David Farrar: Hipkins announces he has discovered gravity!

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out a governing deal with New Zealand First. …

Winston has responded:

David Farrar: Hipkins hypocrisy

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins wasn’t happy when new ACT Party candidate Paul Henry said he’d need to “shoot” Hipkins, during a game of “shoot, shag, marry”.

His other options were Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and NZ First leader Winston Peters, who, given the options, he’d “shag”.

Mike's Minute: I don't blame Hipkins for having a crack, but tell him he's dreaming

I don’t blame Hipkins for having a crack, but tell him he's dreaming.

Having closed, or at least announced they are closing off, the absurd deals between local councils and Māori, once they get the new RMA laws up Hipkins suggests that this will lead to a lot of renegotiation of Treaty settlements.

It will do no such thing.

Ani O'Brien: Chris Hipkins is New Zealand's Teflon politician

Chippy the Accountability Houdini

Politics often rewards shamelessness. If a politician can survive the first bad headline, deny everything for long enough, and hang in there for the news cycle to move on, there is every chance the public will simply forget. Memories fade and journalists chase the next outrage. Before long the politician who should have been answering uncomfortable questions is back on television talking confidently about everyone else’s failures. Shamelessly.

Chris Hipkins appears to be betting his political future on exactly that phenomenon.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: Anyone else feeling sorry for Chris Hipkins?

Is anyone else feeling for Chris Hipkins right now?

He's having a terrible week, and it just looks bad. A large part of the blame has to rest with the people below him just not doing their job.

Jordan Williams: Chris Hipkins wants to tax your holiday home so you can pay for his

We all know politicians "take the piss" when it comes to entitlements. But have you seen the news about Chris Hipkins? He has taken it to a whole new level.

The most common rort is when MPs claim a tax-free Wellington accommodation allowance when they already own an apartment in Wellington. National's Louise Upston has been in the firing line for this – but at least she has the excuse of needing somewhere to stay in Wellington.

John MacDonald: Does Chris Hipkins know the meaning of integrity?

The reassurances from Labour leader Chris Hipkins that the party is no longer the smug, arrogant outfit we all got sick of three years ago are not only starting to sound hollow. They are hollow.

Because if any other party had recruited a top cop for its party list without the top cop telling police bosses about it until the very last minute, Hipkins and his crew would be going nuts.

John McLean: Hipkin's policy silence doesn't matter

Why the Labour Leader’s failure to disclose policy is irrelevant

Much has been made of Chris Hipkins not disclosing Labour Party policy positions in the lead-up to the November 2026 general election.

Hipkins’ ostensible reason for not (yet?) announcing policy is that he wanted to wait until after the Government delivered its budget on 28 May. He hints that he may begin to announce Labour policies in June.

Bob Edlin: The name that shall not be spoken in Parliament....

The name that shall not be spoken in Parliament – you can find it in the third paragraph below

By the time MPs had taken their seats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, The Post had named the official who (the newspaper contended) had received briefing notes from Z Energy and Fonterra which, curiously, have disappeared.

Colinxy: Why Is Labour Delaying Its Policy Announcements?

The politics of silence, vagueness, and strategic fog

Labour’s refusal to release its full policy platform is no mystery. It is a strategy, and not a particularly subtle one. When a party is confident, it releases policy early. When a party is terrified of how voters will react, it releases policy late, in fragments, or not at all.

Chris Hipkins’ Labour is firmly in the second category.

John MacDonald: Politicians have no idea what's important to us

Sometimes it feels like an easy thing to say that politicians have no idea what really matters to us. What’s important to us - the people who put them in their positions of power.

Today, it may be the easiest it’s ever been to say that sort of thing.

Let’s start with Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Who, I think, said one of the most arrogant things I’ve heard any politician say.

Mike's Minute: So yes, Chris Hipkins does think you're stupid

I asked yesterday whether Chris Hipkins thought we were stupid.

And as luck would have it, he answered our question – yes, he does.

First you have the Future Fund, a cornerstone policy, revelation that they aren't telling us who's money goes in and what sort of job creation they are expecting because they got bogged down in the Treaty issues, so we will need to wait until after the election.

Graham Adams: Hipkins drags out Phoney War with Coalition

After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939 there was an eight-month period in which there were a few brief skirmishes but very little significant fighting on land. The standoff in Western Europe was dubbed the “Phoney War”, the “Bore War”, and the “sitzkrieg” (“the sitting war” — in contrast to the blitzkrieg inflicted on Poland).

Military action was mainly carried out at sea until Hitler’s lightning invasion of Norway in April 1940 sparked serious hostilities.

Mike's Minute: Chris Hipkins is deluded

Is Chris Hipkins missing a gene?

Does he have a self-destructive predilection? Or is he just a pillock by nature?

He rolls into Auckland to tell the nation's biggest city and engine room in election year that she's all good and everyone has moved on from the lockdowns. His lockdowns.

Nicola Grigg: The mess Labour left us in.....

Nicola Grigg gave a powerful speech in Parliament to remind New Zealanders of the mess Labour left us in, and the work National are doing to fix it.....

Click to view

Guest Post: The Numbers do not Lie

A guest post from Owen Jennings on Kiwiblog:

Everyone seems to have an opinion on Christopher Luxon’s future. Why not? He is Prime Minster, after all. He has to be open to scrutiny.

But, is what we are encountering the normal, hurly burly of politics and strong media coverage? Or is there some other force at play? Some homework, using Artificial Intelligence, suggests there is and it’s something that should concern every New Zealand voter.

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand's indigenous wealth transfer scam

Transcript:
“Radio New Zealand, is also a maori broadcaster in all but name and its granular source of funding.

 
Radio New Zealand is taxpayer funded, but separately from the funding dedicated to other Maori propaganda agencies.

We are in effect paying twice to hear about what a bunch of entitled thieving pricks we are.

The whole idea of Maui broadcasting has become a mission to transfer more taxpayer funds into the hands of Maoris.....”

Click to view  

Ani O'Brien: More advice ignored, Hipkins prioritised vaccine targets over safety

What the documents reveal about dose spacing, myocarditis risk, and political priorities

You can read my first dive into the Official Information Act requests here.

In this article, I focus on the tension between what evolving evidence and medical experts were advising about the spacing between first and second doses of the vaccine and the decisions regarding spacing made by the New Zealand Government, plus the way promotion of the vaccine may have breached law.1

Ani O'Brien: He knew - The paper trail Chris Hipkins can’t explain

Either there was a massive conspiracy to deceive the Minister in charge or that Minister is lying

I genuinely didn’t know what I was looking for when I went searching through FYI.org on Friday night. I was confused by timelines that weren’t making sense and increasingly implausible deniability.

Ele Ludemann: Incompetence or worse?

Derek Cheng writes : Chris Hipkins says he never got the ‘unnecessary risk’ advice on teens and Covid vaccine. This Cabinet paper shows otherwise:

Then-Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins received advice about the potential risks of a second Covid-19 vaccine dose for teenagers at a time when tens of thousands of them had yet to get a follow-up jab.