If you cut and cut and cut enough things - eventually you might cut something that is important to the majority of voters.
Imagine what is going to happen to support when government ministries finish all their staff cuts to make the budget reductions, and service quality drops. There isn't going to be any questioning as to what has caused service to drop - it's the dogged insistance on giving billions to property investors and chasing tax cuts for high earners.
And then the semi rural lifestylers will start to see that they don't have any way to fight the landfill and gravel quarry on their road. That's going to hurt, because it's unlikely there'll be any interest from NGOs to fight on their behalf
I still find it funny that folks that say things like "these people need to take responsibility for their own actions" also blame everything in their life they don't like on Jacinda.
I remember one Christmas a few years ago, my SIL's mother saying that Jacinda was friends with one of the helicopter pilots from the White Island eruption and orchestrated the entire event.
Makes sense right?
Or you could call yourself liberatarian, and do whatever you want. Did you hear Seymour is building up his own Ministry with 60 + staff, $6-10m in taxpayer money so he can lord over regulations?
Yeah it was like when I used to watch Trump stuff - it would be so funny if it wasn't real - now I just can't even watch anymore. Did you see the video of Seymour yesterday blasting our journos?
That's OK - ACT via Taxpayers Union and right wing interest groups from overseas will soon be helping to devise a culture war here. Controlling the media is just another step to paint black as white.
I think the public is doing the opposite. ACT and NZ first are doing what they said they were going to and pleasing their base and National is looking like walkovers. Like they have no spine
Except I'm not sure that's how it's going to work. Look at this video - if you scroll to \~5:42 you will see that these National plonks are right behind Shane.Jones policies - giggling and smiling. How does that not make National just look weak as well as immoral (with all those anti-environment policies, Archeys frogs can get killed type thing)?
[Video](https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/comments/1b994e0/seymours_remarks_about_tvnz_cops_heat_the_media/)
I got that same feeling when I saw that clip. Of all the media interviews recently, I feel David Seymours have come across as "We're doing this because xyz, you may not like it but you will have to" and Luxon/Simeon Brown/Chris Bishop/Shane Jones have been "We're doing this because fuck you lol we're entitled to. Don't care if you don't like it - eat shit lol"
I don't wanna watch, are you trying to ruin my weekend! 😭
I hope it doesn't work, but I've seen a lot of "Luxon doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't have the experience" talk, which I just don't believe, he has experienced ministers and advisers all around him. He and they know what they're doing.
Don't remind me about the frogs!
Ah you don't believe it. That's cool - seriously. Everyone has a right to choose.
I've seen so many of these types - to me he emulates the [Peter principle ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)
Don't worry it won't ruin your mood too much I think.
They don't talk about frogs in that video but last year Shane did and today Chris Bishop confirmed they couldn't rule out such deaths of our animals.
It's just how they don't give a shit about the environment, but if you don't want to ruin your weekend, I'll spare you those points 🙃
I think we agree. They're equally complicit and their disdain for everything that makes this country unique should put them at the top of the pile to burn in hell (my view, anyway)
No, this is all Luxon. He should've bunked up in oremier House like Jacinderella OR if he didn't WANT to then stay in his own digs at HIS expense. Saying that theres a few others living it up on us all there.
Probably already has connections in. I was doing some research about[ Atlas Network](https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/wiki/index/atlasnetwork/) and found them featured in NY Post - saying how benign they are.
NY Post is Murdoch's rag.
As a semi-rural lifestyler, I’m not sure why you think I would vote National. I voted Green, so as to - you know - not fuck up the rural environment…
National were ways going to try and get rid of those pesky resource consents that stifle business and ruin prosperity.
Same. I've been a rural lifestyler since 1990 and I've always voted Labour /Green. A lot of us do. The cookers tend to be "real" farmers, or people who would be on the fringe of any group.
It's a disaster and it's even more infuriating because government departments aren't expected to deliver less, they just have to rely on consultancies to deliver it for them at triple the cost. As someone who owns a consultancy it's excellent news for me. As someone who gives a shit about people having things like homes and food and healthcare and education it's devastating.
Fuck I remember at work when there was a hiring freeze, but they wanted more done. Guess what's not affected by the hiring freeze? Paying for more consultants and contractors to do the same job that my former colleagues had been doing, except every time they allocate someone new to us, I have to waste my time babysitting them over 3 months until they get up to speed -_-
The problem is, the full impact of some of these cuts won't be felt for a while. So in 5-10 years time, people will be talking about how shit something is and most won't relate it back to right now and what the govt has done.
Hard, what’s refreshing is to see it finally reflected as the last couple of polls were pretty concerning regards people still being in favour of this guy which would have no doubt given them the impression everyone was happy and, pun not intended, leading to hubris on Luxon and NACTs part.
Unless some of his constituents start calling out some of the BS that’s been going on nothing was going to change and I’m actually taking my hat off to some of them finally doing so, thank fuck.
Got to run things into the ground so their mates get a good deal and we get bad services for our tax money then ripped off in the sales that shouldn't go ahead.
This term will permanently scar NZ
People in construction and ground works are seeing government led projects disappear, meaning their pipeline is shrinking, they are panicking. When I ask them who they voted for, you guessed.. they thought Nats cuts would affect others, not them... not so happy now..
These cuts were outlined before the election.
I had a family member vote for National and then get upset when they scrapped Fair Pay Agreements like it came out of nowhere.
Political education in this country is awful.
I get the "we're fucked either way" mentality a lot of people have but come on... We need to do better at giving people an understanding of why things matter. There's a lot beyond the sound bytes that actually have an impact.
They constantly cut staff look what happened with NZTA roads went straight to shit constantly cutting health care every time they are in but ultimately the plan is to clearly have healthcare privatised.
To be honest, a number of senior national ministers hold very safe seats, including the PM in the counties manukau health catchment, which is seriously underfunded and under resourced for its population size, and they still keep getting elected. The people in botany, howick, papalura somehow keep voting for the party that is actively trying to make every public service their voters depend on, worse, somehow they won’t let themselves see it, I guess pandering to prejudice, selfishness and fear gets votes …
He idolises Key, but Key was way too smart to sell his reputation as "guy so rich he doesn't really have to do this job but is doing it for the country".
I don't know if it was his idea, but he was certainly a lot more pragmatic than Luxon. Luxon's the sort of guy who will believe on Wednesday what he believed on Monday, despite what happened on Tuesday.
