Bill English’s groundhog decades

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, July 6th, 2015 - 45 comments
Categories: bill english, exports, farming, national, same old national - Tags: ,

Bill English talking about dairy and recession on Q&A yesterday..

“It’s about 5 to 6 per cent of the whole economy. It’s only 20 per cent of our exports. The other 80 per cent will be starting to enjoy the benefits of the lower exchange rate, and the lower exchange rate will help cushion the impact on dairy of their lower prices.”

Essentially he is just lying with numbers by not looking at the effects and spending his ‘thinking’ time inside his favourite delusions.

The NZ economy isn’t one that produces most of its own goods. So we import them and a pile of services from offshore. We pay for them mostly by selling goods offshore. The rest of the economy runs on the income from that plus some tourism and and a bit from inwards migration.

So last year dairy was about 25% of the goods that we sold by value. It was the only sector that grew by more than a few percent.

But more importantly over the last 5 years dairy exports accounted for something like half of our export profits when you count in the returns back to the farm gate and beyond.

Just how dramatic the impact of dairy has been on our economy can be seen in this graph from a speech given about dairy exports and their effect on our economy by the Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler last year.

Dairy exports in NZ dollar terms to the end of 2013

Dairy exports in NZ dollar terms to the end of 2013

Most of the change in export returns for dairy derived directly or indirectly from a single set of products and a single market. Whole milk powder being sold into the burgeoning Chinese market in recent years. This was coupled with a shortage of production due to various weather events world wide gave this interesting price spike in 2013 and 2014.

5 years of Whole Milk Powder Prices to July 1st 2015

5 years of Whole Milk Powder Prices to July 1st 2015 from GlobalDairyTrade.info

Milk production systems worldwide were in the process of responding to the earlier demand with the USD3000-4000/MT prices from the 2011 and 2012 when this price signal hit in 2013. So as usual for markets they responded harder. Which is why the global price for this product is now down around the USD2000 level, and in my view likely to stay there.

Now the effects were ameliorated by the exchange rate, in part caused by the very success of selling dairy. That is what this chart from Wheeler shows.

ANZ Commodity price index in world and NZ price terms

So now the dairy price is going down, so is our currency. Which will both shows the horrendous effect of recent dairy prices on the rest of our economy (especially manufacturing) and will also limit some of the effect on the dairy payouts to farmers which are done in local currency.

Now none of this is news to anyone who has been watching this government pushing this particular commodity over the last 5 years.

National traditionally has this horrible habit of trying to run with economic prescriptions from the past. Chief of which is that they seem to adore leaving NZ exposed to the vagaries of prices in the international markets for barely processed commodities – mainly farm products and mining.

Bill English is one of the worst exponents of it. This was obvious pre-election back in 2008. As Rob Oram pointed out then, National on the two previous recessions in the early and late 1990s had cut spending drastically (and attempted to provide stimulus from tax cuts). It didn’t work on either of those occasions and didn’t after the 2008 election either. These following words could have been written about the fiscal strategy after the 2008.

And once again, National’s fiscal strategy was blown off course. In particular, government debt rose sharply rather than falling as promised.

These dynamics of the New Zealand economy are well known. They stem from the tiny size of the economy, its exposure to global commodity and financial markets and the government’s relatively large share of activity.

When we head into a recession, government revenues fall and spending on the likes of unemployment benefits rise. The reverse happens when we head into boom times but this positive impact is relatively smaller than the negative impact during recessions.

But he also pointed out the skimpy weakness of National’s economic thinking.

So, that is pretty much all we know so far about National economic policies. It’s a rerun of the party’s 1990 mantras about less tax, spending and regulation. That’s no surprise at one level. English, National’s chief policy developer and economic manager, learnt them from the master of budget micro-management, Bill Birch.

“I make no apologies for the simplicity of National’s plan,” English said in his conference speech last weekend. He ridiculed the current government for spending so much time and effort working with key industries on strategies, taskforces and other efforts to deal with the great complexities of the global economy and New Zealand’s search for greater engagement and greater wealth.

She’ll be right, he reckons. We’ll sell more food to Indians and Chinese at higher prices. That was the only vision of New Zealand’s economic future he offered delegates.

Indeed, it would be nice if life were so simple. But, as his own farming constituents would tell him, it’s not. At home, they face distinct physical limits to expanding volumes and financial limits from rising land, fertiliser and other costs. Abroad, they face growing competition from foreign farmers.

The primary sector has a great future, as do many other sectors. But rerunning their 1990s’ strategies won’t deliver that future. The world has already changed hugely since National was last in power and is changing even more radically before our very eyes.

