This is edition 2026/112 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. Holding Back the Revolution.
Chris Trotter
- 🗳️ The upcoming election is framed as a stark choice: which political bloc (Left or Right) will cause the most harm to New Zealanders.
- ⚖️ Right-wing parties are pursuing radical policies, causing some voters who supported them previously to reconsider their backing.
- 🤫 Labour and the Left are adopting a cautious “small target” strategy—minimising risk, avoiding controversy, and letting the government’s mistakes work in their favour.
- 🎯 Labour’s approach is to win by default: stay quiet, disciplined, and avoid drawing attention that could disrupt voter dissatisfaction with the current government.
- 🧪 Labour’s policies are heavily focus-grouped, modest, and targeted—such as a limited capital gains tax, free GP visits, free prescriptions, and subsidised transport.
- 👩👧 These policies are designed to appeal especially to women, families, and those struggling with the cost of living.
- 💰 The strategy is pragmatic rather than ideological, prioritising voter appeal over long-term fiscal concerns or structural economic change.
- 🏛️ Labour is accused of abandoning deeper wealth redistribution goals since the 1980s, offering only modest relief rather than systemic reform.
- 🔄 If elected, Labour and its allies are expected to revive broader transformative agendas paused after their 2023 defeat.
- 🌊 The text warns of a “cultural transformation” involving decolonisation and indigenisation, supported by institutions like the public sector, academia, and media.
- 👥 This transformation is portrayed as empowering an alliance of elites (professional class and parts of Māori leadership), potentially at odds with democratic equality.
- 🧱 The current government is described as a “dam” holding back these changes, with coalition partners preventing more radical shifts.
- 💥 A Labour-Greens–Te Pāti Māori victory is depicted as breaking that dam, enabling sweeping and possibly irreversible societal changes.
- 🔁 While current government policies could be undone, the text argues that a Left-led transformation would be far harder to reverse peacefully.
- ⚠️ The election is characterised as highly consequential—potentially the most significant in decades due to its long-term societal implications.
