Rubbishing
A record of who publicly rubbishes, ridicules or attacks opponents — versus who sticks to policy. Each entry is rated for severity (factual → pointed → ridicule → personal attack), linked to its source, and open to your vote.
Most Kiwis don't enjoy hearing one politician blame or put down another when they're asked about the issues. So before the record below, a general question — vote 👍 or 👎. Your vote stays anonymous even when you sign up (we use sign-up only to send you more things to vote on that you care about), and we report aggregated results only — the country's sentiment, never how any individual voted.
→ Mark Patterson (NZ First)
“Sometimes it's better to watch what people do instead of what they say”
ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar criticised NZ First minister Mark Patterson for a taxpayer-funded trip to India to promote New Zealand wool exports while his party opposes the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement. NZ First responded that it opposes only "bad" FTAs not in NZ's interests, noted ACT had voted for the deal despite clauses it usually opposes, and turned Parmar's own line back on her.
→ Te Pāti Māori (Te Pāti Māori)
“Three years, six MPs and the best they could do for Māori is a haka on TikTok.”
Seymour dismissed Te Pāti Māori's parliamentary record at his ACT conference speech, contrasting their haka protest (over the Treaty Principles Bill) with substantive legislative achievement.
→ Labour Party (Labour)
“Every policy is a feel-good headline about something being 'free', with no idea how they'll pay for it. The word for that kind of politics is cynical. Three years in power at any cost and Labour costs a lot.”
Seymour delivered his ACT party conference speech attacking Labour ahead of the 2026 election campaign, framing Labour's policy platform as fiscally reckless and politically cynical.
→ Green Party (Greens)
“They've given up saving pūkeko, so they can save Palestinians instead. When they're not leading antisemitic chants, they're flying business class.”
Seymour attacked the Green Party at his ACT conference speech, ridiculing them for abandoning environmental causes in favour of foreign policy activism while accusing them of hypocrisy.
→ Previous Labour and National governments (Clark, Key, Ardern) (Labour)
“Over the last quarter of a century, the Clark, Key, and Ardern governments have all eroded the simple idea that you are the person that makes the difference in your own life.”
Seymour's State of the Nation speech in Auckland condemned three decades of governance as 'lost decades' that created dependency on Wellington rather than individual responsibility.
→ Chris Hipkins / Labour Party (Labour)
“economic vandal and arsonist”
During oral questions in Parliament, Luxon called Labour leader Chris Hipkins an 'economic vandal' and 'arsonist' during a debate over energy policy and an LNG import facility. Speaker Gerry Brownlee rebuked Luxon for reverting to 'personal insult', warning that even prime ministers are not beyond being removed from the House.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“We inherited the biggest recession in 35 years. We inherited a long Covid hangover, and a situation around tariffs, which has caused a huge amount of uncertainty around the world and here in New Zealand as well.”
Luxon made this statement in response to an RNZ-Reid Research poll showing that more voters (37.6%) blamed the coalition for New Zealand's struggling economy than blamed the previous Labour government (30.8%). He was defending his government's record while framing economic difficulties as inherited rather than self-created.
→ Chris Hipkins / Labour Party (Labour)
“Mr Speaker, hasn't it been a shambolic year for the Labour Party, hasn't it? Did he actually rule out the wealth tax? Did he rule out the inheritance tax? Did he rule out the trust tax, did he take that off the table? Could he rule out an income tax raid that sees nurses being worse off under a Labour-Green budget? No, he didn't do that either.”
Luxon opened his Budget 2025 response speech by spending 8.5 minutes attacking the opposition rather than defending his own Budget. He accused Labour of refusing to rule out a series of tax proposals.
→ Labour Party (Labour)
“resorting to lies and misinformation. When you see a letter going out from Carmel Sepuloni saying, we're cutting women's pay, that is not true.”
Luxon accused Labour of lying about National's changes to pay equity laws, which raised the threshold for pay equity claims. Labour characterised the change as cutting women's pay; Luxon called this 'lies and misinformation'.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“We've inherited a hell of a mess. It's somewhat naive, to be honest with you, to say, we've had six years of economic mismanagement, and in 12 months we're supposed to fix that all?”
