Politics NZ Politics

Who will get your vote in this years election?

  • National

    Votes: 17 26.2%
  • Labour

    Votes: 13 20.0%
  • Act

    Votes: 7 10.8%
  • Greens

    Votes: 9 13.8%
  • NZ First

    Votes: 5 7.7%
  • Māori Party

    Votes: 3 4.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 16.9%

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Houthi Red Sea attacks: Judith Collins rubbishes Green Party's stance against New Zealand sending troops to Middle East

Defence Minister Judith Collins is rubbishing comments by the Green Party about New Zealand deploying troops to the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a six-member Defence Force deployment to the Red Sea to help "uphold maritime security" amid attacks on commercial and naval ships by Houthi rebels from Yemen.

The deployment was a "continuation of New Zealand's long history of defending freedom of navigation both in the Middle East and closer to home", Luxon said.

But a statement from the Greens did not support the deployment, with co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw calling it "deeply disturbing".

Labour also disagreed with the deployment, with the party's foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker telling RNZ it had "shades of Iraq" about it.

But the Defence Minister has hit back at the Opposition.

"Well, I think Marama [Davidson] and the Greens shouldn't really be giving anybody advice on defence and foreign affairs," Collins told RNZ's Morning Report on Wednesday.

"I think it is very important that we look at New Zealand's best interests."

Collins was asked if this deployment was a shift away from previous New Zealand positions on foreign affairs.

She told Morning Report New Zealand had been involved in the Middle East for a "very long time".

"The fact that we've had people involved in Operation Pukeko in the Red Sea since 2013 should tell us that this is not something new," Collins said.

"We need to assist, wherever possible, that the right military targets are taken out. I think you need to also remember that the Houthis have been given a number of warnings - very serious warnings."

Greens label NZ sending troops to Middle East 'deeply disturbing'; Labour says it has 'shades of Iraq'
"The Houthi attacks are illegal, they are unacceptable and they are profoundly destabilising."

Who are the Houthis?
Washington and London first launched strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement's attacks on ships in the Red Sea earlier this month.

The Houthis date back to the late 1990s, when the Houthi family in far north Yemen set up a religious revival movement for the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, which had once ruled Yemen but whose northern heartland had become impoverished and marginalised.

As friction with the government grew, they fought a series of guerrilla wars with the national army and a brief border conflict with Sunni Saudi Arabia.

In 2014, civil war broke out when Yemen's capital Sanaa was seized by the Houthis.

Worried by the growing influence of Shi'ite Iran along its border, Saudi Arabia intervened as the head of a Western-backed coalition in March 2015 in support of the Saudi-backed government.

The Houthis established control over much of the north and other big population centres, while the internationally recognised government based itself in Aden.

Yemen has enjoyed more than a year of relative calm amid a UN-led peace push. Saudi Arabia has been holding talks with the Houthis in a bid to exit the war.

But the Houthi attacks on Israel have increased the risks of conflict for Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis are one part of what has been called the "Axis of Resistance" - an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias (Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis) backed by Iran.

Its slogan is "Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam".

The Houthis have said their attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea are a show of support for the Palestinians and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, in its war against Israel.

But Collins told RNZ Aotearoa's action in the Red Sea should not be conflated with Wellington's stance on the Israel-Gaza war.

The New Zealand Government has been calling for a humanitarian truce, humanitarian pauses and the urgent need for further steps towards a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.

The Houthi attacks have disrupted global commerce, forcing international shipping to take the long route around South Africa to avoid being struck. The increase in delivery costs is stoking fears it could trigger a fresh bout of global inflation.

Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands are also supporting the operation against the Houthis and the US has sought to present the air strikes as part of an international effort to restore the free flow of trade in a key route between Europe and Asia that accounts for about 15 percent of the world's shipping traffic.

Reuters / Newshub.



 
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I agree Rizzah Rizzah, we should stay out of it.

"You are wrong to conflate those two issues. We are standing up for values very clearly... about freedom of navigation," Luxon said.

"These are long held beliefs of New Zealand for a long period of time."


