Centre-left and centre-right blocs neck-and-neck in Newshub-Reid Research poll showing Te Pāti Māori in kingmaker position; Luxon slumps to record-low as preferred PM and below Collins’ 2020 levels
"In another worrying sign for Christopher Luxon, among undecided voters, Chris Hipkins has a positive net favourability of +30% while Christopher Luxon is on -26%. David Seymour is on -32%."
It is the "undecided" swing voters who effectively decides who win or lose elections.
Our MMP system also enables committed voters to shift power away from the middle Lab/Nat stronghold, by supporting the smaller parties in order to ensure that more policy decisions are made by consensus. The Greens and TePati Maori have policies further left than Labour, just as Act is further right than National.
The cycle lanes culture wars are just so tired and old. Nz is well behind and some grandstanding CCC councillors are just trying to placate the boomer vote. Meanwhile the rest of the world are getting on with making cities more people friendly, which is now proven time and time again to be great for business, reduces pollution and actually brings people out to enjoy and use the public spaces they pay for much more.
Deutsche Welle posted up a great short doco on this very topic on Youtube over the weekend https://youtu.be/wp6sgCtryKE
Agree! Had the pleasure of riding Christchurch shared pathways/cycleways on the weekend. Just brilliant - rode from the distant suburbs into the city centre without any of the usual tangling with vehicles. Smooth, quick, flat, safe, no holdups and free! A total pleasure to spend time in a city committed to healthy, free transport options. Well-designed cycleways open up a city in ways that roads simply cannot so I'd just challenge opponents to get on a bike and try out the brilliant web of cycleways in Christchurch - feel the freedom.
It is interesting that the Mayor, a long time critic of cycleways, turns his attention to how the staff have handled a cycleway in the centre of the city. I won’t comment on this issue because it’s so boring. Mauger rubbishes cycle initiatives. Keown backs him up. Templeton defends anything to do with cycleways. Each of them are so bloody predictable. The litany of the deaf. All talking past each other.
The key point made by Mauger is that the staff are running amok. I would recommend that he has a look at the latest staff and resident’s surveys. People aren’t happy inside and outside the council. Support is dropping dramatically. What have our elected reps done about it? Nothing visible so far.
The other thing is that our elected reps have so far been extremely compliant about picking apart the City's trading assets, at CCHL. Step by step the staff, led by the CE and the CFO and a small number of councillors before the election, are potentially putting our cities assets at great risk. The Mayor and Councillors have agreed to dilute the elected reps place at the policy table of CCHL by reducing the number of board members from 4 to 2 Councillors. They have rolled over and agreed to every board member recommended by a selection panel on which there were no elected members.
Yes, Phil Mauger, the Council staff are running amok but you are going along with it where it suits you.
Sorry CCHL is Christchurch City Holdings Ltd. Christchurch swam upstream when everything was being corporatised. I served as Mayor of Christchurch and served on CCHL board for 12 years. The Business Roundtable lobbied us mercilessly. Take that from my experience! There's a big story in how they operated.
CCHL is the Holding Company for the City's shares in the Port (100% ownership), the Airport (75% ownership with the Government owning the balance), Orion (our power network 89% share the balance owned by Selwyn District) Enable (the fibre optic company 100%) and a couple of other companies.
The Board of CCHL appears to have been stacked with people who may not understand the kaupapa which ensured that we kept our publicly owned assets when many others were selling them to the private sector. Choose your town and see what happened there.
The CE is Dawn Baxendale and the CFO is Leah Scales. We, in my time, kept the executive of the Council very seperate from CCHL. That state has not been continued under this Council led by Phil Mauger as Mayor and worries me greatly.
The attacks from the usual suspects about anything related to any form of alternative to car transportation is becoming a bit amusing. "The War on Cars"! If you are driving a car that protects you from the elements, have A/C and heating and is capable of taking you from point A to point B in less than a minute AND you have a wealth of roads to choose from, but taking away a small fraction of available lanes for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists triggers you, get a life. Take a different route. It will add 15 seconds to your drive (give or take). The amount of energy invested in getting angry about giving other people safe alternatives could possibly save some people some fuel or charge their EVs.
