Some interesting "Wealth Tax" ideas in there and proposed changes that would net an extra ~$5B (estimated).

• Big corporations tax: The corporate tax rate will be increased from 28 percent to 33 percent for big companies with annual turnover exceeding $30 million. This will impact about 0.7 percent of businesses (e.g. banks, supermarkets and energy companies).

And new income tax rates:

Current

Proposed

So disingenuine

I was just in New Zealand and that's the place where they've all decided to build their bunkers and I actually learned for the first time why they all chose New Zealand it's because there was an analysis of where the... if... if a nuclear bombs detonate like the probability of where they would detonate. Um when you look at the map of... of the blast radius, New Zealand is almost always outside of that blast radius. So that's why they're building their bunkers there.

The Salvation Army’s second six-monthly survey of housing support providers, along with other data related to homelessness, reveals alarming trends: Homelessness is increasing across nearly all communities, with no area reporting a decline. Access to emergency housing is becoming increasingly restricted, with a 386% rise since August 2024 in Ministry of Social Development (MSD) rejections citing that people had ‘contributed to their own homelessness’.

NZ homelessness worst in history.

Another one like FuelClock.nz but with more shipping info: https://nz-fuel.netlify.app/vessel_monitor

To recap how we got here:

• The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is the largest consumer of electricity in New Zealand
• The international mining company that owns it occasionally threaten to shut down the operation, culling ~100 good jobs, unless Meridian gives them basically free power.
• Public pressure means Meridian acquiesces to lower prices and the govt gives them subsidies.
• Everyone's electricity gets more expensive: $200 more per year

Now:

• DataGrid got consent from local neighbours after working with neighbours. Likely before Benn Jordan's video
• DataGrid will be competing for electricity (which may further increase electricity prices?)
• Data centres aren't famous for employing heaps of people
• It looks like if you live in Greymouth your internet might get shit-hot fast in the next decade

I'm not 100% against data centres. I do believe this is happening much more quietly than it should. They had already got consent for it before it was really published in the news / I heard about it (I do live under a hermit rock).

The data centre is owned by a foreign company. Presumably the profits will go off-shore. So, we're going to pay more for our own electricity and some investors in Singapore will get more rich. It probably will create 10 local jobs though, so, there's that.

If the govt is giving out subsidies, I'd much rather see it go to education to train the next wave of computer scientists that will figure out how to make the "actually useful" AI tools much more energy efficient.

Anyone seen the new series Crackhead?

• The war on drugs has created a market where drug prices are so much higher than global prices that Mexican Cartels are now targeting New Zealand.
• In less than a year, meth use has tripled in Northland.
• NZDTS results from January 2026 show use increasing and prices falling.
• NZ Drug Foundation details the failures in our Drug Policy in their 2025 report Safer drug laws for Aotearoa New Zealand: Evidence to inform regulatory change
• The cost to keep someone in prison is $552/night or $201,480/yr

Failure to follow the order is subject to a $2,000 fine or up to 3 months in jail.

The behaviours mentioned in the video (that are not in the draft explanatory note ^pdf^):

• Behavior indicating an intent to inhabit a public place
• Rough sleeping
• All forms of begging
• Breaching the peace
• Obstructing or impeding someone from entering a business
• Disorderly, disruptive, threatening, or intimidating behavior

Hon Mark Mitchel (Minister of Police) chimes in at 10:23 to acknowledge that the people subject to the order are vulnerable people.

At 17:54 a reporter asks about descretionary enforcement and Mitchel confirms the planned use of selective enforcement which increases the risk of targeting marginalised populations.

The YT comments are gold.

Full RNZ article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/587562/government-announces-homeless-move-on-orders-for-all-town-centres-not-just-auckland

This was also reported on in November '25.

Good!

I stumbled across a 2020 OIA request to NZ Treasury where someone asked:

what analysis Treasury has done on the KiwiSaver First Home scheme affecting house prices, and how much taxpayer money gets transferred into the housing stock

Treasury released a few internal docs and they basically say that increasing caps would lead to higher house prices and that subsidies for renters/buyers tend to be captured by landlords/sellers instead of improving affordability long-term.

The advice was apparently ignored.