TVNZ doesn't work for me in Firefox anymore

It sounds like the younger candidates are more in touch with their constituents than most, I'm certainly very tired of all the insults and bitching, and quite frankly I can't wait for this to be over.

Also,

NZ First leader Winston Peters had said the 2026 election was the worst campaign he'd ever seen, with leaders serving ice creams and patting dogs, saying it had turned into a "circus".

What a hilarious thing to be upset about.

Partial quotes from the article:

Thousands of young people will lose access to unemployment benefits due to parental income testing being brought in on Monday.

The government has ended Jobseeker payments for 18 and 19-year-olds whose parents earn a combined income of more than $67,225.

In October last year, it was estimated that about 4300 young people would become ineligible for support as a result.

The change leaves some 18 and 19-year-olds to rely on their parents for support, unless they can prove they are unable or unwilling to.

Unemployment rates are currently at an 11-year high of 5.6 percent.

Beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton told Checkpoint the cut off point of $67,225 was outrageously low.

"If that offspring was 17, you'd still be getting a family tax credit at that rate.

"When this was introduced, we thought they would at least be looking at the same income cutoffs as they do for student allowance."

The cut off for student allowance payments is currently a combined parental income of $131,670 when living at home with parents, or $141,451 if living away from parents.

With the end of the university year approaching and many students on the hunt for summer jobs, Brereton said she worries that many will be left in the lurch if they can't find work.

"I'm really worried that there's a whole lot of students, and they will look for holiday jobs. They don't all find holiday jobs, they're not necessarily living at home, they're living out there in flats, wherever the university is, and they're going to have no benefit to fall back on.

"I think a whole lot of students are on student allowance, where the cutoffs around $131,000, will be really shocked when they find out they can't get a student hardship job seeker during the holidays, [then they] can't pay their rent, they might have to move home, there might not be any room for them."

Not explicitly political, in the sense of political parties or the current election, but I thought a bit too political for other communities.

I just voted for opportunity.

I hope everyone got their registration in and that you vote.

Ohhh, that's classic. At least the Labour candidate resigned.

A short opinion piece on how neoliberalism has affected the NZ economy in the late 20th C.

Make sure you are enrolled.

You can't enroll once advance voting starts.

To vote in a general election you need to be enrolled by midnight, 13 days before Election Day.

For the 2026 General Election this means you can't enrol or update your details after midnight, 25 October 2026.

I caught the multiparty debate last night; I have to say despite the sometimes heated exchanges. Every leader came across as mostly sensible.

The clear loser (IMO) was Winston; he kept leaning on past successes and experience; it made him look old and out of touch.

Hard to pick a winner; Q obviously had a lot to do to show kiwis that Opportunity is worthy of that kingmakers spot; and she did, it was an excellent performance.

I think this is quite a nice summary of MMP

Some quotes in summary:

A Dutch environmental group claims New Zealand has broken its climate change promises in the free trade agreement with the EU and is lodging the first complaint of its kind through the European Commission.

The most extreme consequences could be losing access to the lucrative European market, but the group is seeking compliance rather than the suspension of trade benefits.

It claims New Zealand failed to uphold its legal commitments in the EU-NZ FTA not to weaken environmental protections in order to "encourage trade or investment," and to effectively implement the Paris Agreement.

But the Trade Minister is firing back, saying its "not for overseas countries, organisations or lobby groups to tell New Zealand how to meet its obligations".

An interesting project, tracking projects and their statuses.

Commercial landlords would rather keep their properties empty than accept lower rents. This policy allows councils to force an auction for a lease after a property has been vacant for over a year.

I find myself agreeing with the caping of donations at $30000 but also the public register of lobbyists is a fantastic addition. Get big influence out of our politics!

National has made a supermarket break-up a key part of its election pitch, proposing to sever Pak'nSave from New World in a bid to drive down grocery prices.

