NZ Politics

The National Party wants to ban 16-year-olds from accessing social media by forcing companies to use age verification measures, but for now that's not government policy.

National MP Catherine Wedd, with the backing of leader Christopher Luxon, has put forward a members' bill which would follow Australia's lead on cracking down on the social media giants.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to explore picking it up as a "broader government bill," which would mean it could become law more quickly.

Right now the legislation does not have government-endorsed, meaning it would be debated only if it was drawn from the ballot at random.

The government is making it harder to make a claim for pay equity that will cut costs, saying the current system is too loose.

There have been massive pay equity claims in recent years for nurses and resthome workers.

Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden announced the moves to raise the threshold for proving work has been historically undervalued to support a claim, on Tuesday saying changes back in 2020 had created problems.

"Claims have been able to progress without strong evidence of undervaluation and there have been very broad claims where it is difficult to tell whether differences in pay are due to sex-based discrimination or other factors."

Claims were concentrated in the public sector, with costs to the Crown of all settlements so far totalling $1.78 billion a year, she said.

"The changes I am proposing will significantly reduce costs to the Crown," she said.

"The changes will discontinue current pay equity claims

Winston and Seymour's god is at it again.

and in other news, Grumpy old man shouts at clouds

Minority coalition partner New Zealand First introduced a bill to parliament on Tuesday that if enacted would define women and men by their biology, preventing trans women and men being recognised by law.

I wonder where they got the idea

New Zealand is extending its military assistance in support of Ukraine's self-defence until December 2026.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made the announcement early this morning (NZT) in London.

"New Zealand is unwavering in its support for Ukraine against Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion," he said.

"That is why we are extending our deployment of up to 100 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK and throughout Europe, and provide intelligence, liaison and logistics support through to December 2026."

This is plainly intimidation for politically incorrect articles by the press. It's an attack of free press in this country.

The most mediocre politician of all time is going to attack anybody he claims is mediocre and do his best to make the lives of mediocre people miserable as he can.

A Friendly reminder that the Taxpayers union is funded by the Heritage foundation who is behind Trump and project 2025

Scum.

This government is the most divisive in memory.

Can you name a more iconic pair than religion and child abuse?

Oligarchy is already here I guess.