Quick Hit: Hipkins Dumped Leoni, Now He Might Need Her Seat
Chris Hipkins dumped Kerrin Leoni over gang campaigning. She is still on the Tāmaki Makaurau ballot as Labour, a pre-resignation Curia poll had her two points off the seat and, if she wins, only Labour can pull the party-hopping trigger.
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Quick Hit: ACT’s $22b In Four Lines
ACT’s manifesto puts $22 billion of savings on the table over four years, debt $12.4b lower by 2031, Super at 67 by 2035, and a three-year minimum wage freeze. One headline muddled that to $2b. Hipkins still has not priced his first week.
Quick Hit: Hipkins’ First Week, Unpriced
Hipkins promised five actions at his first cabinet meeting. Labour’s own fiscal plan puts a price on two of them. For the hiring freeze, the ED plan and the price-gouging law, we found no published cost.
Quick Hit: Petty and Pathetic, by the Numbers
Hipkins called Luxon’s education attack “petty and pathetic”. The ministry’s own figures show regular attendance fell from 64 per cent to 39.9 per cent while he was minister, and it was falling before Covid arrived.
Quick Hit: The Greens’ Plan In Numbers
The Greens promise $3b more for health at each of four budgets, a surplus a year later and $26.6b more debt by 2030/31, paid for with nearly $29b in new taxes. The Taxpayers’ Union says 17 other promises, worth $176.4b, are missing from the plan.
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The Real Losers Won’t Be On the Ballot
All we need is for centre voters to split their vote: electorate vote National and party vote New Zealand First or ACT depending on your taste. That will ensure a centre-right victory this election and many more to come.
You’ll Know When There’s A Real Cost Of Living Crisis
“When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” You should get on your knees and pray that the upper classes do not think they are about to enter a cost-of-living crisis, because you will be the grass.
Who Should Hold the Political Power to Govern New Zealand?
That is the real issue behind Te Pāti Māori’s new constitutional policy.