The advent of alternative media is not recent in New Zealand and we have seen its current presence to the extent we see overseas only since the 2020 Election. We draw a distinction with new media that is a consequence of changes brought about by technology and adequately represented by the recent launch of a database radio channel, Reality Check Radio.
It is not lost on our major political parties, that following the loss of faith in the NZ mainstream, audience attention is drifting towards new sources of information beyond that which can be dismissed as misinformation from citizen journalists.
As pictured above ‘the need to connect’ with the new industry audience and potential voters has not escaped the realm of gaining political momentum in major parties either.
Minor platforms welcome the attention and the boost to their potential.
What neither the interviewer or the guest are immediately aware of is that they are replicating the outcomes of activist media.
Looking back to this post about David Seymour being “set up” as some would say by activist media outlet Counterspin we see how alternative audiences quickly become aware of this spectacle and can form a groundswell opinion giving more potential to growth in what the major parties call the wasted 5% vote
The subject matter mentioned above the picture is essentially the reason for the interview but otherwise immaterial to this discussion.
Other questions are asked, in this interview to give a more balanced view.
Without bringing another discussion into this post one asks why Luxon would see Defence spending as commendable (and not that it isn’t) when the budget covertly decreases police spending, not only in real terms but by continuing to compromise operational independence.
This interview will leave more questions hanging over Luxon’s head while National’s shadow police spokesman Mark Mitchell was busy in Parliament yesterday explaining how we’ve found ourselves with another incompetent police minister appointed by Hipkins.
I’m not taking sides here in respect of either polical party, but I am pointing out the consequences for police and their ongoing effectiveness when this is happening in the political leadership of our two main parties.
The media model we see now in competition with what’s left of Adern’s “Central Source of Information” as it was historically called shows how political leaders become vulnerable to their own incompetence.
That’s the public benefit, including for those who work in the public service, as opposed to protecting political incompetence through a propaganda system of media control.
Chris v Chris sounds like a comedy court case where at least one party is Chris P Bacon.
It’s typical of this time in the election cycle for the government to have a crack at the leader of the Opposition.
Simon Bridges (now with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce) who appeared in this morning’s financial debate lost his prime ministerial future in similar circumstances last election when he was ousted as Opposition Leader.
NZ PM Chris Hipkins should be suffering from his predecessor’s legacy of failure that saw Jacinda Ardern make a manufactured face-saving exit from parliament following a shock announcement in January.
Chippy as he is affectionately known, while he struggles from crisis to crisis is getting credit at least for most improved player and probably some sympathy for the stunt Te Pāti Māori pulled during the King’s Coronation.
Not everyone warms to the politics of politics and the stumbling man child hasn’t needed to do much to impress while Chris Luxon gifts the gaffes of Leader of the Opposition.
Integrity plays a big part in politics even if at times we view politicians to be the most unprincipled and despised to walk among us and where Luxon has made himself so contemptuously vulnerable.
That doesn’t mean he is incapable of being a prime minister and managing a successful executive but it does make it harder to get there – the public is more forgiving of government failure than personal failure.
That’s the same bar that voters hold prospective coalition partners to – is this leader a prime minister in waiting and with the change in circumstances this election we do have a different contest.
And it is a very different election year with a new political party, DemocracyNZ led by former National Party MP for Northland, Matt King making an appearance in National media over the last week along with another Northland contestant, Shane Jones.
And since Winston Peters is heading towards 80 years of age and easily the oldest NZ politician hanging around parliament the former Labour MP could easy be the next NZ First Leader at any time and take the party in a different direction.
Jones, like National leader Chris Luxon has indicated that he is not interested in the antics of Te Pāti Māori but let’s go back to the first MMP election when the National Party agreed to create a special position of Treasurer for Winston Peters as opposed to Jim Bolger’s deputy – Jones is campaigning in Northland as we saw on Q and A this weekend on a platform of more money for Northland, along the lines of his 2020 Provincial Growth Fund.
Like former prime minister, Sir John Key, Chris Luxon is a hand picked, shoulder tapped ring in for prime minister rather than a contender who survived the dog fight on the way up the hill.
