Climate and Trade

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, October 10th, 2015 - 41 comments
Categories: capitalism, class war, climate change, Economy, energy, Environment, exports, global warming, Globalisation, manufacturing, trade - Tags: , ,

In thinking of the TPP, I’m reminded of a scene from the film ‘My Name is Joe’ where a hapless kid sits in the corner of a snooker hall, crying at the lose/lose situation he’s been put in. While the local heavies socialise at the bar, the kid has to choose between paying them money that he doesn’t have, or of having his legs broken. The joys of being powerless.

But no-one forced our government to attend meetings with any global corporate mafia. No-one forced our governments to sit down and choose from a list of punishments that would be meted out to society should any government action occasion a measure of displeasure to befall a global corporate.

Were the trade components in these ‘agreements’ anything beyond a bit of bait on a hook that reeled governments in through the door? If so, then once inside, why did they happily cede power to global corporations and agree to submit to a range of punishments should anything crop up that might be perceived to be getting in the way of them exercising their new powers? Maybe that bait was for our benefit then – some promise of something better to come while…?

Another nagging bastard thought that springs to mind with this these ‘free trade agreements’, is that Germany’s National Socialist government of old would have taken to them like ducks to water. They promote, or so it seems to me, precisely the type of power relationships that they sought to develop – the state and society was to sit subservient to, and in the service of, corporate goals and interests.

That as may be, why are any people debating the various trading advantages and disadvantages of a TPP? I’m looking… and there’s next to nothing there. The Emperor has no clothes. And yet, even on the left it seems, some people are debating the colour of them.

See, if we want to be talking trade, then we need to judge it against the fact that we must cut energy related emissions to zero over the coming few decades. That difficult yet necessary angle renders any talk of trade access, or trade access denied under a TPP absolutely redundant. If the US, Canada and the rest of them had given 100% access to all NZ goods and services, then the TPP would still be a bad deal….y’know like, I’ll see your market share and raise you climate change .

I mean, even supposing 100% access for NZ dairy (and everything else) to foreign countries – and putting aside all the other land and environmental issues – would we really want to be exploiting that where it meant burning even more lignite in Southland to produce ever greater quantities of milk powder? Surely not.

I know in saying that, that it’s not always a straightforward matter to decide whether *this* or *that* production is better or worse in terms of emissions if it’s carried out locally or at a distance.

As an example, there was a study done on cut flowers that concluded energy use was lower if flowers were grown in Africa (Kenya, I think) and flown to Europe than if the flowers were grown in Holland. All very good, but see, I’ve no idea why the whole notion of using energy to produce and distribute cut flowers wasn’t the central question. Because that’s where we have to go in relation to all production, distribution and services; we need to ask – not if it’s profitable – but whether it’s necessary or desirable in light of climate change.

So in a domestic context we should, for example, be looking at the energy used in a centralised industrial dairy process that dehydrates milk so it can be shifted in bulk and re-hydrated. If that system of production and distribution doesn’t stack up against other possible wet milk systems of production and distribution, then we shouldn’t allow it to continue.

And that fairly simple arithmetic and analysis has to be carried out on every sector of production and distribution in existence in NZ.

Fact is, we can’t go on living this way. Yes – for some it’s been nice. But the party’s over and it’s time to leave.

As for the grasping corporate junkies and their enablers desperately quaffing back all that power – without us in attendance, they and their power are nothing, so leave them to it. Besides, they’re in for a hang-over that even hell’s going to be shying away from, and you really don’t want to be hanging around for your very own piece of that.

41 comments on “Climate and Trade ”

  1. Ad 1

    “we can’t go on living this way.”

    What way would you like?

    Who would achieve that?

    • Bill 1.1

      I know that this isn’t sustainable. I’m neither a dictator nor a prophet, so whatever I may or not want is secondary insofar as it becomes bound by (among other things) the limitations my society imposes. I’d like to think those limits would be arrived at democratically. So…that’s all of us achieving that, innit?

      • dukeofurl 1.1.1

        Humans are intrinsically unsustainable, especially compared to some other of the worlds animals or birds. In the large size category, the Andean condor beats us hands down.

        While we can shed the luxury of hot house flowers – in winter!!- after all Holland has no problem growing tulips in season outdoors.
        The choices get progressively harder after that.
        When I was a kid growing up, dairy farming worked on a different model, the only part of fresh milk that was required was the cream, so the remaining whey? was used to feed pigs on the farm. Is that more sustainable, to feed most of the product to produce pork than haul it many miles only to dry it. I seem to remember only those doing town supply had all the milk transferred fresh for bottling and selling to households.

