Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics

As predicted by most economists, the RBNZ has kept the OCR at the same rate. The banks were expecting it to remain unchanged as well, as only the Co-operative Bank altered some of their longer term rates leading up to the announcement when previously more banks had when they were expecting a change in the OCR.

Most economists are picking two more rate cuts in the OCR before the end of the year and only one more next year. Time to start looking at fixing mortgage rates for a longer term now if there's no going to be very much more movement.
Same as happened in Oz I believe
 

NZWarriors.com

This is the right. This is who they are



Campaign group’s dossier on Labour candidates labelled ‘dirty tactics’
Andrea Vance
Andrea Vance
July 9, 2025
Share


Play Video
1:22
Inflection Point address in Wellington
An Independent Together-linked group is behind a bizarre attempt at opposition research on Labour-aligned candidates for the upcoming local elections ‒ labelling mask-wearers “Covidians,” slamming candidates’ partners, and painting pro-Māori views as extremist.

The clumsy and often conspiratorial dossier reads more like a culture war manifesto ‒ cherry-picking identity-related content, student-era activism, and Facebook photo captions to paint candidates as ideologues and radicals.

In several cases, it resorts to snide editorialising and dog-whistle language, including questioning the legitimacy of refugee candidates, mocking te reo use, and framing public transport policy as a covert leftist agenda.

Among the so-called red-flags are candidates’ ethnic and religious identity, discussing past health issues on social media, solidarity with Palestine and Muslim communities. It criticises one hopeful for “leaning into [their] identity as a refugee and ethnic minority” and spelling Israel as “!zr@hell” online.

One candidate is scrutinised for a partner’s social media posts and enthusiasm for trains. The file described “A transport nerd and ambitious, well-connected Labour Party player ... interests outside of the Labour Party and transportation are decidedly nerdy: comic books, fantasy fiction … [and] is a Japanophile who has visited the country and speaks some Japanese.”


IT is fielding mayoral hopeful Ray Chung, a current city councillor, as mayor and 10 other council hopefuls in this year’s Wellington City Council election and other candidates in October’s election.
Harriet Laughton
Another is labelled a “Labour Covidian” for wearing a face mask in a Facebook photo, with past climate change advocacy and support for unions treated as suspicious.

The dossier describes “a believer in anthropocentric climate change and man-made political solutions to it ... [who] defined climate change as a ‘pandora’s box of troubles … which we can and must fix with fun, seriousness and tenacity’.”

Support for accessible public transport from one candidate is interpreted as “climate change ideology.” The profile adds: “[The candidate]wore a Labour-red t-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Activist chair’.”

A Māori candidate is described as “brazenly and belligerently pro-Māori,” with support for Māori political rights, and a profile picture featuring a tino rangatiratanga flag, presented as extremism.

Better Wellington, which is behind the Independent Together (IT) ticket, has confirmed it commissioned research ahead of the October vote. IT is fielding mayoral hopeful Ray Chung, a current city councillor, and several other council hopefuls.

But spokesperson Alistair Boyce distanced the group from the document, saying the researcher went rogue and strayed beyond the agreed remit. The relationship had ended acrimoniously, he said.

“It was sort of open research in regard to political events and local body politics. It's very hard to find people who do that. So we commissioned that guy on a very low retainer, and he went out there and provided us information on various things, and then he sort of went mad...

“We already paid him a very small amount of money, and the primary research was supposed to be on the city council and their expenditure rather than personal bloody research.”

Boyce said he hadn’t seen a copy of the report. He confirmed former NZ First member and anti-trans campaigner Rhys Williams had hired the researcher.

Williams has become known for far-right online activism and for being behind a series of anonymous and inflammatory tweets targeting politicians, particularly Green MP Benjamin Doyle.


Taranaki-based Rhys Williams was behind an anonymous online account that helped spark a political firestorm over Green MP Benjamin Doyle’s past Instagram posts.
Supplied
Boyce said there was only a “loose connection” between Williams and Better Wellington.

The Post has also obtained an email from Better Wellington’s Paul Heffernan sent recently to Wellington City councillors.

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertise with Stuff
“Rhys Williams is not a member or associate or employee of Better Wellington. He has not worked for or with Better Wellington ...Glenn Inwood, who does work for Better Wellington, is a friend of Rhys Williams, but Better Wellington has not sought to engage Mr. Williams in the forthcoming election campaign,” he wrote.

“[The researcher] was referred to Better Wellington by Mr. Williams as a person familiar with online open source research in respect of social media accounts and likely to have time to research and brief Better Wellington on the social media posts of election candidates.”