National's plan would turn the company into supermarket chains: Pak'nSave, New World/Four Square and Woolworths.

The breakup, however, would be contingent on a six-month review by the Commerce Commission into whether the split would leave shoppers better off.

Labour has promised to ban big companies from charging excessive prices, if elected.

Leader Chris Hipkins said a handful of big businesses were guilty of price gouging - that is, charging more than necessary for essential items.

The full policy includes:

• making it illegal for big companies with substantial market power to charge excessive prices for essential goods and services, or to pay unfairly low prices to suppliers
• setting a legal test for price gouging: holding prices "well above what they would otherwise be in a competitive market, sustained over time"
• requiring companies that gouge to pay penalties and hand back every dollar of excess profit
• giving the Commerce Commission power to investigate price gouging and supporting consumer groups and suppliers to do the same.

Williams said similar rules were already in place in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and Australia.

[snipped]

"I will not allow the circumstances into which I was born to determine the limits of my life. I will learn. I will work. I will lead. I will build. And I will leave something stronger for those who come after me. Koinei te rā.

"E koro, Raupatu, rest here. You have brought us this far. I will never forget you. There will be times when I reach for you again and draw strength from you. But today, let the burden fall from our shoulders."

Te Arikinui has urged Māori to look within their own whānau, and become living and breathing examples of health and wellbeing.

"Aku toa o te Rauora, now it is our turn. Maranga mai rā. Rise. Rise from poverty, from dependency, from the belief that somebody else must determine our future.

There will be successes. There will be setbacks. But we are not powerless. We are descendants of Raupatu. Now let us be champions of Rauora.

"The time has come for our pakeke to guide and strengthen a generation that is courageous, capable and ready. And the time has come to stop believing that our future sits entirely in the hands of government.

"Government has responsibilities. Those responsibilities must be honoured. But we also have responsibilities to ourselves and to those who come after us.

"We must build our own whare. Our reo, our taiao, our hauora and our pā harakeke are foundations for that future. Our Kotahitanga gives us the strength to build it together."

She acknowledged that government still had responsibilities to Māori, but said Māori also had responsibilities to themselves and those who would come after them.

I LOVE the engagement here!

The National Party is promising to reduce the compulsory student loan repayment rate if re-elected, while cracking down on overseas-based borrowers.

It said it would reduce the repayment rate from 12 percent to 10 percent from April 2027.

The party's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said compulsory student loan repayments were paid at 12 cents on every dollar earned above $24,128.

"It is often one of the biggest weekly expenses for a young graduate," she said.

''Reducing this to 10 cents means an accountant starting out in their career and earning $75,000 per year would keep an extra $39 a fortnight, or around $1000 a year.''

Tiaki Wai took over the running of Wellington’s water from Tiaki Wai in July

I hope that is a typo.

So two of them were top priorities for 3 waters? and the other should have been worked on at a national level 20 years ago

Who will lead out country to what it needs and deserves?

FFS Labour, that lasted a long time: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1116849/labour-in-no-rush-to-reveal-a-position-on-under-16s-social-media-ban

Just listen to this shit:

There's a range of different things. I mean, for 90 percent of people, nothing will happen because the social media companies can tell from your digital footprint—you've had a social media account for 20 years and you're probably old—so you'll be fine.

But then there will be a cascading range of things that they can do, predominantly to catch those people who are round about 16. And what we're seeing overseas, for the most part they're using facial recognition. That's predominantly what they're using, but then there's a load of other things that are coming on stream that they're using.

Like, you can put in your credit-card details to a third-party provider to show you've got a credit card. You can use your mobile provider's data. You can also give them your email address and they can scrape public records to see where you've put your email address. And so there's a range of different things they can do to verify that you are over 16.

We want less intrusion into our lives from social media not fucking more

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019048998/minister-stanford-on-proposed-social-media-ban

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1119269/coalition-namecalling-as-labour-backs-social-media-ban