A brief review of the week

This is just a brief summary so it leaves out many things.

The Waitangi Tribunal granted an urgent inquiry into the government's proposal to force local councils to remove Māori Wards or put them to referendum. The inquiry will be a speedy one, as the tribunal has only days to produce its recommendations before the Government intends to introduce legislation, on May 20.

Christopher Luxon said Winston was doing an exceptionally good job dashing from country to country rather than look Winston in the eye over his defamatory remarks about Bob Carr and political commentators remarked how weak Luxon was as leader.

Law and order was going backwards as Mark Mitchell said it was unrealistic to expect a crime free nirvana overnight after he had been in the job six months and things were getting worse. Christopher Luxon said he was frustrated but he was working incredibly hard.

We all learned where never to buy flowers from - after the real context behind the florist snapping at JAG was revealed.

Christopher Luxon made an idiot of himself on TikTok again responding to Verity Johnson who reckoned she can't stand his TikTok. Luxon was mocked hard on X.

Christopher Luxon wrongly implied he had something to do with inflation coming down when he said in a Facebook reel "Yes it is coming down, and that's really great and encouraging news and we have more work to do there."

Flash mob protests made people laugh when they appeared at announcements by Bishop and Brown and then Seymour.

Gerry sent JAG to the privileges Committee.

National’s water services plan for Auckland has a much more expensive credit rating like BBB instead of AA like under Labour’s plan. That means Aucklanders will pay tens of millions in interest more than they would have under 3 Waters. The Far north District council now faces unaffordable water rates to meet mandatory water costs. Under 3 Waters Auckland would have merged with them, but now they are screwed.

Christopher Luxon's photo in the changing room with the Crusaders was a big fail on social media.

Mark Mitchell and Christopher Luxon held the worst ever Press Conference in the Parliament Theatrette. Mitchell did not know his numbers and neither did Luxon as they doubled down on media and Luxon said he did not know how to make things any clearer. What a tool. This was a massive bungle and the News hammered Luxon for insisting the $1.9 Billion for Corrections was all Opex, while Mitchell was utterly useless and trying to play a confidence game of bravado - lost at sea.

Building Mega Prisons is a dumb idea said almost everyone with a brain who cares about an evidence base and what works.

The OECD warned the Government not to carry on with it's tax cuts and to focus on the account deficit instead.

Christopher Luxon's media rounds on Tuesday morning were the usual shocker as Jenny May asked how he got his numbers so wrong and Luxon blew it off - saying "it was a minor mix up, and he ( Mitchell ) corrected himself very quickly". Wow. Talk about avoiding taking responsibility and minimising the error.

Audrey Young made excuses for Luxon and handed a brick bat to JAG for going to the Chatham Islands on a preplanned work trip rather than face right wing abuse at home.

Chlöe got the upper hand over Luxon in parliament forcing him into a corner about New Zealand's tax settings which favour land, shares and owners of residential property. Luxon ducked dived and weaved to dodge this - and after being asked whether - he agrees our tax settings incentivise property speculation - and disincentivise productivity - or does he disagree with the Treasury - the IMF - the OECD and pretty much every economist in New Zealand? Luxon eventually said he won't be doing a capital gains tax.

TVNZ Breakfast made a hash of whether Carmel should be appearing on a Treasure Island TV show in her annual leave.

David Seymour pranced up and down about a new portal showing student attendance on a weekly basis.

Todd McClay pretended he had won something - but it was just wishful thinking about a trade deal one day with UAE.

Samantha Hayes will front Stuff's new news bulletin from 6 July. Jenna Lynch will also be part of the show.

Ryan Bridge is the new Kate Hawkesby on NewsCrap ZB .

The Government indicated it was cutting NIWA scientists and there is fear that a team of Climate Modellers may be gutted and thrown out onto the ice by Nicola Willis and her tax cuts.

Winston said Tikanga is not law but cultural indoctrination. He was triggered by Khylee Quince Dean of Law who said Mr Judd KC was an old racist dinosaur who should quietly die in corner. Naturally Oliver Sean Plunket rushed to Judd's aid like a wet nurse.

The notion of the Electoral Commission having problems enrolling people on Election Day made Paul Goldsmith try to take away the right to vote for 110,000 New Zealanders - rather than fix the real problem with the Electoral Commission.

David Seymour did a massive flip flop on abolishing free school lunches and made out he was a saviour. Some said the Seymour's plan was well received but that was cos people were relieved he was not trashing things as he promised he would. Seymour probably increased waste by taking money out of school lunches ( from $8 to $3 ) so tax cuts could be funded. He certainly upset many schools and communities who were doing fine and students were flourishing until Seymour came along.

