I really tried to find 10 political highlights this year to balance my Top 10 lowlights, but truth be told I could barely find 5!
Here are the 5 Political Highlights of 2025:
5: John Campbell appointed to Morning Report:
FINALLY A REASON TO LISTEN TO RNZ!
I argued in October Morning Report had only one option as the new Morning Report host and that it was JC!
Corin has been the decent bugger and fallen upon his sword to allow RNZ the pretence of change to at least look like they are responding to the avalanche of criticism that came their way.
I liked Corin, I think he asks very straight bat questions, just like Jack Tame, and is a credit to Fourth Estate journalism.
With him gone, RNZ needed a big name to take it to ZB.
The obvious candidate was John Campbell.
John is the best journalist/broadcaster this country has.
He has the intelligence, wit and humbleness to take RNZ Morning Report and turn it into an โagenda settingโ level of broadcasting.
Most importantly, John has commercial TV experience and that is ultimately what is lacking at RNZ.
Let me explain.
What is the real difference between ZB and RNZ?
The bloody adverts.
ZB is jam packed full of adverts pimping snake oil bullshit at full volume every 7 bloody minutes. Those who are used to RNZ will NEVER transfer to that kind of mawkish commercialisation, but what those tiny advert breaks where a radio show breaks out forces the NZME host to do is cut straight to the point.
RNZ gets attacked for its lack of pace because they have the luxury to not have advert breaks and that privilege breeds a complacency.
John has worked 7pm Current Affairs, he knows you have to cut to the point now because thatโs his DNA.
Putting him in Morning Report will generate a new internal pace.
RNZ wonโt lose more listeners to ZB because the adverts are toxic, but gaining John would be a true alternative to Mike Hosking.
Why would you listen to Ryan Bridge in the morning when you had John Campbell as an option?
Appointing John Campbell shows RNZ wants to actually compete with ZB.
This is one of the few real wins for people who give a fuck.
4: Jacinda’s book and documentary ย
Sweet Jesus please let the Jacinda Documentary get nominated for an Academy Award!
Could you imagine the screams from the ZB Trolls, Hosking and Redneck NZ Crackers who hate vaccines if her Documentary gets a nomination?
All those National, ACT and NZF voters screaming and screaming and screaming their impotent rage.
Their tears would be so delicious.
Please God, let her doco get a nomination, just so the small minded who turned on her could feel real shame because the only way the gauche in NZ feel embarrassed is if they are judged externally.
3: The Unions push back with general strikes
The NZ Union movement is finally fighting back against a Political Right who are only focused on destroying them
All sectors are now striking and NZCTU have aligned with the National Iwi Chairs Forum alongside working with the Palestinian Rights protest movement and it’s about time.
The NZ Union movement has never confronted a dead eyed free market acolyte quite like Brooke van Velden before. They have busied themselves with pay equity lawfare (itโs easier to hire lawyers than convince workers to join Unions and far less militant), which is fine and dandy, until it is not.
Brooke is the not.
Fresh from kneecapping Pay Equity, Brooke is back destroying WorkSafe and reducing it from an enforcer to an adviser.
50-60 workers die every year at work and another 700 to 900 from work-related deaths, and whatโs the Unions response?
Begging Brooke to give them back Pay Equity!
At what point does the Union movement admit it and call Van Velden out as a bad faith actor who has zero interest in negotiating a deal for worker rights, and instead wants to crush them?
But protesting isn’t enough, it’s the start.
The reality is that Unions are simply begging to get the little they gained back rather than push for a whole new workers rights policy platform.
it is not enough to merely beg for what this Government have stolen, the Left must fight for more!
The Unions have told themselves law-fare using pay parity legislation is their only strength, well, the Government just destroyed that and all the Unions are now left with is gasping for oxygen using gills like fish flopping on the ground.
I have warned that Crooke Van Velden is different.
I have warned this hard right Government is different.
