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Alex Stone's avatar

Thank you for this fine writing Grant! For those people in New Zealand who prefer to make reasonable assessments of our leaders character and values, it should be pointed out in a wrap-up like this that Hipkins immediately recognised he'd make a mistake while speaking in the debate - and corrected it. Luxon is incapable of doing that. There's also an extra-ordinary cognitive dissonance in Luxon's positions: while extolling the virtues of experience and education, this first-term MP refuses to accept the critique of the country's foremost academic tax law expert on his flawed tax plan; he claims 'independent assessment' and 'support' for the National Party tax plan - but it has only come from the one company thay paid to do this; Luxon trades on his business experience - yet has never started or run his own business; it's clear that restricting housing supply by selling homes to overseas buyers will drive up real-estate prices, but this is willfully ignored; also equally clear the en-masse evictions of state house tenant is not a way to resolve social ills; then there's the hypocrisy of Luxon promising to resign if access to reproductive health is in any restricted for women - but this has already been done with National's firm policy to re-introduce the prescriptions charge. You've already covered the emotive silliness of pursuing policies that have been proven not to work - like the boot camps. I think character comes form a courage to admit mistakes. And Luxon is clearly deficient in this area.

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Grant Duncan PhD's avatar

Those are all fair points, Alex!

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Alex Stone's avatar

Hi Grant -

Just thinking about a possibly intriguing, valuable and timely political post.

The political punditry appears fixated with the outcome of polls right now. But I'm wondering - do these polls take into account overseas voters? For if not, the polls' margin for error could be exaggerated, given that there's ever-greater input from overseas voters to NZ elections; and that they tend to vote in a more progressive way.

Just a thought...

All the best

A

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Grant Duncan PhD's avatar

Hi Alex

Good point. As far as I know polling doesn't reach out to overseas voters. And they probably are more inclined to progressive politics on the whole. TVNZ showed me figures from the Electoral Commission. Off the top of my head there were 78,000 overseas voters registered. That's a lot, but only a tiny fraction of Kiwis overseas (not all of whom are eligible anyway). I won't be able to assess the 'accuracy' of the polls, unfortunately, until the final election results are released!

Cheers

Grant

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Kai Jensen's avatar

I’ve recommended these commentaries to three expat Kiwis I know here in Oz.

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Grant Duncan PhD's avatar

Thank you, Kai!

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Tim's avatar

"The audience should be on the edge of their seats waiting for the ‘gotcha’ moment or for someone to crumble under pressure." No, these interviews are taxpayer-funded and should meet the standards of professional journalism, not superficial show-biz beguilement.

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Grant Duncan PhD's avatar

I agree, Tim. I'd wish for a more considered approach, but even the professional journalists seem to expect more 'sparks to fly' (a commonly used metaphor).

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Cameron's avatar

Nice read Grant! Helped me catch up to what’s going on while being outside of NZ! The irony of ‘no cuts’ when your own place of previous employment was making cuts left right and centre.

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Grant Duncan PhD's avatar

Thanks, Cam! Hope all is going well over there, and remember to vote!

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