Experts say the progressive vote is disillusioned with incremental changes brought in by Ardern Labour government

Late in the campaign period of Auckland’s mayoral election came a spate of strange, oddly specific, billboard vandalism. As the race in New Zealand’s most populous city wound to its conclusion, boardings for Efeso Collins, an independent progressive candidate and mayoral frontrunner, were plasteredwith red “Labour” party logos.

Compared with the moustaches and monobrows that typically bedeck election billboards, it seemed an innocuous choice for vandals. But Collins’ campaign said it was an act of politicised sabotage. “None of our allies or volunteers have been doing it,” a spokesperson told The Spinoff. “We believe it’s an attack tactic.”

PM says budget, which includes major spending on climate and health care reform, aims to ensure long term ‘economic and social security’

Weekly $27 cash payments, fuel discounts and half-price public transport are among the short-term sweeteners offered up by New Zealand’s government in its latest budget, as it tries to juggle the cost-of-living crisis with big-ticket spending commitments, including $11.1bn of healthcare system reform and $2.9bn responding to the climate crisis.

“While we know the current storm will pass, it is important we take the hard edges off,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said in remarks accompanying the budget’s release.

Grant Robertson announces plans for new rules on spending and borrowing in first major pre-budget speech

After two years of big spending to weather the storm of Covid-19, New Zealand’s finance minister is tightening the belt, committing to limits on borrowing, introducing new debt caps and looking ahead to long-term spending on infrastructure over short-term cash injections.

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, gave a glimpse of the vision for New Zealand’s post-Covid economy in his first major pre-budget speech on Tuesday. This year’s budget will also help set the political scene as the country heads towards a 2023 election.

The inter-party agreement has left the Greens defending rising emissions – a stance that goes against all their principles

Metiria Turei, the former Green party co-leader, left parliament more than four years ago, resigning from the co-leadership and the party list after right wing lobby groups, with an able assist in the form of the parliamentary press gallery, led a ruthless campaign against the former lawyer for admitting that she once had to commit benefit fraud to feed her young family.

The admission came in a landmark speech condemning New Zealand’s miserly welfare system. Struggling families were paid far too little to survive, something policymakers had known for decades, with examples ranging from Turei’s own to anonymous sole parents who were coming forward to describe how they spent $380 of the $480 in assistance from the State on rent alone. Turei and the Greens were promising to lift the rate of sole parent support, remove sanctions, and make other necessary and progressive reforms to the welfare system in order for people to meet their basic needs.