Grant Robertson has issued another damning criticism of National’s proposed tax plan – evoking the party’s financial mistakes made in the run-up to the 2020 election.

In a press release titled “Luxon and Willis double down on tax plan that will damage NZ economy”, Robertson, the finance minister (though speaking in his capacity as Labour’s finance spokesperson), doubles down on his condemnation of National.

“National continue to take a head in the sand attitude by pushing on with their policy of irresponsible tax cuts, that could damage the economy and make inflation worse, as we’ve seen in the United Kingdom,” Robertson said.

“Despite the United Kingdom throwing out their tax cuts proposal and apologising for it after it crashed their economy, Chris Luxon is pushing ahead with his reckless plan that benefits only the wealthiest three percent of New Zealanders.”

National’s leadership has continually suggested it would wind back all tax changes made under the Labour government. They’ve also argued for indexing tax rates to the rise in inflation.

Luxon this week called out Labour for no longer being the party it was when Michael Cullen was finance minister. In response, Robertson said National “is clearly no longer the party of Key and English”. He added: “it appears to have the economic aptitude of Collins and Goldsmith”, a reference to the fiscal hole found in National’s economic plan before the 2020 election.

“Economist Cameron Bagrie recently said tax cuts are the wrong policy response and even former National Party leader Don Brash has warned they could result in interest rates rising,” said Robertson.

The image of the day today comes from Birdcare Aotearoa.

It’s the accurately named “Angry Ruru”, who arrived in care after a car accident that left his brow swollen. Or, he was just seriously pissed off, we’re not sure. Good news is he’s all healed up and back in the wild, looking for revenge, prowling the badlands, an outlaw hunting outlaws, a bounty hunter, a renegade.

Incidentally, we recently published a really good story on Birdcare, who do such wonderful work. Thanks Birdcare.

The government’s announced law changes aimed at preventing incidents like last year’s New Lynn supermarket terror attack.

Justice minister Kiri Allan said the changes will improve the effectiveness of existing legislation, making it harder for known threats to be able to undertake acts of violence.

The man responsible for the New Lynn knife attack, in which eight people were injured, had spent time in prison and was a known risk to the public. Despite being observed, he was able to carry out the attack.

“The changes we are making will improve the effectiveness of the Control Orders Act, and expand the criteria for high-risk individuals who can be covered by the restrictions, which limit their ability to undertake an attack,” said Allan.

“While no law can ever stop a motivated terrorist from undertaking an attack, these changes will go a long way in preventing, disrupting and limiting their ability to do so.”

Changes announced today include expanding the eligibility criteria for control orders and making name suppression requirements more flexible.

The Spinoff is thrilled to present a brand-new boutique one day celebration taking place in the Auckland community of Morningside in early 2023.

Headlined by Fat Freddy’s Drop alongside a curated line-up of a new and emerging talents, the party, which will be held in and around the McDonald Street precinct, will also involve a mega selection of local food and brews (thanks to Urbanaut and others in the area). Block out February 5 – Waitangi Weekend – in your calendar now.

We’ll have more to say about this event in the months to come, but you can find out more – and sign up for your earlybird tickets – here.

Some big news out of the local music world, in case you’ve missed it overnight.

This year’s Silver Scroll Awards took place last night at Spark Arena, with Rob Ruha and Ka Hao taking out the top honour for their waiata 35.

Other awards presented include the Maioha Award for the song Te Iho, performed by AJA and Byllie-Jean, and the Contemporary Award which went to Reuben Jelleyman for Catalogue.

Listen to RNZ’s Music 101 host Charlotte Ryan with more on the awards here.

National has launched a call for a return to social investment, with deputy leader Nicola Willis announcing the party would bring back the approach if elected to government.

Deputy leader Nicola Willis, in a speech given at Victoria University this morning, said social problems like ram-raids and emergency housing were of great concern to New Zealanders.

“I’m determined that the next National government will bring the social investment approach back to life,” she said. “The basic idea underpinning social investment is that if Government intervenes earlier and more effectively for our most disadvantaged citizens then their lives could be so much better.”

Willis said the social investment scheme would “identify, fund and scale” actions that will have the most positive impact on people. “It will make use of sophisticated data and evaluation approaches to identify what works and, crucially, what doesn’t,” said Willis.

Under the last National government, social investment was driven by Bill English, who was in attendance at Willis’ speech today.

In a letter leaked to the Herald, senior doctors warn that the situation at Middlemore Hospital is so dire they should stop teaching medical students as it’s an unsafe environment. The Herald has been leaked two letters signed by 60 physicians working in general medicine at Middlemore Hospital that alert various health bodies that they’re at breaking point.

The Mental Health Foundation is also signalling that the public health system has entered a “downward spiral” with no easy fix. Employment data from Health NZ shows the country is in need of 120 psychiatrists, 408 mental health nurses and 115 clinical psychologists, leaving us with a shortage of 643 full-time mental health staff.

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Independent MP Gaurav Sharma has his sights set on next year’s general election, if he isn’t successful in an upcoming byelection. 

The Hamilton West contest was triggered by Sharma’s decision to quit parliament, though he will run in the byelection himself. He claimed, in a Facebook post, that his decision to quit was because Labour intended to use the waka jumping legislation against him – a charge the party’s leadership and president have denied.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking, Sharma said people had been telling him it was time for a new centrist political party. “I do have an idea what it’s going to be called – we’ll announce it at the right time,” he said.

When presented by Hosking with the claim that National will win the byelection, Sharma reminded him that it was a bellwether seat. “It’s not a National seat,” he said. “If I lose, I’ll be looking at the 2023 general election. I am here for the long haul.”

The MP, who was previously a doctor, said he had a “lot of options” if politics didn’t work out. Despite being “profoundly disappointed” with how Labour had dealt with his repeated allegations of bullying, Sharma said he would go through it all again if he could go back in time.

“I’m quite disappointed that the values the Labour Party talks about, it obviously doesn’t believe in those values,” Sharma said.

Read more in today’s Bulletin