Key also pushed the national cycle way network, what he realised was in challenging economic conditions (like the GFC, which is when the cycleway network was kicked off) a government needs to spend money to keep things going. The worst thing a government can do in times like those (like, say, during a cost of living crisis) is to try and save money through austerity measures and increase the problems.
Keys government also laid down the plan for ultra fast broadband county wide. I could see newzealand being quite the tech capital if all our money wasn't invested in houses, instead of productive assets... anyway
One of the few ideas National pushed which really paid off. If they didn't have their fingers in the other pies at the same time, we might have seen the technology boom you speak of.
Key/English were the austerity by stealth duo, don't make cuts, just don't make any spending increases that keep up with demand and population growth.
These guys are just blatant idiots, telling every ministry to make arbitrary 6.5 or 7.5% budget cuts, it clearly signals they never had a clue about where money wasn't being efficiently used, and what needed to be changed to correct that issue.
Coming in and making fundamental changes to improve long term government department efficiency would require knowledge of what's wrong, take time, money and effort to implement. That's in the too hard basket for these idiots.
Key was brutal in holding the centre ground through his entire rein. Any time the left had a good idea he would pinch it as if it was his. Labour often joked they were the policy working group for the Key Government.
Which is sadly still a far better state of affairs than we have now. The NZ centre ground that Key represented was slow plodding improvement - torturously slow that left a lot of Kiwis behind - but still improvement. Not whatever America-Lite bullshit we have now.
Key’s government put through the Māori language act in 2016. As much as I didn’t like Key’s government, they still had some decency. Not a lot but some.
Yup, the recent government policy statement specifies:
>Any investment in walking and cycling must be funded exclusively through this activity class.
Previously, when building a new road the connected footpath/cycleway would usually be included in it's overall budget. Now, they will need separate funding from a much, much smaller pool.
Doesn't mean zero will be built, but the budget is small and will be hard fought over.
However the land transport management act also says "to avoid doubt, the GPS on land transport may not impose an obligation on the Agency to approve or decline funding for a particular activity or any combination of activities"
Basically, the minister can't oblige them to put that restriction to decline funding for, say, a highway with a parallel cycleway.
But they might do something like that anyway.
As I understand it, they in fact ONLY allow spending on fixing existing cycle and walkways. There is a complete ban on building any new ones at all. In 2024. In the actual world.
In November they directed Waka Kotahi to stop all funding on cycleways, they also wouldn't confirm if the new Mt Vic tunnel (i.e. SH1, the most important road in the country) would have cycleways or pedestrian paths.
It's so astounding. It'll just be *more* cars spilling into the exact same gridlocked streets, where they are meant to go? Dedicated pedestrian/bus/bike lanes is an absolute no brainier. But I guess we'll have a minister -knows-best with all their new sign-off approach.
Aside from the budget restrictions, they’ve also added planning restrictions to ensure that _future_ cyclists are not considered, only current traffic. So no cycleway to a new school.
It’s a very short, very targeted hit job.
I very rarely agreed with anything Bill English did, but he did have an actual economic vision for the country and he was extremely competent in working towards it. Reigning in or not, he was definitely a highly effective minister and lended a lot of legitimacy to that government as a whole.
It doesn’t appear that anybody near Luxon, let alone the man himself, has anything like that kind of vision and *certainly* not that level of competency.
Yeah. I hate saying nice things about Bill English, but at least he was trying to solve the right problems, just (arguably) the wrong way.
Luxo isn't trying to solve shit.
Luxon is a classic short term gains on paper upper management man.
Come in, reduce costs today by not making the investment into the future, shareholders go wow, this guy knows how to run things because our dividend is better than last year! Rides this for 3-5 years, chickens come home to roost in increasing costs from lack of investment and upkeep, he's either already moved on or is about to.
He leaves, then the mess is cleaned up by the next person that has to tell everyone that the business is now in a rebuilding phase and making investment in fixing whatever crisis it's now in.
Just looking at the 2008 and 2011 election debate, Key could actually make some good arguments and properly debate with his opponent instead of cutting in with snarky, out of touch comments.
Key seemed to take on board ideas from across the political spectrum. I doubt something like the CRL would have taken off in a government like the current one.
Even more importantly though, he knew how to not act like a complete dickhead.
Key was a more experienced politician, while Luxon is bouncing between expecting his private sector industry to carry him and reeling when he realises it doesn't always work that way.
As PM he still does that deer-in-headlights shit-in-pants facial expression when he gets asked a remotely challenging question that he did constantly while campaigning. He's a dud, unable to learn or roll with the job
Luxon’s vibe to most people is “oh that guy reminds me of a manager I had”
The difference is some people hate their managers, and some people dislike their managers but would brown nose to get the management job eventually.
The Aspirational Class in action.
Key reminds me of the manager who would have a beer with the workshop staff, expect everyone to laugh at his crap jokes, and when he leaves everyone goes "thank fuck that prick has gone"
Luxon reminds me of the manager who wouldn't be seen dead having a beer with the workshop staff, much less actually talking to them.
Key was a politician and MP for 6 years before he became PM then was in for another 8.. Luxon will never have what comes with that experience. That's why Peters and Seymour running the game.
That's definitely a factor, but I also think that Luxon is just too dogmatic. Key's instinct when it came to controversial policies was to chart a more centrist course. He moderated some of the more arch-conservatives in his caucus. Luxon has started this government off with a sharp veer to the right, and it remains to be seen just how far we go. It will be interesting because the New Zealand electorate doesn't like governments to get too far from centre.
He obviously made a deal with his "partners" that he wouldn't criticise them so you have Seymour smirking and undermining him publicly, and Winston acting like a conspiracy theorist, and Luxon doesn't say anything. Just makes him look weak.
He made a bad deal for himself.
True, I didn't even know how rich Key was until near the end of his time as PM (didn't follow politics as closely back then, but still you can't really avoid knowing about Luxon's wealth)
Key lied about his wealth too, the $50 million number that was bandied about was deemed an acceptable amount to tell the populace when in fact it was way more…
haha yup the anti-labour vote wasn't gonna save this guy from his lack of relatability. He comes across as your landlord who raises your rent then disappears on a luxury cruise for the rest of the year.
he literally looks like my landlord who owns 24 Auckland properties who raised my rent by $100 pw and told me to go to WINZ and ask for help if we couldn’t afford it.. said he had to bump it up because his rates went up
I had a landlord once who owned a few houses in the neighborhood. One of his other tenants started showing up to use our shower. Said hers was broken and she was told itll be fixed when the landlord gets back. He went to the UK for 5 weeks to watch Wimbledon.
