Cam Slater: Government Gaslighting Over VPN Ban Plans Exposed

The National led government is flat out denying it is even considering a ban or restriction on VPNs. Education Minister Erica Stanford’s office insists no such thing is on the table as part of their social media harm legislation. Funny how that works when documents and sources say otherwise.

This looks like classic gaslighting. One minute reports surface about exploring a VPN ban or forcing platforms to block them; the next the government claims it was never a thing. Pull the other one.

Cam Slater: Luxon Chases Nigerian Princes While Kiwis Struggle at Home

National leader Christopher Luxon has rolled out yet another grand trade policy announcement, promising to prioritise free trade deals with seven countries if re-elected. Brazil, Switzerland, Argentina, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uruguay and the European Free Trade Association are all in his sights, with a second wave to follow.

This is the same mob that keeps telling us they are delivering for Kiwis. Yet here they are, campaigning on trade deals with places many average New Zealanders could not point to on a map. Luxon and his Trade Spokesperson Todd McClay stood at the Port of Auckland to spruik the plan, talking up the next billion customers and untapped opportunities worth billions.

Cam Slater: Explosive Leaked Documents Prove Jackson’s Wife’s Bullying Review Did Happen.....

Explosive Leaked Documents Prove Willie Jackson’s Wife’s Bullying Review Did Happen and Expose a Weapons-Grade Cover-Up

If you thought the stench around Willie Jackson and his missus Tania Rangiheuea at the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA) could not get any worse, think again. Over the past week, I have hammered Jackson with two exclusives exposing his alleged bullying, union-busting and cronyism to shield his wife from credible accusations of running a toxic workplace.

Cam Slater: Willie Jackson Accused of Bullying, Union-Busting and Cronyism....

Exclusive: Willie Jackson Accused of Bullying, Union-Busting and Cronyism to Protect His Missus

Matt McCarten, once one of Labour’s closest allies, has laid a formal complaint with Speaker Gerry Brownlee alleging that Willie Jackson MP used his political muscle to:

Cam Slater: Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits.....

Exposed: The Hypocritical Nexus Between Otago University Academics and Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits in New Zealand’s Tobacco Wars

This leak exposes a rotten core in New Zealand’s tobacco control scene, where hypocrisy reigns and public health takes a back seat to agendas.

Cam Slater: Luxon Wets Himself Again as Seymour Calls to Ditch the Paris Farce

David Seymour has it spot on, as usual. The ACT leader is pushing for New Zealand to pull out of the Paris Agreement unless it is serious overhauled to allow for realistic emissions targets. He says the deal is broken, with net-zero goals that ignore science and our country’s realities. Those targets are hammering households, businesses and farmers, forcing good people off the land, gutting regions and jacking up prices for food, power and everything else we make. Seymour wants reform, a revisit of our emissions plans and a split-gas approach like Uruguay uses for methane. Fair call, I say.

Cam Slater: Finally, a Crack at the Grocery Duopoly - Willis’s Plan to Bring Down Prices

After years of Kiwis getting hammered at the checkout, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis has stepped up with a plan to shake up the supermarket sector. She’s promising to fast-track new supermarkets into the market, aiming to crank up competition and, fingers crossed, deliver some real relief on grocery bills. This comes hot on the heels of announcements from RNZ and Stuff, where Willis laid out her blueprint to release the stranglehold held by the big two: Woolworths and Foodstuffs.

Cam Slater: Labour’s NCEA Debacle - Hypocrisy, Incompetence and a Failing System

The Labour Party’s latest display of rank hypocrisy and jaw-dropping incompetence is a doozy. The New Zealand Herald dropped a bombshell, revealing that Education Minister Erica Stanford bent over backwards to get Labour’s Education Spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime up to speed on the Government’s plan to overhaul the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). Did Prime seize the opportunity to engage in meaningful cross-party collaboration? Nope. She either ghosted the invites or flat-out declined them, only to later cry foul about not being consulted. If this isn’t a masterclass in political cynicism or sheer ineptitude, I don’t know what is.

Cam Slater: Labour’s Fiscal Fiasco - Treasury Exposes Ardern’s Economic Sabotage

This report is a wake-up call. Labour’s Covid tyranny wasn’t just about masks and mandates; it was about fiscal vandalism on an epic scale.

The New Zealand Herald dropped a bombshell this week, waving a Treasury report that rips the lid off Labour’s catastrophic mishandling of the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The verdict is in: Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and their sidekick Chris Hipkins spent like drunken sailors, ignored official advice, and left our economy in tatters. This isn’t just a bad report card: it’s a scathing indictment of Labour’s fiscal recklessness, a legacy of debt and despair that’ll haunt Kiwis for generations. Ardern’s fairytale book might paint her as some saintly saviour but this Treasury report exposes her for what she really is: an economic wrecking ball.

Cam Slater: Electoral Law Shake-Up - A Victory for Common Sense or a Storm in a Teacup?

