Chris Hipkins inspirational in his acceptance. He is honest and talks of a way forward, learning from our past, not repeating it and blaming others.
I truly don’t see how Luxon et al, can turn up to disaster events knowing the impact their funding cuts have exacerbated. From state services to climate change agreements. Not to mention using such disasters to avoid Māori at Ratana!
The sooner they are gone. I truly hope the people of Aotearoa are awake, aware and vote them out of 7 November
Some same boring, I see calm and considered. His heart is in the right place, and I trust him; that'll do me for a PM with l hope lots of support from the Greens.
The trouble is TPM has almost destroyed itself. It can only be repaired in my opinion by the two leaders stepping down and letting others refresh the party. If not, it will disappear.
I stand by my statement Keith! I believe the two leaders have had their turn and need to step aside to refresh the party. I would never undermine them, I think it's a vitally important party. Sometimes I think accountability is ignored - they are not popular since recent events and I would hate to see the party go under due to that.
The contrast between Hipkins and Luxon is like black and white. Hipkins answers a question, is eloquent, considered, knowledgeable and highly intelligent. Then you have Luxon, completely out of his depth, who avoids answering questions to the point he avoids interviewers who are going to press him for answers. When he is under pressure you can watch him babble and break into a sweat. Luxon is a pretender and shouldn't be in possession of a sharp object let alone run a country.
Also, which I think is a great indicator, Chippy speaks often without notes and sometimes, as he did in QT this arvo, looking at them fleeting. Luxon is completely unable to do this. Everything he utters is scripted and he reads off it. When he hasn't got his notes he's gets flustered and repeats his gobbley gook waiting for a prompt from his earpiece. I think it's a real indication of how inauthentic the man is.
Agreed...any time I have seen Chippy speak, he knows his stuff. the bald one doesn't have a clue, just word salad and meaningless platitudes..."a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,. Signifying nothing."
Thanks Nick. It was a good interview ; calm, measured, empathetic, no babble. I'm not sure about the FTA : not because of immigration but because of all the things we don't know. Ordinary NZers are yet to see the full text but it It has to go to select committee, so we will see. I think the biggest danger facing NZ atm is NZ First with Winston gone full cuckoo. I don't know why people turn to him when they want a change of government. I would like to understand better. But we need to call him out in all of our networks. I've had enough of this man who has infested politics in NZ and betrayed working people for 40 years! Parliament will be a bore today with PM's statement. Hope Q time livens things up. Also Brooke van Velden's awful Employment Relations Amendment Bill is no 3 on the order paper, so it will probably come up this week.
We watched the speeches today. Rawiri, Chloe, Marama and Chippy were roundly applauded in this house. Luxon is still in 2023 campaign mode, ( he’s still going on about 7% inflation from way back when), Winston said nothing relevant or even remotely interesting. Seymour got turned off before the TV suffered terminal damage. It’s going to be a very interesting year.
The great hope for me is that the next government will get to blame the previous one for all the woes of our country. Roll on Nov 7!
I also noticed that while Luxo was boasting so loudly and proudly about how his government had made gangs throw away their patches, there were three rows of National MP’s sitting around and behind him, dressed in blue suits. Isn’t that sort of insignia illegal now, or is it so that we, the public, can identify them readily, know they’re dangerous and should avoid them by all means before they inflict any harm, damage or misery upon us?
Thanks for the heads up CEO man! I’ll run whenever I see one of you!
Chippy makes me feel proud and LuxCon makes me shrink with embarrassment. My main concern going into elections is the aiding and abetting of the media for National. We've already seen how Nats/Coc get away with no accountability for anything. It's only going to get alot worse. The latest poll out today has the Coc still ahead! I shake my head as to how that can be! Are people really so stupid!
Sadly I feel some people are that stupid - they get sucked in by the constant lies and babble. Hard to understand really. But if you use the health system i.e. hospitals you tend to get the point that National does nothing.
Remember to check the don't know/won't answer. That is over 7% in latest poll. Imo those are the voters who hold power. If a majority of those swing left, we have a change. The poll is therefore pretty meaningless.
