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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walking along the market streets of Huadong agonising over the choice of duck rice, steamed dumplings, or some Portuguese tarts and realising this is China, so why not have them all for lunch?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What a stunning evening to be flying out of Tāmaki! Also these suburban trains are pretty damn good.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Please please please can we also have this in Kirikiriroa? Postal voting is like a lobotomy for local democracy.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Say what you will about the impact (so far) of Nicky Hager's new book, but he has without a doubt created a defining narrative about the Taxpayers Union: a Hard Right lobby group willing to do anything - including stoking racial hatred - to get the Right re-elected into Govt. Whatever the cost.

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Reposted by Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿

Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#NZpol Saw this excellent quote-reply to Simeon Brown’s latest attack on Labour. Worth sharing.

David Peez @RebelEkonomista

"The truck driver in Pakuranga helps pay off a lawyer's loan." No, Simeon. He doesn't. Not a cent.

When the government lends a student money, it creates the dollars and credits their account. No tradie's tax was collected and posted to a law degree. When the graduate repays, those dollars are deleted, drained back out like tax. They don't land in the truck driver's pocket either.

So nobody foots the bill. The worker and the graduate aren't on opposite sides of a ledger. Setting them against each other is the trick, and it runs on the same myth as "add it to the tab", that the government is a household counting coins. It issues the currency. The real limits are real resources and inflation, not a truck driver's tax bill.

"Someone always pays." Sure. Just never the person you keep pointing at.

Read more: http://therebeleconomist.substack.com

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If you think the new RNZ CEO's appointment is simply a matter of handing over the job from one commercial media dude to another, you're wrong. Paul Thompson came from INL/Fairfax into RNZ, but he was trained in newsrooms & edited papers in the days when facts & details mattered. And this new guy?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Totally confident RNZ's new CEO will fearlessly pursue truth & accountability in the best traditions of public service broadcasting. Also...

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Reposted by Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿

Grumpy @grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Honestly, anyone would think that dodgy RW lobby groups were the ones running NZ news media...

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Once Jordan Williams discovered racism made the TU tills ring, he went at it boot-and-all, tearing at the social fabric of Aotearoa to profit himself and his dirty little hard right cabal. Untold damage ensued. Genuinely sickening.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A street protest in Madrid on Saturday. Then an impromptu - and growing - tent encampment Sunday. Two days later and Spain's Govt is working flat out to appease the public with housing reforms. Spanish people know how to do people power! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

theguardian.com

‘It keeps growing’: the tent camp that stands against Spain’s housing crisis

An encampment is sprawling across Puerta del Sol plaza in central Madrid in protest against the ‘rentier economy’

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

National's campaign launch is topical again so just wanting to point out this pic is a perfect analogy of that they've done to the economy since getting into Govt.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Given one of our 2 public broadcasters has gone completely off the rails, I'm wondering is there any avenue of legal redress to remove this damaging structural imbalance created by RNZ's dependency on TU & its affiliates? I mean, crowd-funding something like this would be a breeze.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Opportunity Party's bottom lines. Two things: - 4, 5 and to a lesser extent 2 are going to be VERY problematic for NZF - total absences of any te Tiriti or Māori references places TOP fairly & squarely in the centre right white zone of politics

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Just saw a v-e-r-y diplomatic story on the RNZ website about Susie Ferguson officially leaving RNZ. Nothing about where she's going. Have any of the other news channels carried this story in a more substantive way? #nzpol

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Ka pū te ruha - Toitū Te Tiriti @kaputeruha.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Cameron Bagrie getting free rein on RNZ to call for more cuts despite fronting The Taxpayers Unions latest astroturf org 'The Parents Alliance'. Zero credibility and working against the people of Aotearoa #nzpol

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Reposted by Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿

Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Omg can’t wait 😍

A satirical mockup of a poster for a putative 2025 season of the Danish political drama Borgen… starring the progressive New Zealand parties. Front and centre in the Birgitte Nyborg role is the Greens’ co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, flanked on the left by Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke of Te Pāti Māori (and of parliamentary haka fame), and current Labour leader Chris Hipkins on the right. My sister Gemma Gracewood made this meme and deserves all the glory.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Swear to god Luxon has one of these on his phone, except with more up-to-date management cliché pap

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you're CEO of a company operating in a monopoly/duopoly, and creaming in all the super-profit that comes from having NO COMPETITION and being able to FIX PRICES, of course there's always the fear that someone will put a stop to your gravy train, Mr "TU proxy by another name" Hartwich. #nzpol

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Stunning piece of work here by NB. Go on, have a go at guessing what these dishes of vile slop were actually called!