Asked if Better Wellington would commit to not using any of the information in the report, Boyce said: “Well, probably, yeah.”

Meanwhile, the first mayoral debate of the campaign has become a flashpoint, with IT candidate Lily Brown accused of misrepresenting a statement by Labour’s mayoral candidate Andrew Little.

At the packed community forum, Brown asked whether candidates would sign a written pledge to “never consult with [their] party on any decisions” if elected.

However, in a subsequent tweet, and a letter to The Post, Brown softened her question — claiming she had asked whether candidates would “put Wellingtonians ahead of [their] party”. She concluded the tweet with “ANDREW LITTLE SAID NO!”

The post was later amplified by Better Wellington and fellow IT candidates.

Little had responded at the event by declining to sign an unspecified document but saying he was committed to acting in Wellington’s best interests and working collaboratively across political lines.

“I wasn’t going to play into a political stunt at what was supposed to be a meeting for Wellington’s Jewish community,” Little told The Post this week.

“I was clear that my values are Labour and everyone knows that, but I am running as a Mayor for all of Wellington and my approach will be to work with people from all backgrounds to get the best for our city.”

Brown, in a statement on Wednesday, said having listened to audio from the event, “I now realise that my question and Andrew Little’s answer may not have been as simple as how I phrased it on social media”.

“The question, as I put it, was more rhetorical than it should have been. However, the substance still remains: If we are to believe that Andrew Little will put Wellington first, then I think Wellingtonians would like to know how he plans to do that while being bound by the Labour Party’s rules and objectives as stated in the pledge he must sign as a Labour Party candidate,” the statement said.

Little hit back at the tactics.

“This is pretty gross stuff and I’m surprised to see people trying it on in Wellington. This isn’t who we are and I don’t think people have any appetite for dirty tactics or extreme, conspiracy-driven politics.

“I am running a clean, positive campaign and I ask that Ray Chung and his candidates do the same.”

Labour councillor Ben McNulty, who is standing for re-election, is also dismayed after becoming the target of an online attack that also referenced his young children.

After re-iterating his support for extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds, the Better Wellington post accused McNulty of promoting “child councillors” and mocked his appearance, intelligence, university education and parenting.

“If McNumpty gets voted onto council again this year, Wellington, you have only yourself to blame!,” the post said.

McNulty, who is also mentioned fleetingly in the dossier, said the “ham-fisted dirt file” was ”an incredible low.“


Councillor Ben McNulty and mayoral hopeful Andrew Little have hit out at smear tactics in this year’s local body elections.
MONIQUE FORD / The Post
“Better Wellington's first foray into this campaign was to weaponise Islamophobia around council's plans to investigate a call to prayer at Kilbirnie mosque in commemoration of the Christchurch terror attacks,” he said.

The tactics were “entirely unsurprising given their track record.”

“There are some genuinely good people running under the Independent Together Party ticket who share a deep frustration at the state of Wellington but they need to call out and distance themselves from these grubby election tactics,” he said.

Chung said he wasn’t aware of the dossier and hadn’t been reading Better Wellington or IT’s social media posts. He later supplied screenshots of posts of attacks on him by other political rivals.

“I'm not really interested in these things because I think that personal attacks are just below the bar. And I do absolutely believe in freedom of speech, and so I don't mind people saying whatever they think, and if they say things against me then I try not to get mad about it and respond to them,” Chung said.

Three posts about McNulty were deleted after The Post spoke to Chung on Monday.

Asked if he should have better oversight of the campaign’s social media, he said: “In fact, I should keep an eye on it, because I haven't actually looked at what they say.

“I absolutely agree that sort of thing [the references to McNulty’s children] should never, ever be brought up. Why would we mention his children? I mean, I don't understand what the children have got to do with it.”

He added: “When I've had discussions with Andrew, they've been very congenial. We've talked about things that we believe in and things that we actually want to change for Wellington then. It actually does seem like we've got a lot more in common than we have differences.”
 

NZWarriors.com

This is the right. This is who they are



Campaign group’s dossier on Labour candidates labelled ‘dirty tactics’
Andrea Vance
Andrea Vance
July 9, 2025
Share


Play Video
1:22
Inflection Point address in Wellington
An Independent Together-linked group is behind a bizarre attempt at opposition research on Labour-aligned candidates for the upcoming local elections ‒ labelling mask-wearers “Covidians,” slamming candidates’ partners, and painting pro-Māori views as extremist.

