Quick Hit — Political Intelligence — Erica Stanford — Ministry of Education — Official Information Act — Ombudsman — National Party — Election 2026 — NZ Politics
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.
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Quick Hit: TPM’s Overhang Belongs in the Same Review
National and TPM both benefit from overhangs. The evidence about how they got there differs, but a serious review must examine both.
Quick Hit: The Fiscal Update in Numbers and Who Paid for the Better Books
The deficit is $3 billion for the quarter, $1.4 billion better than Treasury forecast. Treasury’s own pre-election update says part of the improvement comes from inflation lifting the tax take.
Quick Hit: Unemployment Hits 5.7% and Winston Saw It Coming
Unemployment is at 5.7%, 174,000 people are out of work and long-term joblessness is the highest since 1994. Winston Peters says he told National and ACT to delay their tax cuts.
Quick Hit: Where National’s 2023 Voters Went
RNZ-Reid Research shows only 56.9 per cent of National’s 2023 voters still back the party. ACT and NZ First now hold 18.4 per cent of them.
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Comedy Corne
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Why the Narrative Is Wrong
CO₂ as the primary driver producing broadly uniform warming fails a straightforward test against the longest temperature series available. Something else is clearly at work.
What Do Babies Know, Anyway?
The brain is filing memories away from the start: it just forgets where they are.