Budget 2026 Care Crisis While Defence Gets Billions
The Government calls this security. Care workers call it poverty wages, broken cars, impossible rent and another Budget that tells them they do not matter.

The Government calls this security. Care workers call it poverty wages, broken cars, impossible rent and another Budget that tells them they do not matter.

Katikati patients could lose local hours, weekend clinics and urgent care if a blunt funding model decides their rural community is suddenly urban.

The Government spent two years insisting more fossil gas would save us. Now it is underwriting loans to help businesses escape gas dependence. Russel Norman says the fairytale has collapsed.

Auckland’s roads are about to become pay-to-play, and the people least able to avoid peak-hour travel will be the ones hit hardest.

National wants the media frightened, obedient and apologetic. The question is whether TVNZ still remembers what journalism is for.

If this is the campaign rollout, it’s not discipline — it’s noise. And voters tend to tune that out fast.

They’re caring for New Zealand’s most vulnerable — and paying for it themselves. Even after the increase, many say they’re still going backwards.

This wasn’t a reset. It was a move to hold the numbers — and hold off what comes next.

Sam Uffindell and Simeon Brown misread migration data, falsely claiming National reversed the exodus of New Zealanders.

Ian Powell examines how conviction politics has reshaped New Zealand’s health system — and why responsibility must come first.