Key told this columnist in an interview in March that National was working on a “stunning” set of economic policies. But judging by what it has delivered so far, National has spent the past nine years in opposition ignoring a changing world.

So in the last seven years we have had National and Bill English guiding us towards a “Brighter Future” of selling more commodity farming products. They did this while accumulating lots of government debt because they “stimulated” the economy with taxcuts that had no observable effect on economic performance, and cut government spending which had a detrimental effect. Talk about a groundhog day – this was the exactly the same economic stupidity that they performed in 1990s.

On the way through, they cut virtually all government spending on developing startup companies, removed almost all R&D tax incentives for larger companies to do it themselves, and pushed a small proportion back in as Callaghan grants to companies who could have done it themselves. They did the same for farming by decreasing the spending on R&D in that area.

Similarly over the last 7 years Trade and Industry has gone from being barely functional in helping NZ companies getting out into the world markets, to being useless for anyone outside of the dairy sector.

So when Bill English says

“I think he’s stretching it a wee bit here. I think there’s a bit more resilience than that in the economy,” he said.

“If you pick out all the bits that are going badly, you can paint a bad picture.

“Most of it’s actually going okay – migration numbers are up, households will be pleased to see interest rates dropping, our exporters are all seeing a big drop in the exchange rate.”

Sure there is “resilience”. But it is a survival resilience. Most parts of the export economy have nothing much to build with.

The survivors have long since moved to areas that are not dependent on exchange rates so a dropping exchange rate, while welcome for profit, does little for increasing their markets. They have no new ideas that are ready to push into the global market place because the government hasn’t been interested in those for the last 7 years and the available capital goes into “safe” investments like the negative sum game of buying property.

Certainly there is nothing to fill the vast hole that having whole milk powder at below USD 2000 / MT for several years is going knock inot our balance of trade. And by all indications, we look to be heading into a global recession with debt and nothing new to sell.

Bill English is clearly being the beltway idiot that he has always been. Perhaps he should try looking at what makes exports actually work…

45 comments on “Bill English’s groundhog decades ”

  1. dukeofurl 1

    “National traditionally has this horrible habit of trying to run with economic prescriptions from the past.”

    Aint that the truth. Remember when in opposition Key was pushing NZ to borrow more , much much more ( before the GFC) and another one of his bright ideas was we become a global financial hub ( before the GFC).

    His latest bright idea is …. well he doesnt have any yet that he can run up a flagpole

  2. ianmac 2

    As I am a financial illiterate I thank you Mr Prentice for putting it all in perspective. A bit scary though looking ahead. Don’t like the idea of jumping off cliffs.

    • lprent 2.1

      I think that a better analogy than jumping off a cliff (like Rodger Douglas and Ruth Richardson did) would be that Bill English is more like Muldoon.

      Sitting on their duffs sipping gin admiring the sunset, while trying to ignore the crashing waves eroding the cliff face, as it advances towards them and undercuts their dream.

      • mac1 2.1.1

        Lprent’s vision of Muldoon sitting on the cliff’s edge while the sea undercut his perch reminded me of Dun Aengus on Inishmore in the Aran Islands of Ireland. This cliff fort was undercut in this way over the millennia. Interestingly, googling Muldoon (originally O’Maolduin) gives the meaning of ‘the fortress’.

        The original builders of Dun Aonghasa no doubt were Muldoonist, too.

        Muldoonism in this sense is as old as history, yet we’ve not yet learned, whether the topic be climate change or the economy, banks, money lenders, or ruling elites.

      • Paul Campbell 2.1.2

        I think that’s a bit unfair – it makes Muldoon look naive – Muldoon was very aware of the very deep hole he had dug for us and had largely hidden from us up until then …. it was after all the real reason he called an early election …. the whole nuclear warship thing was just a smoke screen so as to get him re-elected before it all came crashing down

        I’m sure English equally understands the damage he’s done to NZ over the past decade

        • lprent 2.1.2.1

          Ah – that is a nice way of damning with a faint defense. 🙂

          What gets me is that we were doing a pretty good job of diversifying our economy through the noughts. It didn’t cost a lot compared to the big costs like superannuation or hidden subsidies for urban sprawl. But National shut the whole exercise down in 2008 in exactly the same stupid way that they did back in 1992.

          Instead they started to do crony grants and loans to companies who either didn’t need it, or who actually need to fall over (mediaworks for instance).

          They decried picking winners and started instead to pick the noisiest lobbyists. FFS that was why I was planning on leaving NZ back in 1984. We’re back there again?