The dogged contender is more in the vein of the boy from the Hutt come good as we see Chris Hipkins and what isolates Chris Luxon from the pack and what made his most recent gaffe so significant.
It’s actually Luxon and Seymour that are ones trying to escape their lack of action during the covid rollout. Many voters now see Labour’s change of direction as a clear indication Ardern got it wrong but the dark days of Labour are gone.
Even though National aren’t likely to change their leader on this basis the pr team will be hoping his mouth doesn’t lead to more work for them.
What was probably point scoring policy rather than practical policy lead to this Tik Tok pointing out Luxon’s contemptuous arrogance and his hypocrisy.
Once we see what the minor parties are made of National may have to look deeper into their leader chest to compete with some of the minor players.
Luxon may still go if his integrity is viewed of a standard below the somewhat more humble crowd that look more like Hipkins.
But don’t think the crystal clarity ends there. We will see some interesting new candidates this election who will provide electorate choices beyond those normally available to the public and who could provide a multitude of election surprises once the voters turn their attention to this very different election later in the year.
A long four months to go yet, and Napier Dentist Martin Langford is just one of many who may be a surprise outcome.
This year is a very different election year for many reasons, two of which are …
The alternative media we’ve seen grow out of the contention of Election 2020
Voters who may take a more principled approach and ignore the election bribes.
In living memory the most comparable period to our own is the early 1990s. Where a National government led by Jim Bolger dealt with the aftermath of Rogernomics
Considering a strong economy against the essential spends of health/education and the maintenance of law and order makes this a critical budget for Labour’s election year and the Opposition’s alternative in extraordinary circumstances.
Whether this is a good budget depends on your starting position.
Economists are warning that a lack of urgency around overdue education reform will impact future economies.
The health spend has been challenged by significant recent media ahead of the budget while the sector continues to fight Ardern’s mandates and Andrew Little’s centralisation.
While this year is an extraordinary period to reflect on the country has never been confronted by the magnitude of the law and order issues we see before us now.
Should that be the starting point?
The restructuring and recapitalization of a police department that has failed to keep pace with rising crime.
In a similar manner to education we’ve seen ideological policy pushed ahead of rational responses and therefore questionable expenditure.
That has been the folly of previous budgets. While the numbers are important and what goes to each area of expenditure important, it is policy within these departments specifically that is the greater concern when we look at the abberant allocation of expenditure.
The police have not been immune to this situation
Budgets become an inconsequential exercise when we haven’t bothered to take stock of the final destination of allocations.
When all the media hype swirls around competing politicians rather than our own realities and the outcomes we are not budgeting at all, we are funding failure.
The bottom line here is whether or not the current budget encourages a lawful environment that allows health, education and an economy to succeed.
In a smaller version of our own Samoa admitted to similar challenges this week and that should make clear to us that New Zealand is sitting between a third world success and a first world failure.
ACT hasn’t been slow to campaign on this principle, seem here in Tamaki, an Auckland electorate neighbouring David Seymour’s Epsom and one of only two electorates in which ACT will have a candidate campaign.
Police Budget Allocation – the overall trend is:
Between 2023/24 and 2026/27, Departmental appropriations will decrease by $127.627 million (5.1%).
Activist media platform, Counterspin, also responsible for filming Marama Davidson’s racist rant has circulated a video of ACT Leader David Seymour caught off guard whilst campaigning in his Epsom electorate.
A video circulating today saw Seymour questioned about his mandate position that affected the human rights of Kiwis during the covid rollout.
Seymour may now be regretting not having resisted the temptation to respond in the contemptuous way he did.
Others were quick to pick up on the single line, “No one cares about you, mate.” which no doubt gave context to his thinking and support of the collective agreement between parties in Parliament and for not talking to protestors.
The above meme is an ACT add that has been altered and circulated on social media.
Seymour may even be apologising to the party for the damage done by his loose lips.
One would doubt he is apologising for the comment itself which is consistent with his mandate position and oddly enough a position he has spent the last few weeks trying to excuse himself from.
Some might say unfairly trapped but given the extent to which Seymour has tried to excuse himself from the collective agreement one also might agree he brought the attention on himself.
