Also clause 10 of schedule 11 E&T Act 2020 says council members must act in the interests of the institution and its mission (i.e. they are not the Minister's puppet) www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2...

Also council members no matter how they are appointed, must act in the interests of the institution and its mission not in the interests of the appointing party. The provision in schedule 11 makes that clear www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2...

Thing is lately it has been directly out of the colon of that nasty little US fascist Christopher Rufo into Peters' mouth. There is a brainwashing element here that isn't impossible, if those are the social media channels you are cooking in.

NZers need to push back and demand of all mainstream parties that out egalitarian project, and the expansion of rights to all, should be a bottom line.

Thanks! Although parroted blindly in many cases, I see the framing here as a way to make the political cost of basic support for people's rights (specifically LGBTQ but migrants as well) higher than mainstream parties like - making it easier to remove those rights.

Sorry for a bunch of replies - I'm not very experienced at this sort of posting

Meanwhile, the culture war stuff - and notice how the passive voice is used in the quoted piece, is largely because the rights of people are under attack from the right. The centre left wants to be inclusive (as a general rule) but can get squishy about talking about that stuff.

In fact I think that is one reason money turned seriously against them.

Maybe I'm a bit foggy but IIRC, before they contracted in '23 in a mistaken attempt to manage the downturn that was starting, the previous Government was strongly focused on, and successful at, increasing wages, and benefits too although perhaps not enough.

I strongly suspect you are right and that this is just another "stop talking about that woke stuff all the time" piece when all is said and done.