OK friends, going to log off for a few days. Need to take a break from constantly ingesting the horrors of the world. See you on the other side

Labour really should go hard on "Luxon is Trump's lapdog." It worked to win elections for bland center-left parties in Australia and Canada, and it would work here too. Really don't know why they're silent on this

Migration is our collective human history. People have always moved. Whether it’s from rural to urban, country to neighboring country, or straight up continents, this is what we do. Social stability is not at risk because people moved it’s at risk because you are a hater.

It’s always interesting to see how little pushback there is about anti immigrant rhetoric. Not from the media, not from businesses who rely on the workers, not unions, not white friends, not opposition parties like yeah the Greens might but it’s very muted and in the context of “contribution”.

i’m sorry but WHO exactly is commending brutal austerity cuts, the worst in a generation, other than an INCREASINGLY obsequious media and commentariat??? this is insane right??

It’s not the high unemployment rate or the high fuel prices or high power bills and food prices that’s harming our social stability oh no of course not it’s when you go about your day but there’s ✨brown people✨ in it.

It’s always the people whose ancestors didn’t learn the language or customs or culture, stole lands, and murdered people, who drone on about “social stability” like bro you are the mirror for instability.

Just a reminder that Chris Luxon himself benefitted greatly from open migration (to the US), and I'm sure he thinks white migrants to NZ are just fine. He's just a racist prick who doesn't want minorities here.

I really am reeling at what Luxon has just said about social strains of migration. How is he not aware of how integral migrants are to our economy? "In the tax year ending March 2024, the foreign-born made up 32% of the population, and paid 38% of the tax." www.treasury.govt.nz/publications...

The first thing any new Labour-led government should do is reform Treasury. It's a bastion of out-of-date neoliberal monetarists hewing close to the perceived purity of Roger and Ruth's vision. Govt needs economic advice and analysis from people that live in the real world, not a fantasy. #nzpol

Australia is implementing tax measures (CGT, reducing tax benefits for housing investors, etc) to tax wealth more and income less. Meanwhile NZ pretends even a milder version of these would destroy its economy, even though Australia had massively outperformed it over the past few years...

I've added a YouTube link as the original one wouldn't allow viewing in landscape mode

I'm really sick of gullible rubes insisting that media ownership doesn't influence coverage, former political staffers don't continue to favor their party, etc By that logic we should let former tobacco lobbyists write health regulations - they don't work there any more so they're impartial now

This has nothing to do with gender - the issue would be the same if the husband was a reporter. But "people can manage their own conflicts" has failed basically everywhere it's been tried, and media figures are not magically immune.

It always shocks the car people, but Wellington is by far the least car-dependent city in Australasia Only half of journeys here are by car. A quarter are by public transit, and the remaining quarter are by walking or cycling.

Bernard Hickey doing god’s work with Verity Johnson. This is so worth sharing far and wide on as many platforms to which you have access!! #nzpol

Yet another bunch of rural white people who voted against 3 Waters because of racism now having to deal with the reality that there is simply no way to cheaply provide water services to sparsely populated regions Will they learn from this? Almost certainly not. But I can enjoy the schadenfreude

It remains completely absurd that Jenna Lynch is married to the ACT chief of staff and remains a political reporter. It's just a blatant ongoing conflict of interest that's never disclosed. Just shows how much Stuff is just not a serious media organization...

Idk if Virginia Democrats can see what the Supreme Court did with Alabama redistricting, and still be like “yo, we should listen far right judges,” we are all cooked anyway. Use some damn common sense.

Why is this a story? It's just platforming Chris Bishop's irrelevant reckons in order to score some political points. The article itself says that the Electoral Commission hasn't made any indication that the party name is out of line at this point...

Picky-eating American children are afflicted with a form of privilege we don't talk about enough: not-dying privilege. To explain, @amybrown.xyz kicks off our TASTE week: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/picky-book-r...

Just want to put it out there that I see yall that immediately pivoted from "they should do this" to "actually that was a bad idea" the moment the Virginia senate leader decided to go copperhead. Its not subtle.

Does @chrishipkins.bsky.social and NZ Labour have a stance on canceling this if elected? Or does that also have to wait for the budget

"“Wiping out the entire Supreme Court is an incredibly extreme step to take over a decision you don’t like,” Surovell said." This is such a pathetic response. The people voted for the change! The court killed it on a technicality. Fight or perish. newrepublic.com/article/2102...

