HeyJaredPolitics Happens
The Politics Happens newsletter examines political events and ideas with independent, balanced analysis that lets you make up your own mind.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 15
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- Sep 28, 2026
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- Aug 4, 2026
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The Matters That Actually Matter... like the cost of bread and butter. (opens the original)
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New Zealand is now in high election campaign season, and opinion polls are finely balanced. On the day, will voters be more inclined to give Luxon & Co another term, or will they lurch towards another change? When John Key was campaigning for his second term in 2011, things were completely different. National were polling in the high 40s, or even over 50%, and many people were saying that the election was “a foregone conclusion” – and so it was. Turnout dropped to a low of 74.2%, but National wo
More dirty politics? (opens the original)
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Unity Books, Wellington, has advertised the launch of investigative journalist Nicky Hager’s new book on Tuesday evening. This may – or may not – dominate media attention and the election campaign, as did his 2014 book, Dirty Politics.I dug out my review of Dirty Politics, copied below. That review was published within a week of the book’s release.Dirty Politics was not as well documented or closely argued as Hager’s 2006 book, The Hollow Men. It didn’t land any so
New Zealand’s political fragmentation may be under way. (opens the original)
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According to two recent polls, National and Labour were both below the dreaded 30% mark. If their combined election results in November fall below 62%, that will be the lowest ever. Below 60% now looks possible.Some say that National and Labour have weak leaders and don’t know what they stand for anymore, and so voters are looking at alternatives. But polling numbers for the smaller parties are jumping around a lot – which may reflect volatile public opinion and/or the practical difficulties in
The Greens’ ‘affordable kai’ policy: how does it add up? (opens the original)
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The Green Party has made headlines with an “affordable food” policy. It would be achieved by the following means:“Require Woolworths and Foodstuffs to divest at least 120 stores and distribution centre capacity into public ownership. Create KiwiMart, a publicly owned supermarket chain with a single mandate – keep prices down.”Affordable kai sounds great. And it’s true that many households in Aotearoa are struggling to feed the family. But the word “require” is surely a euphemism. What if the sup
Universities: what did they exist for? (opens the original)
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Universities have acquired a reputation for suppressing ideas, rather than exploring or debating them. How did that happen?A notable case is biologist Carole Hooven who said on TV in 2021 that, based on the gametes an organism produces [the small mobile ones (sperm) or the large immobile ones (eggs)], there are two only sexes. She writes: “Shortly after that, I was made so uncomfortable on campus and in my department [at Harvard University] that I felt I had no choice but to leave the job I love
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