited media platform, Counterspin Media.

That such a figure feels emboldened to seek elected office speaks volumes about how far democracy has fallen in New Zealand.


Today, The Post reported:

 
The ‘ghost party’ at the centre of a bitter political feud

A candidate in the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election has revived the name and identity of a defunct political party, drawing accusations of “theft” from its founder.

Kelvyn Alp, a fringe media figure best known as the co-founder of the conspiracy-driven outlet Counterspin Media, is one of five candidates vying for the seat left vacant after the death of Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Moana ‘Tarsh’ Kemp.

He is running under the banner of New Zealand Loyal, the political party launched by former broadcaster Liz Gunn ahead of the 2023 general election. The party won 1.2% of the vote and was de-registered shortly afterwards.


Meanwhile, the appointment of Jaap Knegtmans within Peters' ministerial office is particularly troubling. This individual has promoted various conspiracy theories, including references to "clot shots" and "globalists" exhibiting the kind of poisonous rhetoric that has no place in serious governance.

When the Foreign Affairs Minister's office becomes a breeding ground for conspiracy theorists, we've crossed a line that threatens the very fabric of democracy and our international relationships.

Today, Andrea Vance also reported:

 
Globalists, ‘clot shots’ and the ‘evil witch’: How a conspiracy poster landed a job at the heart of government

A NZ First staffer who cheered on the Parliament occupation is still posting conspiracy theories and far-right content while working in the office of Winston Peters. Andrea Vance investigates.

In February 2022, Jaap Knegtmans was on Parliament’s lawn, attending the anti-mandate occupation.

Three and a half years later, he is inside the Beehive, employed as a ministerial press secretary and adviser in the office of NZ First leader and foreign affairs minister Winston Peters.

Telegram posts and videos reviewed by the Sunday Star-Times reveal a long record of Knegtmans promoting conspiracy theories, vaccine misinformation, and far-right talking points – and he has continued to post similar material while working in government.


However, the problem of cookers trying to infiltrate our local and central governments extends far beyond these two recent developments. Cast your mind back in time to Sue Grey, a lawyer turned conspiracy theorist, who promoted anti-vaccine misinformation during COVID-19 which attempted to undermine the very foundations of our public health system. Grey may have deregistered her Freedoms New Zealand political party, formed alongside co-leader and cultist Brian Tamaki, but her demise, like Leighton Baker and his New Conservative Party, showcases the journey from respected professional to outright conspiracy theorist, illustrating how these toxic ideas can capture even educated individuals and cause their downfall.

Then there's Hannah Tamaki, leader of another conspiracy driven political party, Vision NZ, who is again contesting the Tāmaki Makaurau seat, having received 829 votes in 2023.

Like her husband, Brian Tamaki, Hannah's political career, or lack thereof, has been built on a foundation of religious fanaticism mixed with conspiracy theories, representing the dangerous fusion of religious fundamentalism and political extremism that threatens our delicate democratic institutions.

Which brings us to Jami-Lee Ross, whose fall from National Party MP to conspiracy theorist and convicted criminal represents the absolute nadir of political degradation. Ross, after being ousted from the National Party, formed Advance New Zealand and allied with Billy Te Kahika’s nutty New Zealand Public Party, which was explicitly driven by conspiracy theories. His transformation from parliamentarian to what can only be described as a thoroughly discredited pimp shows how conspiracy thinking can completely destroy political careers and personal credibility.
 

On 1 August, RNZ reported:

Ex-National MP Jami-Lee Ross seeks political comeback

Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross says he may not be a perfect person, but he would get things done.

Ross is seeking a comeback in politics at a local level and is putting his hat in the ring to serve on the Howick Local Board in Auckland.

"I spent six years on the Manukau City Council before a decade spent in Parliament. I understand council and government processes well and I can put those skills to good use working at a local board level," he said in a statement.


The common thread connecting all these figures is their complete abandonment of evidence-based reasoning. Whether discussing vaccination policy, climate change, international relations, or basic public health measures, they consistently choose conspiracy theories over scientific evidence. This disillusionment represents a fundamental threat to democratic governance, which should in theory depend on informed debate based on factual information to make decisions that benefit all New Zealanders.

What makes this situation particularly dangerous is how these grifters have managed to gain platforms and influence within established political parties. When Winston Peters' office employs publicly vociferous conspiracy theorists, when fringe candidates with criminal convictions feel confident enough to run for Parliament, and when established politicians embrace conspiracy thinking, we're witnessing the systematic corruption of our democratic institutions.

The solution requires vigilance from voters, mainstream media, and established political parties. We must refuse to normalise deluded conspiracy thinking, challenge misinformation wherever it appears, and ensure that evidence-based policy-making becomes a fundamental foundation of democratic governance. The alternative, a political system dominated by conspiracy theorists who reject evidence in favour of paranoid fantasy, which represents an existential threat to effective governance and social cohesion.

New Zealand deserves better than government by conspiracy theory. The time has come to draw clear lines and keep the cookers out of serious political discourse before they poison our democracy entirely.

Published by the Jackal



15 Aug 2025

Under Pressure Luxon Resorts to Lying

The art of political spin has always existed in the corridors of power, but what we're witnessing from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon represents something far more concerning, a systematic abandonment of factual discourse in favour of outright fabrication. When a leader begins peddling untruths with the casual confidence of someone ordering their morning flat white, we must ask ourselves: what does this say about the state of our democracy?

The most egregious recent example came during a media standup after parliamentary question time, where Luxon falsely claimed that former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been summonsed to appear before the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry. This wasn't a slip of the tongue or a misunderstanding, it was a deliberate mischaracterisation designed to paint Ardern as somehow legally compelled to participate in person.

