madness

First principles thinking - second order effects.

[Cautionary Theorist @fr33k1w1]

Meet the new Jacinda Ardern. Same as the old Jacinda Ardern.

[Ani O'Brien @aniobrien]

Labour’s election strategy appears to be whatever lazy idea looks good in a press release. “Free” ain’t really free, guys.

[madness @Wemustthinknow]

@matt_horncastle Top Party

[Matthew Horncastle @matt_horncastle]

I just had to.
Just to prove how silly this is.

[madness @Wemustthinknow]

@theplatform_nz Fair play to them

[Sean Plunket @SeanPlunket]

Who needs a regulator when media do the right thing?

[Simeon Brown @SimeonBrownMP]

More misinformation.

Under National:

➡️ Record funding into health.

➡️ Around 2,000 more nurses.

➡️ Hundreds more doctors.

➡️ Waitlists coming down.

➡️ Shorter stays in emergency department.

➡️ Faster cancer treatment, with 33 new cancer medicines.

➡️ Shorter wait times for elective surgery.

➡️ Shorter wait times for first specialist assessments.

➡️ Improved immunisation rates.

➡️ Started construction on the Waikato Medical School.

➡️ Boosted funding for ambulances.

➡️ Record funding for GP clinics.

The list goes on.

Labour has run out of ideas, so they’ve turned to misinformation instead.

Kiwis won’t be fooled by empty slogans and they remember the skyrocketing waitlists Labour left behind last time.

[Simeon Brown @SimeonBrownMP]

Labour’s policies are full of secrets. Here’s what isn’t.

Our state owned enterprises returned $680 million to the Crown last year. That money pays for schools, hospitals, roads and police.

Chris Hipkins wants to divert that money into his so-called Future Fund, handing it over to tech bros instead.

But he refuses to say which public services he’ll cut, how many new taxes he’ll slam on Kiwis, or how much more he’ll borrow to make up the shortfall.

Chris Hipkins needs to be honest with New Zealanders.

[Simeon Brown @SimeonBrownMP]

Labour is hiding a $3b fiscal hole and is blaming the Treaty.

In an extraordinary move, Labour has pivoted from blaming ‘market sensitivities’ for not saying which state-owned companies will be in their Future Fund to blaming the Treaty instead.

This is a new frontier from Labour in their efforts to not come up with policy. In the history of New Zealand politics, there has never been an opposition so unwilling to have any ideas that the Treaty of Waitangi has been blamed for not having done basic costings.

The more likely explanation is Labour has worked out they have a multi-billion-dollar fiscal hole and can’t explain how it would fill it without higher taxes or more debt.

Chris Hipkins knows he has two choices: come clean with New Zealanders about Labour’s secret tax plans or hide from the problem altogether until after the election - and it’s clear he has chosen the latter.

Labour’s Future Fund relies on diverting dividends from state-owned enterprises into the fund. Those dividends currently help pay for frontline public services like schools and hospitals.

That means Labour would need to replace up to $3 billion in lost revenue over the next four years - money that can only come from higher taxes, more borrowing, or cuts elsewhere.

It has been more than 200 days since Labour announced the Future Fund, and Chris Hipkins cannot explain the most basic detail – how much will it cost, which SOEs are involved, and how will Labour pay for it?

[New Zealand Taxpayers' Union @TaxpayersUnion]

The "logic" of Labour's economics:

[Simeon Brown @SimeonBrownMP]

Chris Hipkins has just told New Zealanders that Labour will scrap the country’s energy backstop and reinstate the ban on oil and gas exploration.

You have to ask, does Labour’s energy policy come with a free can opener? Because if Hipkins gets his way, Kiwi families will be eating cold spaghetti from a can, in the dark.

Labour’s plan to keep the lights on and power bills down? You’re looking at it.

Just hope. Hope that it rains.

But when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, and the lakes are low, we need a backup. You can’t run a country on wishful thinking.

New Zealand needs renewables and a reliable backstop, so every household has secure, affordable power, and so we can protect the jobs Kiwis work so hard at.

[Matthew Horncastle @matt_horncastle]

Christchurch airport and port should be listed on the NZX.
They should not be owned by council.
We need to put our foot down with these people running little empires with our rates.

[madness @Wemustthinknow]

@TheRabbitHole @elonmusk this you??

[Matthew Horncastle @matt_horncastle]

Any law that mentions race is a bad law.
Maori should have the same rights as everyone else.

[Kangmin Lee | 이강민 @kangminlee]

Greece should sue Christopher Nolan like Egypt sued Netflix

[No room for wokeness! @Wokenessisevil]

Make Movies Great Again!

[Ani O'Brien @aniobrien]

Another Chris Hipkins speech, another vague managerial TED Talk trying to be a vision for NZ. Plenty of buzzwords about “growth”, “delivery” and “unlocking Auckland’s potential” but remarkably little actual policy. Beyond a targeted CGT, what exactly is Labour offering voters in 2026 besides aspirations and PowerPoint language?
https://t.co/LuJkQMjkdq

[Matthew Horncastle @matt_horncastle]

Never forget Jacinda Ardern took on $100b of debt for New Zealand then left for Australia.
She hates you and wants you to be poor.
As long as she is rich she has no care for your wellbeing.

[Simeon Brown @SimeonBrownMP]

The Labour Party is so devoid of ideas that it cannot form a position on Chris Hipkins’ own Fees Free policy.

Fees Free was an expensive failed experiment, funded by hardworking Kiwi taxpayers.

When Chris Hipkins introduced Fees Free in 2018, he promised it would increase tertiary participation and help more students from disadvantaged backgrounds into study. Instead, taxpayers spent nearly $2 billion on a policy that failed to deliver either outcome.

Even when the evidence shows a policy is failing, Labour still cannot bring itself to walk away from wasteful spending.

It could not be clearer that Labour has not learnt a thing and continue to see Kiwi taxpayers as bottomless ATMs.

Fees Free was a policy Chris Hipkins led, implemented, and championed in government. The fact he cannot say whether he supports it today is deeply embarrassing.

It is hard to find a track record as perfect at illustrating Labour’s failure to deliver for New Zealanders than Chris Hipkins’ time as education minister. His management of our schools led to plunging achievement and soaring levels of truancy, while his management of the Polytech sector became an expensive mess.

Not content with not delivering in government, Chris Hipkins has taken to not delivering in opposition – unable to even deliver a position on a policy he himself introduced.

[madness @Wemustthinknow]

@NZNationalParty Nice