Thank you for saving me the task of watching breakfast tv. The new poll is a concern. TPM could do with some strong representation now and the Greens seem to be fading a bit. Let’s hope Labour can manage.
Agree re managing to avoid breakfast tv, thank you for the summary, Nick. I did , however, listen to his weekly media on rnz this morning, and equally impressed by his measured and well informed responses and carefully articulated opinions. Dann drove me to distraction with his persistence in attempting to back Hipkins into a corner re coalition negotiations and potential partners with the usual focus on the need for NZF in order to take the government benches, as some in the media see it. Hipkins did not take the bait and pushed back firmly, without rejecting any - hopefully for many thinking listeners, Dann merely reinforced the need for either a strong labour vote, or greens if that best suits values, and I thank him for that!
I see a lot of criticism of Chippy on Bluesky, and I wonder about the motivation of some of the commentators. It wouldn't be beyond rightwing forces in New Zealand to plant supposed left commenters to introduce doubt and confusion. Paranoid, me?
We live in an age of lies, deception and scaremongering. It’s obvious the Nats are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions, rather like a certain other leader who believes he can do no wrong.
Would much rather have a mature and caring for others PM than the one we currently have. This also includes his DPs. We do not need a leader so focussed on his own image as to mirror the one now running the "free world." The Atlas Network is writ large so beware the ides of November.
Hipkins has improved enormously in confidence and how he presents in speeches and media interviews. Far from boring - a popular myth among those who think bombastic rhetoric (such as we get from Winston Peters who models himself off Trump) is indicative of strength - he speaks intelligently, logically and he has an impressive grasp of the topics under discussion.
May I also use this forum to recommend an excellent podcast "Cross Party Lines". Two of NZ's most competent and experienced ex-politicians, Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson do a weekly podcast discussing the issues of the week. Their contributions are accurate and measured - albeit not so measured on some subjects particularly from Chris Finlayson who I can advise doesn't like Winston Peters and his flock of "neanderthal numpties". Very entertaining.
Here is the latest podcast which includes Nick's subject matter plus Climate Change, the events at Davos and the recent ICE activities in Minnesota.
Yes to "Cross Party Lines", it's great listening and I think Chris Findlayson is delightfully showing his true colours! I always thought he was a pedant but he is exceedingly entertaining!
Agree but I’d still like Hipkins to really emphasis Climate change more like how the coalition have actually put policies in that have back tracked on lowing emissions and most shamefully dismissed all recommendations from Climate change commission. As you noted make sure he rattles off relentlessly every fact about how this govt has failed and give some facts that Labour did NOT leave a wrecked economy.
Totally agree - was thinking this earlier - some of the mitigations, small as they were, might well have been the start of a larger policy and maybe, just slow some of this down just a little. I'm mad with them all on this tbh, including the Greens - where are they?
Chris Hipkins has shown and continues to show what real leadership looks like with his well considered, empathetic and straight up answers.
While there are people who think he lacks mongrel and his boring, he's a shitload more on to it that the imbecile that is Christopher Luxon who as you have rightly pointed out is all about me, me, me.
Christopher Luxon has looked like a stunned mullet throughout the whole episode of tragic events which have left our country in mourning, despair for many, and devastation. He has done nothing to suggest he has any real interest in the actual issue, but more about how this is going to affect the Holy Economy.
Nicola no compassion has now accused Chippy of “politicising” the Mount Maunganui tragedy, when, had she not cut all funding to Labour’s $6 billion resilience fund, founded after Cyclone Gabrielle and Kaikōura’s earthquake laid waste to communities needing assistance to recover, apparently just because she could, many lives could have possibly been saved.
The blank look on Luxo’s face could also be because he has suddenly realised he has to take the responsibility to break Nicola the news that she is to be dismissed for yet another failure on her “fiscal responsibility record”. Perhaps the “”Reset” could ride off together into the sunset as the “Upset”? We dearly need this farcical Coalition of Calamitous Clowns erased from the history and minds of our country. Sooner the better!
