Kicking the disabled, denigrating migrants and bashing beneficiaries to balance the budget isn’t a solution, it’s social vandalism
This isn’t an economic vision, it’s social carnage…
Changes to accommodation supplement could negate benefits of fuel subsidy, Green MP says
Social Development Minister Louise Upston has introduced legislation to amend the accommodation supplement threshold for homeowners. But one MP says it could effectively negate the fuel subsidy for some families with children.
Stuff
Government to overturn court decision recognising family carers as employees
The Disability Minister has revealed a bill that would reverse a recent Supreme Court decision to recognise some family carers as employees.
Stuff
More public service job cuts may be coming – how many have gone already?
The government is set to announce proposals which RNZ understands will seek to reduce the number of government agencies, with amalgamation, more work on digitisation and using AI, and setting a target to reduce the public service headcount to 1 percent of the total population by 2029.
There are 42 ministries and agencies currently in the public sector and just over 63,000 full-time workers.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the headcount blew out by far too much under the previous Labour governments. It was 48,000 in 2017 and increased to 57,000 by 2020.
Getting the number of public servants back to 1 percent of the total population by 2029 could require thousands of jobs to be cut.
In 2024 RNZ kept a count of cuts in the sector, to get a sense of the changes, and in May 2025 RNZ published an explainer about why it is not easy to find consensus on the right way to count cuts.
RNZ
Kicking the disabled, denigrating migrants and bashing beneficiaries to balance the budget isn’t a solution, it’s social vandalism.
The realisation on behalf of National that if they return to power, it will probably be with Winston as Prime Minister for the first 12 months has spurred them into a blitzkrieg of legislation they are ramming through in order to compete for the culture war vote and push things through they don’t think Winston will agree to as PM.
Winston is already mocking Nicola by pointing out that his beloved MFAT are immune to any off the spending cuts…
Winston Peters has taunted Nicola Willis about his department, MFAT, being exempt from the $2.4 billion of cuts she plans to announce in next week’s Budget².
…it will be a race by National, ACT and NZF to see who can be the biggest prick to appeal to the frothy right wing electorate polarised by social media hate algorithms.
