I did not expect the Government to decide that too many people are giving too much money to charities.
It is removing the tax exemption for major acts of philanthropy, limiting deductions to $100,000

Regular small donations from generous Kiwis, the bedrock of all charities, are drying up. The cost of living is increasing demand at the same time it is reducing families’ ability to help out. But charities are growing more dependent on big contributions from major donors, philanthropists, and family foundations. These are the donations targeted in the budget.

But charities are growing more dependent on big contributions from major donors, philanthropists, and family foundations. These are the donations targeted in the budget.

Josie's column in The Post is here.

Not all Māori want to be represented by one party any more than all Pākehā want a single Te Pāti Pākehā. Divisions have always existed within Māori politics: protest versus governing, bicultural reform (adapting Pākehā institutions) versus specifically Māori institutions.

For New Zealand First, just as Māori-led as Te Pāti Māori, the path is pragmatic. Shane Jones wants to get his infamous “nephs” off the couch by using resources, whether fisheries, land or minerals, to create development in the regions where Māori live. For TPM, a protest haka in parliament and a hīkoi to Wellington will wrest power into Māori hands, where the priority is more about who has power than what power is used for. Cutting across these divisions is a debate between rights derived from the Treaty, and special attention to disparities between Māori and non-Māori. They are not the same.

Today, some in New Zealand First and National see a New Zealand in which Māori and non-Māori are entwined. Some see the future in co-governance where power is divided, which is perhaps where Labour is headed.

I predict we are headed to a future in which we do what the Treaty says: Māori delivery, to those Māori who opt in, of schools, health care, social care, regional development.

As Mariameno Kapa-Kingi leaves Te Pāti Māori to start a Te Tai Tokelau party, Josie analyses strands in Māori politics.

Josie joined Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB's Huddle to discuss criticism of the school curriculum, Act's policy on immigration, and is there a gender issue in politics?

Christopher Luxon is not capable of leading New Zealand in dangerous times.

If news that he wanted to strongly support the US bombing in Iran, and was only stopped by Winston Peters and MFAT, doesn’t convince his caucus that he is now out of his depth, then they are no better than the lizard-lipped weaklings enabling the collapse of right wing parties across the world, and I think they are mostly better than that.

He really did support the inflationary, destructive, unplanned, illegal, geopolitically infantile, growth-destroying, security-smashing quagmire started by the malignant narcissist in the White House, who continues to actively undermine the world order we in New Zealand depend on.

I’m gobsmacked at Luxon’s lack of understanding about where New Zealand’s interests lie.

Read Josie's column in the Post.

Josie joined Heater du-Plessis Allan and Trish Sherson on The Huddle to discuss the National Party's dramas over the prime minister.