The promotion of Willow-Jean Prime to the vacant 20th spot at the cabinet table not only gave “equality” to the cabinet table but opened the door to some interesting electorate battles.
Northland aside, which is always a complicated discussion and as Sean Plunket puts it “Māori politics does my head in” so who knows what might happen there, especially if Labour does another stand aside for NZ First.
Another contest heating up in the North Island Heartland is for the Taranaki-King Country electorate currently held by National’s Barbara Kuriger, looking for a fourth term as their MP.
Kuriger was previously part of the Farmers’ stronghold in National but if she is lucky enough to be returned to parliament she may be one of only two farmer mps left in National, neither of whom hold the agricultural portfolios.
Kuriger after being demoted has worked her way back from a lengthy conflict-of-interest inquiry, and into the Conservation Portfolio which she currently campaigns around rather than farming.
Angela Roberts (Labour) and Lee Smith (DemocracyNZ)
Labour List MP and Teacher’s Union representative Angela Roberts hasn’t posed any threat to Kuriger in what is one of the country’s largest provincial electorates made up of farming families and a string of rural service centres stretching from Hamilton in the north to New Plymouth in the south.
Roberts brings with her a reputation for being rude and aggressive in campaigns and coincidentally the former ACT candidate is understood to have said privately that he’s not particularly interested in getting involved in this year’s campaign.
The dark horse here is DemocracyNZ candidate, Lee Smith. Born and raised in Taranaki and a former farmer with a local business career spanning some 25 years, managed alongside her family of six children.
Lee Smith, who has an established popularity in her Taranaki-King Country electorate, also brings with her a passion for education reform and is the education spokeperson for DemocracyNZ.
Smith launched her campaign back in September last year and is not a would-be-if-I’m-lucky candidate like the majority on minor party hopefuls.
Tell me that doesn’t present options for the Taranaki-King Country electorate to give serious consideration to?
Smith approaches her campaign with real determination and genuune concern for the well-being of parliament – there is no reason why she could not be part of a wave of new members of parliament coming from a minor party entering parliament.
The people Opposition Leader, Chris Luxon called “Bottom Feeders” are now lovely people and a new candidate from the remote East Coast electorate, and a new political party may suddenly find himself in the, “Election Limelight.”
The intrigue continues with another volatile week and in 5 months we’ll be looking at who won the election yesterday and how many people called, “Chris” were involved.
Midweek amongst other shenanigans we saw a significant political shift from the National Party.
Under threat on being abandoned by more party faithful Opposition Leader Chris Luxon pulled the pin on Woke – that story here.
National has back tracked on its previous support for co-governance now declaring a democratic position more closely aligned with New Zealand’s earlier political history.
The latest flow of election lava is centered on our new gun registry laws due to take effect next month with the initial rollout from police starting late June.
Police were caught in the crossfire as Labour’s latest minister in the embattled police pirtfolio, Ginny Andersen traded blows with, ACT leader, David Seymour over the viability of the legislation.
There’s a question as to whether this debate has got a little too in-house as Ginny Andersen’s husband is a former police inspector turned Wellington bureaucrat and Chris Cahill has pushed his police association over the polical line as did former president Greg O’Connor who is the current Labour MP for the Wellington electorate of Ohariu.
Retaliatory accusations suggest the police association rhetoric has drained the last ounce of goodwill out of legitimate gun owners across the country.
There are legitimate concerns and real danger far beyond the bullets from one gun and the unfortunate death of any one person.
This gives some context to what David Seymour and Ginny Andersen (pictured above) are mincing words over. In reality it’s a childish tit-for-tat over one of the most serious issues in the country at this time and one that deserves more than political banter.
For a minor party that has a contestable position that could see DemocracyNZ in Parliament they are either in this, lock stock and barrel, or they are not.
When the lonely voice of Taranaki-King Country candidate, Lee Smith rose from the quagmire via a Facebook meme, that’s great that someone’s paying attention but otherwise DemocracyNZ need to up their game or suffer from the usual small party insignificance.
Media don’t make the news we only report it. When I contacted Chris Robinson he confirmed that it was indeed the party’s position that DemocracyNZ doesn’t support the new gun registry legislation.