 

On Thursday, Stuff reported:

Luxon claims Ardern was ‘summonsed’ to Covid Inquiry. She wasn’t

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has claimed Jacinda Ardern and three other former ministers were summonsed to appear at public hearings for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19.

“To be clear, they summonsed them,” Luxon told reporters today. “They refused to show and I think that's not right”.

Problem is, he’s wrong. Those running the inquiry chose not to use powers under the Inquiries Act to force the former Prime Minister as well as former Covid Minister Chris Hipkins, former Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, and former Finance Minster Grant Robertson to appear at public hearings.

Inquiry chair Grant Illingworth explicitly said yesterday that he chose not to use the summons powers.


 

The reality is that Ardern was invited to provide evidence, a standard practice for such inquiries. She accepted willingly, as one would expect from someone with nothing to hide.

This fabrication serves a dual purpose for Luxon: it attempts to weaponise the inquiry process against his predecessor whilst simultaneously creating the false impression that there's something sinister about Ardern not attending in person. It's textbook deflection from a Prime Minister whose own government is struggling with credibility issues across multiple portfolios.

The pattern continues with Luxon's bizarre claim about his mountaintop meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. According to the Prime Minister, their $27,000 helicopter-assisted pavlova photo-op was well received across the Tasman.

Yet a curious thing happened, or rather, didn't happen. Australian media outlets, typically eager to cover bilateral meetings between leaders, remained conspicuously silent. No photographs emerged in Australia of this supposed diplomatic triumph, no video footage of the Prime Ministers atop New Zealand's scenic peaks.

One might charitably suggest that perhaps the Australian press simply missed this momentous occasion, but in an era where every political gesture is photographed, tweeted, and analysed to death, such an oversight seems improbable.

The more likely explanation is that Luxon's definition of well received bears little resemblance to observable reality. When your diplomatic achievements require you to speak for foreign media outlets that didn't report them, perhaps it's time to reconsider your communications strategy.

 

On Thursday, Stuff also reported:

Two helicopters, two prime ministers and a pavlova. Was this $27,000 lunch worth it?

Assuming they were charged the normal amount, a ballpark cost of a trip like this would be at least $27,000 for the two helicopters. Stuff asked Luxon’s office and Department of Internal Affairs to confirm if that was the bill. They did not respond.

Luxon told Stuff he didn’t know the details. But he hailed the visit as a success.

“I just say to you, I think my feedback I got from that Sunday night from people in Australia was like, ‘Man, what a fantastic trip. New Zealand looked fantastic.’ And it played really well back into the Australian media,” he told Stuff, after he returned to the capital.

But in Australia, almost none of the news websites and television bulletins used photos or video from the mountaintop.


These lies might seem inconsequential to some. However, it's Luxon's recent fear-mongering about a capital gains tax that reveals the most troubling aspect of his relationship with truth. The Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed that implementing such a tax would trigger an exodus of wealthy New Zealanders, leaving the country economically bereft. This tired trope has been wheeled out by opponents of progressive taxation for decades, and it remains as factually bankrupt today as it was then.

Research consistently demonstrates that concerns about "capital flight" are grossly overstated. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in the United States has extensively documented how "millionaire tax flight" is a myth with no evidence to support it. Similarly, research by Stanford sociologist Cristobal Young found that claims about wealthy individuals fleeing high-tax states amount to "searching for a crisis that does not really exist".
The OECD's own research on capital gains taxation shows that most OECD countries successfully tax capital gains upon realisation, often with exemptions for housing and small businesses. These nations haven't experienced the economic apocalypse that Luxon suggests would befall New Zealand should we dare to ask wealthy people, like himself, to contribute their fair share.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes that tax-related migration is "grossly exaggerated", while the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities has demonstrated that claims about tax hikes driving rich households away are "unproven". The pattern is clear: countries that have implemented capital gains taxes haven't witnessed mass defections by the wealthy, and those that have moved their wealth have often done so for administrative reasons rather than due to capital flight.

What makes Luxon's fearmongering particularly galling is that it represents a betrayal of the evidence-based policy approach that New Zealand has traditionally championed. We're a nation that once prided ourselves on pragmatic governance, on looking at what works rather than what sounds good in a focus group. Yet here we have a Prime Minister who appears more comfortable trafficking in discredited talking points rather than telling the truth.
The concerning trajectory of Luxon's relationship with truth raises profound questions about the health of our political discourse. When leaders feel they need to make demonstrably false claims without consequence, when they substitute their own alternative facts for reality, we edge closer to the kind of post-truth politics that has poisoned democratic institutions elsewhere.

New Zealanders deserve better than a Prime Minister who treats truth as an inconvenient obstacle to his political messaging. We deserve leaders who understand that governance requires grappling with complexity, not retreating into comfortable fictions. The mounting evidence of Luxon's casual relationship with factual accuracy isn't just concerning, it's a warning sign that our democracy's immune system against misinformation may be weaker than we thought.

The question now is whether New Zealanders will hold their Prime Minister accountable for his numerous falsehoods, or whether we'll allow the normalisation of political dishonesty to continue its corrosive work on our democratic institutions?
Published by the Jackal



13 Aug 2025

Butter Should Be Cheaper in New Zealand

In New Zealand, the land of dairy abundance, the price of butter has become a bitter pill for Kiwis to swallow. A 500g block now costs an arm and a leg, a staggering 46.5% increase in the year to June 2025 and a jaw-dropping 120% higher than a decade ago. The stats are even worse when you compare the April 2024 with April 2025 prices, a 65.3% increase. For a nation that produces a third of the world’s trade in dairy products, this is nothing short of scandalous.