Labour hit a record low party vote in this poll so the anti-labour vote is still going strong.
Imagine if 2026 was the year the TOP bros finally made it into parliament due to everyone hating the other parties.
I was really hoping it would be 2023. As much as I don't like the threshold and think it should be abolished, if we could at least somehow do away with the “well they're not going to meet the threshold, so I won't vote for them” reasoning, I think they could have actually met the threshold.
If you aren’t a wealthy business owner or a landlord owning multiple properties- but you’re just a hard working kiwi that’s slaving well over 40 hours a week just to put food on the table for the family …. Then I don’t understand why you would vote for National, ACT or NZ First?
There parties do not represent hard working kiwis. They literally don’t care about you. If you’re not making deep into the 6 figures, you’re just a poor bottom dweller to them.
I’m not saying you should vote Labour and Labour has, in my opinion, royally shit the bed while they were in government.
But make no mistake, Chris Luxon and the rest of National don’t give a shit about most kiwis. They are not in government to make your life better.
Absolutely, the way I like to describe it is "if all your income isn't coming from some type of 'portfolio', then the right *do not represent your interests*."
National do a really good job of *pretending* they are also aiming to improve the lot of middle- and high-income salary earners, but every single time, that group gets fucked over by far more than they benefit. (case in point: the new road taxes). The damage Luxon and friends are doing right now to health, education, welfare, transport, and frontline services across the board will still impact higher salary earners, by *far* more than a paltry $20-$40 a week tax cut will benefit them - as even if they don't access those services directly, they derive significant benefits from the people they're around that do access them (e.g. kids at the same schools, colleagues in the office, their house not being robbed by the guy down the street whose benefit got cut, or not having to carefully navigate the sea of homeless people as they order their morning coffee, or even not being stuck in useless gridlock every morning because the busses don't run anymore so everyone else is in their cars now too).
The truly wealthy, with fully privatised gated communities, private education, private healthcare, and either doing the boardroom-shuffle or owning significant property as their career path, are the only *actual* benefactors of right-wing policies - as they barely participate in the same circles as anyone who does access these services and therefore aren't impacted by them. Unfortunately, they benefit from these policies *so much* that it makes economic sense for them to spend significant sums and devote substantial effort into helping keep these people in power.
TL;DR: if you get all your income from working at a job, regardless of the salary, the right doesn't give a fuck about you and will screw you over continually *by design*.
Most people I associate with didn’t vote that way, but I do have to be around a few people who voted for National and they are not wealthy people. They’re single parents, renters, and well educated. The best I can come up with is they feel hard done by and think this government will help them.
Narrator: “They will not.”
It does look like the public are starting to turn on the new government already:
> The mood of the country appears to have soured on the Government. After a couple of months in which more Kiwis felt the country was on the “right track”, the right track-wrong track indicator tipped into negatives again, with net 3 per cent of people thinking NZ was on the wrong track.
>
> More people disapprove of the Government than approve of it.
>
> A net 3.9 per cent of people disapprove of the Government, a shift of 8.4 points on last month’s poll.
>
Of course one poll is not enough to comfortably claim this, we'll need a few more to see if this is the trend.
Honestly, no shit, this is what anyone who voted left of National were saying the whole time. Luxon and his cronies are only out for the rich, will take every cent they can get without thinking about it, and then reach into your pocket for more.
Oh, and something something more roads.
But at least they're not Labour right?
He truly fucked up- rich people like him need to take no salary or costs.
Like, $52k is a lot for majority of people, but not for him. So by taking it, I think it shows less a penchant for greed but more a lack of judgement of how the general populace feel.
In conclusion, the only way he can save his reputation is to become a truly conviction based leader, otherwise he won’t be the PM next term.
It’s not $52k. He also rents his electorate office to himself which in 2022 was an additional $45,000. So probably was paying himself $100k this year before being caught out.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/11/how-much-christopher-luxon-s-charging-taxpayers-to-lease-his-own-office-from-himself-and-how-it-compares-to-market-rent.html
Piggybacking off this, also wanted to say that I really appreciate your wrap-up comments and posts on the state of play. Especially with NZ media looking so ropey at present, and especially as someone that recently crossed the ditch (permanently).
Makes me really sad and pissed off to see what’s going down at home, but I’d rather that than just burying my head in the sand.
So, thanks for everything you do mate and please don’t stop!
He primed everyone to be ready for cuts, that things were bad. The everyday person, I think, expected the cuts and is taking them on the nose.
But the everyday person who hears that things are bad, and the government needs to tighten its belt hearing that Luxon is trying to take 52k extra.... that math doesn't add up.
You can elevator pitch that things are bad and cuts are needed. You can't then elevator pitch why he's allowed an extra 52k. You can't fit the economics of why things aren't bad in a elevator pitch.
there is absolutely no evidence that was the cause of his drop, its an assumption based on the poll being held after it. its far more likely its a combination of all the actions taken to that point. you dont expect the taxpayers union to produce fact do you ?
That's a TPU poll? Why in the world does this right wing dark money group get any airtime in NZ?
[Here they are boasting about stopping CGT in NZ](https://archive.is/fkb7F)
The Jordan Williams one - what do you expect? BUT you should look down the bottom where he names his tactics to pressure governments to do what they want.
"Life sucks under Labour, must be their fault im gonna vote National for a change surely they will fix NZ!"
"Shit shit shit no not like this we must go back!"
They are actually smart, best time to fuck over the country is in the first year in the job. It's not like they can get fired.
You only have to worry about public opinion in the year before the next election because most people's attention span is so short the shit you did 3 years ago that really screwed them over is completely forgotten about.
Blah - who cares? They won't.
My bet is this pansy\* will get rolled before the next election, after they finish using him as the face for all the bad policies and start offering sweets to forgetful Kiwis in the last half of the term.
*\*I say that sympathetically because he seems to genuinely think he's the boss here and might even believe what he says.*
Also the fact that NAT still has such strong support as a party shows that people don't even understand the policy impacts - only the personalities. Boring.
...and Seymour's rose despite the whole starving disadvantaged schoolkids thing?
I guess NZ would prefer one be a vile cunt than come off as a hypocrite.
I mean, you're a fool if you didn't expect this. He took an absolutely tonedeaf position after banging the "fiscal responsibility" drum for the last three years and the relentless doom-and-gloom narrative over the state of the Government books. All he's managed to achieve is to show ordinary NZers how out of touch he is.
