Ryan Bridge: Centrist voters will be confused so far this election

If you're a centrist, maybe softer, swing voter in this election, you're right to feel, so far at least, the whole thing's a bit of a ruse.

The left and right blocs are basically going to run campaigns against each other, rather than for something else.

How do we know this?

Ryan Bridge: Land, inheritance taxes incoming?!

Everything in this election's just been turned on its head in 24 hours for three reasons.

And it's not because of National.

Firstly, yesterday, Chris Hipkins was asked if he'd tell us how he would deal with TOP, what the caveats would be.

Ryan Bridge: There's no golden outcome for Luxon's leadership contest

Here's how this morning is going to play out.

At 9:30am, any member of National's caucus can call a no-confidence vote in Luxon's leadership.

The party's constitution calls these guys the Parliamentary Section.

They vote. It's majority rules. If there's a vacancy, i.e. if Luxon is goneburger, then they elect a new leader or leaders.

Ryan Bridge: Luxon's leadership is in question, yet again

Here we go again.

For the second time this year, there's a story in the media about National MPs doing the numbers on Luxon.

At least one of them is talking to Thomas Coughlan at the Herald.

Ryan Bridge: Tony Randle is the sort of brain needed around the council table

Tony Randle was the exactly the type of person, the sort of brain, you want sitting round a council table.

Especially given the types who now seem to occupy many of the seats.

It's very sad to hear of his passing. My condolences to his family and those who knew him well.

Ryan Bridge: Luxon blindsiding his colleagues puts him in a tough position

Christopher Luxon's going rogue.

The risk when making constitutional policy pronouncements 92 days out from an election, blindsiding your colleagues and diverting attention from your key messaging, is that you look erratic.

Ryan Bridge: Unemployment isn't as bad as it seems

A couple of things on the unemployment number that came out yesterday.

It looks worse than actually it is because a bunch of people decided they would start looking for work in the second quarter than the one before it.

So, there are a bunch of reasons for this happening, but basically you don't really know.

Ryan Bridge: Is it too late for the Nats to roll Luxon?

The battle for the right and centre-right vote is the most interesting thing about the election.

Because it's the battle that will determine who wears the pants in the next government.

I'm still of the view that the coalition will be re-elected. The make-up of the cabinet is what they're now fighting for.

Ryan Bridge: David Brent strikes again

Did you see the news Prime Minister's pep talk to business leaders on Friday?

The business chamber boss said Rotorua's had its sharpest fall in business confidence in a decade, and business are wondering how long they can actually stay in business.

Luxon's reply is what got people talking.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Both Labour and National are tiptoeing around Winston

Did you see even Don Brash reckons Luxon should fire Winston as Foreign Minister?

Before anyone gets their hopes up, this never going to happen. If the PM cut Winston loose, the government would fall apart. That would kill not only Luxon's current term but his ambitions for a second.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Winston's right about one thing in this situation

Winston Peters has a point - but is making it terribly.

In fact, if you've been following what happened in the House yesterday, it doesn't actually make all that much sense. But the bit the media is focusing on is the part where Winston tells Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country".

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Why are the oil and gas companies scared to invest in us?

There are two ways to look at this oil and gas announcement today.

Aussie outfit EnZed Energy's been given the nod to go have a sniff around off the coast of Taranaki.

That's important because they're the first company to be given that right since the Ardern ban. But there's already talk online about the fact this was the only application. There was nobody else applying for this permit, and it's just to have a poke around.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: What do the latest inflation numbers really mean for the 'squeezed middle'?

Nicola Willis will like the inflation number that's come out. More importantly, she'll like the story that number is telling.

Remember, her target audience is the squeezed middle. This is the battleground. This is the fight for the soft centre at the election: Labour versus National. These are the voters both parties are targeting.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Do we need a moratorium on data centres?

There's a bit of having your cake and eating it too when it comes to people who turn their noses up at these data centres.

The Greens are jumping up and down about them. Of course they are. They say they'll suck up power from the grid, push up electricity prices and create only a handful of jobs. That's the problem, apparently.

Ryan Bridge: Would we send our troops to fight the Houthis?

It's possible our defence force could send personnel to the Middle East to help stop the Houthis.

They're the group in Yemen, backed by Iran, currently firing drones and cruise missiles at Saudi tankers.

Ryan Bridge: Is our data safe with AI?

The more you read about these AI hacks, the less you want to know about them.

Basically, the short story is that there was an AI bot out there that went full Terminator. It hacked into another system, another AI system, without being told to do so, acting entirely of its own volition.

Ryan Bridge: The price of being a climate warrior

Chris Hipkins is floating the idea of an effective tariff on imported cement.

He reckons it could be a better way of dealing with our cement problem than $60-million in corporate welfare.

Ryan Bridge: We don't have the money for corporate welfare

A $60 million corporate welfare cheque for Golden Bay Cement is fixing a symptom but not the disease.

It's taxpayer money. It's not a loan – it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed, in return, to keep the thing open till 2040 and invest $150 million, phased over time.

Ryan Bridge: A billion-dollar Gamble on oil

New Zealand First wants to spend a billion bucks looking for oil and gas fields to make our country rich again.

Well, richer.

A bit more like the place our kids go to earn a living, Australia, who've pulled in $430 billion in mining royalties over the past decade alone.

Ryan Bridge: Is swearing really that bad?

Swearing. Most of us do it.

Unless you're a Bishop (or maybe they do it in private, too?).

Especially in New Zealand.