The East Coast electorate, currently held by a somewhat embattled Māori Caucus member, Kiri Allan, is now the gang capital of a country with rapidly rising gang numbers.
How do we resolve this? I’ve left that question with East Coast candidate Chris Robinson, a former Commissioned Officer in the NZ police, now a retired police inspector living the quiet life in the Bay of Plenty … until something interrupted his fishing time – Civic Duty.
I’m waiting for a more detailed response about how DemocracyNZ would address Cahill’s concerns if they are indeed legitimate concerns and not his personal and partisan position following in the jack boots of Comrade O’Connor.
Tuesday May 16th
No update from DemocracyNZ on the Gun Registry debate.
The Gun Registry legislation debate is at a standoff, becoming a bottom line for ACT promising to scrap the registry and National promising to keep it.
The situation became a heated debate between ACT Leader David Seymour and Police Association President Chris Cahill who took up the roll of a weak minded empathy politician – not a good look from the reprentative for frontline police and a country staring down the barrel of a gun problem.
Incompatible situations but with DemocracyNZ in the same camp as ACT, interested organisations will be considering the value of DNZ in Parliament in a similar way to which farmers are.
DNZ Napier candidate Martin Langford has posted in support of his Taranaki-King Country colleague Lee Smith who led the party’s opposition to the gun registry laws due to take effect next month.
As of 24 June 2023, New Zealand will have a new Firearms Registry.
If you are a firearms licence holder, you are required to provide information about your arms items from 24 June 2023 (5 years to comply, with exceptions).
In spite of the stated goal of making “New Zealand safer by making it harder for firearms to fall into the hands of criminals, gangs, and terrorists”, this change will do nothing of the sort.
This was a promise we were treated to before the rushed and illogical 2019 firearms law amendments. But, how has that worked out in reality?
Crime is rampant in New Zealand. Nowhere in the world where such registries have been implemented, has there been a corresponding end to firearms related crime (New Zealand HAD a registry until 1983).-
ONLY law abiding people obey laws.-
Criminals do NOT obey laws.
There can be no certainty that any information held can be secure indefinitely (as has been proven time and time again, even by financial institutions which have the requirement for iron-clad security of such information in order for the survival of their businesses to be maintained).
Let’s be frank, this isn’t about curtailing crime.
Already, the wait times for licensing have grown exponentially. The costs for renewals and endorsements are set to sky-rocket.
This is yet one more step towards the goal of elimination of private firearms ownership/stewardship in New Zealand.
It places law abiding, licensed firearms holders under more pressure and thereby rendering them less likely to bother owning a firearm for hunting, pest-control, or collecting.
To a criminal, laws are just words or pieces of paper. By necessity, if they are criminals, they DO NOT obey laws AND, they will still obtain firearms.
The law abiding are THE only focus of this change.We will repeal it, if given the opportunity.
The Electoral Commission has released its decision on the allocation of funding to political parties for election advertising on radio, television and online for the 2023 General Election.
The amount of money available for the 2023 Broadcasting Allocation is $4,145,750 incl GST ($3,605,000 excl GST).
The following table sets out the allocation of money to eligible political parties.
Political Party
Allocation (inclusive of GST)
New Zealand Labour Party
$1,234,724
The New Zealand National Party
$1,036,438
ACT New Zealand
$352,389
The Greens, The Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand
$352,389
Māori Party
$198,996
New Zealand First Party
$165,830
New Conservative
$132,664
The Opportunities Party (TOP)
$132,664
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
$66,332
DemocracyNZ
$66,332
Freedoms New Zealand
$66,332
Heartland New Zealand Party
$66,332
NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party
$66,332
ONE Party
$66,332
Animal Justice Party Aotearoa NZ*
$66,332
Protect and Prosper New Zealand*
$66,332
Vision New Zealand**
TOTAL allocated
$4,145,750
TOTAL available
$4,145,750
*These parties are currently unregistered. ** A component party of Freedoms New Zealand which in accordance with section 79(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1989 is not entitled to a separate allocation.