  3. Rob 3

    They must have got together and decided to all sing the same song
    Obfuscation
    They forget that dairy has a much greater flow on tha being merely 5%

  4. wyndham 4

    Key, Joyce and English all on the same mantra over the weekend – – – “dairy is really only a small %age of export receipts. The economy is going really well, for instance tourism, wine, beef and sheep,kiwifruit etc.” The uniformity of their response was quite remarkable. These clowns must sit around and agree on a line of bulldust for public consumption.
    Recently I’ve been reminded of the Romans – – – decadence and circuses whilst their empire collapsed about them. It’s happening all around us; the vital news at the moment revolves around Highlanders vs Hurricanes or the upcoming game against Samoa. And the purveyors of alcohol thrive whilst society picks up the related anti-social costs.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.1

      These clowns must sit around and agree on a line of bulldust for public consumption.

      Of course they don’t. They pay Crosby/Textor large amounts to do that for them while they drink PM labelled wine.

    • b waghorn 4.2

      Re the Samoa test key was crowing about using a air force plane to get there and back .

  5. DH 5

    I wonder if a big part of the problem is we’ve all been indoctrinated to believe that markets react to ‘news’. Market reports are always offering a reason why a price rises or falls and once people accept those reasons we (generally) accept that reasons will move markets.

    Modern economic thinking seems corrupted by a logic bomb of self-fulfilling prophesy; we largely determine our economic future by what we say rather than what we do. English seems a subscriber to this kind of irrationality, he probably believes that if he, as Minister of Finance, agrees with the doomsayers then doom will naturally follow.

    On the other hand he could be just out of his depth. I find the man hard to read, only thing he’s consistent with is his uselessness.

    I don’t know enough about dairy to make any informed opinion on the true impact of low dairy prices but I will make a comment about general economics. From what I’ve read a serious issue is the re-use of land. High dairy prices drove mass land conversion to dairy which in turn drove up the price of that land considerably. Now it’s uneconomic to convert that land back to say sheep, cattle or forestry because the alternate uses of the land no longer support the cost of the land.

    Some time back I browsed a report on the big irrigation scheme in Canterbury. It gave the irrigation cost per hectare of the scheme and also noted the earnings per hectare of each type of farming activity. Dairy was the only one that was economic and that was when dairy prices were high, it may not be financially viable at all now. Does anyone know the latest numbers on that one?

  6. Adrian 6

    DH, I think a new conversion needs close to $5.50 kg/mf to break even.
    Some farmers last week were saying they had been told to expect “in the 3s ”
    And wine is down 30% in production, about $500 million earnings, yet the dipstick troika ( Key, Joyce, English ) say it’s going well.

    • lprent 6.1

      I don’t think that they will get to the “3s” because the conversion rate between NZ and USD will probably cushion the fall.

      Our currency has been significantly overvalued for some time. Part of that was the “quantitative easing” (inflation) that a number of major countries were doing. But a large part in NZ was the effect of the high pricing since 2009/10 of dairy.

      It hurt other exporters a lot. To the point that any manufacturer, forestry, or farmer who was reliant on a lower exchange rate has pretty well dropped out of business.

      But that same high exchange rate depressed the return in NZ dollars to dairy farmers and increased decreased their import costs for overseas produced equipment like tractors.

      Now the decreasing returns on dairy (along with overseas QA usage being reduced) will drop our currency exchange rate against USD. That will reduce the effects of the drop in return for dairy in US dollars, and decrease increase their imported costs.

      Nett effect is that they are more likely to windup with payouts in the lower 4s than the 3s., but also have less more costs. I suspect that it means that more recent conversion dairy farms are likely to avoid bankruptcy than you’d anticipate.

      But I’m pretty sure that there will be a lot of financial pain for many as the banks tighten up on the over-extended ones.

      [lprent: Edited the comment to get rid of an embarrassing maths mistake.
      I should not try to write text when writing code.
      I should not try to write text when writing code.
      … ]

      • wyndham 6.1.1

        “But that same high exchange rate depressed the return in NZ dollars to dairy farmers and increased their import costs for overseas produced equipment like tractors.”
        Lyn, excuse my economic ignorance but doesn’t a high exchange rate mean cheaper imports ? Or am I more confused than usual ? !

        • Lanthanide 6.1.1.1

          Yeah, Lynn’s got it backwards.

          Effectively the increase in the NZ $ meant the farmers weren’t all that better off for buying stuff that were wholly produced in NZ, but anything that was imported would be cheaper. Since NZ by-and-large imports everything, it made farmers wealthier on the world stage, and similarly everyone else who still held NZ $ wealthier as well.

        • lprent 6.1.1.2

          Yeah sorry. This is why I hate writing comments while I am coding.

