Who Gets to Run Your Life?
Forget the policies, what political philosophies separate our parties?
Election 2026
Quick Hit: What an Overhang Actually Does
National won 43 electorates last time and the latest Verian poll gives it 34 MPs on party vote. Here is what happens to the gap.
Quick Hit: Labour built the blob, and even 9,000 cuts won’t shrink it back
Department bosses have been told to model a 15 per cent staff cut. Even the 55,000 target leaves the public service bigger than the one Labour inherited in 2017.
Luxon’s Six Giants and the Seat He Is Really Defending
National says the split-vote push is a threat to the country. Look closer and it is a threat to one list seat, and Luxon has a funny idea of who counts as a giant.
National Would Rather Police Its Donor Than Win the Argument
Someone complained. Mowbray told RNZ he has made “an assumption” that it was National. He has a reason.
This Cannot Be Correct
It is inconceivable that Labour does not have policies on crime, sentencing, prisons, drugs and gangs. What is conceivable is that Labour has policies it does not want you to know about until it is in government
Luxon Is Chasing Bill English’s Record and Caucus Let Him
National is on 24.8 in the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll, below Judith Collins in 2020. Christopher Luxon still says he won’t share the top job.
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.
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.
Who Should Hold the Political Power to Govern New Zealand?
That is the real issue behind Te Pāti Māori’s new constitutional policy.
The Gangs Row Did Not Miss The Left. It Hit The Whole Bloc.
1News says Labour held steady through the gangs row. Labour did. The left did not. The poll was in the field the week Kerrin Leoni’s footage came out, and the right bloc now sits on 61 seats to the left’s 56.
An Overhang Ends The List Gravy Train
Rodney Hide says National is heading for an overhang. If he is right, National’s party vote stops buying seats, the list loses its power and MPs who have never won an electorate lose their free pass. Paul Goldsmith has lost Epsom five times.
The Case for Saving Chris Bishop
A parliament without Chris Bishop would be a worse parliament.