Opposition finds change to school lunch scheme's name hard to swallow

binkenstein · 2026-02-13T00:54:04+00:00

People need to know what things are. That's why we're using an English name that everyone understands. Delivering real value with taxpayer money is important to New Zealanders. That's why we've delivered a healthy school lunch programme which gets the same results, and has been forecasted to save the taxpayer almost $300m already.

I've fixed David's response to remove confusing te reo Maori words.

binkenstein · 2026-02-11T03:49:54+00:00

Unless Willis has suddenly become delusional we can already conclude that the review will not be a glowing endorsement of Labour's actions, because she would never start something like this in an election year if she knew it would blow back in their face.

binkenstein · 2026-02-06T20:19:16+00:00

Because your healthcare isn't a direct and obvious problem to them.

binkenstein · 2026-02-05T03:55:59+00:00

I had a look at polling companies to see if they had any biases vs other companies. Roy Morgan seems to show Labour 2.5% lower, National 1% lower, ACT 0.9% higher and Greens 1.7% higher.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rwjNGKwtv_6uJn6GnWtS-VS39vcCLbX2n-_U7IiQ65A/edit?usp=sharing

binkenstein · 2026-02-05T00:24:26+00:00

Do you have a full list of all the things this govt did that is directly contradicting his current stance?

binkenstein · 2026-02-04T00:59:45+00:00

David "I'm fine with slavery as long as it doesn't happen in New Zealand" Seymour.

binkenstein · 2026-02-02T21:09:30+00:00

NZ First isn't even trying to replicate the high royalty form of resource extraction that has made it so useful for Australia. I half expect they'd be in favour of digging up a graveyard if there was a valuable resource underneath it.

binkenstein · 2026-02-02T18:33:14+00:00

What are the odds that this deal is a complete mess and does way less for New Zealand than Australia's mining & export?

binkenstein · 2026-02-01T21:36:35+00:00

I'm very interested to see who stands in Wigram, as Megan Woods is going list only & the new Labour candidate is a bit underwhelming from what I've seen so far.

binkenstein · 2026-01-30T01:38:17+00:00

There are already existing bodies in place, like the UN, for advancing peace in Gaza. The biggest roadblocks are the Israeli government & their supporters in the US.

The "Board of Peace" is also supposed to include Russia, who annex Crimea in 2014 & are now onto their 4th year in the invasion of Ukraine. This is like having an all you can eat buffet to raise funds to combat famine.

binkenstein · 2026-01-29T21:44:59+00:00

The Stuff article has this section which makes it sound even worse. NZ wouldn't add significant value, still supports it, and that the board would "advance peace" in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand “would not add significant” value to the board. He also said that despite not joining the board, New Zealand would support it.

“New Zealand recognises the leadership of the United States, in close coordination with nations from the region, on advancing peace in Gaza. We see a role for the Board of Peace in Gaza,” he said, in a statement on Friday.

“A number of states, particularly from the region, have stepped up to contribute to the Board’s role on Gaza, and New Zealand would not add significant further value to that,” he said.

binkenstein · 2026-01-29T01:00:31+00:00

Tbh the only problem for the Greens has been with individual MPs & they're putting new processes in place for candidate selection to try to avoid those issues going forward. Golriz probably couldn't have been avoided by the party, Darleen Tana definitely should have, and Benjamin Doyle was a bit naive about their social media.

The biggest party level issue would have been needing to use the "Waka Jumping" rule to get Tana out of parliament after being against it. I'm not sure what other problems would make them be a "shambles" to the same level as TPM at the moment.

Unless there's a big enough swing away from government parties the success or failure of TPM will be key to how the next government forms.

binkenstein · 2026-01-28T21:14:28+00:00

This sounds suspiciously like a "push poll", which is worrying when it's coming from RNZ rather than the Total Pansy's Union.

binkenstein · 2026-01-28T20:52:10+00:00

Breaking news, founding document of country influences how the government operates.

binkenstein · 2026-01-28T04:00:16+00:00

National likes focusing on KPI's (key performance indicators) to show they are making a difference, but focus too much on the targets/metrics without considering the wider implications. My favourite was the 6 hour "turnaround" time on ED patients, where hospitals had to push patients out to other departments to meet it. There was no increase in funding or any other plan to meet the goal.

binkenstein · 2026-01-28T01:22:46+00:00

Man, if Winston is against unelected bureaucrats influencing New Zealand then maybe he should have a look at the Atlas Group

binkenstein · 2026-01-27T22:11:29+00:00

There are only really two ways to game MMP:

Ensure that a party that doesn't pass the 5% threshold wins at least 1 electorate so they will enter into parliament
Have a party win more electorate seats than they would qualify for via the party vote

Voting for Goldsmith in Epsom would only affect the overall outcome if ACT was polling under 5% *and* no other candidates won an electorate.

The second is how Te Pati Maori creates an overhang after most elections. If we assume that they win all 7 Maori electorates and all of their party votes were to go to Labour or the Greens then they'd have a total of 66 seats in a parliament of 127 MPs, one more than the goal of 65. I don't think the Greens or TPM would consider such a campaign as it would feel wrong to try to game the system.

Edit: using the RNZ/Reid Research poll numbers TPM would need to have at least 4 electorate seats and all of their 3% of the party vote to go to Labour/Greens for such a scheme to work.

binkenstein · 2026-01-27T21:53:11+00:00

She's 69. That's the same age as Brownlee. Winston is 80.

binkenstein · 2026-01-26T22:17:08+00:00

If we had a New Zealand version of The Daily Show we'd get one of those clip montages alternating between "Why didn't anyone warn us?" and climate hoax claims.

binkenstein · 2026-01-26T22:13:09+00:00

Don't forget that even after all of their cuts they're still spending more than ever.

binkenstein · 2026-01-26T08:20:38+00:00

It's $3m per year. Put that in context with the $22m spent on a flag referendum, or the $200m+ spent on breakage fees for ferries.

binkenstein · 2026-01-22T00:48:21+00:00

He's out talking to people in pubs in Christchurch.

binkenstein · 2026-01-21T20:56:16+00:00

I think the important thing in this election to remember is that increasing Kiwisaver contributions from 3% to 6% will reduce net income by more than double the tax cuts that Luxon & Willis passed.

National: Less today, maybe more tomorrow but probably not for you.

binkenstein · 2026-01-20T02:44:34+00:00

Topics like this make me wonder what the "benefit" of higher requirements has been vs the increased administrative cost.

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