          My brain is half offline holding the code I am working on. Bad idea to comment until I have some coffee and a bit of time away from the code.

          Ummm so maybe the “4s”, but with a higher capital cost component.

      • Ad 6.1.2

        Bill English would argue that the NZ$ fall is a predictable and natural market correction not only for the currency, and for Dairy.

        While I agree with your post, I’m not confident that an alternative government 2008-2015 would have tried to stop the dairy conversion boom.

        The state can still do one of two things about the dairy industry:

        1. Form a water regulator for all industrial water use – price and regulate it, like the Electricity Commission regulates electricity companies. This is the proxy for dairy conversion regulation.

        2. Review Fonterra’s monopoly in the longer term interests of New Zealand. One of the results of which is to commit to further reviews, pushing them every electoral term hard up the value-added chain.

        • lprent 6.1.2.1

          …I’m not confident that an alternative government 2008-2015 would have tried to stop the dairy conversion boom

          I wasn’t saying that. It would have happened regardless.

          Probably with a bit less of the cowboy act like the irrigation coup in Canterbury. I suspect that Labour would have had political problems dealing with the housing bubble in Auckland as well that sucks up available capital.

          However Labour et al would have been very unlikely to have dumped all of the R&D support, offshore marketing support or gutted the effectiveness of Trade & Industry and MFAT the way that National did in their first 6 months and afterwards.

          The drop in the dairy market would have happened. But we would have had a whole pile of more small companies out in the world market with way to keep building a “resilient” export sector.

          Instead we have a 7 year shortage of smaller export startups starting to grow across all sectors. We also have virtually nothing in the agricultural sector that gives us any competitive advantage.

          • Ad 6.1.2.1.1

            Fully agree with that point re smaller startups.

            Has been hilarious to se Joyce, Bridges and Key trumpeting oil exploration and mining as the great hope for a whole term … only to be led predictably into yet another commodity slump making international investment stop or pull out.

            They aren’t praising oil exploration quite so much now.

            And yet MBIE are quite happy to show super-fast growth in petroleum as a massive spike in higher paid-salaries.

            MBIE aren’t showing any nerve with bold policy to their Ministers – in fact other than merge a few useful Departments, MBIE have been a spectacular failure.

    • DH 6.2

      “DH, I think a new conversion needs close to $5.50 kg/mf to break even.”

      Thanks. I was thinking about the usual reaction to low prices in one sector; an oversupply of dairy has invariably led to a shortage of beef & lamb, wool etc. Some farmers just see out the cycles & stay with the same stock whereas others follow the higher yields.

      I only have a broad picture of farming but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying farmers were always pretty flexible and the cost of land for beef, sheep & dairy wasn’t that much different.

      Now they seem to driven down a one way street with land for dairying driven so high in price it can’t be converted back to beef or sheep without bankrupting the farmer.

    • b waghorn 6.3

      Ad to that somethings up with lamb prices ,usually they are starting to lift buy now but the schedule s still stubbornly flat lining.

  7. Keith 7

    There is another issue. Although Dairy makes up close to a third of our exports the value of these exports has been in steady decline, because the product sold is so basic. So even before plummeting milk powder prices there were clouds forming.

    To quote David Parker in 2014 but supported elsewhere by other commentators; “National has been saying since 2008 that its goal is to increase the ratio of exports to GDP to 40% by 2025. It’s now 2014 and exports have remained static as a percentage of GDP (at about 33% now and projected to drop to 30%). Exports have further narrowed towards increasing reliance on dairy exports – in particular milk powder sales to China”. Huge fail National. Worse I believe they may go as low as into the 20’s.

    Still, Bill is looking at selling land and houses to the highest bidder for “Social housing” or whatever the catch phrase is to keep the wolf from the door. Because quite simply and sadly he knows nothing else!

  8. Tracey 8

    This is what happens when you make a career bureaucrat Minister of Finance in the Shadow of a career currency trader

    • Bob 8.1

      “This is what happens when you make a career bureaucrat Minister of Finance”
      And the alternative is….Grant Robertson, a career bureaucrat

      • One Anonymous Bloke 8.1.1

        If Labour’s economic track record were as comparatively poor as Bill English’s (or National’s in general) you’d have a point, and it isn’t, so you don’t.

      • lprent 8.1.2

        No question that it is a issue. On the other hand, the reason that he got that role was because David Parker didn’t want it after the leadership thing.

  9. Sable 9

    In other words they don’t have a clue what they are doing. Who would have guessed…..

  10. Stuart Munro 10

    Well we’ve had the uptick – and Bill couldn’t break even – now we’re in the downturn. Time to restore taxes to historical levels, unless you fancy declaring our 2nd world status by defaulting. No growth and no fecking idea – thanks a lot Bill.

