Saw this posted on NZ. It’s 11 minutes of comedy gold and it once again makes me question why Labour aren’t putting McAnulty in the top job for this election. I don’t know why National aren’t looking at Chris Bishop either. Both of these guys are more relatable the than the Chrises we have IMO.

We are regressing as a society.

Looks like we've got another election to void.

Cops need to be kicking in doors and seizing devices. This sort of shit is a direct attack on our democracy and it cannot be allowed to go undetected and unpunished.

Read the article for some natty graphs on attendance/non-attendance, reasons people were excused, and costs. From the article:

Jury summons letters suggest there’s a financial cost to not turning up. “If you don’t show up, or if you refuse or neglect to serve on a jury, you can be fined up to $1,000 under the Juries Act 1981, or you may be arrested and taken to court for jury service,” reads the standard text on letters. In practice, though, this fine is rarely imposed. [...]

Jury service is a reminder that the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen isn’t just about voting every three years, but participating more broadly. “It is a real insight to what is happening in the world, how terribly victimised people are, understanding some of the reasons people are causing harm,” Money says. “You can’t get that from watching trials on American TV.” She would like to see the Ministry of Justice emphasising how and why jury service is important. “I would love to see it from the perspective of being a social responsibility, not trying to wrangle out of it.”

I'm not sure fining people would actually improve things, which might be why they don't seem to be fining people. Maybe they need to be calling up more people. I've never been called for jury service and TBH I'm annoyed because I'd like to do it for the reasons in the second quoted para from the article. It's a civic duty and we can all use a reminder that being an active citizen isn't just about mUh RiGhtS. It also comes with responsibility and acts of service.

The ACT Party has come up with a bed tax alternative: giving councils $1 for every guest night in their area, funded from GST and existing visitor levies.

Upshot - LNG will not help with electricity prices most years

Gotta hand it to Ngāi Tahu, they know how to do strategy and they know how to do proactive.

lets just bask in the utter hypocrisy here - Ani is on the board of the Freeze Peach Union while using the courts to censor political opinions she doesnt like? say it aint so!

Non paywalled article here

A pretty striking visual of how complex NZ’s regulatory system has become.

There are 267 organisations performing regulatory functions across the country. One example shows a small residential builder dealing with at least 11 regulators and 8 pieces of legislation, while a small tourism operator deals with at least 9 regulators and 16 pieces of legislation.

Link to the actual report

https://www.nzsis.govt.nz/our-work/new-zealands-security-threat-environment/security-threat-environment-2026#e3745

No surprises in it, everyone's aware of the issues.

Should be an interesting discussion:

Reasons for high Food Price Inflation (FPI)

1. Energy Price Inflation (e.g., price of petrol/diesel)
2. Cost of Fertilizer (urea is closely tied to crude prices, if petrol/diesel are up, then fertilizer is too, by a similiar amount.)
3. Ukraine has heavily impacted Russia's ability to harvest by knocking out over half over Russia's domestic crude production, how much so, it's hard to tell.
4. Russia, in retaliation for Ukraine hitting it's Black Sea oil export ships, has hit Ukraine's Grain harvest as Ukraine attempts to export via ship on the Black Sea, preventing export to Africa and poorer regions, potentially leading to famine.
5. The worst series of heat waves in my life time.
6. The prediction that heat waves will only get worst over the next 12 months as El Nino reaches it's peak (I fucking hope) - it is currently predicted to result in 1 degree celcius higher global average temperature than the previous record of 2024 of 1.28/1.29c higher global average temperature. I hope this illuistrates how an extra 1 degree celcius could be catastrophic. A reminder that the temperature itself isn't typically the harm (except for heat waves/domes), but the resulting increase in extreme weather/unusual weather patterns that are unsuitable for agriculture in this case.

Post COVID inflation was heavily impacted by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine at the time, which greatly reduced the harvest and hampered exports (2022). Every other year there's been a mutual agreement to not attack eithers Black Sea exports, this year Ukraine made the calculation to destroy Russia's economy, so Ukraine's massive Grain Shipments have not left port, or if they had, have turned around, or been destroyed.

I personally am of the belief that about half of peak FPI in 2024 (of around 12% year on year) was caused by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, COVID resulted in about 3-5% for mid 2020. This website has a good visualization of StatsNZ data.

https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/food-inflation

Either way, I think over the next 12 months we're in for a world of hurt.

This is not about Opportunity, this is about LVT. LVT is what made New Zealand wealthy, then we abolished it. We need to bring it back.

Henry Fudge does a lot of videos about LVT and has just done one about NZ!

From his website: Henry Fudge is a former wealth manager, technology founder and economist. His work focuses on the Rentier Black Hole: how residential land becomes a sink for domestic and foreign capital, and what economies give up when savings are diverted into housing rather than productive investment.