If you want to vote, get off your backside and enrol. It’s not rocket science and it’s not oppression. It’s just adulthood.

New Zealand’s electoral laws are getting a much-needed haircut and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is standing firm despite the predictable howling from the usual suspects. The government’s proposed changes under the Electoral Amendment Bill, as reported by Stuff, aim to tidy up what they call an ‘unsustainable’ system. The big moves? Scrapping same-day voter enrolment and requiring people to enrol by midnight the Sunday before advance voting starts – 13 days before election day. Oh, and a ban on prisoner voting, because, apparently, some folks think armed robbers should pick our MPs from behind bars.

Cam Slater: Te Pāti Māori’s Haka Tantrum - A Disgrace to Parliament and a Middle Finger to New Zealanders

Te Pāti Māori’s contempt for parliament is a microcosm of their broader contempt for a unified New Zealand. If they can’t play by the rules, they don’t deserve a seat at the table.

The recent suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs for their disruptive haka during a parliamentary vote over the Treaty Principles Bill is yet another low point in their tiresome saga of performative nonsense.

Cameron Slater: The Waitangi Tribunal’s Day of Reckoning - Time to Clip Its Wings

Well, well, well, it looks like the Waitangi Tribunal’s ivory tower is finally getting a shake-up. The government has announced a review into the tribunal’s role, and ACT’s David Seymour isn’t mincing words, calling it ‘activist’ and out of control.

About bloody time! For too long, this unelected, self-important body has strutted around like it’s the ultimate arbiter of all things Māori – lording it over New Zealand with a sanctimonious air that’d make even the most pious preacher blush. The truth is, we reached Peak Māori years ago, and the public is fed up with the endless pandering to what the late, great, Sir Bob Jones called “Māori wonderfulness”. The tribunal’s had its day – it’s time to wind it up and send it packing.

Cam Slater: You Stepped on a Landmine and Now You Are Whining About It

David Seymour likes to think he’s the smartest man in any room. It is this hubris that is getting him in trouble, along with his penchant for breaking Cam’s First Rule of Politics: explaining is losing.

Cam Slater: Could Nicola Willis replace Luxon?

Labour seem to think that the public believe Nicola Willis is a cross between Cruella de Vil and Miranda Priestly of The Devil Wears Prada. They can’t believe that she would do any better than Christopher Luxon as National leader, but they need to get out of their echo chamber a little more and listen to what voters actually think.

Wasting money on dumb projects is a sacred cow that Labour will defend to the last, whether it is the incomprehensibly expensive ferry project, the endlessly increasing public service staffing levels or overpaid, useless bureaucrats working from home when people with real jobs have to go to work.

Cam Slater: What Luxon’s Poll Numbers Mean for National MPs

The terrible preferred PM poll for Christopher Luxon is a leading indicator of a fall in the polls for National. If the public don’t like the leader, then they will vote for another party – no matter what the policies. It happened to Andrew Little, so he quit. It happened to Simon Bridges so he got rolled. It will happen to National before the election unless Luxon discovers how to appeal to voters.

Cam Slater: Is Chris Bishop Really Doing the Numbers?

Rumours in Wellington are that Chris Bishop has 20 of caucus behind him, meaning he only needs four more to roll Luxon.

Extensive reporting efforts have been unable to confirm this – mainly because no one actually likes Chris Bishop in caucus. The thought that he could get 20 votes lined up before the coup is really on is likely to be a malicious rumour.

Cam Slater: Key, Joyce and McCully Secret Meetings

The tip line is running hot saying old National warhorses John Key, Steven Joyce and Murray McCully are having secret meetings to discuss the future of National. These meetings are hosted in private, but readers are saying they are seeing the three of them together regularly.

This can only be bad news for Luxon. McCully is as cunning as a sh*t-house rat, Key is wonderful with the polling numbers and Joyce is one of the few genuinely world-class political strategists NZ has ever produced.

Cam Slater: Is Paula Bennett Being Bought in to Knife Luxon

Word on the street is that Paula Bennett, after her stellar fundraising efforts before the election is being bought in as National Party President to replace the rather hapless Sylvia “Who” Wood.

In fairness to Paula she is a good fundraiser and wonderful at ratf**king caucus members who aren't doing what she wants them to do. Apparently the caucus are a bit worried none of them are quite good enough to knife Luxon, so they are colluding around the Bennett campaign for Party President so they have someone who can deliver the bad news to Luxon.

Cam Slater: There is no Luxon Faction

As Christopher Luxon tries to defend his leadership against the pissed off National caucus, he has one major problem beyond his terrible poll numbers.

There is no Luxon faction.

Cam Slater: Do National MPs Support Luxon?

Sources inside the National caucus say things are pretty dire for Luxon. Not surprisingly Luxon will tell you he has the full confidence of his caucus. Publicly most of caucus will tell you they do have full confidence in Luxon. But the numbers are being run and MPs are being lobbied by potential replacements.