Former All Blacks captain Taine Randell has thrown his hat in the ring to contest the Tukituki electorate for New Zealand First. He brings a wealth of business and fisheries knowledge, coming in hot on energy, immigration, and regional economic issues, all of which sit squarely in NZ First’s wheelhouse. What a fish for the party to land!
Taine Randell
The centre-right had its own moment of intrigue with James Christmas jumping ship from National to Act. He was tipped as future Attorney-General for National so the defection is significant. The internet was instantly abuzz questioning how the guy who worked for Mr Treaty Chris Finlayson would fit with anti-co-governance Act. Some also got themselves in a flap about Christmas being “gay, Māori, and vegan”. Why the first two would be a problem in 2026 I don’t know. In any case, I endeavoured to find out the truth and Christmas confirmed to me that while he is definitely gay, he is not Māori or vegan. I will dedicate more time to his co-governance views in the future, but rest assured they aren’t the same as Finlayson’s. He finds out this week if he will be the candidate for Act in Tāmaki (my electorate).
Māngere doctor Timoti Te Moke has withdrawn from the Green Party’s candidate selection process and will run instead as an independent, citing a desire to maintain his own policies, and dissatisfaction with his low provisional list ranking. Newsroom reports he also said the Greens don’t have a true understanding of what it’s like to come from an economically deprived urban area and that “it was very hard to connect with them.”
And that brings us, inevitably, to Christopher Luxon. Because again we find ourselves with another lot of coup rumours. Yesterday, Luxon insisted repeatedly that he has the full support of his caucus. Sadly, the only time a leader has to say that is when he does not.
My assessment of things is that the end of the road is nigh for the Prime Minister. He can not continue fending off these attacks. And I no longer think he should. Leadership coups are messy and difficult to get right, but the polls are heading nowhere good and Luxon seems unwilling to do anything to correct his course. He chases votes he will never get while New Zealand First robs the nest where neglected and increasingly frustrated National voters languish.
We are finally at the point where virtually any combination of senior National MPs would present a more palatable option to the people of New Zealand than Christopher Luxon. He has the choice to continue to fight or put party and country first and fall on his sword. With Labour ahead in the polls on the back of doing absolutely nothing, it is clear that the electorate has rejected him. Time to resign, Prime Minister. And if he won’t, National needs to get brave and take him out.
New Zealand Fuel Shock: Holding… for now
Stable, but drifting in the wrong direction. New Zealand has around 56 days of petrol, 45 days of diesel, and 47 days of jet fuel when shipments are included and Christopher Luxon has been quick to reassure the public there is “no risk” of disruption, with confirmed orders stretching into June.
But this is the second consecutive drop in fuel stocks, and in-country diesel, the lifeblood of the economy, is sitting at just over 20 days. The real issue is exposure. New Zealand is at the far end of global fuel supply chains, and while the worst of the global oil shock hasn’t fully landed yet, it is clearly on its way.
🇦🇺 Russia mocks Albo and refinery burns
New Zealand’s fuel situation is not a bed of roses, but spare a thought for Australia. In an incredible feat of cringe, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood up at a press conference to announce that he had secured 100 million litres of diesel from overseas. Framed as a decisive intervention to stabilise supply, the sad reality is that this is roughly a day’s worth of national consumption. The announcement has been widely mocked in and outside Australia. Russia, in particular, had a good ol’ chuckle saying Australia is “saving itself one day at a time”.
Australia is on struggle street because it relies heavily on imports, with just two operational refineries left. That’s manageable in stable times, but has become a major problem when global supply chains are disrupted as they are now. This week things got even worse when a massive fire tore through the Viva Energy refinery in Geelong (one of those two remaining facilities) triggering explosions and forcing emergency services to battle a large-scale blaze. That refinery supplies around 50% of Victoria’s fuel and roughly 10% of national demand.
Consequently, petrol production has fallen to around 60% capacity, with diesel and aviation fuel also affected. Analysts estimate millions of litres per day will now need to be sourced from overseas just to plug the gap. There’s plenty of online speculation about “coincidences,” but my goodness is it bad luck.
🇭🇺 Hungary’s Election: Regime change, reset, or blip?
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is out after 16 years in power. Péter Magyar has stormed to victory and Brussels is celebrating this as Hungary “returning to Europe.” However, interpreting Magyar’s impressive two-thirds victory as a wholesale rejection of Orbánism isn’t right because Magyar is not an outsider. He is a product of the system he just defeated. A former insider who has repositioned himself as a more competent, less corrupt, alternative. He has already signalled he will maintain a hardline stance on immigration, keep the border infrastructure, and continue prioritising Hungarian sovereignty. Even on Ukraine, where Brussels hoped for a sharp pivot, the shift looks more like moderation than transformation.
