Shane Jones addresses rally

Deportations from Australia to New King Kong Live Zealand will ramp up in the week to come, with 19 people expected to arrive on our shores, according to a report on 1 News. A special new quarantine facility with greater security capability has been set up to accommodate the deported New Zealanders, and they are expected to travel on a charter flight, Katie Bradford reported. The location of the new facility is being kept secret. Deportations were suspended during lockdown, but quietly resumed about a month ago, reported 1 News.

4.20pm: 
Shane Jones has addressed a crowd of around 300 people at a “Force of the North” event in Whangarei. The rally replaces the planned NZ First AGM, which will now be held next weekend alongside the party campaign launch, following leader Winston Peters’ recovery from urgent keyhole surgery last week.

The New Zealand Herald’s Northland bureau, aka David Fisher, attended this afternoon, and reports on a trademark Jones address here. With NZ First struggling in the polls, the party’s parliamentary survival may hinge on Jones’ effort to win the Northland seat, and he held nothing back in going at National and its incumbent MP in the electorate, Matt King. “In the north the National Party jalopy is actually falling apart, riddled with rust. In fact, in the north we regard our rusted railway as a symbol of the National Party’s attitude to Northland’s ambitions,” he said.