Luxon made these remarks in a Q+A interview with Jack Tame, defending his coalition government's economic progress one year into office. He used the inherited-mess framing to request patience while attributing slow growth and delayed surplus projections to Labour's tenure.
→ Chris Hipkins / Labour Party (Labour)
“Chris Hipkins is a desperate individual, right? ... the Labour Party is irrelevant. They can say whatever they want to.”
At Field Days in Feilding, Luxon was responding to Labour criticism of the government's use of urgency to pass legislation. He dismissed both Hipkins personally and the Labour Party as politically irrelevant.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“Government spending is up 84 per cent since 2017 – and debt has climbed from $5 billion to a staggering projection of well over $100 billion. There was a more than $200 billion gap between the previous government's overall transport promises and the funding it had set aside. Inflation crushed wages, even as Kiwis are left paying more and more tax to fund Labour's wasteful spending.”
Luxon's first State of the Nation speech as Prime Minister, delivered in Waitangi, painted a bleak picture and attributed it squarely to Labour. He also accused Labour of deliberately emptying prisons while violent crime soared, and of tying the economy down with unnecessary regulation. Labour's Chris Hipkins called the $200 billion transport figure 'absolute nonsense', saying transport projects are funded on rolling three-year cycles.
→ Winston Peters / NZ First (NZ First)
“Members in this House are equal. For a member of the House to stand up and question whether someone is entitled to ask a question because of their country of origin is pure racism, and you should've stopped him in the beginning.”
Hipkins made this statement in Parliament after Peters interrupted Green MP Teanau Tuiono's question about climate aid by questioning why someone 'from Rarotonga' was raising New Zealand policy. Hipkins also condemned 'outright race-baiting' and 'direct racism' in the debating chamber and said Peters' conduct 'had no place in government and Parliament.'
→ David Seymour / ACT Party (ACT)
“Whenever the ACT Party wants to do something, they're quite happy to simply abandon a good regulatory process and ram things through parliament under urgency. That is the absolute hypocrisy of the ACT Party — David Seymour is a total and utter hypocrite.”
Hipkins attacked ACT leader Seymour on the same day ACT announced new lawmaking standards while the coalition rushed pay equity legislation through under urgency without regulatory impact analysis.
→ Christopher Luxon / National-led government (National)
“He is devoid of ideas; unfocused; and too weak to confront the challenges we face today and set us up for tomorrow.”
Hipkins delivered his State of the Nation speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, attacking PM Luxon's leadership. He also accused Luxon of turning his back on promises by 'allowing ACT and New Zealand First to call the shots.'
→ National-led coalition government (Maori policy) (National)
“We are here after a week in Parliament that, like all other weeks in Parliament under this government, has seen Māori unfairly targeted. Councils are asking the government to butt out and leave them be - but the government, powered by disgraceful right-wing lobby groups and the racist coalition agreement, continue to resist and override both councils and Māori. Enough is enough.”
Hipkins addressed a hui at Auckland City Mission's Home Ground, condemning the government's reversal of Maori ward legislation and broader anti-Maori policy direction, including the reintroduction of boot camps.
→ National-led government / Health Minister Shane Reti (National)
“A misleading, brazen and desperate attempt to pin responsibility for its own decisions on the previous Labour government.”
The coalition government announced plans to replace Health New Zealand's board with a commissioner over a $1.4 billion deficit, with Health Minister Shane Reti blaming Labour's health reforms. Hipkins rejected that framing, arguing the blowout occurred on the government's watch.
→ National-led coalition government (National)
“By narrowing down what can be paid for by the Warmer Kiwi Homes Programme ... means that those homes just won't get insulated. It'll be low-income families that'll miss out as a result of the cuts that have been made. It's a catastrophe for New Zealand as a whole.”
Hipkins attacked Budget 2024 cuts to the Warmer Kiwi Homes scheme and housing programmes, arguing low-income families would bear the brunt of reduced insulation funding.