The National-led coalition, under Chris Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis, has failed to address the cost of living crisis, with the price of butter in particular an affront to household budgets, instead offering hollow platitudes and tax tricks while the ability of voters to purchase basic necessities worsens. It’s time to demand real relief, starting with making butter affordable again.


On August 6, Stuff reported:

 
Global butter prices have dropped by 3.7%, this is what it means for us

The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) revealed that butter prices had dropped 3.8%, but what does that mean for shoppers?

Butter prices are up around 47% annually in the past year according to Stats NZ, with the average price of 500g sitting upwards of $8.

A tub of butter worth a whopping $18.29 was even spotted at an Auckland supermarket in early July.

Brad Olsen, Chief Executive and Principal Economist of Infometrics, said butter prices dropped or held steady during the last three GDT auctions, declining around 8.6% since the second half of June.

So if global prices have fallen, will we start to see cheaper butter?

Nowhere, not immediately at least.


New Zealand’s dairy industry, led by Fonterra, is a global powerhouse, yet ordinary Kiwis are paying international prices or higher for a staple produced in their own backyard. Export parity pricing means we’re hostage to global market rates, driven by demand from China and the Middle East, despite our five million dairy cows grazing local pastures and polluting local rivers. We're paying a premium to ship our own dairy products abroad.

This system prioritises Fonterra’s yearly NZ$22.82 billion revenue over the needs of New Zealanders struggling to afford the basics.

Nicola Willis, whose past ties to Fonterra as a senior manager raises questions, has become conspicuously silent on challenging this dishonest pricing model. Her refusal to consider a fairer two-tiered system, where domestic consumers pay less than export markets, smacks of loyalty to corporate interests over constituents, and flies in the face of their pre-election promises.

Willis’ claim that supermarkets, not Fonterra, set retail prices dodges the core issue: a lack of competition in the grocery sector, dominated by Foodstuffs and Woolworths, allows unchecked margins to inflate costs further. But all we get from the coalition of chaos is promises of doing something, not any real quantifiable action.

The National-led coalition’s broader economic mismanagement has only worsened the cost-of-living crisis. Luxon’s repetitive mantra, “people are doing it tough,” rings hollow when paired with policies that fail to deliver any tangible relief. Two-thirds of New Zealanders, according to ConsumerNZ, have low confidence in this government’s ability to tackle the affordability of basic necessities...and they're not wrong.

Removing GST from dairy, as some have suggested, was dismissed by Willis due to a supposed $3.3bn–$3.9bn revenue hit, an excuse that prioritises fiscal optics over struggling families, struggling families that will still spend any savings from cheaper butter on other basic necessities. In effect there's no net loss for the government in making butter prices cheaper for consumers, raising a valid question about whom exactly Nicola Willis serves?

The coalition’s tax cuts, touted as relief, have done nothing for low-income households facing skyrocketing prices for essentials like butter, which isn't just a spread but a cultural staple in Kiwi baking and cooking.

In a country that produces enough food to feed 40 million people, no one should be going hungry. Yet 500,000 New Zealanders are accessing food banks or food support services each month, indicating a complete failure by the current system to distribute the nations wealth equitably. Impoverished kids, people the Prime Minister views as "bottom feeders," cannot simply make a Marmite sandwich when their school lunches are inedible if there's no butter in the house, Mr Luxon.

Small businesses, like Kayes Bakery in Southland, are being crushed, forced to import cheaper Australian butter or raise prices, risking declining revenues and closure. This irony, importing butter into a dairy nation, highlights the absurdity of the status quo, and the absurdity of National's neoliberal policies that ensure many New Zealanders miss out.

Consumers are resorting to desperate measures, from driving hours to Costco to churning butter at home, reflecting a deep frustration with a system that feels entirely rigged.

Then there's the environmental cost of intensive dairy farming (polluted rivers, cancer causing aquifers and increased climate emissions) adding insult to injury, as Kiwis pay a premium while bearing the ecological fallout and costs.

The high butter prices aren't helping to pay for the cleanup. Instead, they're effectively subsidising the dairy industry’s massive profits and increased farmer payouts, which aren’t being spent in the struggling economy. Instead, much of these profits service debt, which only enriches foreign-owned banks.

Luxon’s rhetoric and Willis’s inaction are emblematic of a government out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders. We need bold action: regulate supermarket margins, explore domestic price controls, remove GST off of essential items and challenge Fonterra’s export-driven model that is turning New Zealand into a wasteland, all while providing dairy products only the wealthy and sorted can afford.

Willis’s Fonterra connections demand scrutiny...her reluctance to confront the dairy giant suggests a conflict of interest that undermines public trust. But the crux of the matter is that butter should be cheaper in New Zealand, not just for affordability but as a matter of fairness in a dairy-rich nation.

Published by the Jackal



9 Aug 2025

Hobson’s Pledge Steals Kuia’s Image to Promote Racism

In a move that exhibits their complete disregard for basic human dignity, Hobson’s Pledge, the divisive lobby group led by Don Brash, has once again stirred outrage. Their latest billboard campaign, which opposes Māori wards, used the image of Rotorua kuia Ellen Tamati without her consent. The billboard featured Tamati’s striking portrait alongside the slogan, “My mana doesn’t need a mandate. Vote no to Māori wards.” For Tamati, a respected elder, the shock of seeing her image co-opted to push a message she fundamentally opposes has been deeply distressing. Her whānau are furious and exploring legal options.

 

On Wednesday, the NZ Herald reported:

Rotorua kuia’s image used in Hobson’s Pledge billboard without consent, family outraged

The family of a Rotorua kuia whose image was used on a Hobson’s Pledge billboard without her permission say the political lobby group has trampled on her mana.

