Quick Hit: Two Ticks Against Your Partner
Paul Goldsmith, sixth on National's list, is door-knocking Epsom for two ticks blue against David Seymour. National is polling with no list headroom and needs ACT's seats to govern.
Political Intelligence
Quick Hit: Immoral Until the Cheque Clears
A Green MP says being a billionaire is immoral and a Green candidate wants the rich drug tested at charity events. In 2023, the party banked $50,000 from James Cameron, now a Forbes billionaire.
Quick Hit: Back to the Dual Mandate
Barbara Edmonds wants unemployment back in the Reserve Bank’s mandate. Labour added it in 2018 and the coalition took it out. Last time, cheap money came with an inflation bill.
Quick Hit: Pharmac Said No in May
National wants $604m more for medicines, paid for mostly by a 10 per cent aid cut with the Pacific protected. In May its own budget turned down Pharmac’s request of about $800m and gave it $54m.
Quick Hit: Quarter-Trillion and No Books
Taxpayers’ Union puts Green promises at $236.7b, or $114,239 a household, after the passenger rail add. Swarbrick wants Finance. Full books still weeks away.
Quick Hit: The Number Chippy Won’t Name
Greens put about $1.1 billion a year, roughly $4.48 billion over four years, on care-worker pay equity. Hipkins called the 2025 change the most reprehensible thing he has seen and still will not cost the reverse. Moral fury without a price tag is not a budget.
Quick Hit: Own It, Both Of You
National pledges a digital trans-Tasman trial before the 2028 T20 World Cup. Hipkins says he and Albanese agreed it in 2023. Luxon says you need National to get things done. The row is about credit, not caution. Own it, both of you.
Quick Hit: Family Farm Means the Invoice
Luxton could not define family farm on HDPA, then walked dairy accommodation into a proportionate CGT. National claims an $18.8b hole. Sold a farm exemption, taxed the cowshed.
Quick Hit: We Have Room
Day after PREFU, Hipkins tells Hosking there is room for pay equity in Labour's fiscal plan but will not put a line item on it. The costing is a vibe. The spend is a promise.
Quick Hit: Willis’s Better Books Came Partly Out of Your Trolley
Treasury has the deficit at $6.8 billion and next year within $0.8 billion of surplus. It says that is partly inflation lifting the tax take while spending allowances stay fixed, which is how Willis got there with no new taxes.
Quick Hit: Tradies Pay the Lawyers’ Loans
Labour will take 10 per cent off eligible student loans and wipe balances of $2000 or less entirely, at $583.4 million over five years. The debt moves to taxpayers and a doctor gets nearly four times what a teacher does.
Quick Hit: Don’t Write It Down
A curriculum lead was filmed telling staff the minister’s feedback was “OIA-able” and should stay out of writing. Now the chief ombudsman is formally investigating, and Erica Stanford says it’s a matter for her chief executive.
Quick Hit: Three Point Four Billion. Familiar Labels.
Fonterra’s $3.4 billion year came with a $1.2 billion one-off from selling Anchor and Mainland to France’s Lactalis. Farmers banked the cheque, and the butter still costs what it costs.
Quick Hit: Fifteen Questions. Roaming.
Hipkins dropped 15 written questions on Pacific roaming and SIM cards weeks from the election. Suit: some SIM cards at USD $35. Fifteen questions. Roaming. Country can wait.
Quick Hit: 880,000 Costumes
TPU puts a red price tag on $880k from the Major Events Fund for a World of WearableArt exhibition. Upston sells visitors and Kiwi creativity. Major Events Fund. Minor accountability. Eight hundred and 80 thousand costumes. One line on the invoice.
Quick Hit: Two Hundred And One Billion
Taxpayers’ Union Bribe-O-Meter puts Opportunity at $201 billion over four years. Another $407m Industry Energy Resilience this week. Hope has an invoice. $201 billion. Still other people’s money.