Freedom of navigation is obviously more important than genocide - glad to see us taking a stand 🙄
 
Sending troops is a mistake here. The Houthi attack on Israeli shipping, causing all vessels to divert from the Red Sea is a direct result of the ongoing massacre in Gaza.
If we cared about regional stability and international law, we would be putting more pressure on the US and Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Signatory nations of the genocide convention, which we are, are obligated to prevent and punish acts of genocide.
To me, they are two different yet linked issues, that require a different response.

Yes, more pressure could be put on Israel. What exactly that looks like is the question?

In regards to this sending of troops and supporting keeping international shipping lanes free and working I think the decision is the right one. Particularly given who Houthi are.
 
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Reeney pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible again.... the drop in inflation has been caused mostly by tradeable inflation... that's inflation from outside of NZ and isn't controlled by government spending or RBNZ influences. In fact, domestic inflation has hardly changed (which government spending and the RBNZ can influence). Until that figure comes down, the RBNZ will strongly oppose banks reducing mortgage rates.

This Stuff article explains it much better than I could....

 
Reeney pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible again.... the drop in inflation has been caused mostly by tradeable inflation... that's inflation from outside of NZ and isn't controlled by government spending or RBNZ influences. In fact, domestic inflation has hardly changed (which government spending and the RBNZ can influence). Until that figure comes down, the RBNZ will strongly oppose banks reducing mortgage rates.

This Stuff article explains it much better than I could....

Non-tradeable still running at +5.9% however and above expectations.
 
Big Police operation in Albert Park earlier. Police with guns, helicopter up, part of CBD evacuated. They recently apprehended the culprit, a man in a wheelchair. After the debrief and filing reports expect them back on the beat.
 

Record number of KiwiSaver withdrawals due to financial hardship
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/author-pages/RNZ.html
By Felix Walton for RNZ

A record number of people are making withdrawals from their KiwiSaver funds due to financial difficulties.
Of the 6400 withdrawals made throughout December, more than half of them were for hardship.
Withdrawals for anything other than retirement or a first home are only available in certain cases like after a medical emergency or sudden expense.
But the number of early withdrawals has jumped significantly in the past year from 17,900 in 2022 to 29,530 in 2023.
Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said it was concerning but unsurprising given the circumstances.
"It reflects what we're hearing from customers, we're seeing the rapid rise in interest rates affecting households and we're also seeing the cost of living crisis continue to bite," he said.
"[It is] forcing households to reconsider their budgets."
The number of financial hardship withdrawals was trending upwards month-on-month.
The 3450 financial hardship withdrawals in December broke November's record of 3270, which broke October's record of 2800.
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson told Midday Report the trend was worrying.
"I think it's a really disturbing set of data... It's the first time, I think, that the hardship withdrawals have exceeded the home ownership withdrawals," she said.

"The home ownership withdrawals are a good thing, the hardship withdrawals are a bad thing."
Māngere Budgeting Services Trust chief executive Lara Dolan said more and more clients were asking for help withdrawing from their KiwiSavers.
"People's incomes are quite low and they're unable to save for rainy day events," Dolan said.
"Medical events, a death in the family, they have to travel overseas for a funeral and they're just unable to borrow anymore so they use their KiwiSaver."
Auckland Central Budgeting senior financial mentor Teresa White said the extreme storms earlier in the year caught people off guard too.
"Particularly people whose cars have been flooded, people who didn't have insurance for their vehicle, or people who didn't have contents insurance so they had to replace household items," White said.
"A lot of the grants that were available to them weren't enough to cover all the expenses."
But by withdrawing from their KiwiSavers early, Dolan worried her clients were sacrificing their futures for the present.
A financial hardship withdrawal should only be taken as an absolute last resort, she said.
"It's absolutely a huge concern, our financial mentors work with families to find other solutions. We can look at consolidating their debt, creating a household budget to fix that gap... [using KiwiSaver] is a last resort."
White agreed.
"You might get a bit of money and it might help you out for a short period, but after a while you're back at the same place again," she said.