→ National-led coalition government (National)
“It's a Budget that has taken New Zealand backwards. It's a Budget that is abandoning our commitments around climate change, it's putting more children into poverty, it's cutting a lot of the things that Kiwis rely on like public transport subsidies, school lunch programmes and so on.”
Hipkins responded to Budget 2024 on the day of its announcement, labelling it a broad failure across climate, child poverty, and essential services.
→ National-ACT-NZ First coalition government (National)
“Every day New Zealanders got an insight into what a shambles the Government was, and today's announcement on Budget priorities was another whopper. It shows the level of dysfunction in the coalition Government.”
Hipkins reacted to the coalition's Budget Policy Statement, criticising the government for taking longer than usual to release the statement and failing to specify total spending amounts. He attributed this to the coalition's inability to make its fiscal numbers align.
→ Labour Party (Labour)
“This seems to me a classic Labour policy. It is not designed well. It has shades of KiwiBuild. This will put the economy at risk. It's a terrible idea.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis attacked Labour's proposed capital gains tax, comparing it unfavourably to the widely-criticised KiwiBuild housing programme and arguing it would harm the economy at a vulnerable moment.
→ Green Party / Chloe Swarbrick (Greens)
“You know what Chlöe Swarbrick could do today if she agrees with me? She should call the dogs off and tell those protesters to stop protesting outside politicians' homes. To not do so says that they condone this indecency, this lack of civility, an aggressive turn in New Zealand politics.”
Willis attacked the Greens for not publicly denouncing protesters gathering outside MPs' homes, including Winston Peters' residence. She demanded Swarbrick 'call the dogs off', implying the Greens bore responsibility for the protests.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“Yes we will stick to the plan. What our plan is about is gradually consolidating a massive structural deficit, left to us by the last government, who spent like drunken sailors.”
Willis made this statement when defending the government's decision to stay on its fiscal consolidation path despite public pressure. She characterised Labour's public spending increases as reckless, attributing the structural deficit to the previous government's spending rather than to external economic shocks or the coalition's own tax cuts. Critics noted that the government's own $14 billion tax cut package had itself pushed the return-to-surplus date back by a year.
→ Labour Party (Labour)
“They want to promise everyone everything, and they will not front up with how they want to pay for it, because the way they want to pay for it is putting new taxes on an economy that is already struggling.”
During a Morning Report political panel discussion, Willis interrupted Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni seven times in 30 seconds with 'How would you pay for it?' before delivering this attack on Labour's credibility on fiscal policy.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“This year's Budget is the clean-up job New Zealand needs after six years of economic mismanagement. It staggers me that the previous Government funded a bunch of medicines until 30 June this year only. Filling this fiscal hole does not cost $700 million as signalled in publicly available documents last year, but in fact costs $1 billion more than that.”
Finance Minister Willis delivered the Budget 2024 speech and framed the entire document as remediation for Labour's fiscal record. She accused Labour of artificially flattering the books by funding ongoing programmes for only short periods — the so-called 'fiscal cliff' tactic — leaving a hidden Pharmac funding gap she valued at $1.77 billion. Labour's Grant Robertson said the figures were in publicly available Budget documents and called Willis's claims a misrepresentation.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“I think what they did is they found clever workarounds to make the books look better than they really are. It makes the books look better in future years even though it is highly unlikely ministers genuinely intended to stop funding those programmes.”
Willis accused the outgoing Labour government of deliberately under-budgeting ongoing programmes — including Pharmac, school lunches, and school cybersecurity — to make their fiscal position appear stronger before the 2023 election. Labour's Grant Robertson dismissed this as 'desperation', pointing out the information was publicly available in the Budget documents and challenged Willis to read page 89 of the 154-page document before making the claims.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“We've always believed that. That's why we campaigned at the last election to say how bad the inheritance we would receive was, that the cost of living was going through the roof.”