  11. G C 11

    We’ll I won’t be buying online from the Banana Republic or Old Navy (US Clothing Stores) given the exchange rate 🙁

  12. G C 12

    The New Zealand Government would rather see ‘farmer suicides’ than sell milk products to Russia? Agree/Disagree

    Obviously we need cash before we send said ‘milk products’ – as one commentator pointed out, we don’t want a repeat of the Lada Car fiasco.

    Nation need to get their sycophantic head out of America’s big old proverbial ass. If NZ did sell milk products to Russia, this could potentially reduce the global ‘glut’ and raise the overall milk price/demand.

    I don’t have the figures, rather just the common sense. Sorry but I care more bout New Zealanders than ill-thought-out sanctions.

    It’s a shame PM John Key was so gauche towards Vladimir Putin last time they interacted – shame National.

  13. Bigdog 13

    I’ve had the impression for some time that blinglish might have suffered some ill effects from his foray into boxing,and that having him in the important position of finance minister may well be the undoing of us all!

    • lprent 14.1

      Not really. It doesn’t say that anything is improving. It simply says that at present the NZ government books aren’t getting any worse.

      Hardly a ringing endorsement of the forward look for the NZ economy. Which you may have noted was what I was talking about

      The NZ government had much better ratings well prior to National taking the treasury benches and putting in completely unsustainable and economically useless tax cuts. It meant that the government wound up borrowing something like double what they needed to do, and it will take about 4 times as long to pay off.

      Fitch merely means that they aren’t screwing up as much as they were. Bearing in mind the rapidly aging population and the pension and health issues that raises, I think that Fitch’s time horizon is a bit short.

      • Old Mickey 14.1.1

        Can you please reference the assertion “The NZ government had much better ratings well prior to National taking the treasury benches ” ?

        • lprent 14.1.1.1

          This was the first one I dug out. It was the week that two of the ratings organisation downgraded the government ratings

          http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/56021/opinion-bernard-hickey-says-new-zealanders-would-have-break-habits-lifetime-win-back

          http://www.interest.co.nz/news/55992/finance-minister-english-says-it-will-be-huge-challenge-get-credit-rating-upgrade-back-aa

          You will note in the second link that the requirement from Fitch was to get back to the sustained government surpluses. I guess that they, like many of us, looked the Bill English’s GST increases / Income tax drops and his projected tax revenues and called him an outright liar for saying they would be neutral in combination. As we anticipated, relying on a investment boost from the tax cuts for the wealthy didn’t happen. The nett actual effect was a reduction in capital spending. more jobs lost, and reduced tax revenues – pushing us further away from surplus and more into debt.

          If my memory serves correctly, there was a previous downgrade back in 2009 by one or more of the rating companies after the National government massively reduced their ability to get to a surplus by cutting taxes for the wealthy and doing nothing to help those being made redundant to pay any taxes.

          Bill English is either an ideological idiot or a lying fool. He has been as long as I have observed him. The best he ever seems to get to is to be able to not increase government debt by too much. To achieve even that, he winds up selling 10’s of billions in assets to shore up his P&L while reducing our ability to command our own economy (or have assets to sell when we actually need to).

          That inability is factored into every market analysis, and obviously into rating agencies ratings.

          • Lanthanide 14.1.1.1.1

            “If my memory serves correctly, there was a previous downgrade back in 2009 by one or more of the rating companies after the National government massively reduced their ability to get to a surplus by cutting taxes for the wealthy and doing nothing to help those being made redundant to pay any taxes.”

            I believe what actually happened, is we were put on a credit rating “negative watch” from a neutral one. Not sure the exact reasons behind it; more likely to do with the GFC backdrop, but of National’s 2009 tax cuts wouldn’t have helped.

            We were then taken off negative watch and put back to neutral, and English and Key trumpeted about what great economic managers they were because we had a “credit rating upgrade”. Russell Norman and I believe Phil Goff objected, on the basis that the credit rating hadn’t actually changed. The speaker eventually allowed the statement and said it was not misleading.

            Some time later, we were put back on negative watch, and Norman and Goff used the previous precedent to call the government useless economic managers because they got a credit rating downgrade, which the speaker showed consistency in his ruling and allowed it.

            We then had an actual credit downgrade some time later. I believe we are now 1 notch down from when Labour were in government and on a neutral outlook.

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    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
    17 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 ...
    2 days 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
    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
  • 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
    4 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
    5 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
    5 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 ...
    6 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
    6 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
    6 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 ...
    6 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
    5 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
    10 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
    12 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
    13 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
    1 day 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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
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