        • weka 1.1.1.1

          The solution to the farming issue is to farm to produce food for locals rather than farming as a business for profit. There’s not reason why many farms can’t make a living from producing local food.

          For the people that can’t do that, we need to find other ways of making a living. All jobs need to be audited for carbon emissions, so people should start getting used to the idea that the workforce is going to have to change hugely. Likewise business models.

          • Ad 1.1.1.1.1

            Why is that a solution for New Zealand?

            • Murray Simmonds 1.1.1.1.1.1

              Ad:

              How about you go and do some reading (in the right places) instead of asking useless questions?

            • weka 1.1.1.1.1.2

              “Why is that a solution for New Zealand?”

              Because one of the biggest impacts on ecological footprints is food transport. NZ is well above its fair share of resources, and so the people here who eat food need to start eating food for the most part produced locally (backyard, neighbourhood, suburb, land base, province), with some food also being transported via lower impact technology (rail, shipping).

              For farmers, it means relying on export as a prime way of a making a living is going to end. In NZ, that is, because of our geographical isolation. Again, it’s not an absolute, I’m sure we can figure out high value agricultural produce that can be shipped with relatively low impacts, but in general what we are doing now will have to change.

              Bill’s given some examples of why in his post. Add to the milk powder one not just the carbon emissions from burning lignite, but also from shipping milk from around the country to the powder plant, and then shipping it to a port and then shipping it to China. There is no way that that could ever be sustainable.

              Much of our domestic food supply chain is like this, and the on land miles are often worse than the ocean shipping where food is coming from overseas.

              So that’s a solution to food production and ecological impacts, right? But not a solution to industrial agriculture making shitloads of money. That’s because industrial agriculture making shitloads of money isn’t in fact our problem. Farmers being able to make a living is our problem. The sustainable agriculture farmers in NZ are pioneering this, and there are various models with varying degrees of success, but mostly they seem to be about stepping out of the models like Fonterra, and instead producing for local markets or making foodstuffs on or close to where the raw materials are grown.

              See these guys http://www.clearwaters.co.nz/

              And here’s one closer to your favourite part of the world http://www.wanakaorganics.co.nz/

              http://www.retroorganics.co.nz/ (they’re moving towards export now I think, which is a real shame)

              An intro to ecological footprinting and where NZ fits in the scheme of things http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/economy-and-the-environment/page-7

        • Smilin 1.1.1.2

          Yeah a good simple efficient system that could have been expanded in pig production without pigs in cages and chickens for that matter .The corporates got under the radar on that one and the development of beef feed lots could have been more useful so that we have more trees on our hills and Aucklands amoeba growth could have been halted as well if someone had highlighted the fact that we have less agricultural land than Britain and without the loss of our fisheries to the northern pirates we would get the money needed to stop the out of balance dairying industry creating an environmental disaster in the future if not now all eggs in one basket A right screw up when it goes wrong

  2. sabine 2

    imagine what would happen if we were to stop discussing the various colours of the ‘non-vetements’ of the king, or the flags, or the tppa, or the beneficiaries that are deserving vs the beneficiaries that are undeserving, if we were to stop discussing if we should feed the kids or not and so on and so on,
    can you imagine what would happen if we were to cut out the white noise and the pretty picture
    can you imagine what would happen if we were to finally see how we are getting fleeced, looted, and robbed in plain daylight?

    maybe something like this would happen

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXzCuOX0CbU

    but still we are behaving like sheep, look there is rugby, shortland street and other assorted horsemanure and piss till the early mornings.

    • Bill 2.1

      Maybe rather than defensively railing against entrenched power, we would proactively rally around the promotion of our own?

      just a thought

      • sabine 2.1.1

        i am not defensively railling against any thing. But fact is that people don’t want to know, they don’t want to see, and above all they don’t want to change the status quo.
        They are as afraid to point out the naked butt of the king as did the people in the Grimm Story of years past.
        They are afraid of loosing their jobs, so heads down and no comment
        They are afraid of loosing their houses, so heads down and no comment

        They are afraid literally of loosing their stuff and be trhown out on the streets, as they know that by now no one cares, and no one will help.

        that is not defensively railing, it is stating what is.

        My power, if you want to call it this way, is my choice to spend my money, buy locally produced, support local businesses that produce ethically, support those around me that need supporting etc etc. My choice to watch the stupid box or read a book instead, listen to music made by people or listen to another popstar who gets aired due to looks and affiliation rather then talent. My choice to not own a house, to not get in debt, to as little partake in this sham that we call economy, that as you so rightfully admitted is not sustainable on the long term.