Peters made this statement in the context of the September 2025 RNZ-Reid Research poll showing that more voters now blamed the coalition than Labour for economic hardship. Rather than accepting any responsibility, Peters framed the ongoing cost-of-living pain as vindication of pre-election warnings about Labour's economic legacy, positioning the coalition as inheritors of the crisis rather than contributors to it.
→ Labour, Greens, Te Pāti Māori (Labour / Green Party / Te Pāti Māori)
“They would be an absolute circus, and utterly destroy our country economically and socially.”
Peters made this statement in his speech to NZ First's annual gathering in September 2025. He also said of the opposition parties: 'They have become the parties of moral outrage, obsessed with accusations, gotcha politics, woke ideology' and accused them of leaving NZ 'with a mess', adding: 'They've got nothing, they have left us with a mess and now shout 'you fix it', all while being encouraged by a culpable mainstream media.' He further said of Te Pāti Māori: 'They are not pro-Māori, they are anti-white' and 'They wanted a totalitarian race-based separatist country.'
→ Tākuta Ferris (Te Pāti Māori MP) (Te Pāti Māori)
“Yes, I am positive. Unlike you, you dickhead.”
Peters made the remark during Question Time in Parliament on 25 June 2025 while answering questions about coral reef protection from Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. He claimed Ferris was interrupting him. When asked to apologise he said: 'On the basis that when I was trying to get my thoughts together on the answer to Marama Davidson's questions, he was interrupting me. I apologise for calling him what I said he was.' He also asked the House: 'Is it bad language?'
→ Corin Dann / RNZ (None)
“You're paid for by the taxpayer and sooner or later we're going to cut that water off too, because you're an abuse on the taxpayer.”
Peters made this threat during a live Morning Report interview on RNZ with host Corin Dann on 23 April 2025. The interview was about NZ First's bill defining 'woman' and 'man' in biological terms. Peters also said: 'You're not hearing both sides of the story, you keep on putting the argument of the woke left... you're a disgrace to the mainstream media.' After the interview, Peters posted on social media calling Dann an 'arrogant wokester loser' and wrote: 'News flash Corin. We can't force you to stop being so delusionally woke. Welcome to the front line of the war on woke.'
→ Green Party (Green Party)
“The number of frauds committed by the Green Party in the last election knows no bounds.”
Peters made this remark in Parliament's General Debate on 2 April 2025, while being heckled by Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. He also called the Greens 'deluded' and 'woke'. The Green Party filed a formal complaint with Speaker Gerry Brownlee alleging a breach of privilege. Over four months later on 19 August 2025, Peters made a personal statement apologising and withdrawing the fraud allegation, claiming he had 'misread his notes'.
→ Labour Party / Chris Hipkins / Grant Robertson (Labour)
“Labour told us the economy was turning the corner — that there was no recession, jobs were growing, and wages were outpacing inflation. They claimed, and I quote, 'our economic plan is working.' Ladies and gentlemen, that claim was a litany of lies.”
Peters made this attack on Labour's economic record in a March 2025 speech reported by Chris Lynch Media. He also adapted the Clintonian phrase: 'It's the economy, stupid. New Zealand First is saying, it's our country, stupid.' He accused Labour of having '$22 billion of our hard-earned taxpayer money being siphoned offshore' and vowed to continue the 'war on woke'.
→ Te Pāti Māori / Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori)
“When you declare war on us, you get a reply, that's coming next year, so you have a good Christmas, 'cos you'll need it sunshine, and your big loud mouth not going to help you longer.”
Peters used his adjournment debate speech in Parliament — the last sitting day of 2024 — to spend roughly half of his 12-minute slot attacking Te Pāti Māori. The remark was delivered as a direct personal warning to the party ahead of 2025. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi responded by breaking into song.
→ Mainstream media / journalists (None)
“deliberately, deceitfully and ignorantly misrepresented what I said”
After his State of the Nation speech, Peters issued a formal statement attacking media coverage as 'clickbait low-grade journalism' with 'dripping bias'. He also confronted waiting journalists outside Parliament, accusing them of 'lying' and spouting 'crap'. He described media coverage of the co-governance Nazi comparison as 'blatant misreporting' and said coverage of co-governance issues was 'deafening zero'.
