The decision of the Luxon Govt to cancel the NZ Battery Project, which would have underpinned security of the nz electricity network, sure looks short sited as we watch the wave of industrial closures driven, in part, by security of supply and high prices of electricity.

Nigel sounds like a bit of a snowflake to me. #nzpol

This is both sad and funny. Hilarious how bad they are at politics. #nzpol

Interesting (and concerning) post from an ACT Local candidate about how the National Party handles voter data. #nzpol

Also, if keen on something more in depth - I wrote something earlier this week: open.substack.com/pub/drbex/p/...

I get very strong ScoMo vibes from Luxon. #nzpol

Really struggling to think of worse run campaign than Ray Chung's (and I've seen a few!) #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

TPM’s rhetoric only ends in one place: there’ll be “real māori” (those who support TPM) and there’ll be colonised and plastic māori (those who don’t support TPM)

Good point. And I've submitted it to @theprogressreport.co.nz so others can see it.

Are we back on track yet? #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

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Excellent thread for anyone interested in #nzpol

Surely he has to go? #nzpol

I've upload the latest Roy Morgan poll to The Progress Report so you can see who would get elected on these (remarkable) numbers. Labour having a 5 point lead over National is incredible. #nzpol theprogressreport.co.nz/poll-graph/

Nicola Willis is really, really bad at this #NZPol

Interesting commissioned YouGov MRP which finds that seats where voters are more likely to "realistically consider" voting L-NP than voting Labor scarcely exist in the cities except for teal seats (many of which L-NP loses anyway) blueprintinstitute.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Final_YouGov...

"I think we've got the right economic plan for the future for New Zealand," Christopher Luxon said. #NZPol

Not only are Nats acting like a tired 3rd Term government they are being ranked like one too:

Labour now ahead on nearly all issues according to the Ipsos Issues Monitor. Hat tip: @tiare_mp on the bird site. #nzpol

I've uploaded the latest Talbot Mills poll to The Progress Report, so you can see exactly who would get elected on those numbers. #nzpol theprogressreport.co.nz/mmp-calculator

Are we back on track yet? #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Jami-Lee Ross has fired up Meta ads in his campaign to get re-elected to the Howick Local Board. #nzpol www.facebook.com/ads/library/...

The Opportunities Party (TOP) have launched an ad campaign on Meta and Google promoting their citizens' assemblies policy. Maybe they are trying to get Rory Stewart to be their leader? Links to their ads below... #nzpol

Good news! NZ union density has been steadily increasing among workers aged 15-44 for the last 9 years, and increased significantly in the year after the Coalition took power in 2023. [1/4]

A few big changes for The Progress Report. For the last few general elections I've maintained a database of political candidates. I've expanded this so each person now has a profile with links to their ads, news and social media. Check it out here: theprogressreport.co.nz/politician-l... #nzpol

Are we back on track yet? #nzpol www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

So far I've only found 4 local government candidates that seem to be active on TikTok (tbh I haven't looked hard). The latest one, Walt Cavendish, candidate for Waikato Regional Council, is probably one of the last I would have expected. www.tiktok.com/@farmingwith... #nzpol

Fun little addition to The Progress Report - you can now use my swing maps with overlays of the new or old (or both) electorate boundaries - great way to see how "good" or "bad" the areas that have changed are. Check it out here: theprogressreport.co.nz/swing-map/ #nzpol

I've added functionality to my local government database for people to submit news stories which will show up on candidate profiles - great way of linking candidates with some of the excellent local government reporting out there. #nzpol

The more I think about it the more I think National/ACT/NZ First strongly defending the status quo of NZ's taxation system could really backfire for them. #nzpol

Wow. Michael Organ is standing for council. #nzpol theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid...

Wild that Victorian Liberal David Hodgett is going to resign after 20 years in Parliament, with all but 4 of them in opposition. #vicpol #auspol (would link to the story but looks like Herald Sun doesn't like traffic!)

Ton of new local government candidate details added to The Progress Report - huge thanks to everyone who has helped with the crowd sourcing. Also, heaps of candidate names and affiliations for Auckland City have been confirmed & updated. All live here: theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid... #nzpol

Auckland Council have made some big changes to their list of candidates, updating approved names and affiliations. This means tons more affiliated candidates for C&R and a good chunk more for Labour. All live now here: theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid... #nzpol

I've uploaded the latest Roy Morgan poll to The Progress Report. It shows Labour and National neck-and-neck, with Labour polling the best they have since March 2023 when they were in government. theprogressreport.co.nz/poll-graph/?... #nzpol

Another new feature for my local government candidate database - candidates can now have Wikipedia links, and you can search for ones that do. Big thanks to @theloyalorder.bsky.social for the suggestion! #nzpol

lol

A couple of small but very useful additions to my local government candidate database. You can now see which candidates are running ads on Facebook & Instagram, and click through to see their ad library. #nzpol

Have started adding in additional bio details and news links about local government candidates. Some crazy stuff out there. Please feel free to keep on sending stuff through here: theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid... #nzpol

Shane Te Pou's Herald piece on national's voter suppression says "You’ve been able to enrol up to the day before election day since 1993". This is wrong. You've been able to do it since 1954. National is trying to turn the clock back over 70 years. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/facing-pr...

I’m puzzled that Public Service ‘neutrality’ rules apparently permit publication of speeches by a party leader to party members on a government website. If it’s a party leader speech to party members at a party event put it on the party website.

Congratulations @connorsharp.bsky.social for being the first local government candidate to get a link to his BlueSky account on The Progress Report! Good luck with your campaign. theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid... #nzpol

I've just made a quick update to my NZ local government candidates list - you can now see bio details and social media links for some candidates - and submit details you're aware of. Lots more data coming. theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid... #nzpol

Local elections in NZ are a democratic mess. 78 councils, no central info, run by private companies. I’ve compiled every 2025 local govt candidate (including their affiliation) into one searchable tool - because someone had to. #nzpol theprogressreport.co.nz/local-candid...

I've gone through the 1335 candidate nominations that electionz have on their website for NZ local government. Some interesting stuff 🧵 #nzpol

I've just noticed that National MP Paulo Garcia has launched his first Facebook ads (except for an aborted attempt in 2020 that got taken down for breaking Meta's rules). His main selling point seems to be his Filipino heritage. #nzpol

Unsurprisingly, MoJ's RIS on banning voter enrolment for 12 days around election time does not support it. The govt decided to anyway. Its not required for timeliness, so we're entitled to ask what their real reason is www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

This week we added 10 new emails from ACT, Chris Bishop, @duncanwebbmp.bsky.social, NZ First, Nicola Willis, Peeni Henare, Shane Jones and Tory Relf. The database now contains 2,256 emails. You can see them all here: theprogressreport.co.nz/emails/ #nzpol

Says former Fonterra lobbyist. #nzpol

I've uploaded the latest polls from Talbot Mills to The Progress Report, so you can calculate exactly who would get into Parliament on those numbers. Grim day to be a National, ACT or NZ First backbencher! #nzpol theprogressreport.co.nz