I have argued the Union movement needs to fight for the right to strike because that is the ONLY power that actually works!
The NZ Union movement have to actually fight back because Van Velden is here to play for keeps, and despite the constant warnings that Van Velden was something far more malicious than the Unions had previously faced (a point TDB has been making monthly since this Government was elected), the Unions are still sitting on their hands!
Look, if the Unions start pushing for the right to strike by citing Van Veldenโs extremism as the reason, they move the Overton Window.
This seems to be a concept the Unions are incapable of comprehending.
EVERY PUBLIC WORKER requires a 15% across the board pay rise ALONGSIDE more holidays ALONGSIDE more benefits so that we build public sector jobs that acknowledge their importance in the running of the State and Society.
To do that we need real political muscle and Union Leaders prepared to use that political muscle.
Our refusal to enact ILO Convention 87 on the right to strike, our lack of true leadership inside the Union movement and the failure to do anything other than perk up bureaucrats in Wellington has meant that when a truly right wing government appears with a radical agenda, there is no Union movement left to fight.
We have almost no rights to strike in this country.
No rights for sympathy strikes, no rights for wildcat strikes, no rights at all because we have a Union movement too frightened to actually fight for them.
I agree with the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR) and their analysis of our weak union movement:
- Reforms to overturn the legislative undermining of freedom of association and the right to strike
- Amend the right to freedom of association in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to expressly include the right to collectively bargain and the right to strike in conformity with the law
- Include the right to decent work (including the right to gain oneโs living by work which is freely chosen or accepted) in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Include the right to just and favourable conditions of work (as expressed in art 7 of ICESCR) in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Include other economic, social and cultural rights in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Review the role of the courts, and Parliament, in ensuring rights-consistent legislation โ remove excessive sanctions from the social welfare system
- Ensure effective implementation of the principle of equal opportunity and treatment in employment, including for Maฬori workers
- Review immigration policies and regulations to remove barriers to migrant workers seeking assistance and remedies for labour exploitation and other rights abuses
A 10 day nationwide strike would do more for workers than 10 elections ever could.
This anti-Worker Government has pushed for lower wages, weaker safety regulations and deregulation of industry for their donors interests at the cost of those who make capitalism work โ the actual workers!
Our economy, community and society are going to be forced into urgent adaptation thanks to global warming and AI.
Late Stage Capitalism is collapsing under the weight of its own greed.
Workers Rights are Human Rights.
We need to be kinder to individuals and crueller to corporations.
It is time for the Left to unite and fight back.
The Unions must take a stand!
We either fight back or allow this Government to continue implementing an extreme right wing agenda.
2: Mamdani winning New York:
Yes.
I’m so desperate for a political highlight I’m being forced to use the Zamdani win.
His argument that the State should be subsidising rent freezes, public transport, supermarkets and early childcare are all polices the NZ Left should be adopting.
1: Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke’s Haka
Her Haka was viewed over a billion times!
When Dame Jenny Shipley argues that the Treaty Principles Referendum invites civil war.
When Chris Finlayson argues the Treaty Principles Referendum has destroyed our global race relations reputation.
When 40 Kings Council argue against it, when the Waitangi Tribunal calls it the worst abuse of the Treaty ever, you know the NZ Political Right have gone too far.
The NZ Political Right threw a grenade into race relations and are now walking around going, โwhy are they so angryโ?
You canโt ram a racist piece of legislation through and expect Kiwis to simply accept what cracker wants.
The NZ Political Right want to cement into place 19th Century white settler privilege and the rest of us wonโt put up with it.
National, ACT and NZF agreed to this, they wear the racism!
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, soย if you value having an independent voice โ please donate here.
Morning Retort with John Campbell and Susie Ferguson now that would be a hit
Hanna needs to get into the labour or greens fold ASAP .sHE IS WAY TO GOOD TO BE CAUGHT UP IN THE tAMIHERE POWER STRUGGLE .