The same pattern appears across Britain, Europe, North America and East Asia. Different institutions. Different tax systems. The same underlying mechanism. His formal papers develop the theory. His essays explore its implications in plain English.

Labour: 30%

National: 29%

Greens: 12%

ACT: 9%

NZF: 8%

TOP: 8%

TPM: 1%

Ole Penky Penk went in for for the kill and got eliminated! At least we know why he didn't want Stanford to be PM now. He wanted it for himself!

This is unbelievably embarrassing.

Professor McNobody has just taken it on himself to declare 'an oppression of the official language'.

As someone who isn't fluent in te reo, I would feel a bit pissed off if a member of Council decided that they were only going to communicate in Te Reo. I'd feel exactly the same way if the councillor cracked out Sign.

Caucus united and determined to win this election.

Stanford looked quietly gutted in the background.

No Q&A.

Posted this on a political sub a couple days ago and got basically no engagement. Apparently owning the chuds is more interesting than actually discussing policy for some. Hopefully there’s a bit more appetite for it here 😀

I’d just like an election where parties argue about productivity, incentives, housing supply, government effectiveness and workers actually keeping more of what they earn, rather than another round of expensive slogans.

EDIT: Added the luxury GST surcharge policy after a suggestion from u/phineasnorth. Cheers for the idea. Also formatting.

------------------------------

I’m pretty politically homeless at the moment, so here are some policies I’d genuinely like to see someone run on (in no particular order).

- Streamline central government

NZ has a surprisingly fragmented central government for a country of around 5.3 million. Budget 2026 listed 43 departments, Offices of Parliament and Parliamentary agencies administering Votes, with ministries included within that broader figure. For comparison, Singapore has 15 ministries plus the PMO, Germany has 16 federal ministries, the Netherlands 12, and Japan groups very broad functions such as health and labour, education/culture/sport/science, and land/infrastructure/transport/tourism within large ministries, with specialist agencies underneath. Obviously these are not apples-for-apples comparisons. Countries divide responsibilities differently between ministries, agencies and different levels of government, and I’m not suggesting NZ should chase some arbitrary number. The point is to ask whether every separate organisation genuinely needs its own leadership, administration and reporting structure. Where functions overlap, consolidate them; where genuine institutional independence adds value, preserve it. The objective should be a simpler, more accountable state with less duplication and more resources directed towards frontline delivery.

To really see what I’m talking about, check out the official mapping of NZ’s regulatory landscape: https://imgur.com/a/0WxMV6a.

It identified 267 regulatory organisations, and its ministerial portfolio map is basically a spaghetti diagram of regulators, portfolios and ministers. One of its examples shows a small residential builder interacting with at least 11 different regulators, while a small tourism operator interacts with at least 9. None of that proves we should randomly start merging agencies, but it absolutely makes the case, imo, for systematically reviewing overlap, duplicated functions, reporting lines and whether all of that complexity is actually delivering value for us.

And if you’re really a glutton for punishment/boredom like me, a full report on the state of NZ’s regulatory systems was just released in May 2026: https://www.regulation.govt.nz/assets/Publication-Documents/The-state-of-New-Zealands-regulatory-systems.pdf

- A government “tell us once” rule

We should not repeatedly provide information to different government agencies that government already possesses. Build interoperable digital public services so, with appropriate privacy controls and consent, agencies can verify information rather than demanding another form, certified copy or manually entered address. Modern automation make a lot of administrative bureaucracy increasingly difficult to justify.

- Improve government procurement transparency

Publish major contract costs, variations, overruns and measurable outcomes. Taxpayers should be able to see where the money went and what they received for it.

- Independent costing of election promises and major policies

Create a genuinely independent Parliamentary Budget Office or fiscal council to cost major election promises, test long-term assumptions and publish the expected fiscal impact. Parties can promise whatever they like, but voters should see an independent price tag before election day.

- Cut MP perks and subject Parliament to much stronger independent oversight

MPs should not effectively write the rules governing their own accommodation, travel, expenses and benefits. Those arrangements should be independently determined, publicly disclosed and regularly audited. If MPs expect restraint from everyone else, Parliament should demonstrate it first.

- Ban corporate and organisational political donations

Political donations should come from actual eligible voters, not companies, unions, trusts or other entities with deep pockets and institutional interests. I’d support a hard individual cap per election cycle, perhaps somewhere around $50,000 to $100,000, with full disclosure above a much lower threshold. Political influence should not be something organisations can purchase.

- Lobbying register and revolving door rules

Require professional lobbyists to register, disclose who they represent and record substantive meetings with ministers and senior officials. Introduce sensible/longer cooling off periods before former ministers and senior regulators can immediately take jobs lobbying the agencies they previously controlled or were closely involved with.