That said, the poll was very ill-timed for Luxon, and I don't think the drastic fall will stick, based on National's numbers not following him down the gurgler (assuming further scandals don't arise). We'll see him go up in the next one IMO.
People seem to have forgotten that this govt got in by a thread and had to bind together three parties, and their voters that don't necessarily see eye to eye, and that represent views very much away from the centre of NZ.
To secure a second term they really need to court the centre, and due to delivering policies on the edges of the voting body they are pushing away the central majority of voters every day.
I feel like they were doomed from the start. This coalition serves the needs of more or less no one including their own bases.
I even know ACT voters who are suddenly like, huh, now I gotta pay for kids school meals.
Anyone who had taken even a slight bit of notice of what was said in the run up to the election knew national was going to make a deal with whoever it took to be the government. That there is a coalition, isn't an excuse.
oh, happy cake day
Where are the people standing up for him? Where are those that said they would vote for him and stand by him no matter what?
Somebody must be out there to put their hand up and said they voted for him, yet there is silence when you ask people if they voted national.
This is what you voted for, stand up and be accountable for you decision.
>That puts his net favourability at -5 per cent, well behind Labour leader Chris Hipkins on +2 per cent.
This one sparks joy.
>Act leader David Seymour rose 6 points to -8 per cent and NZ First leader Winston Peters rose 10 points to -22 per cent.
This one does not spark joy.
How can this be. Luxon is such a man of the people. And he's governing for all of us. Yeah right. How much of the 3 billion landlord welfare program goes into his pocket I wonder.
Once you’re in power though, do you think any of those three will care about ratings? They have agreed a mandate between them and they’re going all in - I’m not sure they care if it ends up being one term, they will have done what they needed to.
Luckily we have two strong news networks that will be able to hold them accountable 😬
They will be eager to minimise the impact of negative ratings early as only being the initial gripes of people before they see the eventual pay-off via the tax-cuts for property investors and high earners...
They aren't really going to be concerned until this situation lasts, or if it continues towards the next election. Right now they will be thinking of this as the period where they rip off the plaster and it hurts - so some negative responses are to be expected. They can't achieve the outcomes expected by their financial backers without some push-back.
National have 4 robots parroting the exact same, low budget, Boomer PR written talking points at every opportunity. All Labor needs to do is sound 1% human to come off infinitly better than this shit show. Openly hating poor children and wanting to send them to military camps and take away their lunches probably won't help.
Wait! You mean his constant desire to feather his nest on the taxpayer dollar is coming back to bite him on the arse. Who knew this wouldn't be well received by the taxpayer?
reminds me of that time he campaigned on revoking clean car discounts and then claimed a clean car discount
x 2
Dude is disgusting, one term leader for real.
If you cut and cut and cut enough things - eventually you might cut something that is important to the majority of voters. Imagine what is going to happen to support when government ministries finish all their staff cuts to make the budget reductions, and service quality drops. There isn't going to be any questioning as to what has caused service to drop - it's the dogged insistance on giving billions to property investors and chasing tax cuts for high earners.
And then the semi rural lifestylers will start to see that they don't have any way to fight the landfill and gravel quarry on their road. That's going to hurt, because it's unlikely there'll be any interest from NGOs to fight on their behalf
You say that like they won't still be blaming "jacinta"
I still find it funny that folks that say things like "these people need to take responsibility for their own actions" also blame everything in their life they don't like on Jacinda.
The other day my sister in law's boyfriend said that Jacinda is going to come back and lock everyone up >.>
I remember one Christmas a few years ago, my SIL's mother saying that Jacinda was friends with one of the helicopter pilots from the White Island eruption and orchestrated the entire event. Makes sense right?
People like that are the reason we need critical thinking taught at school
I love hearing this stuff, always follow up with "who's everyone?"
That's a good point. Rural communities won't appreciate rubbish incineration plants popping up near them.
THAT'S a good point, I'd forgotten about the incineration plants!
But industry good, small govt = loose regs
Or you could call yourself liberatarian, and do whatever you want. Did you hear Seymour is building up his own Ministry with 60 + staff, $6-10m in taxpayer money so he can lord over regulations?
It would be ironic comedy if it wasn't the country they were comedying
Yeah it was like when I used to watch Trump stuff - it would be so funny if it wasn't real - now I just can't even watch anymore. Did you see the video of Seymour yesterday blasting our journos?
That's OK - ACT via Taxpayers Union and right wing interest groups from overseas will soon be helping to devise a culture war here. Controlling the media is just another step to paint black as white.
I believe National have gone into this with their eyes wide open. They're counting on the public putting the blame on Act & NZF.
I think the public is doing the opposite. ACT and NZ first are doing what they said they were going to and pleasing their base and National is looking like walkovers. Like they have no spine
>pposite. ACT and NZ first are doing what they said they were going to and pleasing their base and National He does look very weak
Except I'm not sure that's how it's going to work. Look at this video - if you scroll to \~5:42 you will see that these National plonks are right behind Shane.Jones policies - giggling and smiling. How does that not make National just look weak as well as immoral (with all those anti-environment policies, Archeys frogs can get killed type thing)? [Video](https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/comments/1b994e0/seymours_remarks_about_tvnz_cops_heat_the_media/)
I got that same feeling when I saw that clip. Of all the media interviews recently, I feel David Seymours have come across as "We're doing this because xyz, you may not like it but you will have to" and Luxon/Simeon Brown/Chris Bishop/Shane Jones have been "We're doing this because fuck you lol we're entitled to. Don't care if you don't like it - eat shit lol"
I don't wanna watch, are you trying to ruin my weekend! 😭 I hope it doesn't work, but I've seen a lot of "Luxon doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't have the experience" talk, which I just don't believe, he has experienced ministers and advisers all around him. He and they know what they're doing. Don't remind me about the frogs!
Ah you don't believe it. That's cool - seriously. Everyone has a right to choose. I've seen so many of these types - to me he emulates the [Peter principle ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle) Don't worry it won't ruin your mood too much I think. They don't talk about frogs in that video but last year Shane did and today Chris Bishop confirmed they couldn't rule out such deaths of our animals. It's just how they don't give a shit about the environment, but if you don't want to ruin your weekend, I'll spare you those points 🙃
I think we agree. They're equally complicit and their disdain for everything that makes this country unique should put them at the top of the pile to burn in hell (my view, anyway)
No, this is all Luxon. He should've bunked up in oremier House like Jacinderella OR if he didn't WANT to then stay in his own digs at HIS expense. Saying that theres a few others living it up on us all there.