I never thought I would say anything pro-Luxon. But here goes. I can see his discomfort at any potential alignment with Te Pati Māori. The Maori Party (as they were known then) used to be moderate and statesmanlike and brought many more people along with it, regarding its stance on any issues but particularly those affecting Maori in modern New Zealand. In other words, a reasonable coalition partner. Te Pati Māori is more reactionary, more prone to agitation, both of which tend to alienate people. New Zealand needs that like a hole in the head and I think National can see that they would be a liability, not because they represent Maori, but because of their divisive modus operandi.
If that's the rationale then Luxon should rule out working with ACT as well. The extreme policies they want to unleash on us should scare any person with a social conscience who cares about people less privileged.
I don't find any of the policies promoted by TPM scary. Yes, they put an uneasy mirror in front of us. But I think we should not be scared of listening to voices that call for a different way to govern especially since the current way can't claim to be very successful.
I’m joining the Womens Party this time round because none of them are representing that majority portion of women and children in the slightest and those groups are struggling the most as always. The rest just remain a proverbial pissing competition with nothing helpful to add tidying around the edges of the same old same old.
Please open up this Dawn chorus to everyone.
Thanks David. Will do. And thanks for the link. That's useful.
May 10, 2023 Taxpayer Update
https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/taxpayer_update_230510
"In another worrying sign for Christopher Luxon, among undecided voters, Chris Hipkins has a positive net favourability of +30% while Christopher Luxon is on -26%. David Seymour is on -32%."
It is the "undecided" swing voters who effectively decides who win or lose elections.
Here's a twilight zone headline 'Leaders of the right with a combined net favorability of -58% well placed to win election'
Our MMP system also enables committed voters to shift power away from the middle Lab/Nat stronghold, by supporting the smaller parties in order to ensure that more policy decisions are made by consensus. The Greens and TePati Maori have policies further left than Labour, just as Act is further right than National.
The cycle lanes culture wars are just so tired and old. Nz is well behind and some grandstanding CCC councillors are just trying to placate the boomer vote. Meanwhile the rest of the world are getting on with making cities more people friendly, which is now proven time and time again to be great for business, reduces pollution and actually brings people out to enjoy and use the public spaces they pay for much more.
Deutsche Welle posted up a great short doco on this very topic on Youtube over the weekend https://youtu.be/wp6sgCtryKE
Brilliant Mike C. I'll put that into my weekend reading/watching/listening selection.
Agree! Had the pleasure of riding Christchurch shared pathways/cycleways on the weekend. Just brilliant - rode from the distant suburbs into the city centre without any of the usual tangling with vehicles. Smooth, quick, flat, safe, no holdups and free! A total pleasure to spend time in a city committed to healthy, free transport options. Well-designed cycleways open up a city in ways that roads simply cannot so I'd just challenge opponents to get on a bike and try out the brilliant web of cycleways in Christchurch - feel the freedom.
It is interesting that the Mayor, a long time critic of cycleways, turns his attention to how the staff have handled a cycleway in the centre of the city. I won’t comment on this issue because it’s so boring. Mauger rubbishes cycle initiatives. Keown backs him up. Templeton defends anything to do with cycleways. Each of them are so bloody predictable. The litany of the deaf. All talking past each other.
The key point made by Mauger is that the staff are running amok. I would recommend that he has a look at the latest staff and resident’s surveys. People aren’t happy inside and outside the council. Support is dropping dramatically. What have our elected reps done about it? Nothing visible so far.