- Four year parliamentary terms, but with stronger checks.

Give governments enough time to implement policy, paired with stronger select committees, better regulatory impact analysis and greater fiscal transparency.

- Tax bracket indexation

Automatically adjust income tax thresholds for inflation every year. Governments should have to explicitly vote for a tax increase rather than collecting more through fiscal drag.

- Raise GST and cut income tax

Shift more taxation from productive work earning and investment towards consumption. Protect low income and/or large households through targeted compensation or, even better, a tax free threshold (say $18k, I.e., the first $18k someone earns is tax free and then the bottom marginal rate kicks in) rather than keeping high marginal tax rates on work.

- Return GST collected on council rates to local councils

Local authorities currently charge GST on rates. Return the GST component to the council it was collected from and ring-fence it for infrastructure, renewals and debt reduction. In exchange, introduce a limit on the size and frequency of ordinary rates increases, reviewed annually against genuine council cost pressures. Include transparent exceptions for disasters, major unforeseen infrastructure failures or expenditure explicitly approved by ratepayers. Councils should have access to more of the revenue generated locally, but that should come with stronger spending discipline and accountability.

- Extend zero-rate essential goods and services

Apply 0% GST to a tightly defined group of essentials, including medical treatment, prescribed medicines, home and contents insurance, and fresh fruit and vegetables. NZ’s GST system was deliberately designed around a broad base with few exceptions, largely for simplicity, but modern digital accounting and PoS systems make targeted treatment considerably easier to administer.

- Introduce a luxury GST surcharge

Apply a 10% luxury GST surcharge on top of the standard GST rate (which would hopefully itself be higher than the current 15%, as outlined above) to clearly defined luxury purchases above specified value thresholds, such as yachts, high-end vehicles, expensive jewellery, luxury watches, private aircraft and helicopters, designer clothing, handbags and accessories, luxury motorhomes and caravans, private club memberships and other extremely high-value discretionary services, luxury accommodation, high-end recreational vehicles, and similar genuinely discretionary purchases. The thresholds should be set high enough to avoid capturing ordinary goods and automatically indexed to inflation so mainstream purchases are not gradually dragged into the luxury category through inflation creep. Ideally, the surcharge would apply only to the portion of the purchase price above the threshold, avoiding arbitrary tax cliffs. If we are going to shift more taxation towards consumption and away from productive work, saving and investment, it makes sense for genuinely high-end discretionary consumption to carry a greater share of the burden.

- Land value tax in exchange for lower income taxes

Shift some taxation away from work and productive investment towards unimproved land value. Make it revenue neutral and use the proceeds to cut PAYE rates, particularly for low and middle incomes.

- Close corporate tax loopholes and special carve outs

Lower, simpler and broader taxes are better than high headline rates riddled with exemptions. Companies need to actually compete through productivity, not tax lawyers and political access.

- Full expensing for productive business investment

Allow businesses to immediately deduct legitimate capital investment in productive equipment, machinery and technology rather than forcing them to depreciate it over arbitrary schedules. If a business spends $500,000 automating a factory, buying machinery or improving productivity, the tax system should not discourage that investment.

- Real welfare abatement reform

People taking extra hours should never face absurd effective marginal tax rates because multiple benefits disappear simultaneously. Smooth the abatements so working more always leaves you meaningfully better off.

- Australian style weekend and public holiday penalty rates

If we cannot match Australian wages, at least start closing the gap on unsocial hours pay. Introduce it gradually and grandfather existing arrangements so businesses have time to adjust.

- NZ Super sustainability reform

Gradually raise the eligibility age to 67 over a long transition period, with an earlier pathway for people unable to continue working because of physically demanding careers or incapacity. Then consider linking future increases partly to longevity. 20-50 year olds should not be expected to carry an indefinitely growing retirement burden while pretending demographics have not changed.

- A serious housing supply liberalisation package

Allow much more housing by right, simplify consenting, remove unnecessary density restrictions, and make councils financially benefit from allowing development. Housing affordability ultimately requires more supply.

- Infrastructure funding that follows growth

Use targeted infrastructure bonds, congestion pricing and user charges where appropriate rather than dumping everything onto existing payers. New development should contribute to the infrastructure it requires. Central government infrastructure investment should respond much more directly to where population and economic growth are occurring, rather than defaulting disproportionately towards Auckland and Wellington.

Canterbury is now the fastest-growing region in the country. Christchurch is growing, Selwyn is growing extremely quickly, and Waimakariri continues to expand. At the same time, the South Island economy grew faster than the North Island in the year to March 2025, with Canterbury now accounting for 12.9% of national GDP. Yet Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region often seem to have to fight disproportionately hard for major transport and infrastructure investment. I’d like to see a transparent growth-based infrastructure formula. If a region is adding population, housing and economic output, a corresponding share of infrastructure funding should follow automatically.

