The Standard NZ

Excerpted article In September 2024, the National Party scrapped “Code Black” for emergency departments in trouble. It came as hospitals reported ED crises a month earlier. Then Health Minister Shane Reti also pushed the threshold for “Code Red” higher – meaning health capacity had to be “critically reduced” from 120% to over 135% before hospitals were allowed to use the term.

Clearly the news of the recent GDP reduction has spooked National and it is now desperately looking for ways to stimulate the economy, and in particular the building sector. It is not only GDP that is struggling.

I have been reflecting on the Charlie Kirk news of late, and one thing that strikes me is how much absolute control the right have over the media and narratives. Besides the lengthy media coverage we saw, in New Zealand, Professor Mohan Dutta, a Massey University Professor, has been attacked by right wing agitators for saying it was completely inappropriate for NZ Parliament to pay tribute to Kirk, and to be careful of that try to import it.

Remember back to the beginning of the year when Christopher Luxon said that 2025 would bring a relentless focus on unleashing growth? He said this at the time: “Business and consumer confidence is rising and average mortgage interest rates have now fallen for the first time in more than three years. Wages are rising faster than inflation, supporting a recovery in household incomes.

I’m putting this post up for two reasons. One is the US is at a sociopolitical tipping point, and appears to be rapidly tipping further into the very bad reality. A tipping point is a point in time when a group—or many group members—rapidly and dramatically changes its behavior by widely adopting a previously rare practice A key thing about tipping points is it’s possible to influence where they go, but we’re generally not prepared for that.

Priests chain themselves to NZ National Party Deputy’s office.

25 - That’s the number of undeclared properties (mostly rentals) that National Party MP Carl Bates omitted from the MP interest registry. Many of the properties are rentals in Whanganui, making Bates’ family one of the biggest private landlords in his electorate. Article Carl Bates has been unveiled as the MP who failed to declare at least 25 rentals on the MP registry, using a family trust to shield himself from disclosure requirements after the election.

No doubt like the rest of you I have been watching the events in America with intense interest. Charlie Kirk’s murder has attracted an incredible amount of attention given he had no formal position or role in American politics. He is someone who always frustrated me. He was hailed as an intellectual on the right and praised for his willingness to debate issues with left wing opponents on University Campuses.

Biden, Trump and the leaders of Western Europe have succeeded by their incoherent behaviour in doing what would have been unimaginable 20 years ago: alienating the very nations that they most needed to keep on their side. They are now weeping into their beer (or Diet Coke, in The Donald’s case). “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China,” Trump wrote on Friday, Sept 5 on his Truth Social.

‘Shared values,’ ‘like-minded partners,’ the ‘rules-based order,’ and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ have become the Five Eyes nations’ favourite rhetorical weapons in their contest with declared adversaries. Words matter. Sometimes they matter more than weapons. They shape the battlefield of public consciousness.