JC: Labour Is in Free Fall

Labour is in ‘free’ fall. Any hope of them being parachuted into power on the basis of the nonsense we’ve heard so far is about as good as discovering fairies at the bottom of the garden. Maybe they did. They are certainly ‘away with the fairies’. Every policy they have released so far is FREE. Can you believe it? Three FREE GP visits, FREE maternity scans, public transport fares capped then FREE rides, FREE prescriptions. I have no doubt this is just the start and there will be plenty more from where these moments of brilliance emanated.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We've learned not to underestimate Barbara Edmonds

Okay, so we’ve had the first little parry of the election campaign, with Nicola Willis calling a news conference to accuse Labour of numbers that don’t add up, and then Barbara Edmonds responding.

I’m going to call this - by the slimmest of margins - for Edmonds. I think she actually won this exchange purely by holding her ground, sounding confident and pointing out that she doesn’t actually have to have public numbers that add up just yet.

Peter Dunne: Chris Hipkins' State Of The Nation Speech

There has been much criticism that Labour leader Chris Hipkins' so-called state of the nation speech to Auckland business leaders this week was a missed opportunity. According to these critics, Hipkins should have used the occasion to spell out some major policy details to kick-start his party's election campaign.

Chris Trotter: Hard Choices.

If she is serious about balancing the books, and restoring Pay Equity, Labour’s finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, cannot avoid imposing austerity on her party’s own voters.

LABOUR COULD WIN IN 2026, but the fiscal and monetary conservatism of its finance spokesperson makes victory increasingly unlikely. Barbara Edmonds promise to “balance the books” hasn’t just handed over Labour’s hopes of electoral victory to Fortune as hostages, it’s sold them into slavery.

Ani O'Brien: "Temu Chris" Thinks Big government with Labour's Future Fund

New Zealand Future Fund: Proof Labour never met a problem it couldn’t bureaucratise

It takes a special kind of political imagination to brand something as “the future” while simultaneously reviving the economic playbook of the 1970s. Perhaps Chris Hipkins will cling to the nickname “Temu Chris” because at least then no one will be calling him “Red Muldoon.” Surely nothing could be worse for the Labour leader than being “Piggy” in Dirty Dog sunnies.

Ele Ludemann: Labour hasn’t learned

Those who don’t learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them:

Labour’s Finance Spokesperson Barbara Edmonds has opened the door to a higher inflation target, meaning a Labour Government would tolerate higher costs for Kiwis.

Michael Reddell: Not much parliamentary scrutiny

This was the post I was planning to write this morning to mark Orr’s final day. That said, if the underlying events – deliberate attempts to mislead Parliament – were Orr’s doing, the post is more about the apparent uselessness of Parliament (specifically the Finance and Expenditure Committee) in holding him and the rest of the Bank (other MPC members, Board) to account. This is just one small example.

JC: Cooking Books the Edmonds’ Way

If you think you are about to read about recipes from the latest Edmonds cookbook, you are sadly mistaken. This is not so much about a cookbook as cooking the books. The subject is someone by the name of Edmonds but there the similarities end.

The Edmonds in question is Barbara; the best option Labour has to masquerade as opposition finance minister. To give Barbara her due she does have experience in tax law and tax policy. She studied law at Auckland University and then took a position with Inland Revenue in Wellington doing tax policy.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Labour Conference 2024 - the Party will Support Running on Capital / Asset Taxes in Election 2026.

Traders may be able to make a bit of money out of this Blog. How come? Since Labour obviously have a chance of winning Election 2026 & knowing they'll run on a platform of capital-asset taxes has far-reaching economic consequences. Obviously one cannot be 100% certain, though its all but a done deal. Its only partly due to former Revenue Minister Parker's lobbying efforts to that effect, in cahoots with Michael Wood. The main reason is that Labour's new Finance Spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, is a supporter, though she's disingenuously denying it.

Peter Dunne: The National-Labour political merry go-round looks set to carry on

In the early days of the fourth Labour Government then Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas frequently described the government’s sweeping reform approach as moving so quickly on a variety of fronts that it was impossible for the Opposition to keep up with the pace of change. But a few months later, then Deputy Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer was acknowledging that the government was suffering from “speed wobbles.”

Chris Trotter: Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.

WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity with the past – especially the distant past. To hear Labour’s shadow Minister of Finance offer the career of the Emperor Justinian as a cautionary tale about the dangers of excessive taxation was refreshing – and profoundly disappointing.

David Farrar: Grant goneburger

As I commented on four months ago, Grant robertson succeeded in his application to be Vice-Chancellor of otago university.

It is in one sense an unusual appointment. Normally VCs come from academia and have been Professors. Almost all the other VCs have PhDs:AUT – PhD (Oxford)