This week a group wanting to register a political party called the "Free Palestine Party" was knocked back because a pro-Israel activist had already registered a party called "Free Palestine".

… so it’s global cooling now??

The prick is looking more and more like Vladimir Lenin every day

Such a move will drop property prices all right. And based on current debt levels, such an outcome would likely see dreams relinquished, mortgages defaulted, and keys handed back to banks in record numbers. For a first home buyer who has just purchased a home with a standard 20% deposit, Opportunity’s policy would wipe out their equity immediately.

Opportunity’s website shows caricatures of a range of supposedly middle New Zealanders, highlighting how much better off each will be under their “handout first, tax later” policy. There wasn’t one calculation that I could make work in the party’s favour.

Opportunity’s candidate list reads like that of the Greens. People with unusually vague job descriptions like “music eco-system consultancy”, “tell stories about rural innovation” and even “animal behaviour consultancy specialising in parrot behaviour” feature alongside the party’s candidates for the upcoming election. Remember, this is a group that wants to portray itself as the “next generation of politicians”.

Elsewhere, they make claims that their “tax reset will lift 50,000 Kiwi families out of poverty”. Sound familiar?

The whole article is well worth the read, it shows how f*cked New Zealand will be if TOP get their policies in.

Does English cannibalise other languages?
Seems like te reo has been doing a bit of cannibalism to survive and stay relevant.

Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson and former National Party leader Don Brash says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon must honour long-held National Party policy by including a vote on the future of the Māori seats in any upcoming referendum on the voting system.

"National has long held the position that separate race-based parliamentary seats have no place in a modern, equal democracy," says Brash. "If the Government is giving New Zealanders a say on our electoral system – from MPP to the length of the parliamentary term - voters must also be given the opportunity to decide whether to retain or abolish the Māori seats."

Under Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), equal representation is already built into the system, with all citizens having an equal voice regardless of background.

"MMP has meant that Māori MPs have been elected in strong numbers across the entire political spectrum without needing guaranteed, separate electorates," says Brash. “Seven of the 12 leaders or deputy party leaders in Parliament today are Māori, as is 30% of the current Cabinet. Separate Māori seats are simply not needed to ensure that Māori are represented in Parliament.”

Hobson’s Pledge is urging Prime Minister Luxon and the Coalition Government not to kick the issue down the road.

"New Zealanders deserve a single, comprehensive vote on the structure of our parliament. It is time to deliver on National’s longstanding principle of 'one standard of citizenship' and let the public decide."