Thomas Coughlan
@coughlthom
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Deputy Political Editor @NZHerald into politics, transport, climate change, and business. I write the Thursday column. Ex @NZStuff @newsroomNZ
Wellington City, New Zealand
Joined November 2014
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Staggeringly bad judgement from PM here. During Covid recession in 2020, Jacinda Ardern cut her own pay and pay of all MPs (while raising a toddler in Premier House). Regardless of your entitlement, you’ve got to lead from the front.
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Christopher Luxon doesn't see the irony that National will vote against the repeal of Three Strikes legislation today whilst at the same time seeking another chance for one of its MPs.
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Maybe we should cancel that campaign to put New Zealand on world maps.
I like being off the map.
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New Zealand’s embassy in Iran has received this quite incredible carpet celebrating the Covid response.
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Sam Uffindell was suspended from caucus 185 hours after giving his maiden speech. Not sure if that’s a record.
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That is the most peaceful fire on Parliament's grounds I've ever seen.
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David Seymour says Kate Sheppard would have voted for Act.
Julie Anne Genter, sitting beside him, literally puts her head in her hands.
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A few of us (I tested negative) have been interviewing protesters outside Parliament. They are almost all unvaccinated. So that's a bit concerning.
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And another good lol.
Luxon asks Hipkins if everyone "got the memo" about using fewer consultants.
Hipkins says, clearly not all of them, citing the chair of the PM's Business Advisory Council who splashed on consultants.
The chair was, of course, Christopher Luxon
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On RNZ Nicola Willis says jobs National wants to create for people to move from benefits to dignified work include “cleaning, driving buses, doing all sorts of jobs…”. Both of those jobs are in sectors that have initiated Fair Pay Agreement talks that National said it would axe.
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Huge moment for fans of early 2010s breakfast television.
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Report on one of the roads that had speed limits reduced showed 34 crashes avoided in a year and journey times increase by 3.6 minutes. Over a year this equated to $93m in benefits for about 1.3m in costs.
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Staff at Parliament did an excellent job on March 15. Quite something to get an email like that and alert the police within 8 mins.
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From Ardern:
“I have just heard the news about the resignation of Mr Muller as leader of the National Party. No matter what side of parliament you’re sitting, politics is a difficult place. I have passed on my best wishes to Mr Muller and his family.”
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As a kid, I never would have dreamed that one day it would be fairly normal to see Kākā on Lambton Quay.
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Christopher Luxon not keen on public transport subsidies today. Repeating that PT should stand on its own. When I reminded him most PT is subsidised and has been for a long time, he said he hadn't considered the subject much.
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Jacinda Ardern and David Seymour will sign the Hansard including the "prick" comment and auction it off for prostate charity. Seymour said it will help "pricks everywhere".
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Gaurav Sharma has just dropped a 4700 word Facebook post complaining about many of his his former staff.
Quite an incredible thing to do.
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Gerry Brownlee apologising to Chris Hipkins for yesterday's bringing of Christoper Luxon's family into the debate.
Brownlee reviewed Hansard and finds that it was Luxon via answers to questions that brought family into the debate, rather than Hipkins.
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"None of my MPs beat people up with a bed leg," - devastating line from Chris Hipkins. Could be the "show me the money line of the debate. The last think National wants people to be talking about in the last day before the polling day blackout
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TPM and Teanau Tuiono leave the chamber after Rawiri Waititi cut off making point of order about the House’s litigation of race issues the past fortnight.
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Eventually, the entire country will be on hold to Air New Zealand, entering an informal, perpetual, level 4 lockdown.
We will eliminate Omicron.
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Dougal is very excited that everyone has come back from post-cab
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Michael Wood makes the point that the cycling bridge is still more popular than Judith Collins (11.9% vs 8.2%)
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Incredible allegations from Sharma tonight. PM saying the recording was misrepresented, but those lines quoted tonight would suggest the PM wasn't being entirely truthful at the podium on Tuesday.
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Auckland has had a tough week, but Christchurch also had the years 2009-2019.
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Friday afternoon news dump: Delighted to be appointed Herald's new Deputy Political Editor!
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Both Sam Uffindell and Christopher Luxon have now acknowledged that beating someone is unlawful.
Uffindell is unsure how many other people he might have hit or tackled, and would not give a "ballpark" figure.