Peter Magyar and lots of flags. Reuters.
What has changed is not ideology so much as method. Under Orbán, Hungary defined itself in opposition to the European Union by weaponising vetoes, provoking confrontation, and turning Brussels into an external baddie. Billions in EU funds were frozen, and Hungary increasingly isolated itself. Magyar’s strategy appears to be to retain the substance of national sovereignty while abandoning the theatrics that made Hungary a constant irritant. His rise reflects a reorganisation within Hungary’s conservative political space, not its replacement. The Left is practically non-existent.
For years, Orbán’s repeated electoral victories were framed as evidence of democratic decline. Now that he has lost decisively, the same system is being celebrated as a triumph of democratic renewal. He is many things, but how is Orbán a “dictator” when he peacefully conceded the defeat and congratulated his opponent.
Those who celebrated Magyar’s victory including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, will not have been impressed with his tweet a couple of days after the election:
Without any further comment. 🇭🇺🤝🇺🇸 From President Donald Trump about Peter Magyar:
“He’s a good man. I think he’s going to do a good job.”
Far North drama becomes NZ First vs Act showdown
If you thought the Far North District Council saga might quietly resolve itself, think again. At the centre of it all is the council’s decision to press ahead with appointing hapū representatives to its Te Kuaka committee with full speaking and voting rights, despite a week of absolute uproar. The vote wasn’t close: 9–1, with Davina Smolders as the lone holdout. But what started as a local governance dispute has now evolved into deft jabs between New Zealand First and Act.
Act has seized on the issue that unelected people shouldn’t have votes. Their solution is a simple Member’s Bill to strip voting rights from all unelected committee members, iwi or otherwise. Enter Shane Jones, who initially tore into Smolders’ complaints as “pathetic” and “perverse,” arguing that running to Wellington over local issues was a failure of local leadership. But then, to keep everyone on their toes, New Zealand First clarified that they are absolutely anti-co-governance.
Winston Peters left us with no doubt as to why the government is so sluggish on co-governance, tweeting:
“We do support Cameron Luxton’s bill, but there is a reason why it’s a members bill and not a government bill when Act is already sitting in government - and NZ First are not the ones stopping it.”
National is well and truly called out.
Sir Rod Drury under investigation at Xero, now police are involved
Former Xero employee, Ally Naylor, has laid a complaint with police over Rod Drury’s alleged sexual misconduct dating back to the mid-2010s, when Drury was chief executive and she was a junior staff member. She alleges multiple instances of unwanted sexual contact, often occurring at Drury’s apartment under the guise of work-related meetings.
These concerns were not raised for the first time in 2026. Naylor made a formal complaint to Xero back in 2017 via their whistleblower system, triggering an internal investigation, the outcome of which has never been publicly disclosed. At the time, she chose not to go to police, due to fear about the impact on her career. Naylor has been explicit that her decision to go public, and escalate to police, was influenced by Drury being named 2026 New Zealander of the Year. She describes essentially that she could not stomach seeing him being celebrated after she saw no justice for what he did to her.
Drury denies all wrongdoing, saying he does not accept the characterisation of events, while also offering apologies for any “distress” caused. Xero has now commissioned an external review into both the allegations and how they were handled at the time.
Fonterra’s Mega Payout
There’s been a rare bright spot in the economy this week with Fonterra delivering a $5.4 billion payout to farmers in the largest single cash distribution in New Zealand’s history. Around 8000 farmer shareholders have received roughly $400,000 each on average, driven by the $3.2 billion capital return from the sale of its Mainland consumer business.
Farmers are overwhelmingly using the money to pay down debt, reinvest in their operations, and strengthen their financial position. However, in regional economies like Southland, hundreds of millions are expected to flow through local businesses over the coming months.
Goldie limps closer to dropping the axe on the BSA
There is something uniquely Kiwi about the way Paul Goldsmith appears to be teasing out the dismantling the Broadcasting Standards Authority. First he was “tempted” to scrap it. Then he was “leaning” that way. Now we’ve arrived at the wonderfully non-committal “probably” scrap it. At this rate, by mid-winter we may get a firm “quite possibly, yes”. Yet, for all the dithering, the direction of travel is that the BSA is being gently walked toward the exit.
Of course, scrapping one regulator doesn’t necessarily mean less regulation. It usually means a new one with a longer name and more flowcharts. The talk now is of a unified media authority that would oversee everything from traditional news to online platforms. Nothing says “simplification” like merging three systems into one.