Meanwhile, Chippy acts and speaks like someone who is ready to take over and bring us back to reality, not fanciful pipe dreams the likes of which Bishop and Simeon impose on a now divided and mostly disbelieving public.
Thanks for the good read Nick, I think Chippy is finally coming into his own, Jacinda was a very hard act to follow and Chippy has plodded along and shown us that he has the maturity and nounce to lead us in regaining our stance as a strong independent little country that doesn't have to brown nose every old dictator in the world to survive. It's just a shame that the Greens and Te Pati Maori haven't got their acts together. I get where the Greens have been coming from but they have to pull back on the radicalism and get back to the basics, people don't want radical attitudes, they want the basics done well. As for Te Pati Maori, it's a family affair and until the family is removed from their positions of power and they have a democratically elected leadership there will be no policies of substance. There's no way in hell I'd support a party that wants to get rid of prisons, I believe prisoners need rehabilitation and help in transitioning back into society, but they also need to be punished for the crimes they commit.
The Greens aren't "radical" per se, and if the status quo isn't showing it is dysfunctional enough to need change I don't know if we will ever see it! And although some dream otherwise of them being THE govt, most people want the Greens to be in coalition to open pathways to better policies on the climate crisis, protecting our ecology etc etc & understand that a Labour led govt will NOT adopt what you & other see as "radical" economic ideas (many of which incidentally have been successfully implemented elsewhere 🤷) Not a Greens apologist - I have voted for most parties in the past (NEVER ACT or NZLast 🤮) and Greens always impress as having people & the planet at the centre of policy, unlike some others 🤔
I'm a Greens fan, and I want them back in Government with Labour, because they do make a difference and they do make Labour step out of their box. I was thinking about their response to Gaza and Israel, I should have put Passionate, because it was their passion for human rights that made us overlook the reaction of the fanatics that are anti-Israel, re: the shooting of the innocent Israelis in Australia. For every passionate Gaza supporter there will be 1 or more fanatics who will take their passion of hatred a step further and it's a wake up call for all of us to remember that. I hope that makes sense.
🙋 I'm usually impressed by Chris Hipkins - he wasn't PM for very long but in that time showed a firm grip on any MP who misbehaved etc, unlike the pretend-PM who lets this lot say & do anything without consequences. That is PART of being a leader, as well as being articulate, good grasp of subject matter on multiple policies, and above all ethical & empathetic. If that's "boring" give me boring every day 🥳
I'm not worried about the polls - as we have noted here & elsewhere the non-independent media are neither unbiased, nor doing much investigating or fact checking these days BUT nearer election they HAVE to give balanced time to parties, plus the Greens always surge in those days - however, a good reminder not to be complacent & encourage everyone we know to check they are at least registered to vote well in advance.
Spot on Nick, good government is about people and the needs of the population and those needs are present consistently and continually - disasters and all. If Willis money tree (or Fiat money) falls over in a slip, its a bit late to Ban it happening! Just as 'back on track' has no specific meaning it is obvious that 'back to basics' equally has no meaning - Looking behind will not address future problems. While the 'rich and sorted' are fully focused on 'interest in self' the 80% of us not in that category will happily focus on humanity.
Oh dear, Breakfast TV. Your patience is appreciated Nick. Where is the kind cut-throat journalism I hanker for on TV any more? Was it ever there? Wanna move to the telly Nick?
Beautifully written as always Nick.
Chris Hipkins inspirational in his acceptance. He is honest and talks of a way forward, learning from our past, not repeating it and blaming others.
I truly don’t see how Luxon et al, can turn up to disaster events knowing the impact their funding cuts have exacerbated. From state services to climate change agreements. Not to mention using such disasters to avoid Māori at Ratana!
The sooner they are gone. I truly hope the people of Aotearoa are awake, aware and vote them out of 7 November
Happy days everyone 😀
Thanks Nik for you comprehensive review.
I came across someone criticizing Hipkins for being "boring"
How can continuing to point out COC's failing be anything but boring. Boring is good if it's honest.. It's ignoring the facts that's alarming.