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Jacinda Ardern has reverted to black and white portrait style after Key and English went to colour photos.
I personally much prefer the B&W
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Kathryn Ryan is speaking to far north mayor John Carter while he is driving door to door to evacuate people in his town.
It’s incredible radio.
“Rachel, you need to evacuate there’s a tsunami warning... sorry about that”
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Interesting the Government making the point that the repeal of FPA won't harm any workers because none of the FPAs have been finalised yet.
... that appears to concede that if FPA leg had been left in place , life would have gotten better for workers.
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Grant Robertson putting out a statement now on broader international malaise, including abuse he has personally received.
Robertson is usually pretty quiet about this. A few weeks ago he said he didn’t catch public transport for security reasons in relation to Qs re: 1/2 fares
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Everyone's acting like they've never seen politicians promise to build 100,000 houses before.
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If Christopher Luxon did spend more time in Wellington he would know that New Zealand may have many flaws, but a lack of mojo is not one of them.
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First take on the Whanau victory is it’s a major victory for the idea that campaigns matter. She was absolutely everywhere - great street level posters etc. Green Party machine is great at these insurgent campaigns too - reminiscent of Auckland a Central in 2020
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David Seymour says there's no point in scanning in and he hasn't been doing it for weeks.
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Rawiri Waititi quoting Winston Churchill saying "democracy is the worst form of government".
Does not add the end of the quote: "except for all the others that have been tried".
... kind of misses the point.
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Having just landed at Wellington airport I’ve decided to throw my support behind high-speed rail from Wellington to Auckland and under the Strait to Christchurch. Flying is no way to travel in such a windy country.
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I actually don't care if you hate me and what I write though. It's a free country. Disagreement is fun.
My grandma DMs me congrats whenever I ask a question. Who needs anything more?
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Christopher Luxon's social media suggested he was in Te Puke and other parts of the "backbone of New Zealand".
He was actually in Hawaii.
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No one will care about this today, but this is the most critical Treasury report I’ve ever read. $1.1b Wellbeing Budget spend on OT a “disparate collection of ideas” with no strategy, costs per child going up without any improvement in outcomes.
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In an age of heightened partisanship, it’s beautiful to see the bipartisan commitment New Zealand’s politicians have shown to robbing their children of a future.
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I'm just glad Mittens never had to see the state of Molesworth Street.
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PM warns of RNZ collapse speaking with Ryan Bridge this morning, pointing to declining listnership.
Silly thing to say really. RNZ isn't on the brink of collapse and nor is radio as a medium - Newstalk ZB is in great shape. RNZ just needs to work out what it's listeners want.
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Controversial opinion: Wellington doesn't actually have that many terrible days like today and when it does they're kind of invigorating.
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Hospitalisations down 20 per cent in low-income households that befitted from Healthy Homes Initiative.
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Today is a 1 day - not because there's 1 new case (there are 0 new cases), but because there is only 1 active case of Covid-19 left in the country.
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Cool map from NZ Geographic showing pā sites in the North Island. NZ Archaeological Association maintains the database, which includes 7321 pā sites.
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Labours argument against the “no experts support it” re: GST exemption is that most other countries do it.
If that’s the argument, then I’d like to indroduce Labour to this thing called a Capital Gains Tax…
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Grant Robertson replies to Amy Adams' suggestion he follow Roger Douglas who offered to resign after a budget leak:
"In my life i have made it my ambition not to follow Roger Douglas"
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Willie Jackson says Tame’s negative interviews won’t help getting the media entity legislation passed before the election.
Quite a breach of TVNZ’s ed. independence to even joke that Q&A’s job is to back the merger, especially given tensions around independence are high
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This quietly passed me by on holiday. National looking to reduce debt to 30% GDP in a decade. Ran some numbers and found it would mean getting debt $80b lower than currently forecast. That would mean some of the biggest cuts to services in a generation and possibly tax rises too.
National would need to cut tens of billions in public services to meet debt target
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Devastated about Newshub. They’re a vital independent voice and have produced great work.
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In response to today's horrible news about Oranga Tamariki, Kelvin Davis pointing the finger at National's "Mr Tesla".
Misses the mark imho... today is a pretty dark day for OT. Ministers should maybe think more about protecting vulnerable children more and Luxon's Teslas less
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Christopher Luxon steps up to ask his question.