Woke weather warnings rejected by Wairoa Mayor
There was a moment this week where New Zealand briefly entertained the idea that cyclones might, in fact, have political leanings. That came courtesy of Wairoa Mayor Craig Little, who described the rush to declare states of emergency during Cyclone Vaianu as a bit “woke.” He’s not actually saying the rain has pronouns. His point is that we shouldn’t hit the big red “state of emergency” button unless we genuinely need it. In his view, Wairoa was prepared, the forecasts didn’t justify it, and pulling that lever too early risks turning it into just another alert people ignore. The complication, of course, is Cyclone Gabrielle is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
In response to the mayor’s comments, Christopher Luxon cheerfully declared he’s “happy to be woke” if it keeps people alive.
🇺🇸 American Dirty Politics: Democrats cash in Swalwell’s dirty laundry
From 2013, Eric Swalwell served as a Democratic congressman and until this week was in the running to be Governor of California. He didn’t just “fall from grace,” he was eviscerated by the Democrat Party machinery with surgical precision. That is not to say it wasn’t thoroughly deserved, but within roughly 100 hours, he went from frontrunner for California governor to political radioactive waste.
Multiple women have accused him of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape, all of which he denies. But what is a true indictment on the political system, and the media apparatus around it, is that apparently everyone already knew he was a sex pest and had known for a long time. Rumours of inappropriate behaviour are now being described within Democratic circles as an “open secret”. Moral outrage only activates when it becomes politically expedient.
The response from Democratic leadership once the attack on Swalwell launched was immediate and ruthless. Allies actively moved to end his career. Nancy Pelosi, his longtime patron, told him to step down. Party leadership coordinated messaging and his endorsements vanished overnight. As one commenter put it: you lose a congressman, but you protect the machine.
Swalwell’s detonation also served as the perfect time for a Republican facing his own misconduct controversy to fall on his sword hoping that the existing scandal would provide cover. Tony Gonzales had previously admitted to a sexual relationship with a staffer. A situation that was compounded by the fact that she took her own life 2025.
Hoping to avoid becoming collateral damage is Swalwell’s best mate Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego. He has quickly moved from defending Swalwell to claiming he was misled by him, describing his pal as living a “double life”. Nevermind that there is some pretty compelling video being circulated that appears to show Gallego present as Swalwell drunkenly paws at a “sex worker”.
Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell and
Senator Ruben Gallego in happier times.
They all wish they lived in New Zealand where the media go hide under their desks if something is “unsubstantiated”.
They all wish they lived in New Zealand where the media go hide under their desks if something is “unsubstantiated”.
Are you ready to be taxed to death?
Labour’s response to a tax wish list published by Tax Justice Aotearoa has been enthusiastic nodding paired with a firm refusal to actually agree to anything. The proposals are about as subtle as a brick through a window: a comprehensive capital gains tax, a wealth tax, an inheritance tax, higher income taxes, and just for good measure, a few extra levies on businesses. In short, if it moves, tax it; if it doesn’t, tax it when it’s inherited.
Labour’s response was: “Some really good suggestions.” Deborah Russell warmly praised the ideas, but refused to say whether Labour’s existing capital gains tax goes far enough, instead retreating to the well-worn line that she’s “comfortable” with it. Meanwhile, Chris Hipkins is insisting there will be no additional tax policies this election. The policy is settled, but also potentially evolving. The ideas are good, but not necessarily adoptable. The tax goes far enough, but maybe doesn’t.
Even commentators are starting to raise the disconnect, with growing chatter about “mixed signals” and confusion over what Labour actually intends to do. Voters are essentially being told “don’t worry, we’re not raising more taxes,” but also, “we’re very interested in all these new ways of raising more taxes.”
I would like to write more about what Labour is up to, but they are determined to keep their heads down and do as little as possible. They put out no press releases in more than a fortnight which is insane in an election year. But why would they when they can promise nothing, present a largely unchanged team, and still beat National in the polls.
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In short - other stuff that happened
🇺🇸 These two New Statesman pieces paint a picture of a growing political and cultural divide among young people, driven not just by men drifting right, but by young women moving sharply to the left. One article explores the rise of a highly online, emotionally driven “femosphere” of young women whose activism, pessimism, and alienation from men and mainstream society are shaping their worldview, while the accompanying polling shows this isn’t fringe behaviour but a broad trend. Young women are more left-wing, more pessimistic about the future, less trusting of men, and increasingly unwilling to tolerate differing political views in relationships.
They’re worth reading because they go beyond the usual “manosphere panic” narrative and instead explain the full picture of generational fragmentation, and how identity, economics, social media, and global issues are reshaping politics at a deep cultural level.
Ani O'Brien comes from a digital marketing background, she has been heavily involved in women's rights advocacy and is a founding council member of the Free Speech Union. This article was originally published on Ani's Substack Site and is published here with kind permission.
- Dame Lisa Carrington is pregnant with her first child, due in September, but still intends to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The eight-time Olympic gold medallist also still plans to compete at World Cup events in May.
- Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced an expansion of cancer infusion services, including 14 new centres and upgrades to 14 existing sites, funded by a $210 million investment to increase treatment capacity and improve access across the country.
- 🇺🇸 New Zealand basketballer Charlisse Leger-Walker was selected by the Connecticut Sun in the 2026 WNBA draft, becoming the first Kiwi to be drafted. The 24 year old, recently won an NCAA championship with UCLA.
- National MP Rima Nakhle has introduced a member’s bill that would ban taxpayer funding for gangs and organisations with gang ties.
- 🇺🇸 Britney Spears has entered a rehabilitation facility following a DUI charge on March 4. She was taken into custody for erratic driving and having an unknown substance in her car, and has a court appearance scheduled for May 4.
- Moana Pasifika will disband at the end of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season due to financial and operational challenges. New Zealand Rugby remains open to working with potential investors to keep the team in the competition.
- An internal Ministry of Social Development briefing stated there was “no evidence” that hundreds of New Zealanders were sleeping rough, describing it as a “narrative,” but then the ministry later said those comments were inaccurate and did not reflect its position.
- 🇦🇺 Australia’s Federal Court has allowed an appeal by the Lesbian Action Group, finding a tribunal made legal errors when rejecting its bid to hold women-only events excluding transgender women. The court did not rule on whether the exclusion is lawful, but clarified that exemptions permitting discrimination can be allowed under the Sex Discrimination Act and must be properly assessed.
- Former Tauranga City councillor Andrew Hollis has been charged with 35 tax-related offences, including alleged income tax and GST evasion, and providing false information. Hollis is due to reappear in court on May 7, with each charge carrying a potential penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment and a $50,000 fine.
- A New Zealand teacher has had her registration cancelled for serious misconduct after the tribunal found she engaged in inappropriate behaviour with students, including discussing her sex life, showing Tinder photos, and verbally abusing students.
- 🇦🇺 Shane Warne’s son Jackson has claimed a Covid-19 vaccine contributed to his father’s 2022 death. Warne, aged 52, died of a heart attack in Thailand.
- Auckland man, Shelvin Kavish Swamy, was sentenced to three months’ community detention after fraudulently obtaining over $28,000 in Covid-19 business support payments, spending more than $16,000 on alcohol, fast food, and petrol. He pleaded guilty, repaid $24,000, and was ordered to repay the remainder.
- Jeremy Frank Hobbs has been sentenced to eight and a half years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women. Police are now seeking potential additional victims, as Hobbs was active in the Christchurch dance community and others may not yet have come forward.
- 🇬🇧 A BBC investigation alleging organised fraud in the UK asylum system found some illegal migrants are reportedly fabricating claims of being gay to secure asylum.
- 🇪🇸 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, has been charged with multiple corruption-related offences, including embezzlement and influence peddling, following a two-year investigation into allegations she used her position to advance her private career.
- 🇺🇸 Singer D4vd (David Burke), 21, has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the decomposed body of 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in his car. His lawyers deny any involvement in her death.
- Wellington police are investigating a man accused of approaching several young women and offering them money and to be their “Sugar Daddy” via handwritten notes, with reports of his behaviour escalating since late 2025.
- 🇦🇺 Victoria Police are investigating historical sexual assault allegations made by actor Ruby Rose against singer Katy Perry, relating to an alleged incident at a Melbourne nightclub in 2010. Perry has denied the claims as “categorically false,” and no charges have been laid.
- 🇦🇺 Australian Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has announced a proposed immigration crackdown targeting migrants from non-democratic countries, arguing those from liberal democracies are more likely to share Australian values.
- The Crusaders will no longer use horses in their pre-match tradition when they move to Christchurch’s new Te Kaha Stadium due to health and safety constraints. The tradition dates back to 1996.
🇺🇸 These two New Statesman pieces paint a picture of a growing political and cultural divide among young people, driven not just by men drifting right, but by young women moving sharply to the left. One article explores the rise of a highly online, emotionally driven “femosphere” of young women whose activism, pessimism, and alienation from men and mainstream society are shaping their worldview, while the accompanying polling shows this isn’t fringe behaviour but a broad trend. Young women are more left-wing, more pessimistic about the future, less trusting of men, and increasingly unwilling to tolerate differing political views in relationships.
They’re worth reading because they go beyond the usual “manosphere panic” narrative and instead explain the full picture of generational fragmentation, and how identity, economics, social media, and global issues are reshaping politics at a deep cultural level.
Ani O'Brien comes from a digital marketing background, she has been heavily involved in women's rights advocacy and is a founding council member of the Free Speech Union. This article was originally published on Ani's Substack Site and is published here with kind permission.