The clumsy and often conspiratorial dossier reads more like a culture war manifesto ‒ cherry-picking identity-related content, student-era activism, and Facebook photo captions to paint candidates as ideologues and radicals.

In several cases, it resorts to snide editorialising and dog-whistle language, including questioning the legitimacy of refugee candidates, mocking te reo use, and framing public transport policy as a covert leftist agenda.

Among the so-called red-flags are candidates’ ethnic and religious identity, discussing past health issues on social media, solidarity with Palestine and Muslim communities. It criticises one hopeful for “leaning into [their] identity as a refugee and ethnic minority” and spelling Israel as “!zr@hell” online.

One candidate is scrutinised for a partner’s social media posts and enthusiasm for trains. The file described “A transport nerd and ambitious, well-connected Labour Party player ... interests outside of the Labour Party and transportation are decidedly nerdy: comic books, fantasy fiction … [and] is a Japanophile who has visited the country and speaks some Japanese.”


IT is fielding mayoral hopeful Ray Chung, a current city councillor, as mayor and 10 other council hopefuls in this year’s Wellington City Council election and other candidates in October’s election.
Harriet Laughton
Another is labelled a “Labour Covidian” for wearing a face mask in a Facebook photo, with past climate change advocacy and support for unions treated as suspicious.

The dossier describes “a believer in anthropocentric climate change and man-made political solutions to it ... [who] defined climate change as a ‘pandora’s box of troubles … which we can and must fix with fun, seriousness and tenacity’.”

Support for accessible public transport from one candidate is interpreted as “climate change ideology.” The profile adds: “[The candidate]wore a Labour-red t-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Activist chair’.”

A Māori candidate is described as “brazenly and belligerently pro-Māori,” with support for Māori political rights, and a profile picture featuring a tino rangatiratanga flag, presented as extremism.

Better Wellington, which is behind the Independent Together (IT) ticket, has confirmed it commissioned research ahead of the October vote. IT is fielding mayoral hopeful Ray Chung, a current city councillor, and several other council hopefuls.

But spokesperson Alistair Boyce distanced the group from the document, saying the researcher went rogue and strayed beyond the agreed remit. The relationship had ended acrimoniously, he said.

“It was sort of open research in regard to political events and local body politics. It's very hard to find people who do that. So we commissioned that guy on a very low retainer, and he went out there and provided us information on various things, and then he sort of went mad...

“We already paid him a very small amount of money, and the primary research was supposed to be on the city council and their expenditure rather than personal bloody research.”

Boyce said he hadn’t seen a copy of the report. He confirmed former NZ First member and anti-trans campaigner Rhys Williams had hired the researcher.

Williams has become known for far-right online activism and for being behind a series of anonymous and inflammatory tweets targeting politicians, particularly Green MP Benjamin Doyle.


Taranaki-based Rhys Williams was behind an anonymous online account that helped spark a political firestorm over Green MP Benjamin Doyle’s past Instagram posts.
Supplied
Boyce said there was only a “loose connection” between Williams and Better Wellington.

The Post has also obtained an email from Better Wellington’s Paul Heffernan sent recently to Wellington City councillors.

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertise with Stuff
“Rhys Williams is not a member or associate or employee of Better Wellington. He has not worked for or with Better Wellington ...Glenn Inwood, who does work for Better Wellington, is a friend of Rhys Williams, but Better Wellington has not sought to engage Mr. Williams in the forthcoming election campaign,” he wrote.

“[The researcher] was referred to Better Wellington by Mr. Williams as a person familiar with online open source research in respect of social media accounts and likely to have time to research and brief Better Wellington on the social media posts of election candidates.”

Asked if Better Wellington would commit to not using any of the information in the report, Boyce said: “Well, probably, yeah.”

Meanwhile, the first mayoral debate of the campaign has become a flashpoint, with IT candidate Lily Brown accused of misrepresenting a statement by Labour’s mayoral candidate Andrew Little.

At the packed community forum, Brown asked whether candidates would sign a written pledge to “never consult with [their] party on any decisions” if elected.

However, in a subsequent tweet, and a letter to The Post, Brown softened her question — claiming she had asked whether candidates would “put Wellingtonians ahead of [their] party”. She concluded the tweet with “ANDREW LITTLE SAID NO!”

The post was later amplified by Better Wellington and fellow IT candidates.

Little had responded at the event by declining to sign an unspecified document but saying he was committed to acting in Wellington’s best interests and working collaboratively across political lines.