Eligibility
The Commission can only make an allocation to a political party if:
the party gave notice to the Commission by 1 March 2023 that it qualified for an allocation
the party is registered with the Commission at the time Parliament is dissolved on 8 September 2023.
How the allocation is decided
The Commission allocates the funds using the criteria set out in the Broadcasting Act 1989. This includes:
votes cast for the party and its candidates at the last general election and any by-elections since then
the number of MPs a party has
relationships that exist between parties
indications of public support such as public opinion poll results and party membership
the need to provide a fair opportunity for each party to convey its policies to the public.
The Commission may vary the allocation decision under certain circumstances provided for in the Broadcasting Act, for example, if a party fails to register by the time Parliament is dissolved.
The Electoral Commission’s full written decision for 2023 is available for download below.
Previously: Mar 15, 2023
17 political parties have put themselves forward to receive funding for election advertising.
National Party Leader Chris Luxon and Deputy Leader Nicola Willis
The National Party leadership had previously said a deal between TPM and National was not likely leaving open both speculation and the necessity for confirmation at a later date, that any deal was ruled out.
Te Pāti Māori leaders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
National has back tracked on its previous support for co-governance now declaring a democratic position more closely aligned with New Zealand’s earlier political history.
NZ First Leader, Winston Peters
[NZ First has been a non-parlimentary party since 2020]
TPM is clearly trying to take control of the co-governance position established by Labour’s Māori Caucus through the covert introduction and progression of He Pua Pua which was initiated by Winston Peters as Deputy Prime Minister in Jacinda Ardern’s first term.
What Luxon also said was the arrangement with parties outside of parliament was a discussion for a later date.
The position of the biggest right wing party has been under threat with National contesting the now murky pond of the country’s centrist politics with a Labour Party on a path to some strange woke mixed up cultural ideology.
With the ACT Party gaining momentum from National’s dance with the devil National faced a triple threat, with the possibility not only of a further exodus of National Party faithful to minor parties, but also the possibility of obviously gifted seats going to right wing minor parties like TOP and DemocracyNZ in a tight race.
DemocracyNZ leader and Northland electorate candidate, Matt King.
Apart from Epsom we haven’t seen any such obvious stand aside since Helen Clark gifted Coromandel to the Greens in 1999 but Northland, if Matt King didn’t already have the seat won would be an embarrassing defeat to a rogue backbencher who was National’s Northland MP from 2017 – 2020.
What’s different about DemocracyNZ is that it is not a single issue or protest party or the Matt King Show in Northland.
DemocracyNZ is a party of significant candidates who have risen to the challenge of politics at a time when a country has allowed itself to descend into obvious turmoil.
Bryce Edwards, political scientist from the Democracy Project at Victoria University, interviewed on The Platform recently made the point that, this election may be a time for NZs mainstream media “to give voice” to minor parties.
This is where we are at now …
Whether or not our compromised mainstream has enough mettle to own standards of integrity in journalism that are essential to a functioning democracy.
A new report released by BusinessNZ shows rural communities like Southland, Waimate, Wairoa and South Taranaki will be “devastated” by agricultural emissions pricing.
No one is questioning the pending doom and gloom but there’s plenty of room to question the current administration’s ability to handle any new crisis when their handling of the East Coast devastation from Cyclone Gabrielle has been a showcased failure – Wairoa amongst those East Coast areas struggling with their current cyclone recovery.
A measured government approach must make sure the settings are right to protect the viability of our ecomomy and our rural communities where any recovery will begin.
The report details and estimates the nationwide impact and anticipated export downturn and is available through Federated Farmers.
I am seriously concerned seeing a report of this nature. If South Taranaki is to expect a “devastating effect” what should the rest of my electorate expect.
The entire Taranaki-King Country electorate is Heartland New Zealand, with rural support centres – there are no cities out here.”
Lee Smith – DNZ
Perhaps it is best to look at who might be hardest hit and look at the country’s ability to cope – we don’t want another rural crisis of the magnitude created by the ill effects of Rogernomics in the Lange Government which affected Southland in particular.
This underlines why the Government needs to think very carefully about the timing, structure, and impact of any move to price agricultural emissions.
