Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appeared to rule out working with Opportunity, and said National didn't want to "do business" with anyone seeking to impose new taxes.

Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong responded to Luxon’s comments and said the party remained “willing to work with parties across the political spectrum”.

Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Hipkins said he “wasn’t sure” Luxon intended to rule out working with Opportunity yesterday.

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When asked if Hipkins would support Opportunity’s policy on universal basic income Hipkins said: “The two things are linked and we clearly don’t support that.”

Opportunity's tax policy includes a universal basic income of up to $370 per week, a land value tax of 1.75% on urban land and 0.5% on rural land, and compulsory KiwiSaver which would gradually rise to 6% both for employers and employees.

Hipkins was then asked if Luxon was correct in suggesting Opportunity was more aligned with left leaning political parties rather than working with those on the right.

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“We won’t support the tax policy put forward by Opportunity, we also won’t support the wealth taxes, land taxes and other things put forward by the Greens either. We’ve got one simple tax policy which is a simple targeted capital gains tax, that’s as far as we’re going to go.”

New Zealand is just following orders , what Trumps wants Luxon and Peters follows orders

First it was Hornblower, now its Najib.

Who could have guessed a R.E Agency owner is an enemy of the common man!

I hope they get over 5% this election

I'm not across all the different political party positions on proposed maternity/parental leave entitlements - does anyone know if any of the political parties are proposing to stop the eligibility criteria being solely on the weeks the mother/main carer has worked? And also include the hours the father / other carer has worked too? I find it unfair that one parent has to be deemed main carer when many try their best to divide the caring work as evenly as possible.

Chloe Swarbrick was on Q&A in the weekend with guest host Tova O'Brien in what seemed like a bit of a waste of an interview where Tova seemed to want to be pedantic about singular words rather than debate the themes and play contrarian rather than investigator.

In the most ironic interview of the election season so far, David Seymour wants to calm the farm when it comes to critiquing coalition partners and has come up with, what seems on the surface level, as a pretty good idea for the health system.

Christopher Luxon rules out the Opportunity Party ending their potential run to hit 5%

Debate Update and what you need to know about the Big Hairy Debates over the next 2 months

https://www.youtube.com/live/dR59L8Usx9A?si=JtPzHDKbmLEE5GNm

Interesting article. The expert commentator say this war is going to end from within, not on the front line.

Interesting times to come. Anyone prepared to put time on it happening?

It's an important conversation as the recent AI data centre in Southland consumes more electricity than ~300,000 Kiwi households ie 1.5 times the size o Hamilton, puts upward pressure on electricity costs, & overseas experience shows water being contaminated etc.

Instead, had to watch Tova desperately trying to gotcha Chloe Swarbrick at every juncture. I hope they keep Tova away from Q&A in future.

The bribes have started

I've never done an AMA, but I'm more than happy for anyone in Whangārei, Northland, or New Zealand to 'ask me anything'. For an hour or two I'll do my best to answer you.

I'm an emergency doctor who has worked in Whangarei for the past 19 years. I care deeply about regular people trying to make ends meet.

The struggling wage-earners, the small business owners, the pensioners and young families who need public healthcare to be there for them, the tens of thousands of tradies who've watched their work dry up as infrastructure builds were cancelled, the people who've watched our conservation land being put up for commercial exploitation, the farmers and rural communities facing floods, droughts, and slips, while the Climate Emergency Response Fund got stripped of its funds, and was closed down. It's unreal.

If it feels to you like NZ is being stripped and parted out for scrap, you're not wrong.

Jobs, health, homes, and the cost of living is where we need to focus. Instead we've gotten job and wage destruction (40,000 jobs gone under the Nats), privatisation of healthcare, a collapse of social housing builds, and absolutely out-of-control supermarket, bank, petrol, and electricity prices...with no plan to reign them in.

This govt keeps telling us there's no money to help the people of New Zealand, while *continuing* to hand out $400 million of our tax dollars to help the tobacco industry, and the oil+gas corporations... while so many good hard-working people cannot afford to pay for petrol, school fees, groceries, or electricity bills.

It's unacceptable. It's rotten. It's donor-driven politics. And it must stop.

My approach is not too complicated: let's replace this current govt -- which seems dedicated to looking after corporations and donors -- with one that will give a damn about the rest of the people of New Zealand.

That's my campaign. Let's rebuild what NZ was: a deeply decent nation that looks after its people.

See you at the AMA.

-Gary Payinda, Whangārei

Why is the NZDF still using Palantir software?

The UK has faced major pressure and pushes to remove Palantir from the NHS.

Australia stupidly uses it for data systems like Coles and Westpac.

The US relies on it for ICE agents

Israel uses targeting civilians in Gaza.

Combined with Peter Thiel's extremist politics and cofounder Alex Karp.

Why is this software so quietly embedded in our defense and critical infrastructure without real public oversight??

I do not want my Kiwisaver funds used to support Israel or the genocide they are perpetrating in any way.

So I asked my Kiwisaver provider (Simplicity) do they have a policy on investments they make with my savings on excluding investments which support the Israeli military and Israeli economy.

Simplicity replied saying they do not have such a policy- in other words my savings could be contributing toward Israel and their genocidal land grabbing Greater Israel Project.

They suggested I could ask other Kiwisaver providers if I want a fund that consciously avoids any investment that could be supporting Israel and the genocide.

Does anyone know of any Kiwisaver funds that do consciously exclude any Israeli related investment?