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Simeon Brown plays with Kiwi lives

Written By: - Date published: 5:55 pm, September 5th, 2025 - 2 comments

Perhaps the biggest news from a jam packed news week is how, under National’s Health Ministers Shane Reti & Simeon Brown, Health NZ illegally hid staffing data for over a year to conceal their systemic understaffing of our public health.

So, New Zealand First Then?

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, September 4th, 2025 - 23 comments

In 2026 New Zealand First in all likelihood will be back in power because Labour and National will need them to form government.

Government to avoid proper scrutiny of plans to allow rich foreigners to buy mansions

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, September 3rd, 2025 - 23 comments

Remember Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill which would establish principles of responsible regulation and increase transparency? It appears that not all policy will be subject to these requirements. Especially if they affect rich foreigners buying local mansions.

Foreign Buyers Ban Reversal A Sell Out By Winston Peters & His Party

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 pm, September 1st, 2025 - 22 comments

NZ First’s legacy is now firmly NZ Last

Adrian Orr Cover Up – A Quid Pro Quo?

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, September 1st, 2025 - 7 comments

Part 2 of the Adrian Orr / Neil Quigley cover up scandal. Nicola Willis knew and did not divulge the truth until the Ombudsman forced their hand last week.

Jones accuses Luxon of hiding

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 pm, August 31st, 2025 - 43 comments

Shane Jones has publicly attacked Prime Minister Christopher Luxon by accusing him of hiding. The chances of a snap election have just shot up.

Councils’ obligations to Māori

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, August 30th, 2025 - 12 comments

Kaipara District Council has circulated throughout the country a Franks Ogilvie opinion suggesting that local government obligations to Māori are limited. But even a cursory review of the opinion suggests that it is flawed and should not be used to minimise respect for Māori.

Gaslighters of the world unite

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, August 26th, 2025 - 24 comments

David Seymour has complained that New Zealand has “some of the most anemic governing arrangements in the world constitutionally” without acknowledging that his Goverment could change this.

Foreign Buyers Ban Will Be Lifted Under Urgency

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, August 25th, 2025 - 10 comments

PM Luxon has said he wants the repeal completed by the end of the year

How was National able to take down construction so quickly?

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 pm, August 15th, 2025 - 67 comments

Industry experts say Chris Bishop and his party are to blame, but Bishop denies it, saying construction industry leaders are just “wrong”

Should Labour attend a set-up?

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 pm, August 13th, 2025 - 158 comments

The Government is accusing Labour of all sorts of bad things for not attending the second week of the Covid-19 inquiry.

What does this Government have against Te Reo Māori?

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, August 13th, 2025 - 14 comments

Erica Stanford’s removal of te reo words from reading books is the latest of a series of attacks on te reo Māori by this Government.

Ani O’Brien’s weird take on homelessness

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, August 12th, 2025 - 28 comments

Ani O’Brien thinks that claims by Chloe Swarbrick that the Government is intentionally increasing homelessness are engaging in hyperbole and are not true. But who is the person engaging in hyperbole?

National Party wants to sell / exchange up to 67% of NZ’s conservation lands

Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, August 8th, 2025 - 42 comments

National say they will “unleash growth”. That may be by selling / exchanging 5 million hectares of conservation land, much of it with “high ecological value” – representing 2/3 of the entire estate.

Confusing Confidence with Competence: Erica Stanford and the Bulldozing of Education Reform

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, August 7th, 2025 - 28 comments

NCEA wasn’t perfect, but it offered students a chance to grow and succeed in different ways. It recognised that learning isn’t linear or one-size-fits-all. It gave students a chance to find their place – not just in the job market, but in the world. Which brings me to the current Minister of Education, Erica Stanford… Are we confusing confidence with competence?

NZ sleepwalking towards bastardised hybrid health model

Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, August 6th, 2025 - 7 comments

Half-baked attempts to fix New Zealand’s failing health system has resulted in Aotearoa drifting into a hybrid public-private model that threatens to combine the worst of both worlds. Isn’t it time to seriously review the working model

Because it makes so much more sense to destroy communities and fund hospitals instead

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, August 4th, 2025 - 17 comments

Another day, another stupid consequence of NACTFirst’s mongrel government policies. North Shore hospital has dedicated a ward for patients who would normally be discharged but have nowhere to go. RNZ, North Shore Hospital has an entire ward of people stuck in hospital with no medical reason to be there. The 20-bed ward was created in […]

Corbyn still draws a crowd – what’s new?