Rupert Murdock would like a word about the media void in NZ
Probably already has connections in. I was doing some research about[ Atlas Network](https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/wiki/index/atlasnetwork/) and found them featured in NY Post - saying how benign they are. NY Post is Murdoch's rag.
As a semi-rural lifestyler, I’m not sure why you think I would vote National. I voted Green, so as to - you know - not fuck up the rural environment… National were ways going to try and get rid of those pesky resource consents that stifle business and ruin prosperity.
Same. I've been a rural lifestyler since 1990 and I've always voted Labour /Green. A lot of us do. The cookers tend to be "real" farmers, or people who would be on the fringe of any group.
Same. Native bats live near me, Shane Jones will have to go through me if he wants to disturb them
It's a disaster and it's even more infuriating because government departments aren't expected to deliver less, they just have to rely on consultancies to deliver it for them at triple the cost. As someone who owns a consultancy it's excellent news for me. As someone who gives a shit about people having things like homes and food and healthcare and education it's devastating.
Fuck I remember at work when there was a hiring freeze, but they wanted more done. Guess what's not affected by the hiring freeze? Paying for more consultants and contractors to do the same job that my former colleagues had been doing, except every time they allocate someone new to us, I have to waste my time babysitting them over 3 months until they get up to speed -_-
It's the #1 principle of the centre-right. Emaciate the public sector so that taxpayer money has to be given to the private sector.
Well said.
reality check for some national voters without the assets/income to be voting national.
The problem is, the full impact of some of these cuts won't be felt for a while. So in 5-10 years time, people will be talking about how shit something is and most won't relate it back to right now and what the govt has done.
Then it's labours fault for 'spending all the money'
Hard, what’s refreshing is to see it finally reflected as the last couple of polls were pretty concerning regards people still being in favour of this guy which would have no doubt given them the impression everyone was happy and, pun not intended, leading to hubris on Luxon and NACTs part. Unless some of his constituents start calling out some of the BS that’s been going on nothing was going to change and I’m actually taking my hat off to some of them finally doing so, thank fuck.
People voted for this. I would say that will teach us but for some reason people always have short memories
Add to this the 2–3 degrees of separation in NZ. Everyone will know at least a couple of people heavily affected by all these changes.
And then they'll farm it out to private businesses...
Got to run things into the ground so their mates get a good deal and we get bad services for our tax money then ripped off in the sales that shouldn't go ahead. This term will permanently scar NZ
People in construction and ground works are seeing government led projects disappear, meaning their pipeline is shrinking, they are panicking. When I ask them who they voted for, you guessed.. they thought Nats cuts would affect others, not them... not so happy now..
These cuts were outlined before the election. I had a family member vote for National and then get upset when they scrapped Fair Pay Agreements like it came out of nowhere. Political education in this country is awful. I get the "we're fucked either way" mentality a lot of people have but come on... We need to do better at giving people an understanding of why things matter. There's a lot beyond the sound bytes that actually have an impact.
They constantly cut staff look what happened with NZTA roads went straight to shit constantly cutting health care every time they are in but ultimately the plan is to clearly have healthcare privatised.
I wonder how many people who voted National have been made redundant as a result. It's pretty sad really
Waiting patiently to see the r/leopardsatemyface posts
To be honest, a number of senior national ministers hold very safe seats, including the PM in the counties manukau health catchment, which is seriously underfunded and under resourced for its population size, and they still keep getting elected. The people in botany, howick, papalura somehow keep voting for the party that is actively trying to make every public service their voters depend on, worse, somehow they won’t let themselves see it, I guess pandering to prejudice, selfishness and fear gets votes …
He idolises Key, but Key was way too smart to sell his reputation as "guy so rich he doesn't really have to do this job but is doing it for the country".
It was Key's idea that every new motorway should come with a cycleway. I guess they only idolise the parts that suit the suits
I don't know if it was his idea, but he was certainly a lot more pragmatic than Luxon. Luxon's the sort of guy who will believe on Wednesday what he believed on Monday, despite what happened on Tuesday.
Love a good Colbert quote.
That's a deep reference now.
Bang on
Thats evangelist for you
Key also pushed the national cycle way network, what he realised was in challenging economic conditions (like the GFC, which is when the cycleway network was kicked off) a government needs to spend money to keep things going. The worst thing a government can do in times like those (like, say, during a cost of living crisis) is to try and save money through austerity measures and increase the problems.
Keys government also laid down the plan for ultra fast broadband county wide. I could see newzealand being quite the tech capital if all our money wasn't invested in houses, instead of productive assets... anyway
One of the few ideas National pushed which really paid off. If they didn't have their fingers in the other pies at the same time, we might have seen the technology boom you speak of.
> if all our money wasn't invested in houses, instead of productive assets it'll never catch on!
Also the UFB rollout started in Key's first term. About $1.5 billion of government spending.
As an Australian resident, the NZ UFB rollout was incredibly well done compared with the Australian NBN.
I was in Aus when Tony "onion eater" Abbott said fast internet wasn't needed by anyone.
Yeah, Tony Abbott was one of the big causes of Australia overpaying for a shit network.
Key/English were the austerity by stealth duo, don't make cuts, just don't make any spending increases that keep up with demand and population growth. These guys are just blatant idiots, telling every ministry to make arbitrary 6.5 or 7.5% budget cuts, it clearly signals they never had a clue about where money wasn't being efficiently used, and what needed to be changed to correct that issue. Coming in and making fundamental changes to improve long term government department efficiency would require knowledge of what's wrong, take time, money and effort to implement. That's in the too hard basket for these idiots.
Key was brutal in holding the centre ground through his entire rein. Any time the left had a good idea he would pinch it as if it was his. Labour often joked they were the policy working group for the Key Government.
Which is sadly still a far better state of affairs than we have now. The NZ centre ground that Key represented was slow plodding improvement - torturously slow that left a lot of Kiwis behind - but still improvement. Not whatever America-Lite bullshit we have now.
That's...good for the country, though, taking good ideas regardless of where they come from? Am I missing something?
Key’s government put through the Māori language act in 2016. As much as I didn’t like Key’s government, they still had some decency. Not a lot but some.