        But before we change anything we need to change our own habits individually. The TPPA is nothing more then another cut into a broken body of governance. So yes, I really believe that when people stop paying attention to those that wave the smoke screens it will get ugly, when they see that there are no clothes covering the butt of the king, and that the king is old and diseased it will get ugly.

        No defensively railing, just an observation.

        • Bill 2.1.1.1

          My comment above was in relation to the video link you provided – not in response to anything you’d actually written.

          This is. I largely agree with your observations. My solution in a perfect world would be a complete social reification of that TPPA slogan… ‘Walk Away’. Leave the old diseased king to die his death in whatever uninhabited wasteland of a Kingdom….

  3. Wayne 3

    This article seems to be against all trade. So that even if TPP (or any other trade agreement) reduced tariffs and quotas to zero, and had no other provisions that might be considered adverse, that would still be a bad thing because it would promote trade.

    Good luck with that argument in a nation that is wholly dependent on free trade, or indeed in any nation that wanted more things than it could produce itself.

    For instance how many things that we consider a normal part of life could New Zealand actually produce. Not that many. For instance not long range aircraft, not cell phones or computers (especially the components), the net, safe cars, most medical technology and pharmacueticals or in fact most of things in a modern society.

    The Left is going to have to do a lot better than this, if it wants to promote a new style of economy, because an autarkic primitive industrial economy which Bill effectively proposes, will have virtually no appeal. Except for aging hippies extolling the mantra; “just live off the land.” Even the Green Party, as it is now, does not go anywhere near this far.

    • Bill 3.1

      Not at all against trade Wayne.

      If you read the post you will see the two main concerns are, firstly the asymmetry of power that deals like the TPP bring into existence and secondly, our modes of production and distribution insofar as they are predicated on fossil fuel use.

      There is no call for self-sufficiency or for an end to industrial production.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 3.2

      If you misrepresent Bill’s argument it means whatever you want it to mean. Typical that you do so rather than address it.

      Slow clap. Fuck the law commission must be desperate.

    • Macro 3.3

      For instance how many things that we consider a normal part of life could New Zealand actually produce. Not that many.

      Not that long ago NZ used to produce its own buses, rail rolling stock, tyres, assemble its own cars, manufacture all its home appliances, TVs, Radios, make all its clothing, hats and coats, blankets and even wine and beer bottles. NZ had one of the lowest employment rates in the world, was one of the most equal societies, and a young person whose parent was a labourer could easily aspire to a university education and a step up the social ladder. The neo-liberal economic theory you and your ilk espouse Wayne, and its associated greed, destroyed all that.

      Finland – very similar in many ways to NZ is the land of Nokia. Don’t say we could not manufacture cell phones – of course we could – and almost anything else we needed. For instance as i’m sure you are well aware – in the 80’s Tait manufactured gunnery calculators that were sought after by many nations including the USA.

      Bill is absolutely correct in pointing out the obvious elephant in the room with regards all of these so called “FTAs” – they are not free of Carbon emissions – and that is a direct cost to the planet. Sooner, rather than later, the whole world will have to come to the realization that BAU cannot continue. You may not like that fact, but it is an ultimate reality that you, and everyone else on this Earth, must finally accept. And the sooner we transition our lives away from profligate squandering of the Earth’s resources for our own pleasure, and begin to realise that we are not the sole generation on this planet, the better it will be for those who a destined to follow us.

      • Murray Simmonds 3.3.1

        Yep Bill, Sabine and Macro – youv’e hit the nail on the head.
        As Macro put it “these so called “FTAs” – they are not free of Carbon emissions – and that is a direct cost to the planet. ”

        And that is exactly the point.

        Once climate change kicks in – in earnest – everything will change.

        I see the FTA’s as a last desperate attempt by the big multinational corporates to rake in as much money as they can, before its too late. As for the ‘phasing in’ of some of the provisions under the Trans-Pacific rort over the next 15 years or so, well that is just laughable. In another 15 or 20 years the world will have changed immeasurably and the ‘deal’ that our darling trade minister has “negotiated on our behalf” will be totally irrelevant.

      • ianmac 3.3.2

        Well worth repeating Macro:
        “Not that long ago NZ used to produce its own buses, rail rolling stock, tyres, assemble its own cars, manufacture all its home appliances, TVs, Radios, make all its clothing, hats and coats, blankets and even wine and beer bottles. NZ had one of the lowest employment rates in the world, was one of the most equal societies, and a young person whose parent was a labourer could easily aspire to a university education and a step up the social ladder.”
        Most of those have gone because, umm because…ummm “We have sought and obtained better deals for less cost by accessing overseas.”
        Short term gains for long term degradation?