David Seymour criticised "woke food" as he announced a revamp of school lunches. Media went nuts. Luxon was full of faux outrage when asked what woke foods were. Making out there were more important questions to answer - but still failing to rein in his coalition partner. The weakness of Luxon's leadership knows no bounds.

Professor Duncan Webb made a wise crack over Seymour, hummus and Hamas fell a bit flat and he admitted it was a mistake with Chippy telling him that was not appropriate.

National objected to keeping Peter Boshier as Ombudsman and supported age discrimination so Goldsmith could appoint a cony to the role. Willis made an excuse that did not stack up about this.

Simeon Brown made a ministerial statement that Gas was low and that means coal ( not renewables ) - where he tried to blame declining gas production on the 2018 ban on offshore oil and gas exploration. Everyone had a good laugh at Simeon cos Gas production has been declining for many years before the ban. Simeon was unable to answer questions in parliament about pertinent facts as he bungled along with his Atlas Network rhetoric and messaging. Media looked the other way, especially Audrey.

NewsHub reported that "Robert Sidney Horne was killed while at a bar with a group of friends on Sunday night. The suspected gunman Killer Beez gang member Hone Kay-Selwyn, 31, was found dead in rural Taupō on Tuesday after police launched a manhunt." Kay-Selwyn was deemed low risk by Corrections.

Gerry stuck the boot into Marama over the question "Does he stand by all his government statements and actions", when this was a standard used for years by Luxon, Collins and Simon Bridges and more recently Chippy. Talk about singling out the Green Party female for bullying by the pieman.

The war on the poor continued as the Nats punched down on beneficiaries again - by ramping up their threat of sanctions on Jobseeker beneficiaries not fulfilling their obligations - by introducing a new requirement to attend a seminar within a fortnight of their benefit starting. One size does not fit all and for many this will be a pure mis match and waste of time and money - some travelling two hours to get to the nearest seminar.

Nicola Willis gave a speech that Audrey thought was channelling Bill English rather than Ruth Richardson - but we discovered the Budget Allowance would be $3.5 Billion finally. Usually you know this months before a Budget. Willis is starting a fund for a Social Investment agency.

390 ACC staff are for the chop and half of Doc's staff on the Chatham islands must lose their jobs. Willis said she had met her job slasher targets and her tax cuts would be fully funded but you've got to wait till 30 May to find out what her new "revenue sources" will be.

Simon Watts avoided answering questions in parliament as did Simeon Brown as they both try to carry on doing bugger all about the broken electricity market and not fixing demand distortions that allow 2000 MWatts of consented renewables to just sit around for years to come - and not be built. This helps more fossil fuels to be burnt for longer and relies on poor reporting of the facts by media.

Transpower warned of low generation and asked for the public to go easy on electricity consumption between 7am and 9am on Friday morning. There was no outage but Simeon Brown raced around media making false accusations this was all Labour's fault. The solution was fossil fuels again according to Simeon and we need to explore for more oil and gas to restore long term investor confidence in fossil fuel mining. Vote for Simeon etc.

Matthew Hooton tried to defame Chippy - using baseless smear to underline his leadership in the NZ Herald.

Predictably the latest Atlas Network Curia Poll - showed that this Neoliberal Three Headed Taniwha would stay in office if an election were held today. National was up by 0.2 points to 37.3 per cent. Labour has charged ahead by 4.3 points to 30 per cent. The Greens plummeted 4.3 points to 10.2 per cent, while Act was up 2.2 points to 9.4 per cent. NZ First fell 0.8 points to 5.5 per cent, and Te Pāti Māori fell 1.5 points to 3.1 per cent.

Naturally the devil is in the Greens and Act Party numbers which are out of whack. TPU Curia sampling requently gives Act too many points and the Greens too few. In one of Luxon's worst days ever - Atlas TPU tried to tell us his net favourability was up 15 points to +8 per cent.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ support also increased this month, rising 5 points to -1 per cent. But how is he still 9 points behind Luxon? How wrong is all that?

The poll was conducted from Sunday, May 5, to Tuesday, May 7 so it covered Luxon and Mitchell's diabolical press conference - which also shows something is wrong with David Farrar's polling results. Me thinks he massaged this one quite a bit.

This is just a brief review so it leaves out many things but I am looking forward to the next Talbot poll which should be out in about another week or so.

A brief review of the week

G