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, July 30th, 2025 - 17 comments

Zarah Sultana for one – she’s a star. Gaza for another – anti-zionism/semitism won’t work this time. 500,000 signed up in a week for a new party is impressive.

Judith Collins believes proposed changes to enrollment laws breaches Bill of Rights

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 28th, 2025 - 29 comments

Judith Collins has issued a Bill of Rights report which concludes that National’s proposed changes to the enrollment electoral laws breach the Bill of Rights Act.

Imported culture wars

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, July 28th, 2025 - 62 comments

Winston Peters is proposing to engage in a Nigel Farage Reform style circus relying on racial division to get him over the line at the next election.

Gerrymander alert – Government running scared

Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 25th, 2025 - 9 comments

You know a government is in trouble when it has to resort to gerrymander to boost its prospects. The coalition government’s decision to restrict voter enrolment is disgraceful.

Sport Must Stand Up. Sport Must Lead. Sport Must Include Everyone.

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, July 24th, 2025 - 67 comments

Guest post from Louisa Wall. The government’s decision to scrap Sport New Zealand’s transgender inclusion guidelines for community sport is not leadership. It is exclusion by neglect.

So the Government has increased homelessness

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, July 24th, 2025 - 11 comments

For some time now National has been crowing about how they have solved the emergency housing problem in Aotearoa. But a recent report suggests that their policies have cause a surge in the number of homeless kiwis.

The ultimate Fuck you, to your neighbours, the community and the environment. Private helicopters!

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, July 18th, 2025 - 12 comments

Again, we were woken up by a bunch of hoodrats drifting on the intersection by our house. Great clouds of smoke and lots of noise. As you do at three o clock in the morning, my brain started tying this together with recent articles about private helicopters in urban areas, and other forms of antisocial “Fuck You’s” to the rest of us.

You Can’t Kill A Rainbow

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 17th, 2025 - 19 comments

The incongruence of transgender fear

Reality Check Radio needs a reality check

Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, July 6th, 2025 - 64 comments

Reality Check Radio has on the eve of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s hearings into the Government’s Covid response released a petition suggesting that Jacinda Ardern and others have been put on trial.

Keith Locke Inaugural Memorial Debate – Live

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, July 3rd, 2025 - Comments Off on Keith Locke Inaugural Memorial Debate – Live

View the inaugural Keith Locke Memorial Debate!

July 3, 2025 | Auckland Irish Club or via livestream

The moot? China is a threat to regional peace
Moderator: Simon Wilson
On the Affirmative Hon Dr Wayne Mapp, Dr Cam Calder, Andrew Dickens
On the Negative Trevor Johnston, Dr Marco de Jong, Dr Arama Rata

We Have a Human Right to Water, and to Democracy

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, July 1st, 2025 - 25 comments

hand rising out of the dark ocean

National is rolling out comprehensive water corporatisation, across New Zealand.  For those who don’t live in Auckland, Wellington, or other centres with commercialised water services already, this is coming to you fast. “Water Done Well” is the policy of this government to require all communities to decide on forming commercial water delivery entities, to run […]

A different way of doing politics

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 29th, 2025 - 56 comments

Hopefully what we witnessed in Parliament this week will return a trend to the politics of kindness that Jacinda Ardern practised. And one holding respect for Te Ao Māori at its core.

Oceania: Journey to the Center and other Auckland events

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, June 27th, 2025 - Comments Off on Oceania: Journey to the Center and other Auckland events

A few things I will be heading to over the coming 5 days in Auckland. A documentary on climate change on pacific islands. Phil Goff on foreign affairs. And the Inaugural Keith Locke Memorial Debate. Moot is “China is a threat to regional peace”. I kind of got caught up in each of these for one reason or another…

Weasel Winston’s FiveEyes fudge

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, June 25th, 2025 - 22 comments

Winston Peters’ Ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday was a disgrace. Echoing other FiveEyes leaders such as Keir Starmer, unable to distinguish evil from good, he accused those who can of “moral posturing.”