        • ianmac 3.3.2.1

          Maybe the “acceptance” of the long term degradation is aligned with the loss of Unionism? Individual contracts rather than Collectives?

          • Macro 3.3.2.1.1

            Very much a part of it ianmac – as we export our jobs overseas in return for “cheap” imports – we align ourselves with overseas labour regulations. Globalization involves a race to the bottom for those at the bottom, while the elite lap up the cream.

    • Pat 3.4

      If we are a nation that “is wholly dependent on free trade” that we are without hope as there is no such thing in this world and more importantly the TPP is the antithesis of free trade.

    • Mike the Savage One 3.5

      I think this cannot any longer be a “left” + bad and “right” + good equation. The future of the planet, and with that of human kind, is something we must all be concerned about, no matter where we live and what we think about trade.

      Trade is used as a kind of solution to all our economic woes, but that is a short sighted, rather ignorant view, I think.

      There are finite resources on this planet, we have over the last decades seen deforestation, extinction of species and radical climate change take hold, we are heading into a disaster.

      How the hell can this be avoided, surely not by doing more of the same, all based on “endless growth”. We are plundering our planet, and all some can see is, more milk powder exports, more log exports, more fish exports, more horticulture, meat and wine exports, more tourism, more this that and the other.

      New markets and growing markets are promised, in China, India, Brazil, and many other places. Hey, have you checked how these markets are going to be sustained over coming decades, without fossil fuel use, and further aggravation of the climate disaster?

      What about the increasing acidity of oceans, threatening marine life and fish stocks? What about desertification, about rain forests being replaced by palm oil plantations, the tiger, lion, rhinos, elephants, endless birds and so heading for extinction? In New Zealand even the Kauri, naturally the Kiwi and other species are also under growing threat.

      So more farms, more dairy, more polluted waterways, more ruining of the land and water, that is the price we have to pay for all this?

      We are yet to see what the TPPA will “offer” us on a balance of things to consider, as the details are yet kept under wraps. All this propaganda we get from the vested interest bank economists, certain business lobby groups and of course government Ministers, that is just that, propaganda and spin.

      Let us first look at the facts, the hard, cold figures and details, Mr Mapp, then we can continue the discussion, but all seems to be having priority to environmental, long term concerns. That is certainly a real worry for some of us.

    • Jones 3.6

      Who said autarkic economies have to be primitive? Compared to what? If they’re in harmony with their environment and not rapaciously destroying it… I would say that’s fairly advanced for humanity.

    • greywarshark 3.7

      Where does it say that all trade should be stopped Wayne? Quote.

      And then if there is a mention, it is probably from one commenter and is a thinkpiece not forming an all-encompassing drowning of trade like the present, with significant high points sticking up beyond the dampening flood waters. We aren’t tunnel-visioned like yourself.

  4. “See, if we want to be talking trade, then we need to judge it against the fact that we must cut energy related emissions to zero over the coming few decades. That difficult yet necessary angle renders any talk of trade access, or trade access denied under a TPP absolutely redundant.”

    I think this analysis is spot on and this measure must now be the norm. It’s time to wake up.

    • Bill 4.1

      Unfortunately, our institutions have acquired a certain momentum traveling along a given trajectory that leads me to believe they are incapable of fully grasping the need for change, never mind the actual change needed…they can’t shift direction.

      In darker moments I envisage that the more powerful people within those institutions know this limitation and have given up, intent then to focus the institutions on instigating whatever measures that might serve to maintain that institutional control and power in a disintegrating society.

      Y’know, when Otago University has students staying away over the head of some message on a computer server and both plain and uniformed cops patrol the campus for that day then, yeah…why all the ‘Project Fear’s? Hmm. Because they now have an observable effect. Uncertain or fearful people are people ripe for controlling or containing.

  5. JanM 5

    That was a great analysis, Bill – witty and clear.
    With luck enough USA politicians will bury it, if only in the interest of their own political futures.

  6. Corokia 6

    Well said Bill. Transport emissions from trade will eventually be counted and then the only sensible things to be trading in will be high value and light in weight. That rules out milk powder (which has a heavy carbon footprint from the milk tanker to the dryer) and people/tourism. Wealth is a balance between money in and money out, whether on a household level, or as a country. If more stuff (food, energy for transport, consumer goods) are made here in NZ then we don’t need to import as much stuff, so we wouldn’t need to sell as much, so fewer CO2 emissions. When every tonne of CO2 is counted then surely we won’t be bringing in brocolli from China and sending logs in return?