Ellen Tamati’s photograph showing her moko kauae appeared on the Hobson Pledge’s billboards with the words: “My mana doesn’t need a mandate, vote no to Māori wards”.

The widow’s family said their nan “fundamentally disagrees” with the billboard’s message and Hobson’s Pledge never asked her permission.


This shameful act wasn’t a solo effort. Ani O’Brien, former advisor to Judith Collins, and Jordan Williams, co-founder of the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, orchestrated this stunt through their Campaign Company for Hobson’s Pledge. Their involvement ties this incident to a broader network of right-wing activism that thrives on stoking race-based division while cloaking it in calls for “equality.” The Campaign Company, also tied to other Hobson’s Pledge ventures like the “We Belong Aotearoa” website, seems all too comfortable peddling narratives that undermine Māori rights while hiding behind a veneer of inclusivity.



Don Brash, the figurehead of this debacle, is no stranger to controversy. His track record includes the infamous “Iwi versus Kiwi” campaign from his National Party days in 2005, a divisive tactic that pitted Māori against non-Māori in a crude appeal to Pākehā anxieties. That campaign, much like Hobson’s Pledge’s current efforts, framed Māori rights as a threat to national unity, conveniently ignoring the Treaty of Waitangi’s guarantees of tino rangatiratanga and equal partnership. Brash’s obsession with dismantling Māori electorates, the Waitangi Tribunal, and any semblance of Treaty-based governance has been a consistent thread, widely condemned as racist by figures like Andrew Little, Willie Jackson, and the New Zealand Māori Council.

The use of Ellen Tamati’s image, taken by photographer Rafael Ben Ari at Waitangi Day 2025 and licensed for editorial use only, isn't just a legal misstep, it’s a profound violation of her mana. Tamati, who wears her moko kauae with pride, was horrified to learn her face was plastered across billboards in Rotorua, Hamilton, Whangārei, and Christchurch, falsely suggesting her endorsement of a racist campaign she categorically rejects. Her granddaughter, Anahera Parata, spoke of the emotional toll, with Tamati isolating herself, “devastated” and “emotionally drained” by the betrayal.
 

On Wednesday, RNZ reported:

Rotorua kuia caught up in Hobson's Pledge's anti-Māori ward campaign

Anahera Parata is mamae that her Nan is the main feature.

"All my life, I have only ever known Nan to be pro Māori, a very staunch supporter of Te Paati Māori, everything Māori. Even at her age she's still giving back to her iwi.

"To me that's damaging, not just to Nan but to our whole iwi - I can't imagine being Nan having to face our iwi when her face is being plastered over billboards supporting a message that none of us believe in.

"I'm very hurt and angry. I don't know how they think it's right... it's illegal. You picked the wrong whānau," Parata said.


The Advertising Standards Authority received over 30 complaints about Hobson Pledge's billboards, and legal experts suggest the misuse may even breach the Fair Trading Act, given the image’s restricted licensing. Yet Brash and O'Brien's response, while the cowardly William's remains silent, is a half-hearted apology and hollow claim of ignorance about the image’s copyright limitations.

This incident lays bare the callousness of Hobson’s Pledge’s tactics. By exploiting a kuia’s image, they’ve not only trampled on her dignity but reinforced their pattern of fearmongering and division. Their campaigns, from opposing Māori wards to pushing for the “restoration” of public ownership of the foreshore and seabed, consistently misrepresent Māori rights as a zero-sum threat to others. The backlash, including from Te Pāti Māori and the Māori Journalists Association, underscores the harm caused.

It’s time to call out Brash, O’Brien, Williams, and their ilk for what they are: architects of a divisive agenda that seeks to erode Māori rights. It's time to call out Hobson's Pledge for the racists they actually are.

Published by the Jackal



Karen Chhour Claims Failed Boot Camp was a Success

The New Zealand Government’s military-style youth boot camp pilot, trumpeted as a cornerstone of their “tough on crime” agenda, has collapsed into a predictable quagmire of failure. Despite clear evidence of past boot camp failures and explicit warnings from various experts, Children’s Minister Karen Chhour and her coalition partners have persisted, touting success in a programme where seven of ten participants reoffended, one died, and three were incarcerated youth justice facilities. This is more than a policy blunder, it’s a glaring example of a government so disconnected from reality that it portrays calamity as achievement.

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

Bootcamp re-offending rate revealed: 80% allegedly offended within the year

Most of the teenagers who took part in the military-style bootcamp pilot went on to allegedly re-offend within the year, the ministry has confirmed. But that doesn’t mean the Government views this as a failed experiment.

The Government had, for months, refused to confirm how many of the bootcamp participants had gone on to allegedly re-offend. But on Friday, a week after the pilot finished, Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Iain Chapman confirmed the alleged re-offending rate sat at about 80%.

...

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has since introduced a bill to continue the MSA programme, including giving the Youth Court power to force young people to participate in it.

“Zero re-offending was never going to be realistic, but the goal of this programme has always been to provide meaningful supports and an opportunity for these young people to make better choices,” she said.

That bill was expected to pass in time for a new cohort to start next year.


Yesterday, RNZ also reported:

Minister, OT hail boot camp success despite majority reoffending

Seven of the 10 young men involved in the controversial military-style academy (MSA) boot camp pilot reoffended, according to Oranga Tamariki.

But the agency and its Minister is calling the programme a success, after eight of the original 10 participants successfully completed the first 12-month pilot.

During the pilot, which has just concluded, participants ran away, one was kicked out of the programme and another was killed in a three-vehicle crash.