Young people: we feel betrayed by the government NZ Labour: we will absolutely not fix this for you Why would young people vote for a party that treats them with contempt?

Elected Democrats are always waiting for someone to do their jobs for them. Sometimes it's the media, sometimes it's the courts. But actually, this is the job of our elected representatives, and they need to actually do it or resign and let someone else do it.

well we did lose to legal Calvinball and we aren’t going to fight back. but at least we spent a hundred million dollars losing

Seriously though, it's not about one "decision we don't like," it's about a completely lawless court that rejects the sovereignty of the people and needs to be eliminated and replaced with a body that respects the people's will. If you let them get away with this they will give Trump anything.

I don't think this was worth doing because it was necessary to win the house. I think it was worth doing to show resolve and establish deterrence

Ehh I think they should have retired all the virginia supreme court justices just because I'm so tired of these judges being like "what are ya gonna do, STAB ME?"

so how about that reconstruction 2.0

We have a Republican Party committed to building systematic advantages into the current system to maintain power indefinitely and a Democratic Party that cannot think outside the bounds of the current system even as it is being actively restructured against them.

The defining characteristic of the Democratic Party is that they're a bunch of pathetic losers who won't take their own side in a fight. This, more than anything, policy related, is why they're so unpopular - it's embarrassing to be associated with these losers!

Labour had announced policy, they're just weird and you've forgotten them. Like small grants for GPs, and the future fund. Good? Maybe. But regular people don't remember them. The 3 free GP visits is neat, but long forgotten as EVERYTHING costs more now #nzpol

if Hipkins keeps ruling out reversal of National policies, including ones that HE previously championed and instigated, then voters should be forgiven for thinking that Labour are National Party with bonus feigned "regret"

Chippy is going to lose a second time to the most unpopular PM in history. And all for the sake of his ego - it's very obvious that he doesn't have a policy agenda he wants to implement (nor do his party's MPs, who have inexplicably kept him around)

This is becoming farcical. Labour is so committed to expressing no policy ideas that they refuse to comment on anything the government does. They can't attack an unpopular government because they'd rather hide in the corner than talk about what they would do instead.

Abolish ICE in its entirety and deny everyone working for them any future government employment.

This is happening throughout the world. It's Piketty's observation playing out: we allow wealth to accumulate more wealth than the rate of growth and so inevitably the rich get richer at everyone else's expense

Notorious marxists the OECD, pour scorn on the hopeless coalitions plan for LNG.

This is equally true in health. We're losing talented doctors and nurses to Australia on a regular basis for the exact same reason...

This is a good point, and the implications are stark. NZ has no external checks on parliament, so the public's ability to meaningfully weigh in via select committee is crucial for democratic legitimacy. If that process is a farce (as it is now), it delegitimizes the entire government.

Even the most milquetoast, poll-chasing centrists should realize that "I oppose the things that 99 percent of people oppose and I'll fix the damage these idiots have done" is an easy winner. Really makes you think Chippy agrees with a lot of National's policy changes...

Given that 99 percent of submissions were opposed to this travesty, you'd think Labour would promise to repeal this law and restore the Environment Ministry if they win the election But it's *crickets* about this specifically, and "we're not going to reverse things" in general

This is a big part of why we left. My wife is a naturalized citizen, but who knows what they're going to go after. And we didn't want to raise our very-obviously-non-white kids in an increasingly hostile environment...

Why hasn't Lloyd Burr fronted up with what he said to Maiki Sherman a year ago to provoke her comment? #nzpol www.facebook.com/share/p/18g5...

They fucking love losing. They love it. They think it makes them better, that it's a virtue!

Well there you go - a simple solution that fixes judicial overreach and restores the election result. All it requires is bending some norms. Will the Democrats do it? Or are they a loser party for losers?

The fundamental problem with all the Reconstruction 2.0 stuff is that the actually existing Democratic Party is a bunch of fucking losers. This meme is 8 years old and they're still getting dunked on by the fucking dog while stressing the importance of respecting the refs.

Someone with better skills than me should create a poster with the things that the govt says we cant afford on one side (fees-free, ferries, pay equity, climate emergency fund etc.) and those we can on t'other (tax breaks for those who don't need them, more roads, helicopter rides....)