The technical migration has been painful for me, mainly because I’m a technical doofus, which I’ll speak to at the end - but I have been seeing a lot of news go past, and regretfully not been able to share it with readers. Let’s do this one here.
NB: All paid subscriptions are paused - you will not get charged at all and this article is complimentary to all
Hipkins addresses affair allegation from ex-wife
“It’s a matter of public record that Tony (Hipkins’ current wife) interned in my office many, many years ago.
That was back in about 2010.
I met Jade in 2013.
My relationship with Tony started in 2023, over a year after Jade and I had separated.”
Hipkins explains that he wants to protect his family and children, has never brought them into the public eye, nor will he litigate this in public
This is consistent with Hipkin’s message three years ago, whereby those remarks were published to Australian media
Chris Hipkins says he has sought legal advice on those that re-published the post from Paul, which explains why the NZ First and National Party linked accounts deleted those posts last night after fanning it the entire day
Note: Jade Paul is a Ministerial Advisor to NZ First MP Casey Costello, the latter of whom has been embroiled in allegations of tobacco corruption during her tenure
Jade previously defended Casey Costello against corruption allegations despite Costello omitting $46 billion of benefits to NZ from keeping Smokefree NZ, being found to act contrary to law by the Ombudsman, and pasting tobacco lobbying notes into her Ministerial papers, before setting aside $300 million of tax cuts for tobacco companies
Is Hipkins damaged?
When asked if this will hurt the Labour party, Hipkins answered gently, “I hope not”.
Note: Clare Curran was taken down by the “Hunger Games” antics of the National Party according to ex-National MP Jami-Lee Ross.
“We wanted to break [Curran].”
“I was in the morning procedures meetings as Melissa Lee would share what her latest hit on Clare was going to be...
“National wanted to break her.
“And we did….[and] at the time all we felt was excitement and success.”
Speaking to Spin-Off’s Donna Chisolm in 2018, Curran spoke of the trauma she experienced at the hands of her political opponents:
“I was set upon by what felt like a pack of dogs to tear me to shreds.”
Curran identifies National, Cameron Slater and Matthew Hooton in that “pack of dogs”.
Who are the players now?
Cam Slater -
Ani O’Brien -
David Farrar -
Is it Finished?
According to the right wing accounts, they are just getting started.
NZME’s Barry Soper is also reporting he is in contact with Ms Paul, who is currently in Fiji, and will have more to say.
They say this is not over with Paul ready to speak more - and the accounts say they will roll Hipkins with more soon.
On Barry Soper -
Is Mountain Tui back and why are you writing here again?
No, but this is the only platform I can currently send 5000 emails to from.
Folks, my unsuccessful migration, which led to many support emails to Ghost, which to be fair are quite good, let me to the realisation that it’s time for another pause.
I am unable to balance the work with my life sensibly, and things are at that point where even without my input, the shenanigans of the right are increasingly opaque to more and more Kiwis.
The election is still close: National’s voter suppression laws will still win them 2-3 extra seats, the big money is still on the right and the fire power has not yet been unleashed yet.
My technical frustrations and delays with platform migration have offered me that chance to reflect that I need to take some real time off.
I will be back - my intention is to come back well before the election.
If you are a paid subscriber, you are free to cancel or you are very welcome to wait. Payment will only be taken when I return again. I am grateful to you - I am grateful to all my founding and paid subscribers and all who have ever supported my work here.
If you are on Ko-Fi you are very welcome to cancel those now and your extensions will remain.
I feel like I’ve done my duty to this country - which is promote values of transparency, awareness, knowledge and an upholding of integrity and care for all - especially for the weakest and most vulnerable among us. If we all do our part, I’m confident we can vote this government out.
And if there’s one piece of advice it’d be to go outside of your echo chambers and engage with those who may feel differently to us. I don’t mind disparate opinions but I don’t entertain bad faith or lies. That’s where we can find that differences don’t have to always divide us and there are many that understand that among the disagreements, there is commonality too.
I will be back.
I am grateful to you all, more than you’ll ever know. Thank you and thank you to Ghost for helping me - Substack’s morality is not one I can abide, and if it wasn’t for my otherwise inability to email this many people, I’d not touch it again. The next time I write I promise it will be elsewhere.
Signing off,
Tūī