 

Let’s rewind. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care laid bare the horrors of earlier boot camp iterations, like the Te Whakapakari Youth Programme, where young people endured physical, psychological, and sexual abuse under the guise of rehabilitation. Research from as early as 1983 showed a 71% reoffending rate within a year, climbing to a staggering 92% by 1988. The 2010 Military Activity Camp (MAC) was no better, over 80% of participants reoffended within 12 months.

Experts, from Victoria University’s forensic psychologists to the Children’s Commissioner, screamed from the rooftops that these programmes don’t work. They exacerbate trauma, entrench anti-social attitudes, and fail to address the root causes of youth offending: poverty, family harm, and systemic inequity. Yet, the coalition of chaos government ignored these numerous warnings, resurrecting a failed model with a glossy new name: Military-Style Academies.

The results? Predictably dire. Seven of the ten young men in the pilot reoffended, two landed back in youth justice residences, and one tragically died in a car crash. Another absconded during a funeral, only to be arrested for attempted armed carjacking. Karen Chhour, with breathtaking audacity, somehow calls this a success.

Her crocodile tears over the death of a participant, just like her tears over ‘unsafe workplaces’ and ‘bullying behaviour’ in Parliament, ring hollow when she refuses to pause the programme or acknowledge its systemic failures. To claim, as she does, that “zero reoffending” was never the goal is a pathetic sidestep. What, then, if not to rehabilitate, is the point of a rehabilitation programme that funnels vulnerable youth back into crime or, worse, to their graves? What is the point of a boot camp that results in higher reoffending rates than would be seen by doing nothing?



Chhour’s assertion that families are “overwhelmingly positive” about the programme is laughable when weighed against the reality: participants running away, reoffending, and facing incarceration. Her defence, that these young men, mostly Māori, are too complex to expect better outcomes, smacks of defeatism and cultural insensitivity. It’s a convenient excuse for a minister who has consistently failed to deliver, on anything.

Chhour’s tenure as Minister for Children has been marred by serial incompetence, nowhere more evident than in her mishandling of Oranga Tamariki’s communication breakdowns. Her failure to be informed of a second abscondee from the boot camp pilot, described by her own words as “unacceptable” exposes a staggering lack of oversight. Oranga Tamariki’s acting chief executive, Andrew Bridgman, dismissed this as a “simple mistake” within a “big bureaucracy of 4000 people,” but Chhour’s inability to ensure basic communication channels function properly reflects her broader inadequacy. She was left in the dark about critical incidents, including absconding participants, until media scrutiny forced the issue into the open, undermining her claims of accountability.

This isn’t an isolated lapse, Oranga Tamariki’s systemic failure to communicate effectively with providers, as highlighted by the Public Service Association, saw long-standing services blindsided by funding cuts, with Chhour callously labelling them as “abusing funds” without any evidence to substantiate her claims. Her refusal to engage with the Children’s Commissioner on use-of-force powers in boot camps further underscores her aversion to scrutiny and collaborative governance.

Chhour’s failures extend beyond Oranga Tamariki to her role as Associate Minister of Police, where her oversight of firearms reform has been equally dismal. Charged with strengthening gun control in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, Chhour has failed to register her own weapons while presiding over a stalled Firearms Registry she wants to get rid off, with only 30% of licensed firearms owners registered by mid-2024, despite a five-year deadline. Her inability to drive compliance or address loopholes in the Arms Act has left communities vulnerable, with illegal firearms still circulating among criminals. This mirrors her approach to youth justice: loud promises, minimal delivery, and a refusal to heed expert warnings or accept her own limitations.
However, this government’s disconnect extends well beyond beyond boot camps. Their obsession with punitive measures, extending Young Serious Offender designations to younger teens, slashing community support funding, and ignoring evidence-based interventions, shows a callous disregard for what actually reduces youth crime: early intervention, whānau support, and trauma-informed care...not to mention worthwhile employment, social cohesion and secure housing.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s “try something different” mantra is a hollow soundbite when the “something” is a recycled failure that costs $51 million over four years while Māori youth, who make up 80-85% of the cohort, bear the brunt. The coalition’s claim of success isn't just ludicrous, it’s a betrayal of vulnerable young people and a slap in the face to survivors of past boot camp abuses. Chhour and her government are not just out of touch; they’re wilfully blind, peddling a failed experiment as progress while the evidence, and the human cost, shows otherwise.
Published by the Jackal



6 Aug 2025

They're Distracting You From Their Policy Failures

In a political landscape increasingly defined by distraction and dysfunction, the National-led coalition has descended into a quagmire of trivial pursuits and economic neglect. The latest offerings from Winston Peters and David Seymour exemplify this trend: Peters’ pointless push to legislate the countries name as, well, New Zealand, and Seymour’s obsession with deregulating the placement of backyard sheds. These aren't the actions of a government focused on the pressing issues facing Aotearoa; they're the desperate ploys of government MPs scrambling to stay in the headlines while the economy teeters and ordinary Kiwis bear the brunt.

 

On Friday, the NZ Herald reported:

 
Making ‘New Zealand’ country’s official name added to NZ First’s ever-changing list of bills

New Zealand First’s stack of publicly announced Member’s Bills has grown yet again, with the party today proposing legislation to make “New Zealand” the official name of the country in law.

The legislation – which still needs to be picked from the ballot of Member’s Bills – comes in response to the party’s unease over the use of “Aotearoa”, including in Parliament. 
 
...

It’s the eighth Member’s Bill the party has announced this year, but due to the rules of Parliament, NZ First is only able to have four in the ballot at any one time.

Only MPs who aren’t ministers – NZ First has four backbenchers – can have Member’s Bills and they can only have one in the ballot at a time.