The other thing is that our elected reps have so far been extremely compliant about picking apart the City's trading assets, at CCHL. Step by step the staff, led by the CE and the CFO and a small number of councillors before the election, are potentially putting our cities assets at great risk. The Mayor and Councillors have agreed to dilute the elected reps place at the policy table of CCHL by reducing the number of board members from 4 to 2 Councillors. They have rolled over and agreed to every board member recommended by a selection panel on which there were no elected members.
Yes, Phil Mauger, the Council staff are running amok but you are going along with it where it suits you.
Thanks Garry. Very useful context.
Please explain CCHL, CE and CFO Garry. And I presume you are in talking about Christchurch. We are not all in the know out in the wider NZ.
Sorry CCHL is Christchurch City Holdings Ltd. Christchurch swam upstream when everything was being corporatised. I served as Mayor of Christchurch and served on CCHL board for 12 years. The Business Roundtable lobbied us mercilessly. Take that from my experience! There's a big story in how they operated.
CCHL is the Holding Company for the City's shares in the Port (100% ownership), the Airport (75% ownership with the Government owning the balance), Orion (our power network 89% share the balance owned by Selwyn District) Enable (the fibre optic company 100%) and a couple of other companies.
The Board of CCHL appears to have been stacked with people who may not understand the kaupapa which ensured that we kept our publicly owned assets when many others were selling them to the private sector. Choose your town and see what happened there.
The CE is Dawn Baxendale and the CFO is Leah Scales. We, in my time, kept the executive of the Council very seperate from CCHL. That state has not been continued under this Council led by Phil Mauger as Mayor and worries me greatly.
Hi Beverley, yep, Garry is talking about Christchurch City Holdings Limited.
https://www.cchl.co.nz/about
They manage Christchurch City Councils physical assets, like the Port, Airport, Fibre company etc, listed here: https://www.cchl.co.nz/company-profiles
The trading companies pay regular dividends to CCHL. In turn, CCHL pays dividends to the Council, allowing the Council to fund other projects.
Paul Silk is the acting Chief Executive (CE) and Toni Rowell is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). https://www.cchl.co.nz/about
Thanks Greg and Garry. Very helpful.
The attacks from the usual suspects about anything related to any form of alternative to car transportation is becoming a bit amusing. "The War on Cars"! If you are driving a car that protects you from the elements, have A/C and heating and is capable of taking you from point A to point B in less than a minute AND you have a wealth of roads to choose from, but taking away a small fraction of available lanes for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists triggers you, get a life. Take a different route. It will add 15 seconds to your drive (give or take). The amount of energy invested in getting angry about giving other people safe alternatives could possibly save some people some fuel or charge their EVs.
I never thought I would say anything pro-Luxon. But here goes. I can see his discomfort at any potential alignment with Te Pati Māori. The Maori Party (as they were known then) used to be moderate and statesmanlike and brought many more people along with it, regarding its stance on any issues but particularly those affecting Maori in modern New Zealand. In other words, a reasonable coalition partner. Te Pati Māori is more reactionary, more prone to agitation, both of which tend to alienate people. New Zealand needs that like a hole in the head and I think National can see that they would be a liability, not because they represent Maori, but because of their divisive modus operandi.
Agree Beverley Debbie Ngarewa Packer should do a the talking. That Tane keeps shouting them off a cliff and up our noses.
If that's the rationale then Luxon should rule out working with ACT as well. The extreme policies they want to unleash on us should scare any person with a social conscience who cares about people less privileged.
I don't find any of the policies promoted by TPM scary. Yes, they put an uneasy mirror in front of us. But I think we should not be scared of listening to voices that call for a different way to govern especially since the current way can't claim to be very successful.
National and Labour poll changes are both within the margin of error, so really this poll just shows same old same old.
I’m joining the Womens Party this time round because none of them are representing that majority portion of women and children in the slightest and those groups are struggling the most as always. The rest just remain a proverbial pissing competition with nothing helpful to add tidying around the edges of the same old same old.
Do we know where Te Pati Maori stand on the fundamentally flawed paradigm of economic growth/status quo economics?