Media

Is Jason Walls turning 1News into Newstalk ZB?

Opinion and analysis. Open to all.

I’ve written about Jason Walls’ Disservice before, but really can’t get over how it feels like I’m watching a Newstalk ZB Mike Hosking segment every time he’s on 1News.

Last night, Walls turned what is a quite devastating economic reality for the country, - and so many Kiwis - into an upbeat feel good story about how some are starting small startups, and how the worse than forecast unemployment rate was really just because so many people are riding a supposed recovery to find work.

Unemployment is at 5.4% and youth unemployment 16.4% but the truth is much starker as I wrote yesterday.

Walls’ graphs remove context and information too, and he’d do well as a propaganda person for the right, because that’s exactly how he comes across to me. It felt like listening to Newstalk ZB all over again.

This is the worst economic result since around the GFC and certainly the worldwide global pandemic which saw inflation levels hit 9% globally, on average, while millions died — but it’s not just unemployment that’s the issue.

It’s the highest business failures in 16 years - 16!
It’s 140,000 Kiwi citizens leaving in the last 2 years - that’s the entire city of Tauranga (for comparison, it was 20 something thousand in 2023)
It’s a falling currency which benefits exports but hurts investments, and overseas purchasing power
It’s the highest number of Kiwisaver hardship withdrawals - with the value doubling to almost half a billion dollars, and total withdrawals reaching $5.9 billion - a 17% increase. Almost $6 billion!
It’s the record homelessness around the whole country and kids sleeping in cars and sheds, while the country just shrugs its shoulders
It’s the demolition of our construction sector with leaders warning throughout the last two years it will cost much more to bring expertise home now we’ve lost so many
It’s being within a political environment where we are constantly gaslight, lied to, and where environment and nature is fodder for greed and political power
It’s the dismantling of environmental protections and kowtowing to the USA Administration, even now with paedophilia going unpunished and Trump teasing cancelling elections, while wanting to give our precious, limited resources to support the superpower
It’s the punching down on the disabled and minorities
It’s the corporate welfare - hundreds of millions to businesses of people like rumoured Luxon neighbour Cecilia Robinson and The Platform’s Wright Family or global multinationals like Facebook and Philip Morris Tobacco - while starving firefighters, climate resilience, flood victims, and our public health system
It’s the systematic disenfranchisement of Māori and harvesting of racism everywhere we look for power

Meanwhile, the 2025 NBR Rich List revealed the collective wealth of the country’s richest 119 individuals and families surpassed $100 billion, up from $95.55 billion the previous year.

The wealthiest 20% saw their median net worth rise by 19%, and the top 1% hold roughly 14% of total wealth.

The other day, of the Regulatory Standards Bill passed under urgency, a commentator noted New Zealand could have to compensate forestry companies if we pass laws for them to clean up their mess on property they own because that’s what ACT’s law does - say property rights surpass community, environment, impact.

This is where we are, and where most don’t even care or realise until or if it hits them.

There are still good journalists out there, many who do amazing work every day in publications and channels around the country, but it’s becoming clearer and clearer that corporate media is run by the same people who are in a network of sublime wealth and power that, harkened by the success of the Trump/Murdoch experiment, have found a new audacity and willingness to do whatever it takes to win it all in a David and Goliath high stakes system, where the smallest are destined to fall.

If we let them. If we let them win this mind game.