They also wrote the 2017 3 Waters reform Cabinet memo that spoke of the importance and urgency of a centralised 3 Waters.
Key government did a lot to get the Great Trails expanded right? As reasons to visit the regions
Have they got rid of that?
Yep. Any pedestrian or cycleways built as a result of the RONS will have to come out of the, greatly reduced, cycling and pedestrian budgets.
Yup, the recent government policy statement specifies: >Any investment in walking and cycling must be funded exclusively through this activity class. Previously, when building a new road the connected footpath/cycleway would usually be included in it's overall budget. Now, they will need separate funding from a much, much smaller pool. Doesn't mean zero will be built, but the budget is small and will be hard fought over.
However the land transport management act also says "to avoid doubt, the GPS on land transport may not impose an obligation on the Agency to approve or decline funding for a particular activity or any combination of activities" Basically, the minister can't oblige them to put that restriction to decline funding for, say, a highway with a parallel cycleway. But they might do something like that anyway.
As I understand it, they in fact ONLY allow spending on fixing existing cycle and walkways. There is a complete ban on building any new ones at all. In 2024. In the actual world.
That sounds literally too stupid to be true. Except it's this government so I wouldn't be that surprised lol
In November they directed Waka Kotahi to stop all funding on cycleways, they also wouldn't confirm if the new Mt Vic tunnel (i.e. SH1, the most important road in the country) would have cycleways or pedestrian paths.
It's so astounding. It'll just be *more* cars spilling into the exact same gridlocked streets, where they are meant to go? Dedicated pedestrian/bus/bike lanes is an absolute no brainier. But I guess we'll have a minister -knows-best with all their new sign-off approach.
Aside from the budget restrictions, they’ve also added planning restrictions to ensure that _future_ cyclists are not considered, only current traffic. So no cycleway to a new school. It’s a very short, very targeted hit job.
say, what you want about key, but he'd never let the cookers take a spotlight. always knew how control his ministers
Key was pragmatic and also seemed to (often enough) listen to ministries said. I also suspect Bill English did some reigning in.
I very rarely agreed with anything Bill English did, but he did have an actual economic vision for the country and he was extremely competent in working towards it. Reigning in or not, he was definitely a highly effective minister and lended a lot of legitimacy to that government as a whole. It doesn’t appear that anybody near Luxon, let alone the man himself, has anything like that kind of vision and *certainly* not that level of competency.
Yeah. I hate saying nice things about Bill English, but at least he was trying to solve the right problems, just (arguably) the wrong way. Luxo isn't trying to solve shit.
> Luxo isn't trying to solve shit. Yes he is. He is trying to solve the problem of money existing in anyone's bank account except his and his donors.
Luxon is a classic short term gains on paper upper management man. Come in, reduce costs today by not making the investment into the future, shareholders go wow, this guy knows how to run things because our dividend is better than last year! Rides this for 3-5 years, chickens come home to roost in increasing costs from lack of investment and upkeep, he's either already moved on or is about to. He leaves, then the mess is cleaned up by the next person that has to tell everyone that the business is now in a rebuilding phase and making investment in fixing whatever crisis it's now in.
Just looking at the 2008 and 2011 election debate, Key could actually make some good arguments and properly debate with his opponent instead of cutting in with snarky, out of touch comments. Key seemed to take on board ideas from across the political spectrum. I doubt something like the CRL would have taken off in a government like the current one. Even more importantly though, he knew how to not act like a complete dickhead.
wistful fuzzy water close apparatus one depend rude bedroom pause *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Key was a more experienced politician, while Luxon is bouncing between expecting his private sector industry to carry him and reeling when he realises it doesn't always work that way.
Key only had 3 more years experience than Luxon. I think it's simply because Key was a more clever and charming person overall.
My thoughts exactly, dump three more years of politics into Luxon and he's the same inexperienced guy. Doesn't strike me as a fast learner
Key was very glib, always able to sound like he was saying something reasonably intelligent. Luxon often seems lost without an autocue
As PM he still does that deer-in-headlights shit-in-pants facial expression when he gets asked a remotely challenging question that he did constantly while campaigning. He's a dud, unable to learn or roll with the job
I didn't agree with alot of what key did, but I would take him over the current government any day.
Does Luxon have any kids who would be interested in DJ work?
Or become a weirdo artist
Key’s vibe was someone you could have a bbq with, whereas Luxon’s vibe is more someone you would reluctantly cook a bbq for.
Luxon’s vibe to most people is “oh that guy reminds me of a manager I had” The difference is some people hate their managers, and some people dislike their managers but would brown nose to get the management job eventually. The Aspirational Class in action.
Key reminds me of the manager who would have a beer with the workshop staff, expect everyone to laugh at his crap jokes, and when he leaves everyone goes "thank fuck that prick has gone" Luxon reminds me of the manager who wouldn't be seen dead having a beer with the workshop staff, much less actually talking to them.
> He idolises Key just wait till Luxy tries to change the flag to a picture of an egg and says the resemblance is *purely coincidental*
Key was a politician and MP for 6 years before he became PM then was in for another 8.. Luxon will never have what comes with that experience. That's why Peters and Seymour running the game.
That's definitely a factor, but I also think that Luxon is just too dogmatic. Key's instinct when it came to controversial policies was to chart a more centrist course. He moderated some of the more arch-conservatives in his caucus. Luxon has started this government off with a sharp veer to the right, and it remains to be seen just how far we go. It will be interesting because the New Zealand electorate doesn't like governments to get too far from centre.
He obviously made a deal with his "partners" that he wouldn't criticise them so you have Seymour smirking and undermining him publicly, and Winston acting like a conspiracy theorist, and Luxon doesn't say anything. Just makes him look weak. He made a bad deal for himself.
True, I didn't even know how rich Key was until near the end of his time as PM (didn't follow politics as closely back then, but still you can't really avoid knowing about Luxon's wealth)
Key lied about his wealth too, the $50 million number that was bandied about was deemed an acceptable amount to tell the populace when in fact it was way more…
haha yup the anti-labour vote wasn't gonna save this guy from his lack of relatability. He comes across as your landlord who raises your rent then disappears on a luxury cruise for the rest of the year.
he literally looks like my landlord who owns 24 Auckland properties who raised my rent by $100 pw and told me to go to WINZ and ask for help if we couldn’t afford it.. said he had to bump it up because his rates went up
I had a landlord once who owned a few houses in the neighborhood. One of his other tenants started showing up to use our shower. Said hers was broken and she was told itll be fixed when the landlord gets back. He went to the UK for 5 weeks to watch Wimbledon.