“I wasn’t going to play into a political stunt at what was supposed to be a meeting for Wellington’s Jewish community,” Little told The Post this week.

“I was clear that my values are Labour and everyone knows that, but I am running as a Mayor for all of Wellington and my approach will be to work with people from all backgrounds to get the best for our city.”

Brown, in a statement on Wednesday, said having listened to audio from the event, “I now realise that my question and Andrew Little’s answer may not have been as simple as how I phrased it on social media”.

“The question, as I put it, was more rhetorical than it should have been. However, the substance still remains: If we are to believe that Andrew Little will put Wellington first, then I think Wellingtonians would like to know how he plans to do that while being bound by the Labour Party’s rules and objectives as stated in the pledge he must sign as a Labour Party candidate,” the statement said.

Little hit back at the tactics.

“This is pretty gross stuff and I’m surprised to see people trying it on in Wellington. This isn’t who we are and I don’t think people have any appetite for dirty tactics or extreme, conspiracy-driven politics.

“I am running a clean, positive campaign and I ask that Ray Chung and his candidates do the same.”

Labour councillor Ben McNulty, who is standing for re-election, is also dismayed after becoming the target of an online attack that also referenced his young children.

After re-iterating his support for extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds, the Better Wellington post accused McNulty of promoting “child councillors” and mocked his appearance, intelligence, university education and parenting.

“If McNumpty gets voted onto council again this year, Wellington, you have only yourself to blame!,” the post said.

McNulty, who is also mentioned fleetingly in the dossier, said the “ham-fisted dirt file” was ”an incredible low.“


Councillor Ben McNulty and mayoral hopeful Andrew Little have hit out at smear tactics in this year’s local body elections.
MONIQUE FORD / The Post
“Better Wellington's first foray into this campaign was to weaponise Islamophobia around council's plans to investigate a call to prayer at Kilbirnie mosque in commemoration of the Christchurch terror attacks,” he said.

The tactics were “entirely unsurprising given their track record.”

“There are some genuinely good people running under the Independent Together Party ticket who share a deep frustration at the state of Wellington but they need to call out and distance themselves from these grubby election tactics,” he said.

Chung said he wasn’t aware of the dossier and hadn’t been reading Better Wellington or IT’s social media posts. He later supplied screenshots of posts of attacks on him by other political rivals.

“I'm not really interested in these things because I think that personal attacks are just below the bar. And I do absolutely believe in freedom of speech, and so I don't mind people saying whatever they think, and if they say things against me then I try not to get mad about it and respond to them,” Chung said.

Three posts about McNulty were deleted after The Post spoke to Chung on Monday.

Asked if he should have better oversight of the campaign’s social media, he said: “In fact, I should keep an eye on it, because I haven't actually looked at what they say.

“I absolutely agree that sort of thing [the references to McNulty’s children] should never, ever be brought up. Why would we mention his children? I mean, I don't understand what the children have got to do with it.”

He added: “When I've had discussions with Andrew, they've been very congenial. We've talked about things that we believe in and things that we actually want to change for Wellington then. It actually does seem like we've got a lot more in common than we have differences.”
Discredited shock jock reporter talking about irrelevant nonsense.

Don’t even know what we’re supposed to make of it… next
 

Just an observation but is bsky.social some kind of dystopian tunnel where you can rage at everything that happens on the planet is the fault of someone else.
Big Russ, another Ozzie grifter who couldn't make it over there, jumped med school, couldn't win a seat here either and did SFA other than jab a top job with Greenpeace. Probably should expect a comment like that
 

NZWarriors.com

Just an observation but is bsky.social some kind of dystopian tunnel where you can rage at everything that happens on the planet is the fault of someone else.
Big Russ, another Ozzie grifter who couldn't make it over there, jumped med school, couldn't win a seat here either and did SFA other than jab a top job with Greenpeace. Probably should expect a comment like that
Nope. But it's not a shitpile right wing misogynistic bullying homophobic transphobic racist echo chamber. Which is great for me
 
Just an observation but is bsky.social some kind of dystopian tunnel where you can rage at everything that happens on the planet is the fault of someone else.
Big Russ, another Ozzie grifter who couldn't make it over there, jumped med school, couldn't win a seat here either and did SFA other than jab a top job with Greenpeace. Probably should expect a comment like that
And actually truly, it really is the fault of the right. Everywhere at the moment. You guys need to get out more and turn off 1zb
 

NZWarriors.com

NZWarriors.com

NZWarriors.com

NZWarriors.com

    Nobody is reading this thread right now.
Back
Top Bottom