Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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Forums › Politics › Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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Ultimate Geek

#3367300 24-Apr-2025 18:44

SaltyNZ:

McAnulty’s comments follow reports that Winston Peters’ NZ First party has begun planning for the event of a general election being called before the end of the year.

Oh Winston, you're such a little rascal!

True to form, Winston will start full-on sniping from inside the tent the moment he loses his Deputy Prime Ministership to Seymour at the end of May with a view to positioning himself and his party for an early general election. Did much the same thing to Labour didn't he?

thermonuclear

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Ultimate Geek

#3367301 24-Apr-2025 18:48

freitasm:

SaltyNZ:

New ferries, thanks Winston.

They’ll save some money but that’s ok because they’re smaller, won’t arrive till 2029, we’ll forego upgrades to the Wellington terminal (which will still have to be done later, when it’s more expensive and with additional ongoing opex to keep them running in the meantime) and we still don’t know how much we will pay to not get the ferries we originally ordered, but we just hope it isn’t more than the $300M we put aside for it.

Oh, and we haven’t actually signed a contract so we’re still kinda fingers crossed about the cost.

The whole thing sounded like an announcement of an announcement. They claim it will be cheaper but they haven't even got prices yet... So how can they know it will be cheaper?

You can be sure that if there's a way for New Zealand to cheap-out on important infrastructure building, successive NZ governments of all persuasions will find it.

ezbee

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#3367728 26-Apr-2025 17:17

Maybe we could get a bit bigger ferry to handle one of the roughest ferry routes in the world.
Catering for stellar economic growth we are supposed to have under National.

If Seymour was not so spendy ?

The old deal may have actually been a stellar deal given it was fixed price years ago at a time when shipbuilding costs much lower.

Ministry of Regulation salaries continue to top average $150K one year on
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/559133/ministry-of-regulation-salaries-continue-to-top-average-150k-one-year-on

""
New figures, as of 28 March, record an average annual salary at the agency of $150,320 across 70 permanent staff and 17 fixed-term staff.
""
"It's absolutely hypocritical for the government to be saying we need to get rid of back office people when they've created a whole back office ministry."

In the year to June 2024, the average salary across the public sector was $101,700, the first time it had reached six figures.

The top-paying public sector agency was the Public Service Commission, with an average salary of $155,000, followed by the Social Investment Agency, with $149,200.
""

New ministry spending more than $400,000 on contractors
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/527778/new-ministry-spending-more-than-400-000-on-contractors

freitasm

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#3369244 30-Apr-2025 17:27

This release makes as much sense as a Donald Trump speech:

Minister for Rail Winston Peters says the decision by the KiwiRail board to retire the Aratere from service is about the next 60 years of rail on the Cook Strait. Ferry Holdings supports this decision.

“We will not waste one tax dollar on shuffling infrastructure to keep the vessel in service for the sake of it or add any infrastructure risk to our objective of completion in 2029. That would have cost $120 million.

“Building marine infrastructure while ferries are berthing there can't be done.

“The Aratere berth in Wellington requires work to be done on it, saving the taxpayer considerable money compared to iReX’s brand new infrastructure,” Mr Peters says.

The Aratere berth in Picton will be demolished and a new, double lane linkspan will be built in its place to serve road and rail for the next 60 years.

“Under iReX, a whole temporary operation was to be built at taxpayers’ expense only to knock it down when permanent infrastructure was built, plus ‘Taj Mahal’ terminal buildings and expensive works across the wider yards in Wellington and Picton. That is not good use of funds, and we are getting the taxpayer a superior deal.

“KiwiRail has briefed us on their plans to serve the market in the interim. Goods will still get from A to B by shifting freight on to the Kaitaki and Kaiārahi, making use of coastal shipping for some heavy freight such as grain, and adapting their rail and ferry schedules to best suit the market.

“Passengers will still have capacity, and we may see some evening sailings being busier than normal around Christmas and Easter.

“We know that job losses are hard. KiwiRail advise us that voluntary redundancy will be offered across the wider Interislander team, and they will be seeking redeployment opportunities where possible,” Mr Peters says.

SaltyNZ

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#3369405 1-May-2025 08:45

"Sorry, south islanders, you're not worth $30M (or roughly $10 per taxpayer) a year."

