General Debate 15 October 2026

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General Debate

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Does anyone know what has happened to FYI.org.nz? They have had a banner at the top of their pages saying “New user sign-ups and password changes are paused while we strengthen anti-spam measures. Thank you for your patience.” for a couple of months now.
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October 15, 2026 8:00am
Damocles11

Last night in the leaders debate it became clear that Hipkins’ latest socialist giveaway of ‘3 free doctors visits every year for all’ is on track to totally overwhelm our GP clinics. When told that we are around 450 GP’s short as it is, Hipkins referred to a loan scheme Labour would introduce, and talked about ‘increasing the productivity’ of GP’s. It just seems that Hipkins is determined to get into power at all costs, and to heck with the consequences for the people on the front line of his mad schemes.
People will vote for these pipedreams again, won’t they? Nothing has been learned from the KiwiBuild fiasco.
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October 15, 2026 8:10am
- Ian Boag
  
  It just seems that Hipkins is determined to get into power at all costs
  
  Possibly. Which of the others are different? 🙂
  
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  October 15, 2026 8:24am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Here you go
    This might help your alarming ignorance
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2026/10/spending_promises_gone_berserk.html
    
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    October 15, 2026 8:29am
- Taieri
  
  talked about ‘increasing the productivity’ of GP’s
  ———
  
  How do you increase the “productivity” of a GP?
  
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  October 15, 2026 8:30am
  - Flossie
    
    You make them work harder and longer apparently. I know my GP works very hard already and I hope they don’t get to the point of saying it’s all too much and packing it in .
    
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    October 15, 2026 9:00am
- penguincouple
  
  In the same way, nothing has been learnt from the Ardern days right? Install a relatively young lady that is presentable (yes I know this is debatable but let’s park that), knows how to sweet talk, willing to do anything to be liked and has no substance, to front the party, and watch the media and the commons go frenzy about her and vote for her blindly.
  
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  October 15, 2026 8:40am
Cassandra

France recognised the Palestinian state under the condition that election were held this month. Mahmoud Abbas (20 years into his four year term) has now postponed what would have been the first Palestinian elections in nearly 20 years.

Fatah’s Abbas blames Israel and the security situation in the Palestinian territories for the decision. He’s probably right about Gaza but he was never going to do well there. The way things are going it’s really a three state solution now.

France, Germany, Australia, Ireland etc have all been gamed. Wise Winston Peters got it right. Have the election then we’ll look at recognition.
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October 15, 2026 8:10am
- Frank the tank
  
  There will be silence in the MSM over this as it doesn’t fit the narrative.
  
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  October 15, 2026 8:21am
Scott

Act candidate James Christmas has a message for Winston Peters. Don’t push your socially conservative rebrand here in Tamaki. We are not interested:

Instagram – christmasfortamaki – a message to the right honourable Winston Peters

Where does one start? Winston is a social conservative. He grew up in a poor but law abiding conservative Maori community. He and his brothers have raised themselves up through hard work and endeavour.

In my opinion Winston is quite right to raise concerns about “conversion therapy” legislation and also our extreme abortion legislation and also euthanasia.

David Seymour and James Christmas have both laid into this issue and Seymour has emphasised his pride in the legislation.
Seymour was riding high in the polls before the last election but then weighed into Christians on a Family First podcast I think from memory and the final election result was disappointing.

If Act could stick to their compelling message about cutting regulations and NZers getting ahead and building prosperity then they have a compelling message.

On the other hand emphasizing abortion and euthanasia and conversion therapy bans is a terrible message that many in the electorate would shy away from. But somehow when it comes to election time they just can’t help themselves? 🤔
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October 15, 2026 8:12am
Damocles11

The Opportunity Party appears to stand for nothing and will ‘work’ with anyone. Apparently that is a good thing. That’s ‘doing politics differently’. People are apparently ‘tired of the left and right divide’. So just ‘working’ with anyone and forming coalitions with anyone is apparently what we need as a country. I genuinely do not get it. You’d think what we need is highly competent people with strong convictions and concrete solutions to our many pressing problems. Instead we are offered an unknown quantity wrapped up in slick branding, a group happy to sit around a table for the sake of sitting around a table. Far from providing a breath of fresh air, Opportunity add an extra dose of complexity and strangeness to an already crowded political landscape.
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October 15, 2026 8:19am
Frank the tank