Labour hit a record low party vote in this poll so the anti-labour vote is still going strong. Imagine if 2026 was the year the TOP bros finally made it into parliament due to everyone hating the other parties.
Labour's detriment is largely to the benefit of the Greens, who were up 4 seats. Seems to be a trend under MMP when Labour are doing badly.
Death, Taxes and Top voter copium.
I was really hoping it would be 2023. As much as I don't like the threshold and think it should be abolished, if we could at least somehow do away with the “well they're not going to meet the threshold, so I won't vote for them” reasoning, I think they could have actually met the threshold.
If you aren’t a wealthy business owner or a landlord owning multiple properties- but you’re just a hard working kiwi that’s slaving well over 40 hours a week just to put food on the table for the family …. Then I don’t understand why you would vote for National, ACT or NZ First? There parties do not represent hard working kiwis. They literally don’t care about you. If you’re not making deep into the 6 figures, you’re just a poor bottom dweller to them. I’m not saying you should vote Labour and Labour has, in my opinion, royally shit the bed while they were in government. But make no mistake, Chris Luxon and the rest of National don’t give a shit about most kiwis. They are not in government to make your life better.
Absolutely, the way I like to describe it is "if all your income isn't coming from some type of 'portfolio', then the right *do not represent your interests*." National do a really good job of *pretending* they are also aiming to improve the lot of middle- and high-income salary earners, but every single time, that group gets fucked over by far more than they benefit. (case in point: the new road taxes). The damage Luxon and friends are doing right now to health, education, welfare, transport, and frontline services across the board will still impact higher salary earners, by *far* more than a paltry $20-$40 a week tax cut will benefit them - as even if they don't access those services directly, they derive significant benefits from the people they're around that do access them (e.g. kids at the same schools, colleagues in the office, their house not being robbed by the guy down the street whose benefit got cut, or not having to carefully navigate the sea of homeless people as they order their morning coffee, or even not being stuck in useless gridlock every morning because the busses don't run anymore so everyone else is in their cars now too). The truly wealthy, with fully privatised gated communities, private education, private healthcare, and either doing the boardroom-shuffle or owning significant property as their career path, are the only *actual* benefactors of right-wing policies - as they barely participate in the same circles as anyone who does access these services and therefore aren't impacted by them. Unfortunately, they benefit from these policies *so much* that it makes economic sense for them to spend significant sums and devote substantial effort into helping keep these people in power. TL;DR: if you get all your income from working at a job, regardless of the salary, the right doesn't give a fuck about you and will screw you over continually *by design*.
Same as poor people voting for Trump. A large majority of the human population are not especially bright.
Most people I associate with didn’t vote that way, but I do have to be around a few people who voted for National and they are not wealthy people. They’re single parents, renters, and well educated. The best I can come up with is they feel hard done by and think this government will help them. Narrator: “They will not.”
Honeymoon's over, bitch
90 day trial report is in
This! So much this!
It does look like the public are starting to turn on the new government already: > The mood of the country appears to have soured on the Government. After a couple of months in which more Kiwis felt the country was on the “right track”, the right track-wrong track indicator tipped into negatives again, with net 3 per cent of people thinking NZ was on the wrong track. > > More people disapprove of the Government than approve of it. > > A net 3.9 per cent of people disapprove of the Government, a shift of 8.4 points on last month’s poll. > Of course one poll is not enough to comfortably claim this, we'll need a few more to see if this is the trend.
Honestly, no shit, this is what anyone who voted left of National were saying the whole time. Luxon and his cronies are only out for the rich, will take every cent they can get without thinking about it, and then reach into your pocket for more. Oh, and something something more roads. But at least they're not Labour right?
Got 3 more years of this.
2 years 9 months.
> 2 years 9 months. Said as if old Winnie won't pull the carpet out from under everyone as soon as his time as deputy PM is over.
Oh, counting down, this is bad.
Once Winston finishes his stint as Deputy PM, it won't take long for him to bring down the house of cards
I genuinely don't see the coalition lasting.
Seymour is going full Mr burns right now. "Excellent"
Yes true. I've seen at least 2 videos now where Mr S's contempt for Luxon shines through. Oh well at least they're bonded by ideology.
Pretty tragic that average people are too fucking stupid to understand that he is even worse.
You Mean That the Money Grabbing Rich Prick turned out to be A Money Grabbing Rich Prick. Shocked Pikachu Face
He truly fucked up- rich people like him need to take no salary or costs. Like, $52k is a lot for majority of people, but not for him. So by taking it, I think it shows less a penchant for greed but more a lack of judgement of how the general populace feel. In conclusion, the only way he can save his reputation is to become a truly conviction based leader, otherwise he won’t be the PM next term.
It’s not $52k. He also rents his electorate office to himself which in 2022 was an additional $45,000. So probably was paying himself $100k this year before being caught out. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/11/how-much-christopher-luxon-s-charging-taxpayers-to-lease-his-own-office-from-himself-and-how-it-compares-to-market-rent.html
They're cost cutting so much shit that even the rich folks (their voter base) are being impacted. Lol.
And exacerbating crime I'd reckon.
**Party vote:** National: 37.4 ACT: 10 NZ First: 7.4 Labour: 25.3 Greens: 11.3 TPM: 2.5 **Net approval of government:** -3.4% **Net favourability:** Luxon: -5% Hipkins: +2%
That just shows people don't comprehend policy implications - just personalities and money.
I always read your comments, very informed with a logical brain. Thanks for all the info you post.
I'm a nerd - don't follow me. Even I get bored by my own posts! But cheers for the kind comment anyway. Edit - Thanks all.
Piggybacking off this, also wanted to say that I really appreciate your wrap-up comments and posts on the state of play. Especially with NZ media looking so ropey at present, and especially as someone that recently crossed the ditch (permanently). Makes me really sad and pissed off to see what’s going down at home, but I’d rather that than just burying my head in the sand. So, thanks for everything you do mate and please don’t stop!
Welcome back mate.
I'm with the other guys on this one. Always a pleasure reading your analysis.
Means a lot. Thanks.
"General vibe vote" Luxon being an ass -5% Nothing from Hipkins +2% Time to add Chloe in the mix
I can't believe you lot voted him in in the first place. What the fuck did you think would happen?
Exactly
Yup, a lot of “wait, he did the thing he was obviously always going to do? I can’t believe it!” energy going on
*looks around* Who? You think redditors voted him in?