I'd rather be bored
Some same boring, I see calm and considered. His heart is in the right place, and I trust him; that'll do me for a PM with l hope lots of support from the Greens.
And a focused TPM
The trouble is TPM has almost destroyed itself. It can only be repaired in my opinion by the two leaders stepping down and letting others refresh the party. If not, it will disappear.
The left need those 6-7 seats so we can’t allow it to disappear, how TPM fixes itself is up to TPM but our mission is not to undermine them
I stand by my statement Keith! I believe the two leaders have had their turn and need to step aside to refresh the party. I would never undermine them, I think it's a vitally important party. Sometimes I think accountability is ignored - they are not popular since recent events and I would hate to see the party go under due to that.
Exactly!
Calm, measured, thoughtful, intelligent, thats what we need.
Thank you Nick for a brilliant write. Nga mihi nui.
The contrast between Hipkins and Luxon is like black and white. Hipkins answers a question, is eloquent, considered, knowledgeable and highly intelligent. Then you have Luxon, completely out of his depth, who avoids answering questions to the point he avoids interviewers who are going to press him for answers. When he is under pressure you can watch him babble and break into a sweat. Luxon is a pretender and shouldn't be in possession of a sharp object let alone run a country.
Also, which I think is a great indicator, Chippy speaks often without notes and sometimes, as he did in QT this arvo, looking at them fleeting. Luxon is completely unable to do this. Everything he utters is scripted and he reads off it. When he hasn't got his notes he's gets flustered and repeats his gobbley gook waiting for a prompt from his earpiece. I think it's a real indication of how inauthentic the man is.
Agreed...any time I have seen Chippy speak, he knows his stuff. the bald one doesn't have a clue, just word salad and meaningless platitudes..."a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,. Signifying nothing."
absolutely agree. Well said. You've got it right.
Exactly Judgey.
Each time I hear Hipkins I hear a great communicator & a future PM speaking.
In contrast I'd say Luxon is the Great Pretender but 'Great' & 'Luxon' are mutually exclusive.. so a pretender he is & always will be
Thanks Nick. It was a good interview ; calm, measured, empathetic, no babble. I'm not sure about the FTA : not because of immigration but because of all the things we don't know. Ordinary NZers are yet to see the full text but it It has to go to select committee, so we will see. I think the biggest danger facing NZ atm is NZ First with Winston gone full cuckoo. I don't know why people turn to him when they want a change of government. I would like to understand better. But we need to call him out in all of our networks. I've had enough of this man who has infested politics in NZ and betrayed working people for 40 years! Parliament will be a bore today with PM's statement. Hope Q time livens things up. Also Brooke van Velden's awful Employment Relations Amendment Bill is no 3 on the order paper, so it will probably come up this week.
No Oral questions today.
We watched the speeches today. Rawiri, Chloe, Marama and Chippy were roundly applauded in this house. Luxon is still in 2023 campaign mode, ( he’s still going on about 7% inflation from way back when), Winston said nothing relevant or even remotely interesting. Seymour got turned off before the TV suffered terminal damage. It’s going to be a very interesting year.
The great hope for me is that the next government will get to blame the previous one for all the woes of our country. Roll on Nov 7!
I also noticed that while Luxo was boasting so loudly and proudly about how his government had made gangs throw away their patches, there were three rows of National MP’s sitting around and behind him, dressed in blue suits. Isn’t that sort of insignia illegal now, or is it so that we, the public, can identify them readily, know they’re dangerous and should avoid them by all means before they inflict any harm, damage or misery upon us?
Thanks for the heads up CEO man! I’ll run whenever I see one of you!
Chippy makes me feel proud and LuxCon makes me shrink with embarrassment. My main concern going into elections is the aiding and abetting of the media for National. We've already seen how Nats/Coc get away with no accountability for anything. It's only going to get alot worse. The latest poll out today has the Coc still ahead! I shake my head as to how that can be! Are people really so stupid!
Sadly I feel some people are that stupid - they get sucked in by the constant lies and babble. Hard to understand really. But if you use the health system i.e. hospitals you tend to get the point that National does nothing.