A Labour MP said they thought he was in Te Puke, another said "Aloha".
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Looks like the Greens on track for their best result in history.
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In which I heroically try to stop the DPM from tripping and then help to pick up the microphones he knocked off the stand.
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Chris Hipkins inadvertently saved the wealth tax.
Labour was probably going to lose anyway, and if they’d campaigned on a wealth tax, it would have been blamed for the loss, and dropped from the manifesto for good.
Now, it’s likely to be on the sheet in 2026.
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Sad lack of Christchurh representation in gallery. Been half an hour and no one’s asked what school the CHCH cases went to.
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Gaurav Sharma has moved even further to the back bench
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Good speech - great for NZ. These are a big deal in America and Harvard is probably the biggest deal of them all.
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Chris Hipkins now talking about his family and his recent separation from his wife. Still “incredibly close” and she is his “best friend”. Asks for his family to be kept out of the spotlight.
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PM confirms NZ is “transitioning” away from elimination.
Most people hate saying I told you so.
I’m not most people - I told you so.
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New Zealand is clearly too small for a New Plymouth and a Palmerston North.
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Still can’t believe that in a country that managed to eliminate Covid-19, we haven’t been able to eliminate paywave surcharges.
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Government ignored health advice on MIQ. Did its own research.
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Christopher Luxon asked Parliamentary Service to acquire a taxpayer-funded Tesla for his entitlement as a self-drive car last year.
The Herald understands Luxon cancelled the order after he was made aware of the political risks.
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The Ministry of Health has today changed the way it publishes Covid data. It's now going to show progress towards 90% and it will also highlight hospitalisation numbers, rather than new daily cases.
Feels very Gladys.
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New Zealand staying at red. Next review Thursday before Easter.
Feels politically significant. There's been a narrative around loosening restrictions over the last few weeks. PM showing she's still capable of standing her ground on restrictions if she wants to.
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Verdicts on the debate: Calling it for Hipkins. He forced Luxon into some difficult corners, where Luxon just didn't have satisfying answers, including law and order, which Luxon probably thought he had stitched up.
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Jim Bolger telling Q&A future National leader might want to think about reimagining capitalism.
My prediction is that this will not happen.
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Wellington, the kind of city that gets two good days in a row and it’s most popular beach fills with sharks
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Spoke to David Farrar, says this is the biggest swing since the emergence of the two-party system in 1938, bigger than the post-Ruthanasia swing of 1993. Fair to say polls didn't pick up just how unpopular govt. had become.
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Tories have taken the main centres, but one Tory is actually a Green.
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Freudian slip from Luxon in his speech. Intended to say Greens were most trusted on environment issues, ended up saying they were most trusted on economy. Congrats Greens.
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Rainbow law (a student organisation from the University of Auckland Faculty of Law) has a policy tool to evaluate all of the policies that political parties don't have.
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Just had a 71 year-old email me warning I'm on "borrowed time".
Bro...
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My one request to the protesters is to make sure they get a snap of themselves in the Wellngton sign. It really is unmissable.
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There's something equally quaint and disturbing about the fact that Maureen Pugh seems to think James Shaw is sitting on a bunch of climate change evidence that he's not releasing to the public.
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Thinking of Kiri right now. She’s one of the best people in the building and has nailed her first few months of being a minister.
Last week I was diagnosed with cancer. I’ll be taking medical leave while undergoing therapy. For a more fulsome explanation, please refer here:
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Why wouldn’t you just be upfront about this?
If a media organisation knows what has actually gone one, the truth will definitely come out
Hipkins’ statement confirmed by The Press editor Kamala Hayman
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Twitter is the Instagram of Wellington so here are some photos:
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Next time they tell you English literature is a worthless degree:
Daniel Radcliffe just used a theory of authorship to salvage a multi-billion dollar piece of intellectual property from the transphobia of its author.
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Looked into long term effects of National’s indexation of benefits to CPI instead of wages. They’re quite large.
Household living costs survey from Stats NZ suggests CPI increases would not keep up with cost of living for beneficiary households
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Winston Peters on 20 minute cities:
20 minute cities sound like a control mechanism to keep you in place.
These people are Marxist control freaks.
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Hipkins saying tests at the CHCH resthome have returned negative (advice last night).
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Austalia will have changed prime ministers seven times since 2010, New Zealand has changed PM 7 times since 1990.
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