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Just bought myself a special meal on an upcoming China Southern flight out of Guangzhou, and succeeded in paying for it using Alipay. Result! I've had CS Air special meals in the past. They're good value (NZD20 max) & pretty amazing. If you're in a position to order one, you really should.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"Evidence-based, non-partisan" This is how RNZ was platforming the latest TU astroturf on the very day Hager's book was launched! Is it naive to expect the news site will now make an effort to un-embed the TU from its news and current affairs programming as a result of Hager's revelations?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Listened to RNZ's Mediawatch this morn so you didn't have to. Featuring Hager's book, the presenter chose to focus on media presenters' reactions to the book, and J William's denial of payoffs for sexual harrassment. In doing so he competely avoided the central premises of the book:

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Reposted by Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿

MeatMechSuit @meatmechsuit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Splendid

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

On the edge of my seat, waiting to see what zinger new policy the Greens will launch today. #nzpol

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We need answers from senior editorial & management at our public broadcasters: 1. Was there outside pressure/pressure from above to use TU and affiliated groups as go-tos for political comment? 2. Do you acknowledge the over-use of TU/affiliates has created an imbalance in your political coverage?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

If the parties of the Right stay true to form, tomorrow National will announce a policy to abolish Māori ethnicity. On Monday ACT will promise to abolish te reo. And so on and so on, in furtherance of the racism-wins-votes strategy Hager outlined in his book Dirty Work.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A summary of political news stories on the One News website this afternoon. Four stories about NZ First policies* Two stories on ACT policies One story on a TPM policy Zero stories on National, Labour or the Greens. *One of these is a repeat headline of a story featured higher up the page

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Josh | writer, painter, tinkerer @tworuru.com · 26/09/2026

I've finally seen the light. I urge everyone to visit taxpayersunion.org.nz and see the good work that they've been doing on behalf of the hard-working taxpayers of New Zealand

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

That RNZ avoided the Hager book other than to mention the launch & run poopoo-ing responses from folk associated with the TU cult suggests one of two things: 1. its editors decided there was nothing in the book worthy of discourse, or 2. Hager's attacks on RNZ have forced the RNZ into defensive-mode

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

New music post. Complex, jazzy, African, melodic, uplifting…and gorgeously sung. You REALLY need to listen to this artist! music.apple.com/nz/album/som...

music.apple.com

Sometimes Love (feat. The Cavemen.) by Somi on Apple Music

Song · 2026 · Duration 5:07

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Conspiracists would have us believe Hooton gave Penk a column as part of a plan to increase Tory narratives on his news site. Garbage: if he'd wanted to do that he would have chosen someone who could write, and had something to say. Penk's dialling it in.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Absolutely cracking analysis of Hager's "Dirty Work" & the damage a few men (one in particular) did to the delicate precious fabric of our society in pursuit of power & profit. Also a reminder Simon Wilson is one of Aotearoa's best essayists. simonwilsonhopetown.substack.com/p/dirty-work...

simonwilsonhopetown.substack.com

Dirty work and the disinfecting sunshine it deserves

Nicky Hager’s new book ‘Dirty Work’ reminds us how much we’ve lost in the last three years

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sometimes “whatever is kicking around in the fridge and garden” translate into pretty damn good lunch

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There have been a couple of occasions today where various commentators have attributed the collapse of NZ media to "the tech companies" and while this is true in an abstract sense, anyone who was around at the time knows it was Trademe that dunnit. #nzpol

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This Government has seen some absolutely terrible ministers and I want to nominate Winston Peters and Gerry Brownlee as the absolute worst of the lot.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Damn right! I mean, Hamilton council was being forced to consider the synergies of amalgamating with Taupō and if that isn't the dumbest fucking thing you've ever heard I don't know what is.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Repost with an image of your favourite James Bond (wrong answers only)

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Oh boy, Jordan and David & the TPU kids are gonna bloody RIP THE GOVERNMENT TO SHREDS OVER THIS, right? Right?

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