→ Te Pāti Māori / Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori)
“I've seen that sort of philosophy before. I saw it in Nazi Germany.”
Peters made this remark in his State of the Nation speech in Palmerston North and doubled down on Morning Report the next day. He was comparing co-governance race-based theory — specifically a statement by Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi about Māori DNA — to Nazi Germany racial ideology. He added: 'The moment you argue that someone has got superior DNA to someone else you're leading to awful racial consequences' and 'I'm not backing down one iota.'
→ Health workers / NZNO union (Other)
“This is, quite frankly, playing politics with people's lives and it makes me furious. While union members walked back into work and collected a full day's pay, those patients lost the care they desperately needed. I ask them to tell that to the faces of the 13,000 patients, who are having their care cancelled.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown attacked the NZNO nurses' union after it cancelled a strike just 45 minutes before it was due to begin, which meant 85 Canterbury patients could not have their care rebooked. Brown held a press conference to publicly condemn the union's tactics.
→ National-ACT-NZ First coalition government (National)
“After 40 years of trickle-down politics and economics, New Zealanders are not safer, healthier or happier. Are we willing to have a rational, calm discussion about how to genuinely make our communities safer, or will we stay stuck in the knee-jerk shock politics?”
Swarbrick responded to billboards attacking Green MPs over criminal justice policy, using the opportunity to frame the government and its allies as defenders of failed right-wing economics.
→ National-led government (National)
“when you're knowingly making political choices to shred progress on climate action, to increase the amount of climate-changing emissions which will exacerbate climate change-charged weather events which have devastated lives and livelihoods across this country, when you are knowingly making decisions to plunge tens of thousands more kids into poverty - friends don't let friends do that.”
Swarbrick's year-end interview reflecting on 2024, in which she accused the coalition government of deliberately worsening climate outcomes and child poverty for political reasons.
→ National-ACT-NZ First coalition government (National)
“The Government had shown that its focus was squarely on gutting environmental, climate and social gains in order to line the pockets of a few at the top.”
Swarbrick responded to the government's new action plan, which she described as a 'bingo card for environmental destruction and trickle-down economics', accusing ministers of prioritising wealthy interests over public good.
→ Christopher Luxon / National-led government (National)
“that he's got no balls and may be a drop-nuts in terms of facing the people”
Waititi questioned whether Prime Minister Luxon would attend Waitangi Day celebrations, using crude language to challenge Luxon's willingness to face Māori communities amid tensions over the Treaty Principles Bill.
→ National-ACT-NZ First coalition government (National)
“We have a pākeha government, who will announce a pākeha budget for a pākeha economy. For far too long we've allowed them to assume absolute sovereignty and governance over us, this needs to stop.”
Waititi spoke ahead of nationwide Budget Day hikoi and strike protests, framing the 2024 Budget as structurally excluding Māori and calling on communities to resist the government's agenda.
→ Labour (Sixth Labour Government 2017–2023) (Labour)
“The issues at Health NZ stem from the previous government's mismanaged health reforms, which resulted in an overly centralised operating model, limited oversight of financial and non-financial performance, and fragmented administrative data systems which were unable to identify risks until it was too late.”
Health Minister Reti made this statement when announcing that Health New Zealand was on track for a $1.4 billion deficit and that the government was replacing its board with a commissioner. He attributed the financial crisis to Labour's 2022 health system restructuring, which created a single national entity (Te Whatu Ora / Health NZ). Labour's Ayesha Verrall responded that the deficit had emerged under the coalition's watch and that 'desperately trying to pedal blame back to the last government is farcical.'
→ National-ACT-NZ First coalition government (National)
“We have a government that has insulted and upset at least 20 percent of the population... Sadly, the Prime Minister and his government have exactly confirmed our worst fears. We have to kick back and push back.”
Ngarewa-Packer spoke at a protest rally against the newly formed coalition government, accusing it of being intent on 'disbanding, disestablishing and showing a true disconnect with tangata whenua' across New Zealand.