Labour’s announcement to ban social media for under 16-year-olds is a naive solution to a genuine issue.

Throwing out simplistic sound bites denies the reality that banning social media in its entirety means either banning VPNs or using digital ID for everyone - otherwise it’s a fool’s errand and meaningless.

The failure in Australia to implement such laws highlights this and Labour knows it.
Everyone with children wants them protected from the harms of social media, but the threat of everyone needing to lose privacy and freedoms to enable that to happen is what Labour needs to explain to kiwis. 

Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves as a country how far we want the government to overreach into the responsibilities of parents, but most importantly the rights of parents.

If we start down this innocent pathway, it will become very slippery and won’t stop.

Election period promises that sound good should not hide the serious nature of the solution, nor of the seriousness of the problem we all agree should be addressed.

PS
Between 2020-2023 what did Labour ever do about the problem they are now promising to solve.

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Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara vowed to “restore mana” to gang members during a controversial visit to a Mongrel Mob pad in Auckland last week.

Footage of Kaipara’s speech at the meeting has circulated on social media today. The visit by Te Pāti Māori MPs and a Green Party MP and candidate attracted heavy scrutiny and criticism from other political parties.

“You are tangata whenua. You are of this land. You are Maui’s descendant. You are the descendants of Toi, of Kupe, of Tupaia,” Kaipara told the Mongrel Mob members.

“How come you have to beg for, not a handout, for more than support acknowledging your mana?

“Our policies reinstate what should have always been.”

The clip of Kaipara’s speech began with the words “that I think everyone should be quite scared about”. It was unclear what that was in relation to.

Te Pāti Māori has been approached for comment.

Photos published to social media last week showed Mongrel Mob members meeting with Green MP Hūhana Lyndon and candidate Michel Mulipola, as well as Te Pāti Māori MPs Oriini Kaipara and Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick refused to say if she would have advised MP Lyndon against meeting with members of the Mongrel Mob.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins this morning told media his party would not support any rights for gangs.

“No, I think gangs are a scourge on society, they do enormous harm, they peddle drugs, they perpetuate violence.

“I’ve dealt with victims of gang violence including women who have fled gang relationships where they have been the subject of violence.

“I have no time for the gangs, they will not get any support from any government that I lead.”

He said Labour would not support any changes to the current ban on gang patches.

He earlier labelled the move as a “huge error of judgement” and later ruled out both Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party from holding major ministerial roles if they came to form a government.

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who also posed with gang leader in 2021, said she was “unapologetic” for engaging with marginalised communities.

Mongrel Mob National Trust administrator Cherie Kurarangi said last week the real problem was the cost of food and petrol.

“This is just something like a regular go-to that the Government has about … gang whānau … we’ll be the scapegoat again, instead of focusing on something that’s real. We’re not the problem right now.

“You know what the problem is? The cost of food, the cost of petrol. Real, basic, essential issues. Not us.”

She described the political pushback over the meeting as “not a new tactic”.

“Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara has spoken about restoring mana to Mongrel Mob members. I want to know what Te Pāti Māori is proposing for the Māori victims of crime,” says ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee.

“The latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey shows 33 per cent of Māori adults experienced at least one offence in 2025, compared with 28 per cent of New Zealanders overall.

“Much of this misery will have been either directly or indirectly due to gangs, whether it’s their violent acts or because of the meth they peddle.

“Te Pāti Māori say they want to restore their mana. They have none. They lost it when they chose a life where their profits come from the misery of others.

“The victims of gang violence are the ones who deserve to have their mana restored.

“ACT restored Three Strikes for serious violent and sexual offending, and we are campaigning on extending the regime to burglary. Under our policy, repeat burglars convicted three times would face a minimum three-year prison sentence without parole.

"Anyone who thinks being soft on criminals will make them soft on us has forgotten six years of Labour.

“New Zealand needs a Government that takes gangs seriously, not one that endorses the very organisation that created the meth problem and whose members commit horrific acts of violence to earn their patches.”

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One of Opportunity's polices is to stop you from using your KiwiSaver for first home purchases. 
The big question around that policy is - did you know that?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, I have talked to that is even contemplating supporting Opportunity can't name a single one of their policies out side of land tax and universal incomes, which ironically, although they were the ideas that got them to prominence, didn’t actually make the so-called "bottom line" reveal. 

The main reason so far I have heard for Opportunity support is "something new". 

It's as simple as that. They are something new, like trainers in a different colour. You're a bit bored with the status quo so new should be good. 

I could go on for hours about how triggering that is for me. But back to the KiwiSaver. 

What else do they want? You don’t have a clue. 
Oh and while I'm at it, can you name anyone standing for them outside the leader? Have you seen anyone outside the leader at all? Is she the spokesperson for literally everything and does it worry you at all? 

If they get 5% that is six MP's. Who are the other five and what if they end up in Cabinet? A similar scenario happened with NZ First years ago. The "tight 5" is what they called them and it was Tuku and co and Hugo Boss undies.   

Ask someone older if you don’t know what I'm talking about. 

If you think Katie Zacharia is a joke, isn't it worse to vote for people you literally have never heard of, far less checked their ability to, oh I don’t know, run a country? 

KiwiSaver is a lifeline for first home buyers. It facilitates a dream for most of us to own our own piece of New Zealand. 

Opportunity don’t want that for you. They will ban it. What's that tell you about their ideology? 
I don’t mind who you vote for. But what I want for all of us is to vote with intelligence and hopefully some insight that came out of us researching what we are voting for. 

How much of what Opportunity are, you wouldn’t have a clue about, and therefore if it works out for them, we end up with a mass dose of buyer's regret. 

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https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe_o_meter

Have a whinge about your day, a spaz about the prick that cut you off, a shoutout to the legend whom brought you a coffee, advice about your check engine light, gardening tips, or any mischievous thoughts or gossip.

Don't be shy 😉

We've got maybe half a dozen people in positions where they can influence things that think like this.

And literally every other politician conspiring to invent new ways to control everything we do.

I don't see any hope short of total collapse and the burning of every rulebook. Unfortunately that process will be fatal for many. Perhaps most.

Is this a place for far right people who want to express their opinion on the left and communists or am I just a “racist” in enemy territory?

National says it will take away a person's right to silence when a child is murdered if the party is re-elected.

Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith announced this morning that the party would make it a Crimes Act offence not to disclose information to police when a person has been present the location where a child under 12 has been killed.

"It will apply when a child under 12 dies, and at the time of death, or leading up to the death, it is unequivocal that one or more adults were present," Goldsmith said.

This would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

"Too many children in New Zealand die at the hands of, or with the knowledge of, people who should be protecting them. The right to silence should not be abused to the extent that these horrific crimes go unpunished," Goldsmith said.

"This will place perpetrators, and their accomplices, into a corner where they will eventually call each other out, because if they don't, they will all face the consequences."