  7. maui 8

    World trade collapsed by 40% in the 1930s. We could be in for something similar as we’ve built our current system around tons of global debt. Sooner or later that bad money has to be shaken out of the system. If that happens the TPPA and climate change problems are going to look fairly irrelevant.

  8. Sanctuary 9

    Tim Grosser, who I read is “anxious to quit politics”, is your arch typical know-it-all neoliberal technocrat that basically the entire western world is now rebelling against. Impatient, undemocratic technocrats like Grosser have given us FIFA, and the IOC, the EU and any number of unelected & corrupt managerial disasters over the past three decades. These people are charlatans, who deserve to be handed to that which their controlling agenda fears most: A Parisian mob with a guillotine…

    • Pat 9.1

      I am sure Tim Grosser is anxious to quit politics….with the TPP agreed his use of politics is complete and it is time to reap his reward.

    • Jenny Kirk 9.2

      So that’s who the swank expensive apartment in Hawaii is for ! Tim Groser as ambassador to Hawaii ……. of course!

      • savenz 9.2.1

        +1

        The reason for TPP – self interest for the individuals championing it.

        The rest of the world lose out.

  9. Mike the Savage One 10

    “Fact is, we can’t go on living this way. Yes – for some it’s been nice. But the party’s over and it’s time to leave.”

    People are scared stiff, so they do not “leave” the party.

    The ordinary citizen is either locked into the system as a totally dependent mercenary, servant or slave (i.e. employment, or own business interests, and income from it), so she/he cannot see a way out, without risk, yes great insecurity due to uncertainty about alternatives.

    People are locked into the systems we have, and the government, same as business, hold them as pawns in the game.

    The alternative to the present economic and social system, that is a more nature preserving and sustainable alternative, comes with sacrifices and costs. Most people have become accustomed to, or even have grown up with, a total dependence on the consumer goods and services we have, largely “affordable” due to the fossil fuel powered system. If we would all switch to electric cars, we would also no longer have enough power to heat our homes and to power our fridges, washing machines and so forth.

    Free trade is mainly benefiting the shareholders and the key players in the trade business, the average citizen will perhaps have some more choices of goods, but will at best only marginally be better off. Some jobs may be created, many more will be lost, through competition across the globe, with low wage economies, hungry to expand production of goods and services.

    So far FTAs like the TPPA are hailed as the solution for more “growth”, but growth is also based on increasing markets, increased populations, increased use of resources including energy, and with that will create also more waste and pollution. We know the environment gets compromised all the time, for the ideology of laissez faire business and more trade and “growth” for “growth’s sake”.

    The end result will be more unsustainable behaviour, more living on borrowed times, and a greater drop off the cliff, when the bubble bursts.

    It seems growth, FTAs to facilitate more growth, are like a drug to the governments like the one we have. Take the drug away, they cannot handle it, and hence all is done to keep the drug coming, to “stimulate” growth, more growth, endless growth, it seems.

    So I fully understand where Bill comes from with his post. Most do not seem to see and understand the limitations, and what the end result will one day look like. It is time we look at real alternatives, and switch to a more sustainable economic model for the whole globe, or we may as well give up, and go full-steam into self destruction of the human species.

    I fear though, democracy will not bring the vote we need to do it, too many are hooked to the free trade mantra and the “goodies” they see coming with it, on borrowed time.

    • Great post Mike
      Alas – “we may as well give up, and go full-steam into self destruction of the human species” WE ARE, and have been since day dot.

  10. Smilin 11

    Tim Laissez faire Groser everything is all very reasonable, yeah right
    :Max Keiser all please listen to him and Vinny Eastwood and Rod Oram , Jane Kelsey

  11. weka 13

    Julie Anne Genter
    ‏@JulieAnneGenter

    Maybe if climate negotiations were part of trade talks, we could get better global agreement to stop climate pollution.

    .

    Andrew Campbell ‏@Andr3wCampbell Oct 5

    @JulieAnneGenter yes imagine if @NZNationalParty put the same amount of energy into saving planet as it did for bad deal on dairy

    .

    Aaron Hawkins ‏@CrAaronHawkins Oct 5 Dunedin City, New Zealand

    @JulieAnneGenter Was thinking this last night. Imagine if Paris had the same breathless marathon effort put into it?

    .

    MartinL ‏@MartinL_NZ Oct 5

    @JulieAnneGenter In context of climate change extending copyrights to 70 years is absurd. This is like living in a mental hospital. #TPP

    https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/651115193565515776?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

    https://bootstheory.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/women-of-nzpol-twitter-on-the-tpp-being-signed/

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    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    10 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    11 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    12 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    14 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
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  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
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  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
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