I Asked AI to Find Chris Hipkins’s Worldview
Luxon is a manager who keeps his values private. Swarbrick is a theorist who says so. Hipkins is the one to watch. He doesn’t talk about his ideology, he legislates it.
Labour Party
Two Invoices, No Cheque: Winston Has the Only Tax Cut Worth Having
Labour says Luxon costs you $6302 a year. National says Labour will cost you $2263. Neither of them is cutting your income tax. The only party offering a business tax cut it has costed is NZ First.
Three Polls Say Split Your Vote
Tuesday’s three polls all show the majors bleeding to the minors. Neither Chris is liked. National’s list lift is a forlorn hope. Electorate National or best candidate; party vote ACT or NZ First.
Luxon Is Finished, So Split Your Vote And Save The Coalition
National 25.9 per cent, its worst since 2020. Neither bloc gets to 61. Luxon survived two recent confidence votes and the party is paying for it. Vote National in the electorate, party vote ACT or NZ First.
If the Plan Matches National’s, the Bill Is What Labour Is Hiding
Labour kept Willis’s $2.4b allowance, hit surplus in the same year, costed one pay equity claim, and parked the rest in $10.5b of “headroom”. Luxon v Hipkins is Tuesday. Ask who signed the IOU.
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.
Hipkins the Hypocrite
Hipkins called Harry Mowbray’s split-vote campaign an absolute rort by wealthy entrenched interests. Under MMP an overhang is a feature, not a loophole. Chippy only hates it when his mates aren’t running it. If it is absolute fraud, rule Te Pāti Māori out. He will not.
One Point In Mt Albert
Spinoff-Curia has Helen White on 33 and Melissa Lee on 32 in Mt Albert. Eighteen votes decided it in 2023. ACT and NZ First should clear the field for Lee. Every National electorate win without a list seat is another box for Willis, Bishop and Goldsmith.
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.
The Insanely Stupid Idea Is Two Ticks Blue
Greens on a record 16 per cent, National and Labour stuck on 28 per cent and Luxon calls the overhang an ‘insanely stupid idea’. The stupid idea is sticking with two ticks blue while the polls sink.
Chippy’s Minder
Trevor Mallard kept Owen Glenn away from Helen Clark in 2008. On Saturday he was stepping between Chris Hipkins and a heckler at Ōtara. Some people never change jobs.
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.
Three Years Of Landlord Tax Cuts. Now He Keeps Them.
Hipkins spent three years calling interest deductibility a tax cut for landlords. Now he keeps it and sells a capital gains tax instead. The slogan was the policy. The policy just left the room.
Most Popular. Melting Numbers.
Hipkins still says he is the most popular politician in the country. Ani has the clip. Cam already cut the line. Stats NZ has GDP up 0.2 per cent and construction up 2.7 percent. Popularity is a feeling. The ledger is a receipt.
Quick Hit: Labour Breaks Both. Nat Breaks One. ACT Breaks Nothing.
Labour would force Woolworths and Foodstuffs to split retail from wholesale. National still hedges Foodstuffs behind ComCom. Seymour brings the scissors. Breakup season. Same aisle. Three scripts. Labour breaks both. Nat breaks one (maybe). ACT breaks nothing.