Just like the US, New Zealand is in the run-up to an election. But unlike you guys, ours is going to be totally non-controversial. The current government has handled Covid pretty well, and provided we don’t have another wave and go back into lockdown before election day, they’re going to benefit from a “wartime bump”. Meantime the opposition party is on their 3rd leader in three months. The big question isn’t going to be “will the incumbents win?”, but “how big a landslide is it going to be and which opposition politicians will lose their jobs?”
So rather than paying any attention to electioneering, instead we’re having political silly season, which is normally a summer recess game. This year, the game of choice is “which politician can’t keep it in their pants?”. Even the media are now realising this is getting ridiculous: the article I’m pointing y’all at is on a serious newspaper’s website, not a local version of The Onion.