This has meant the party has had to shuffle out several of the bills it has previously announced, but which remain on NZ First’s website as “Our Member’s Bills”.

For example, the “Conscience Acts Referendums Bill”, which was revealed in March to remove conscience votes in Parliament and instead require some particular legislation to go to a national public referendum, no longer appears on Parliament’s website.


Let’s start with Winston Peters' bungling, whose proposal to enshrine “New Zealand” as the country’s official name is another play for the bigoted vote. The name is already codified in law, used globally, and etched into our national identity. This legislative stunt serves no practical purpose and diverts parliamentary resources, which could be better utilised to try and fix the countries more pressing issues, such as homelessness and the cost of living crisis. It reeks of Peters’ trademark populism, a distraction from the coalition’s inability to address substantive issues it appears to have no intention of actually solving.

Similarly, David Seymour has championed easing rules on shed placement, arguing that shrinking section sizes justifies this change. While Seymour frames this as a win for homeowners, it’s a policy so niche it barely registers against the backdrop of people's economic hardship. There's no record of any New Zealander ever being fined for having a garden shed in the wrong place, leading one to wonder: is this really the best use of ministerial time when 112,496 people face severe housing deprivation? These trivial policies are part of a broader pattern of headline-grabbing stunts designed to mask the coalition’s lethargy on substantive issues such as Gaza. They're trying to distract you from their economic mismanagement as well.

Furthermore, the government’s decision to overhaul the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is another knee-jerk reaction, rushed through without robust research or consultation in an attempt to take the focus off of the consequences of their policies, such as declining achievement rates, a decline that's largely the result of our reduced living standards. But instead of actually doing anything to make sure children and young people are in a position to actually learn and reach their full potential, the coalition is more concerned with saving money by providing inedible school lunches.

Education Minister Erica Stanford’s plan to replace NCEA, a system in place for over 20 years, with a new framework lacks evidence of its efficacy. Only 56% of students passed NCEA literacy and numeracy writing tests in June 2023, and 64% passed reading, yet the coalition offers no data to suggest their overhaul will improve these figures. They're again using the opportunity to blame Labour for unworkable NCEA changes brought in by the John Key led National government. This move appears less about educational reform and more about diverting attention from the cost-of-living crisis, where consumer inflation remains stubbornly high and domestic price pressures show no signs of easing, which is having a detrimental effect on young people's ability to learn.

The coalition’s economic mismanagement is also starkly evident in the escalating wave of business liquidations and mounting mortgage stress. Since the National-led government took office in November 2023, business liquidations have surged, with 2,976 companies entering liquidation in 2024 alone, a 27% increase year-on-year, driven heavily by the downturn in construction, hospitality, and our retail sectors. Non-performing loans have also risen, with 485,000 consumers in arrears as of May 2025, including 21,900 mortgage holders behind by over 30 days. With New Zealand’s GDP contracting by 2.1% in the year to September 2024, despite a population growth of 1.2%, and net core Crown debt reaching $175.5 billion (42.5% of GDP) in June 2024, the economic outlook is grim. Treasury forecasts debt to climb to $192 billion by mid-2026, and economists warn that ongoing austerity and global trade shocks, such as Trump's 15% tariffs, could push liquidation rates higher, with small-to-medium enterprises (97% of New Zealand’s businesses) particularly vulnerable to further closures.

Meanwhile, mortgage holders face mounting pressure as interest rates, which rose sharply from 2.58% in August 2021 to a peak of 7.5% by January 2024 under the previous Labour government’s tenure, have only modestly declined under the National-led coalition. As of July 2025, the average one-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 4.97%, a drop of about 170 basis points since the Reserve Bank began cutting the Official Cash Rate (OCR) from 5.5% to 3.25% since August 2024. It's little wonder that the major banks are making record breaking profits ($7.22 billion in 2024) given they aren't always passing on the Reserve Bank's monetary stimulus. This relief is marginal for many, as debt-servicing costs remain elevated.

The National-led government’s trickle down economics and tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit higher earners, have failed to stimulate any meaningful economic recovery. Wage growth, slowing to 3.7% in June 2025 from 6.9% in June 2023, lags behind living costs, with inflation at 2.7% in June 2025 (up from 2.1% estimates) and essentials like rent, food, and utilities consuming 62–98% of disposable income for many low-income households. This mismatch exacerbates financial strain, as the coalition’s focus on fiscal restraint over investment stifles demand and deepens hardship for ordinary Kiwis.


David Seymour’s rhetoric about “saving” even more money (read less money in your back pocket), through further cuts and policy tinkering, such as his Regulatory Standards Bill, is a hollow promise that threatens to deepen New Zealand’s economic woes. Far from delivering efficiency, the bill imposes $50–60 million annually in administrative costs, as estimated by MBIE, due to mandatory Consistency Accountability Statements and a new Regulatory Standards Board that duplicates existing oversight mechanisms. Seymour and other coalition MPs have falsely claimed that the holy grail of artificial intelligence will somehow magically streamline these processes to reduce costs, yet experts like Victoria University’s Andrew Lensen has categorically debunk this claim, noting AI’s need for human oversight limits cost savings. Even if AI had the ability to streamline the government's processes, their failure to adapt is in stark contrast to their dishonest rhetoric, especially in respect to the National led government slashing $1.5 billion from public sector budgets, including innovation and digital transformation programmes. There's no question that since taking office in November 2023, the coalition has stifled AI development critical for economic resilience. By cutting and deregulating without researching long-term impacts, Seymour’s latest iteration of an already defeated bill undermines worker protections and environmental standards, standards that are there to ensure that taxpayers don't always foot the bill for things like the extractive industries environmental pollution. This reckless approach pulls money from an already struggling economy, money that could be going towards more productive sectors such as business innovation and housing security.