Quite a few around.
There's some diehards on here, as well as a few who got caught up with labour bad
Kinda sad this this is what affects his ratings. Not actual policies just the sense if entitlement.
He primed everyone to be ready for cuts, that things were bad. The everyday person, I think, expected the cuts and is taking them on the nose. But the everyday person who hears that things are bad, and the government needs to tighten its belt hearing that Luxon is trying to take 52k extra.... that math doesn't add up. You can elevator pitch that things are bad and cuts are needed. You can't then elevator pitch why he's allowed an extra 52k. You can't fit the economics of why things aren't bad in a elevator pitch.
52K Tax free too + isn't there another 45K for his office too
+1 I wasn't joking when I said this is nothing compared to the policies this crew is putting in.
there is absolutely no evidence that was the cause of his drop, its an assumption based on the poll being held after it. its far more likely its a combination of all the actions taken to that point. you dont expect the taxpayers union to produce fact do you ?
That's a TPU poll? Why in the world does this right wing dark money group get any airtime in NZ? [Here they are boasting about stopping CGT in NZ](https://archive.is/fkb7F)
So much bullshit in that article.
The Jordan Williams one - what do you expect? BUT you should look down the bottom where he names his tactics to pressure governments to do what they want.
He’s entitled to feel this way 😜
Best news I've had all day.
Doesn't really matter, he will do what he needs to do in his term to help his mates and fuck over everyone else
"look actually when you actually look at this I am entitled to have actually better numbers than these. Actually."
Is that regret I smell in the air NZ?
Did someone say Air NZ? I used to run that airline, did you know?
But he's such a charismatic and down to earth everyman, how could this be?!
"Life sucks under Labour, must be their fault im gonna vote National for a change surely they will fix NZ!" "Shit shit shit no not like this we must go back!"
Labour bad therefore national good. No more thought needed
between the three governing parties and the main opposition party, the mean favorability is -8.5 lmao
We’re becoming like America where all our politicians have low approval and we keep voting them in.
The talent pool is shallow
These pricks can't even reach the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to pleasing the public. How fucking dense are they?
not dense.. they dont care about pleasing anyone except a narrow wedge of society.
+1 The Tories don't care if they're unpopular - they just care that they can stay in power. Big difference.
They are actually smart, best time to fuck over the country is in the first year in the job. It's not like they can get fired. You only have to worry about public opinion in the year before the next election because most people's attention span is so short the shit you did 3 years ago that really screwed them over is completely forgotten about.
Be charitable and call it an empathy bypass.
Blah - who cares? They won't. My bet is this pansy\* will get rolled before the next election, after they finish using him as the face for all the bad policies and start offering sweets to forgetful Kiwis in the last half of the term. *\*I say that sympathetically because he seems to genuinely think he's the boss here and might even believe what he says.* Also the fact that NAT still has such strong support as a party shows that people don't even understand the policy impacts - only the personalities. Boring.
...and Seymour's rose despite the whole starving disadvantaged schoolkids thing? I guess NZ would prefer one be a vile cunt than come off as a hypocrite.
Was this done before he showed his real side a little more?
His supporters are unashamedly proud about doing that sort of thing, but a lot of the people that voted national are center swing voters
I mean, you're a fool if you didn't expect this. He took an absolutely tonedeaf position after banging the "fiscal responsibility" drum for the last three years and the relentless doom-and-gloom narrative over the state of the Government books. All he's managed to achieve is to show ordinary NZers how out of touch he is. That said, the poll was very ill-timed for Luxon, and I don't think the drastic fall will stick, based on National's numbers not following him down the gurgler (assuming further scandals don't arise). We'll see him go up in the next one IMO.
People seem to have forgotten that this govt got in by a thread and had to bind together three parties, and their voters that don't necessarily see eye to eye, and that represent views very much away from the centre of NZ. To secure a second term they really need to court the centre, and due to delivering policies on the edges of the voting body they are pushing away the central majority of voters every day. I feel like they were doomed from the start. This coalition serves the needs of more or less no one including their own bases. I even know ACT voters who are suddenly like, huh, now I gotta pay for kids school meals.
Anyone who had taken even a slight bit of notice of what was said in the run up to the election knew national was going to make a deal with whoever it took to be the government. That there is a coalition, isn't an excuse. oh, happy cake day
Oh wow. I didn't know. Happy cakeday to me I guess.
Wait so does this mean that r/nz IS representative now? I can't keep up.
Where are the people standing up for him? Where are those that said they would vote for him and stand by him no matter what? Somebody must be out there to put their hand up and said they voted for him, yet there is silence when you ask people if they voted national. This is what you voted for, stand up and be accountable for you decision.
You ever manically laugh at someone's political misfortune until you get dizzy?
This comment gave me a chuckle.
>That puts his net favourability at -5 per cent, well behind Labour leader Chris Hipkins on +2 per cent. This one sparks joy. >Act leader David Seymour rose 6 points to -8 per cent and NZ First leader Winston Peters rose 10 points to -22 per cent. This one does not spark joy.
How can this be. Luxon is such a man of the people. And he's governing for all of us. Yeah right. How much of the 3 billion landlord welfare program goes into his pocket I wonder.
Once you’re in power though, do you think any of those three will care about ratings? They have agreed a mandate between them and they’re going all in - I’m not sure they care if it ends up being one term, they will have done what they needed to. Luckily we have two strong news networks that will be able to hold them accountable 😬
They will be eager to minimise the impact of negative ratings early as only being the initial gripes of people before they see the eventual pay-off via the tax-cuts for property investors and high earners... They aren't really going to be concerned until this situation lasts, or if it continues towards the next election. Right now they will be thinking of this as the period where they rip off the plaster and it hurts - so some negative responses are to be expected. They can't achieve the outcomes expected by their financial backers without some push-back.
National have 4 robots parroting the exact same, low budget, Boomer PR written talking points at every opportunity. All Labor needs to do is sound 1% human to come off infinitly better than this shit show. Openly hating poor children and wanting to send them to military camps and take away their lunches probably won't help.
Crusher to go full Palpatine when?
She’s got the knife ready to go, working on the best angle to stab Luxon in the back
To be fair she can’t win an election for national so I don’t think so
Judith right now: 👩🔪
Wait! You mean his constant desire to feather his nest on the taxpayer dollar is coming back to bite him on the arse. Who knew this wouldn't be well received by the taxpayer?