It’s beyond comprehension. I can only conclude that there are a lot of extremely selfish people out there.
yes they seem to not see beyond their own noses.
Remember to check the don't know/won't answer. That is over 7% in latest poll. Imo those are the voters who hold power. If a majority of those swing left, we have a change. The poll is therefore pretty meaningless.
Thank you for saving me the task of watching breakfast tv. The new poll is a concern. TPM could do with some strong representation now and the Greens seem to be fading a bit. Let’s hope Labour can manage.
Agree re managing to avoid breakfast tv, thank you for the summary, Nick. I did , however, listen to his weekly media on rnz this morning, and equally impressed by his measured and well informed responses and carefully articulated opinions. Dann drove me to distraction with his persistence in attempting to back Hipkins into a corner re coalition negotiations and potential partners with the usual focus on the need for NZF in order to take the government benches, as some in the media see it. Hipkins did not take the bait and pushed back firmly, without rejecting any - hopefully for many thinking listeners, Dann merely reinforced the need for either a strong labour vote, or greens if that best suits values, and I thank him for that!
I see a lot of criticism of Chippy on Bluesky, and I wonder about the motivation of some of the commentators. It wouldn't be beyond rightwing forces in New Zealand to plant supposed left commenters to introduce doubt and confusion. Paranoid, me?
We live in an age of lies, deception and scaremongering. It’s obvious the Nats are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions, rather like a certain other leader who believes he can do no wrong.
Would much rather have a mature and caring for others PM than the one we currently have. This also includes his DPs. We do not need a leader so focussed on his own image as to mirror the one now running the "free world." The Atlas Network is writ large so beware the ides of November.
And the NZF connection with Farage and the reform party is also looming large at present.
Farage is a dangerous politician who has been disastrous for Britain with his Brexit propaganda that led to the leave vote.
Hipkins has improved enormously in confidence and how he presents in speeches and media interviews. Far from boring - a popular myth among those who think bombastic rhetoric (such as we get from Winston Peters who models himself off Trump) is indicative of strength - he speaks intelligently, logically and he has an impressive grasp of the topics under discussion.
May I also use this forum to recommend an excellent podcast "Cross Party Lines". Two of NZ's most competent and experienced ex-politicians, Phil Goff and Chris Finlayson do a weekly podcast discussing the issues of the week. Their contributions are accurate and measured - albeit not so measured on some subjects particularly from Chris Finlayson who I can advise doesn't like Winston Peters and his flock of "neanderthal numpties". Very entertaining.
Here is the latest podcast which includes Nick's subject matter plus Climate Change, the events at Davos and the recent ICE activities in Minnesota.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka0vi7Z4aL8
Yes to "Cross Party Lines", it's great listening and I think Chris Findlayson is delightfully showing his true colours! I always thought he was a pedant but he is exceedingly entertaining!
Agree but I’d still like Hipkins to really emphasis Climate change more like how the coalition have actually put policies in that have back tracked on lowing emissions and most shamefully dismissed all recommendations from Climate change commission. As you noted make sure he rattles off relentlessly every fact about how this govt has failed and give some facts that Labour did NOT leave a wrecked economy.
Totally agree - was thinking this earlier - some of the mitigations, small as they were, might well have been the start of a larger policy and maybe, just slow some of this down just a little. I'm mad with them all on this tbh, including the Greens - where are they?
Chris Hipkins has shown and continues to show what real leadership looks like with his well considered, empathetic and straight up answers.
While there are people who think he lacks mongrel and his boring, he's a shitload more on to it that the imbecile that is Christopher Luxon who as you have rightly pointed out is all about me, me, me.
Another great newsletter Nick.
Have a great day.
Christopher Luxon has looked like a stunned mullet throughout the whole episode of tragic events which have left our country in mourning, despair for many, and devastation. He has done nothing to suggest he has any real interest in the actual issue, but more about how this is going to affect the Holy Economy.