Westpac’s senior economist Satish Ranchhod warns that domestic inflation pressures will persist, yet Seymour’s policies seem poised to deepen hardship for the 120,000 already deprived children struggling to get by amid the cost-of-living crisis. It's becoming more aparent with every press release that this “Coalition of Chaos” government thrives on distraction, not delivery.

From Peters’ name game to Seymour’s shed obsession, their policies are an excercise in irrelevance. Meanwhile, the real issues, rising homelessness, the cost of living crisis, hungry children, business failures, and mortgage stress, go unaddressed. With 65% of New Zealanders believing the economy is rigged for the rich, the coalition’s focus on trivialities only fuels discontent. Aotearoa deserves better: a government that tackles the cost-of-living crisis head-on, not one that rearranges the deck chairs while the economy continues to burn.

Published by the Jackal



3 Aug 2025

David Farrar Lies About Homelessness

Once again, David Farrar, the perennial cheerleader for the National Party, has taken to his Kiwiblog platform to peddle distortions about homelessness under the Labour government. His latest post, “Labour increased homelessness,” is a dishonest exercise in selective storytelling, cherry-picking statistics to paint a grim picture of Jacinda Ardern's tenure while glossing over the social devastation wrought by the current government's austerity. Farrar’s tactics are emblematic of a broader right-wing strategy: deflect accountability for the social destruction their policies are causing by weaponising numbers and half-truths against the previous administration.


Yesterday, Kiwiblog posted:


Labour increased homelessness

Do you recall Jacinda promised to solve homelessness? I think she said in four weeks.

Would it surprise anyone to learn that according to the census, it increased 37%?

The Homelessness Insights report shows that the numbers homeless increased from 3,624 in 2018 to 4,965 in 2023. In the previous five years, it dropped 12%. So Key and English saw a 12% decline and Ardern a 37% increase.


So let's dive right in. Farrar claims homelessness surged 37% under Labour, citing the Homelessness Insights Report, which shows an increase in the “without shelter” category from 3,624 in 2018 to 4,965 in 2023. The figure is accurate but deceptively narrow. The broader 2023 Census data reveals severe housing deprivation rose by a more modest 13%, from 99,462 to 112,496 people. By fixating on the most dramatic statistic, Farrar obscures the full context, including improved Census methodologies and statistics gathering for homeless people that better captured the true extent of the problem in 2023, which likely accounts for the 13% increase. This isn’t analysis by the National Party's gnome, it’s sleight of hand, designed to inflame rather than inform.

More egregiously, Farrar fabricates a claim that Jacinda Ardern promised to solve homelessness within four weeks. However, no such pledge exists. It's a complete lie by an irrelevant blogger who should retire. It's true that Ardern’s 2017 campaign focused on addressing the housing crisis and reducing homelessness, with commitments to expand public housing and tackle systemic issues like affordability. But Farrar’s “four weeks” assertion is a baseless caricature, echoing the right’s penchant for trying to rewrite history to discredit progressive leadership. It’s a lazy smear, unsupported by any evidence, yet perfectly aligned with the National Party’s false narrative about Labour’s governance.

David Farrar dressed as Jimmy Saville
This dishonesty isn’t Farrar’s alone. National Party leaders like Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have similarly leaned on selective data to attack Labour’s record while ignoring their own government’s failures. Since taking office in 2023, the coalition of chaos has tightened emergency housing eligibility, with a 386% spike in rejections by the Ministry of Social Development in 2024, often for vague reasons like applicants, including women trying to escape domestic abuse, “contributing to their own homelessness.”

These changes, championed by Housing Minister Chris Bishop, have pushed vulnerable families out of motels and into precarious situations, with no clear alternative. Labour’s Duncan Webb has warned that such policies risk leaving families “stranded,” a critique echoed in a 24 July 2025 Labour press release noting large increases in homelessness under Luxon’s watch. Farrar and National conveniently omit this, blaming Labour while their own policies intentionally dismantle New Zealand's safety nets.

The right’s hypocrisy is stark. Farrar’s post contrasts a supposed 12% homelessness drop under John Key and Bill English with Labour’s 37% rise, but this comparison is very flawed. The 12% figure likely refers to broader housing deprivation (2013–2018), not the “without shelter” category he cites, and pre-2018 data collection was less rigorous, undercounting rough sleepers by thousands. Meanwhile, National’s current emergency housing restrictions are driving people onto the streets, with no acknowledgment from Farrar.

This mirrors a broader right-wing pattern: implement austerity, cancel state house builds, deregulate housing markets, and then blame progressives when the social fabric frays. Farrar’s distortions aren't just about numbers, they’re about deflecting from the human cost of right-wing governance.

By misrepresenting data and fabricating promises, Farrar and National obscure their own role in deepening inequality, of which Aotearoa ranks within the top third of OECD countries. New Zealanders deserve better than this tired playbook of deception, they deserve a government that faces the housing crisis head-on, not one that spins statistics to dodge accountability.

Published by the Jackal



31 Jul 2025

National's Pathetic Nanny-State Policy Tweaks

Many politicians within the current National-led coalition government have spent much of their careers railing against the supposed "Nanny State" excesses of Labour’s past, particularly of the Helen Clark era. They used to accuse Clark’s Fifth Labour Government of suffocating New Zealanders with overbearing regulations and paternalistic policies, such as requiring power saving light bulbs and water saving shower heads. Yet, in a twist of irony sharper than a shearing blade, this self-proclaimed coalition of freedom has unveiled a raft of petty and pointless rules that would make even the most zealous bureaucrat blush.