Wayne Langford , Federated Farmers
The cost of living increases expected from any economic downturn are front of mind for most New Zealanders at the moment – and that includes farmers.
Farmers are really struggling with cost increases like any other business and rural communities suffer from a downturn just as urban cities do.
This report highlights that the focus of our politicians on Net Zero emissions is very damaging to our country. These policies will damage the socioeconomic fabric of our small towns like Wamate and lead to even more crime and critical under investment on important infrastructure.
BusinessNZ has assessed what the impact of those losses would be on both upstream industries that are “critically dependent” on farming like fertiliser, vets, and agricultural support services, and downstream meat and dairy processing industries.
The analysis estimates 54,607 jobs in the key upstream and downstream industries nationally are vulnerable if agricultural emissions become subject to pricing.
With the dwindling represention of the rural community across all the parliamentary parties it’s not surprising to see a new force that has a strong focus on farming.
Steve Cranston, Waikato candidate for DemocracyNZ found the reports conclusions equally disturbing firing off one of their familiar big green memes.
DemocracyNZ which now has farming candidates in both the North and South islands is not by any means a dedicated Farmer’s Party but support, and particularly strategic support for electorate candidates is likely to be the basis of their entry to parliament this election.
[If you have spotted the coincidence, I did check and no, Federated Farmers, Wayne Langford and DemocracyNZ Napier candidate Martin Langford are not related]
The plastic fight was once the humble straw that drew so much public attention and then the one-use plastic bag … but we’ve moved on to bigger things: the construction industry, and why not while we are having an annual high on new house builds.
The new ideological battleground, the construction industry, and the complaint is the shrink-wrap covering new builds & renovations, the packaging on building products, and collectively the amount of plastic waste going directly into landfills from construction sites.
It is claimed,
“This far exceeds the number of plastic bags we once shopped with.”
Not Sure Who
“Where do we even start in making a dent in this mountain of waste” – and apparently that question was asked on the Sunday Show – I didn’t see the show so I don’t know if there was anything that had been kept under wraps to substantiate this new worthy cause …
The irony is that I found this story growing legs in that underground network that the mainstream call disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Taranaki woman Jane Dove Juneau will be featured on the Sunday programme this evening voicing her concerns about plastic wrap in the building industry, and its negative impact on the environment.
I congratulate Jane for being an active citizen and starting this conversation, which tonight will culminate in a major piece of investigative journalism. Around NZ the construction industry is the biggest contributor of waste in our landfills.
Bryan Vickery
Vickery Media goes on to say, “Jane approached me late last year and asked if I could video her concerns, then the Taranaki Daily News followed that up, and then the story got traction, and now award winning journalist Mark Crysell is examining the issue.”
It’s never easy raising concerns in the media, especially when the allegation of pollution relates to the building industry-and that industry currently is under inordinate pressure.
Hopefully good will come out of this news story.
Bryan Vickery
Some of you may have heard of Leighton Baker as a political figure but he is also prominent in the Canterbury construction industry so I approached Baker for some industry perspective on the issue.
“There is a huge amount of waste on a building site from plastic protection on frames through to the packaging on appliances.” Said Baker
[Anyone who has been involved in the sale and purchase of existing homes would understand the difference between the house and its chattels]
“To put things in perspective though, look at the packaging around a small cellphone, which gets replaced every two years, and a house that lasts for 50 years.”
Then we come back to what is the biggest contribution to our landfills – the one in 50 year event that built the house or the 50 years of occupation?
Writer of Sorts
In respect of existing recycling Baker drew attention to disposal operations that sort and recycle, like Green Gorilla in Auckland and Rangiora Rubbish Removals outside of Christchurch.
“Differences can be made by seperating out steel for recycling or if Winstones took back gib off cuts.
Return of packaging to suppliers would not work easily as the actual builders are on tight time frames to complete projects and couldn’t justify the time.” Said Baker.
Did you see the Sunday Show?
Who is the biggest contributor to plastic waste – the builder or the occupant?
Is enough being done to prevent current construction waste?
Where to from here apart from more underground conspiracy theories?
Writer of Sorts 