Nicola no compassion has now accused Chippy of “politicising” the Mount Maunganui tragedy, when, had she not cut all funding to Labour’s $6 billion resilience fund, founded after Cyclone Gabrielle and Kaikōura’s earthquake laid waste to communities needing assistance to recover, apparently just because she could, many lives could have possibly been saved.
The blank look on Luxo’s face could also be because he has suddenly realised he has to take the responsibility to break Nicola the news that she is to be dismissed for yet another failure on her “fiscal responsibility record”. Perhaps the “”Reset” could ride off together into the sunset as the “Upset”? We dearly need this farcical Coalition of Calamitous Clowns erased from the history and minds of our country. Sooner the better!
Meanwhile, Chippy acts and speaks like someone who is ready to take over and bring us back to reality, not fanciful pipe dreams the likes of which Bishop and Simeon impose on a now divided and mostly disbelieving public.
Yes, Nicola,” Game On!!!”
Thanks for the good read Nick, I think Chippy is finally coming into his own, Jacinda was a very hard act to follow and Chippy has plodded along and shown us that he has the maturity and nounce to lead us in regaining our stance as a strong independent little country that doesn't have to brown nose every old dictator in the world to survive. It's just a shame that the Greens and Te Pati Maori haven't got their acts together. I get where the Greens have been coming from but they have to pull back on the radicalism and get back to the basics, people don't want radical attitudes, they want the basics done well. As for Te Pati Maori, it's a family affair and until the family is removed from their positions of power and they have a democratically elected leadership there will be no policies of substance. There's no way in hell I'd support a party that wants to get rid of prisons, I believe prisoners need rehabilitation and help in transitioning back into society, but they also need to be punished for the crimes they commit.
The Greens aren't "radical" per se, and if the status quo isn't showing it is dysfunctional enough to need change I don't know if we will ever see it! And although some dream otherwise of them being THE govt, most people want the Greens to be in coalition to open pathways to better policies on the climate crisis, protecting our ecology etc etc & understand that a Labour led govt will NOT adopt what you & other see as "radical" economic ideas (many of which incidentally have been successfully implemented elsewhere 🤷) Not a Greens apologist - I have voted for most parties in the past (NEVER ACT or NZLast 🤮) and Greens always impress as having people & the planet at the centre of policy, unlike some others 🤔
I'm a Greens fan, and I want them back in Government with Labour, because they do make a difference and they do make Labour step out of their box. I was thinking about their response to Gaza and Israel, I should have put Passionate, because it was their passion for human rights that made us overlook the reaction of the fanatics that are anti-Israel, re: the shooting of the innocent Israelis in Australia. For every passionate Gaza supporter there will be 1 or more fanatics who will take their passion of hatred a step further and it's a wake up call for all of us to remember that. I hope that makes sense.
I don't think the Greens are radical enough.
🙋 I'm usually impressed by Chris Hipkins - he wasn't PM for very long but in that time showed a firm grip on any MP who misbehaved etc, unlike the pretend-PM who lets this lot say & do anything without consequences. That is PART of being a leader, as well as being articulate, good grasp of subject matter on multiple policies, and above all ethical & empathetic. If that's "boring" give me boring every day 🥳
I'm not worried about the polls - as we have noted here & elsewhere the non-independent media are neither unbiased, nor doing much investigating or fact checking these days BUT nearer election they HAVE to give balanced time to parties, plus the Greens always surge in those days - however, a good reminder not to be complacent & encourage everyone we know to check they are at least registered to vote well in advance.
Spot on Nick, good government is about people and the needs of the population and those needs are present consistently and continually - disasters and all. If Willis money tree (or Fiat money) falls over in a slip, its a bit late to Ban it happening! Just as 'back on track' has no specific meaning it is obvious that 'back to basics' equally has no meaning - Looking behind will not address future problems. While the 'rich and sorted' are fully focused on 'interest in self' the 80% of us not in that category will happily focus on humanity.
Thanks for this. Hipkins always speaks well, gets it right.
Oh dear, Breakfast TV. Your patience is appreciated Nick. Where is the kind cut-throat journalism I hanker for on TV any more? Was it ever there? Wanna move to the telly Nick?