Due to popular demand, here is another edition of Mid-Week Politics from the staff at Right Minds. We will endeavour to make this a regular series.
Killing Cows
On Thursday last week, 35 MPs, from across all parties announced they want to reduce our pastoral stock by 35%, in an effort to make the country a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. The biggest problem here, other than the logistics of going farm-by-farm to shoot one in three cows, is that New Zealand dairy has relatively low carbon dioxide emissions compared to other counties. If this policy were implemented it would raise global CO2 output as demand for milk would remain unchanged.
Bipartisan Spies
In a rare bipartisan move, every party other than the Greens supported a measure to make the currently illegal spying on New Zealanders completely legal. The bill comes with a provision that spying on Kiwis will only take place if there are issues of national security at stake. Those responsible for flouting the previous law have assured us they will strictly keep within the provisions of the new law, probably.
War Non-Crimes
Nicky Hager recently released allegations that NZ troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan by botching a raid that resulted in civilian deaths. There is one big problem with these accusations: according the the New Zealand Defense Force, our troops have never operated in any of the villages mentioned in the book. Oops.
Angry Watermelons
The Labour-Greens released a joint fiscal rules statement last week, something opined on by one of our writers, but not even those on the left are happy. Former Green MP Sue Bradford described it as a "sell out [of] everything that your party was originally set out to achieve" and labeled them "a party of capitalism." These statements give further credibility to the "watermelon theory" - that the Green party was communism in a green shell all along. Although, perhaps no longer? Time will tell.
Maori Kings
In the latest One News poll, the Maori Party would hold the balance of power. This change comes hot on the heels of a dispute between Labour Leader Andrew Little and the so-called Maori King. So far, no one has been able to determine if the increased support for the Maori Party was due to the king's endorsement of them, or due to Andrew Little asking Maori to vote for Labour instead.
Strangely enough, this change seems to come at the expense of NZ First, and Jacinda's rise to second place as preferred PM at the expense of Bill English. Is this just a rogue poll or will the so-called Maori King make the Maori Party the king- or queenmaker?