Dear Chris

Here is how a centre right politician answers a minimum wage question:

1). NZ already has one of the highest minimum wage to average wage wage ratio in the world. If this was the answer we would be Switzerland of the South Pacific.
2). Minimum wage increases directly impact business costs that directly impact goods and services costs said businesses charge = NZ is no better off.
3). Further costs on businesses risk higher insolvencies, less jobs and encourages supplementing AI for jobs.
4). When NZ can afford raises to the minimum wage we will do so alongside tax cuts for higher salary earners and businesses. We can’t at present as we need to pay down debt due to some poor financial decisions over the past decade.
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October 15, 2026 8:19am
RW Capitalist

Watched the debate last night.
The winner….Ryan Bridge.
But I did get sick and tired of hearing Chippie say
“I have a plan”
Well since you are applying for the job , from us, don’t keep it to yourself….what is it???
All we get are talking points.
Also, this whole situation, is like:
You broke Mum’s favorite vase
but Mum’s complaining that Dad hasn’t fixed it yet.
Note to Chippie
You broke the economy, Luxon is fixing it (slowly).
But your offering is, as far as we can see, doing the same things that broke it.
Definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different res
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October 15, 2026 8:19am
nathie

Caught most of the Leaders Debate on ZB last night so feel as I can offer some informed comments (as haven’t watched the tv debates).

In general what I heard was Luxon answering reasonably well (compared to how the media usually portray him) and provided enough details to explain his responses. (Sure there were a couple of odd responses I disagreed with but I’m talking in general).

In contrast Hipkins “sounds great” i.e. says the right things to make the MSM both comfortable with him and champion him, but a couple of things constantly stood out.

Firstly his raised aggressive voice, sometimes I could swear it sounded exactly like Phil Goff when he used to get angry (poor ol’ Phil used to sound like he was going to blow a fu-fu value – calm down Phil)! So what is it with Labour leaders – Angry Andy, Angry Phil and now Angry Hipkins??? It’s not a good look!

Secondly we all know Hipkins is a talented speaker, we saw that when Labour rolled him out in 2020 or 2021 to face the media, he is a natural, convincing speaker. But two things – actions v words – just because he speaks well and says all the right things not to scare the woke middle-class MSM cheerleading him on, does not translate into how he will actually perform in a PM role. We saw the poor outcomes with every Ministry he led when previously in Govt. And we saw this with the previous Govt’s “war on the kiwi way of life”. Eg exploding crime and criminals let out of prison, orange roadcone mayhem (who can forget State Highway 2 in the Wairarapa that had its speed limit reduced to 80kmh and dozens and dozens of miles of roadcones so there was no margin to overtake or safety pull over – which local MP Kieran McAnulty supported) and so on and so on.

So it’s one thing for the “people” to be impressed with Hipkins’ rhetoric … but the MSM? Why are they so gullible? Honestly who cares how Hipkins sounds in contrast to Luxon (or anyone else for that matter)? The MSM should know better – actions v words – that Hipkins cannot deliver what he promises with his nice sound bites and secondly, he will be constrained by radical coalition partners the Greens and TPM and maybe TOP as they pressure Labour for radical reform, more taxing and spending, causing higher inflation, interest rates and national debt.

No thanks – that would be a disaster for NZ’s prosperity and its future. So why does the MSM ignore these fundamental realities of a Hipkins led Labour Govt?
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October 15, 2026 8:30am
Cassandra

Have a look at the Craig Stobo profile on Newsroom this morning. I prefer Act but if I had to I’d vote NZF to get this guy into Parliament.
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October 15, 2026 8:36am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361046241/nz-election-2026-live-updates-politics-campaign-news
“Looks like we might be speaking to Labour,” Opportunity’s leader says.”
And: “I will give him one last chance and call and just double-check that he definitely wants to be in opposition. If he is determined to be there, then good on him,” Wong said.”
How very kind and gracious of Ms Wong to be so considerate of Mr Luxon’s election outcome.
Maybe don’t count your chickens until they hatch, Ms Wong.
Arrogance and ignorance on full display there.
Anyone surprised?
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October 15, 2026 8:43am

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