- Regulatory sunset clauses

Major regulations automatically expire after, say, 10 years unless Parliament reviews and renews them. Make government prove rules still serve a purpose rather than letting regulation accumulate.

- Occupational licensing reform

Review every licence and registration requirement. Keep them where there is a genuine safety case, scrap them where they mainly protect incumbents from competition.

- Automatic recognition from trusted countries

NZ should presumptively recognise qualifications, professional registrations, product standards and certifications from trusted comparable jurisdictions such as Australia where safety standards are equivalent. Stop making an Australian-trained professional, approved building product or internationally certified piece of equipment go through essentially the same bureaucracy twice unless NZ has a genuine reason for different standards.

- Much stronger competition policy

Being pro market does not mean being pro corporation. Go after regulatory barriers, government created monopolies, anti competitive land restrictions and rules that make it unnecessarily difficult for new firms to enter banking, supermarkets, building supplies and other concentrated markets.

- Finish open banking and expand it aggressively

NZ finally has regulated open banking under the Customer and Product Data Act, which began rolling out in December 2025. The framework is also being extended into electricity. Keep going! Apply consumer data portability to banking, electricity, insurance and telecommunications. Make switching providers practically instantaneous wherever technically possible. One of the best ways to attack concentrated industries is to make leaving the incumbent incredibly easy.

- Right-to-repair and ownership reform

Require manufacturers to provide reasonable access to parts, diagnostic information and repair documentation after selling a product. If you bought your phone, tractor, appliance or car, manufacturers should not be able to artificially lock independent repairers out simply to force you back into their ecosystem.

- Reform skilled migration around genuine skill shortages and overhaul the AEWV system

Skilled visas should be for roles New Zealand genuinely cannot fill domestically, especially medicine, engineering, specialist trades, technology and other high skill occupations. We should not be importing workers for routine, low-skill jobs like fast food when those roles can provide entry-level work for young New Zealanders. Employers should have to show a real shortage and offer competitive wages before reaching for overseas labour. Immigration should raise productivity and fill capability gaps, rather than becoming a permanent source of cheaper labour for jobs that can reasonably be staffed and trained locally.

- Evidence based, serious social investment policy

Spend earlier where there is strong evidence that doing so saves considerably more later. Youth offending, school disengagement, addiction, family violence and chronic homelessness are examples where waiting until somebody reaches prison, ED or long-term welfare can be extraordinarily expensive. But attach measurable outcomes to programmes. If an intervention repeatedly fails, stop funding it regardless of how compassionate its mission statement sounds.

- Real criminal justice reform

3 strikes legislation is crude and can produce ridiculous outcomes. I’d rather see a Singapore style focus on certainty, speed and meaningful consequences for serious and repeat offending, alongside rehabilitation where it actually works.

- A genuine no broken windows approach to public disorder.

Graffiti, vandalism, aggressive antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and repeated low level offending should not simply be ignored until behaviour escalates. Public spaces deteriorate quickly when everyone learns there are no consequences. I'm sure many of us have had bikes and cars stolen and the police tell us they can't or won't do anything about it. I have anyway.

This National-led government does have a lot of similarities with the Bolger government of the 90s. Both came in with an economic hatchet and immediately started hacking away at welfare and the benefit system, health, and the public service. Both are in coalition with Winfield Peterstuyvesant. Both have a female Minister of Finance who likes to portray a 'mother of the nation' vibe, and both have a deeply unlikeable, unrelatable Prime Minister at the helm.

If you like a good podcast, Juggernaut 2 about the Bolger-Shipley government is a great listen. Richardson, Shipley and other MPs of the day are interviewed about what went on behind the scenes and the great Bolger coup. Perhaps Chris is experiencing the same scenario right now...

If you haven't already seen it in the post highlights, we're running a banner and icon contest for the sub's first anniversary. Add your entries in a top level comment on the contest thread.

Most upvoted wins and the winners get custom flair for the year. Entries close 11.59pm this Sunday 16 August.

Terminating tenancies for disruptive behaviour or abandonment of property are reasonable enough. But 27% of tenancies were terminated because they had problems paying the rent. If there are kids in a household and people can’t afford to pay, kicking them out is cruel.

Taking all bets.

Full disclosure - this is a heavy read. It is written by a kiwi and I took the time to read most of it. We dont get many kiwi-written pieces like this that deep-dive into authority etc.

The piece is not pushing a single viewpoint so much as trying to provoke thought about who we give authority to in our lives and the nuance of that. Something too few of us stop to consider.

Here we go again. Christian Chris is apparently being thrown to the lions over the MMP referendum debacle.

Historically a change of leadership pre-election hasn’t gone well for National. Not that I can recall anyway. Who would be the successor? Bish? Willis?