"In my mind that's a waste of your future savings."
But Kiwibank's Jarrod Kerr said people should have the option to dip into their KiwiSavers when times were tough.
"In periods of high stress like this, I think it's helpful for people to be able to dip into it," he said.
"So long as when they get back to full health they start saving again."
The high number of KiwiSaver withdrawals was a sign the Reserve Bank should lower interest rates, Kerr said.
"They've raised interest rates too high and it's having a severe impact on too many households."

 
Sending troops is a mistake here. The Houthi attack on Israeli shipping, causing all vessels to divert from the Red Sea is a direct result of the ongoing massacre in Gaza.
If we cared about regional stability and international law, we would be putting more pressure on the US and Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Signatory nations of the genocide convention, which we are, are obligated to prevent and punish acts of genocide.
Do you support or condemn the Houthi attacks irrespective of what’s happening in Israel/ Palestine?

Personally think they are unacceptable, destabilising and we should be doing all we can to ring-fence this and stop this spreading to the rest of the Middle East. This is happening 2,000km away in a completely different country…

I think you can do that while being neutral on the Israel/ Palestine conflict.
 
Do you support or condemn the Houthi attacks irrespective of what’s happening in Israel/ Palestine?

Personally think they are unacceptable, destabilising and we should be doing all we can to ring-fence this and stop this spreading to the rest of the Middle East. This is happening 2,000km away in a completely different country…

I think you can do that while being neutral on the Israel/ Palestine conflict.
But the two are very closely related Wiz. Did you vote for us to go to war?
 
But the two are very closely related Wiz. Did you vote for us to go to war?
I’ll tell you what we all did vote on - getting cost of living back to reasonable levels. The disruption from these attacks on shipping lines & supply chain is potentially quite significant. In the last month global container freight rates have nearly tripled. That will fuel inflation if nothing is done.
 
I’ll tell you what we all did vote on - getting cost of living back to reasonable levels. The disruption from these attacks on shipping lines & supply chain is potentially quite significant. In the last month global container freight rates have nearly tripled. That will fuel inflation if nothing is done.
Lol, screw those 10s of thousands of Palestinians currently being massacred - I want my cost of living down.
 
Do you support or condemn the Houthi attacks irrespective of what’s happening in Israel/ Palestine?

Personally think they are unacceptable, destabilising and we should be doing all we can to ring-fence this and stop this spreading to the rest of the Middle East. This is happening 2,000km away in a completely different country…

I think you can do that while being neutral on the Israel/ Palestine conflict.
irrespective of the genocide? Lol. It's linked, so how can I condemn them for their actions?
I support disruption to Israel's genocide. No one else is doing anything. The Houthi's are at least causing some disruption and bringing attention to the situation.
They have said they will stop once the killing in Gaza stops.
The Houthis would only halt their attacks if Israel’s “crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicines and fuel are allowed to reach its besieged population”, al-Bukhaiti said.
[Link]

Why isn't the US cutting military aid to Israel?
Why aren't we expelling the Israeli ambassador?
Why aren't there sanctions being imposed on Israel?
We aren't even making noise about Israel's disruption to humanitarian aid entering Gaza. [Link]
 
irrespective of the genocide? Lol. It's linked, so how can I condemn them for their actions?
I support disruption to Israel's genocide. No one else is doing anything. The Houthi's are at least causing some disruption and bringing attention to the situation.
They have said they will stop once the killing in Gaza stops.

[Link]

Why isn't the US cutting military aid to Israel?
Why aren't we expelling the Israeli ambassador?
Why aren't there sanctions being imposed on Israel?
We aren't even making noise about Israel's disruption to humanitarian aid entering Gaza. [Link]
Isn’t it still terrorism if it’s political attacks in an independent country?

So devils advocate, you would support Palestinian supporters attacking shipping routes in NZ?

What’s the difference? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
 
6 people to keep the peace? 🤷‍♂️

Small price to pay to contain and ring fence this.

Didn’t the Palestinians attack Israel after the elections anyway?
Mate you really, really, really need to get your facts straight when you say stuff. Hamas militants attacked Israel. Not PALESTINIANS as a generic group.

And the 6 people are part of a military offensive. Not keeping peace.
 
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