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MaxineN

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#3370939 6-May-2025 16:03

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/560077/nicola-willis-chris-bishop-join-erica-stanford-in-admitting-they-used-personal-emails

What a lovely display of incompetence.

I doubt there will be any consequences...

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SaltyNZ

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#3370942 6-May-2025 16:10

MaxineN:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/560077/nicola-willis-chris-bishop-join-erica-stanford-in-admitting-they-used-personal-emails

What a lovely display of incompetence.

I doubt there will be any consequences...

Buttery males: NZ.

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quickymart

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#3370959 6-May-2025 18:39

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/560093/auditor-general-launches-probe-into-school-lunches

How long until Seymour just ditches the whole scheme as it's "too hard"? 🙄

SaltyNZ

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#3371038 7-May-2025 09:05

Woman whose salary is regulated with the force of law to be the same as a man doing her job passes law preventing all other women from having the same opportunity. Vote ACT, everyone.

It's got nothing to do with the Budget, this is about making sure we have a piece of legislation that is incredibly workable

Oooooooh, ok. Incredibly workable. I guess that's why urgency was required then, because it was so incredibly workable that it was urgent that it be passed through two stages with MPs only being handed the new legislation on the afternoon, and the last stage this morning.

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PsychoSmiley

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Master Geek

#3371286 7-May-2025 22:18

Honestly makes me wonder if they're trying to speed run their own demise? How much utterly dumb shit policies can they just shovel out and not assume it's going to bite them squarely in the arse?

My honest concern is that the simpleton voting base just wont realise it and will assume it's all fantastic, though if Winnie has his way I feel there wont be enough time to pave over the chasms they've made. Fingers crossed it all ends in spectacular tantrum throwing to their own self-destruction.

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Handle9

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#3371290 8-May-2025 05:53

SaltyNZ:

Woman whose salary is regulated with the force of law to be the same as a man doing her job passes law preventing all other women from having the same opportunity.

Of course the legislation doesn't affect that in anyway. This is a very specific piece of legislation which effects cross sector pay equity claims. It has no impact on a man or woman doing the same job. It significantly impacts industries which have been traditionally "womens work" where there were claims to address cross sector inequity.

It's a pretty complex issue in which the courts have played a significant part through the Kristine Bartlett case in 2012.

Outside of the actual issue it's a f*&king terrible way to make legislation. To make it even worse it's retrospective and being done in a highly cynical way purely because of budget constraints. It's total bullshit and the government is betting it'll be lost in the news shuffle because it "only" affects "vocational" jobs like teachers, carers and nurses.

It's a complete crock.

lachlanw

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#3373020 14-May-2025 12:14

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/greens-promise-88b-taxes-including-33-inheritance-tax-for-massive-social-safety-net-expansion/W23VKAKZ5VBJLCIQTNIYAB2JDU/

This feels like a mistake from the Greens, it will shore up their base, but weaken the left parties overall. Labour will be forced to defend and clarify its position in relation to Greens and TPM policy through to the next election.

SaltyNZ

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#3373024 14-May-2025 12:31

lachlanw:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/greens-promise-88b-taxes-including-33-inheritance-tax-for-massive-social-safety-net-expansion/W23VKAKZ5VBJLCIQTNIYAB2JDU/

This feels like a mistake from the Greens, it will shore up their base, but weaken the left parties overall. Labour will be forced to defend and clarify its position in relation to Greens and TPM policy through to the next election.

I disagree. They're giving you a clear choice between Red-Blue-Exactly-The-Same and something completely different. I mean, yes, you may decide that's not what you want. But at least it's actually something different. Up till this lot got in, at least, Labour and National were basically two sides of the same neoliberal coin. This is a clearly different approach.

And why not? We tried taxing poor people for 40 years and I think we can all agree, it's not working. Why not try taxing rich people just for funsies?

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lachlanw

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#3373031 14-May-2025 12:46

Don't disagree it's a clear choice, but for better or worse you need to woo the center ground to govern. Hard to imagine many Nat-NZF-Act voters shifting their vote to the left for this.

GV27

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#3373033 14-May-2025 12:54

SaltyNZ:

And why not? We tried taxing poor people for 40 years and I think we can all agree, it's not working. Why not try taxing rich people just for funsies?

Help me out here, are people earning $120K a year plutocrats all of a sudden?

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