They have asked for a reduction in spending, not a reduction in services.

While services are not free, an increase in spending does not correlate with improved service, so naturally a decrease in spending does not imply a degraded service.

You are assuming that every dollar assigned is spent wisely. Newsflash: it's not.

Yeah, but those unnecessary public servants might inefficiently work to point this out. They might come up with clever "facts and figures" which might demonstrate how we're kneecapping ourselves by enriching landlords.

Which is completely unacceptable. Landlords need dignity.

No, we're better off cutting funding to for instance the Serious Fraud Office which returns $8 for every dollar spent. Those cheeky buggers that make it harder for a dishonest businessman to make bank.

Agreed. Here, in the workers paradise of Queensland property buyers are required to pay stamp duty on any house they purchase. It means our rates are super low compared with Auckland, and the services provided by the state is a lot more than Auckland.

There's also some CGT which enables the govt to take a pretty big chunk of taxable revenue as well.

Looks like meat's back on the menu boys!

Government to roll back rules restricting pay-day lenders

Looks like children are back on the menu boys

Clearly this terrible crime is a result of colonization, trauma, and the Treaty.

Because personal responsibility doesn't exist, it has been established.

See, colonisation made this happen

Laying the groundwork for the next national tragedy:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/...ting-fast-lane

You have to wonder what's at stake for tobacco companies. How much money can they really make off New Zealanders?

Probably enough for some crazy underhanded shit.

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/...948544/photo/1



Well, like… of course? Am I missing something?

Fuck all with the tiny proportion of the country that is their target market:

Current smokers down from 18.4% in 2011/12 to 8.3% in 2022/23.

Youth smoking (15 to 17 year olds) down from 8.3% to 1.0%

Maori smoking rate down from 40.3% to 20.2%

I haven't noticed businesses ignoring money that's a "tiny proportion".

What do you reckon the dollar values are in that drop in smoking?

Populism.

Yeah but I suspect the pot-stirring is being done by the Herald here.

Well that's a given. But the reason why it's this approach is not to do with the NZH specifically.

I think it's more about interests that seek to accumulate wealth scraping the bottom of the barrel of what will keep us voting against our own interests for the sake of further concentrating wealth.

It's an ever more difficult job keeping people educated enough we're able to work sophisticated jobs, while also conning us out of more and more of the value we're producing each day.

Seymour's racism is bringing Maori together. Maybe he isn't a useless Maori after all.

Reflecting on Waitangi Day. Admitting we have a problem is a start

https://youtu.be/plPIzLXj8bE?si=0DEwUQumrtPgFj34

Andrew Judd is a legend. He discovered some uncomfortable truths and instead of getting defensive, instead of cooking up a narrative where the truths weren't true or weren't uncomfortable, he faced into them, allowed himself to be challenged and changed.

He'd probably still be mayor if he took the easy option.

Cultural reports are for those who can afford them:

Govt to axe funding for pre-sentence cultural reports

Thank goodness we've got this government to bring some sanity back to our legal system.

Govt to drop support for proposal to restrict bottom trawling in the South Pacific

Now they're just going down a list of anything Labour supported.

I still miss NZ scallops.

It's a good thing I don't eat seafood anymore, cause there's going to be a lot more to miss it seems.

Yeah, nah, not a fan. See this is what happens when NZ FUCKING FIRST gets in to government. Jesus christ, will voters never learn.

Govt to drop Auckland fuel tax.

Guess we'll fund our repairs and infrastructure projects through rates then.

Crazy how the government can make Wayne Brown seem reasonable.

And S Brown seems to be talking the shit.
"There is no shortfall, because the projects haven't been committed to. But we are committed to the final section of the Eastern Corridor".

And also spouts on about how only 10m was used on these projects and the other 300m was spent on cycle ways and pedestrian crossings.
That's a load of number fudging bollocks.

But also, where the fuck is the pushback from the opposition? Greens and Labour have been pretty damn quiet in the media while the three headed dragon stays in the spotlight.

I wonder if it's a situation of giving them enough rope to hang themselves.

KiwiRail in talks to cancel contracts for new Interislander ferries

I'm sure a line-by-line analysis will provide all the infrastructure we need.

'State of the nation is fragile', Christopher Luxon says

Where is that quote from?

Judith Collins' face:

Government committed to coalition transport projects despite report showing they could cost double

Yet we're canning the Cook Strait ferries.

It's almost like it's not so much spending public money that's problematic, it just needs to go to the right people?

Luxon doesn't seem to grasp that he is a politician.

An apartment he owns mortgage free, I might add.

Nope, he still doesn't realise he's in politics

Right now his comms team are updating their resumes.

https://twitter.com/nzlabour/status/1763391458458169509

totally self-inflicted

Grifter is grifting, what a surprise.

This will blow over, the government will continue to loot the vault and when challenged the response will be "we campaigned for this".

little fat piggies

Hey, leave the guy alone, he's only worth an estimated 21mill...:P
Our second richest National PM behind jonkey.

Well, he changed his mind. Apparantly "he decided" to do it, and I am sure it had nothing to do with some PR company that he has working for him

But it must really GTG of people like him, where he wants to get every penny he can, for him to come out and have to back track.

KiwiRail reports big hit to bottom line after cancellation of Interislander project

Brownlee bars student journalists from parliament press gallery

The government never promised transparency, so we've got nothing to complain about.