From dictating when school kids can use cellphones or protest against climate inaction to taking control of beneficiaries payments to meddling in farmyard chores to tightening the screws on election booth treats to banning transgender people from using toilets, and now dictating how businesses handle pay-wave surcharges, the coalition of chaos is proving itself the true practitioners of the Nanny Statism they once decried.


On Wednesday, RNZ reported:

Chores young people can do on a farm changing

The agriculture sector will be consulted on proposed changes to risk regulations on what chores young people can safely carry out on the family farm.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said it will consult on these thresholds, like collecting eggs or feeding small animals, while ensuring safety is not compromised.

Minister van Velden said children will be able to do more complex tasks with supervision and training as they get older - but expects higher-risk activities like being near heavy machinery to remain off-limits.


Labour’s Chris Hipkins rightly criticised the coalition’s bizarre consultation on what chores children can do on family farms, calling it a solution in search of a problem. The National-led government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the age-old tradition of kids mucking in on the family farm requires a regulatory overhaul. Apparently, the coalition believes that rural parents need Wellington’s guiding hand to decide whether their teenager can feed the chooks.

This is the same National Party that once lambasted Helen Clark’s government for its "Helengrad" type controlling tendencies, accusing Labour of infantilising New Zealanders with rules like the "anti-smacking law" However here they are, drafting a rulebook for farmyard tasks that’s as patronising as it is pointless. The irony is thicker than a mud patch: National, the party of personal responsibility, now wants to nanny rural families into compliance.

Then there’s the coalition’s obsession with election booth "treating." The Electoral Act 1993 already bans providing free food, drink, or entertainment to sway voters, but apparently that wasn’t nanny state enough for National. They've now doubled down with a new rule slapping a 100-meter buffer zone around polling stations, again outlawing sausage sizzles or lolly scrambles on election day as if a free Raspberry Drop could topple democracy. It’s a petty tweak to an existing law, dressed up as a bold stand against voter bribery, yet it’s exactly the kind of bureaucratic meddling National once sneered at Labour for. One can only imagine the scandal: a hangi or a lolly scramble swaying the vote in a marginal electorate! This is particularly ridiculous when you consider how the coalition of chaos is desperately trying to tilt the next election in their favour by taking away people's right to register to vote on election day, which will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders from participating in democracy.

This is the same coalition of political parties that once sneered at Labour’s supposed overreach, accusing Clark’s government of stifling free expression and community spirit. The hypocrisy is staggering. National once decried Labour’s "nanny state" for restricting individual freedoms, but apparently, a cuppa or sticker at the polling booth is a threat to democracy itself.

And then there’s the pathetic pay-wave surcharge saga, an exercise in futility dressed up as cost-of-living relief. The National-led government proudly announced a ban on surcharges for contactless payments, trumpeting it as a win for struggling consumers. They claimed it would save Kiwis money at the checkout, painting it as a bold strike against sneaky fees. But in a classic bait-and-switch, the coalition later quietly advised businesses to simply bake these fees into their overall prices. So, instead of reducing costs, the ban just shifts the burden to people who bother to punch in their numbers, potentially increasing prices across the board for everyone, whether they pay by card or cash. This isn’t relief; it’s a sleight of hand. Just like their promises of tax relief, National’s latest “solution” to the cost-of-living crisis looks more like a bureaucratic shuffle, forcing businesses to navigate new pricing rules while consumers foot the bill.

This coalition of chaos, as it’s been aptly dubbed, seems determined to outdo by a country mile the very "Helengrad" caricature it once created and weaponised. The National-led government’s fixation on micro-managing everyday life, whether it’s kids doing chores, people using toilets or paywave surcharges, reveals a governing philosophy that’s less about liberty and more about grabbing headlines with pointless gimmicks.

However, their micromanaging isn't always trivial. They’ve also axed Labour’s world-leading smokefree legislation, a policy designed to shield future generations from tobacco’s deadly grip, all while claiming it’s about slashing red tape. This reckless repeal, scrapping measures like denicotinisation and limits on cigarette sales, hands Big Tobacco hundreds of millions in taxpayer-funded profits, betraying Kiwis’ health for corporate gain. National’s pious rants against Labour’s “nanny state” ring hollow when they’re selling out young people's future to the tobacco giants, one puff at a time.
 

On Wednesday, the NZ Herald reported:

 
Government extends tax break for Philip Morris heated tobacco products

Verrall said the onus should be on Philip Morris to prove its product was safe.

“There is no reason why the government should be running a study for Philip Morris to help get its products used,” she said. “This product is not a health product. It is a harmful product.”

Verrall said the latest update from the Treasury showed the HTP tax cut was forecast to cost up to $293m if continued until 2029.

“It’s deeply worrying when our health system is underfunded that the Government is giving away $300m to the benefit of a single company with links to one of the coalition partners,” Verrall said.


The previous Labour government's, for all their flaws, sought to balance social progress with pragmatic governance, introducing measures like KiwiSaver and Working for Families to empower New Zealanders. National’s relentless criticism of the Clark and Ardern administrations as overbearing now looks like complete and utter projection. Luxon's coalition of chaos is by far the worst micromanagers New Zealand has ever seen.

This coalition, with its scattergun approach to policy and penchant for meddling in the minutiae of daily life, has taken the nanny state baton and run with it, straight into the farmyard, the polling booth, and the checkout counter. If this is National’s vision of "getting New Zealand back on track," then New Zealanders might wonder if the track leads to a bureaucracy more stifling than anything Helengrad could ever dream of.

Published by the Jackal