Education and poverty

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, August 5th, 2012 - 45 comments
Categories: class war, education, poverty - Tags: , ,

The Nats are running their various ideological policies in education, claiming (while contradicting themselves in the process) that they are trying to address the “one in five children” who do poorly at school. I’ve written on the subject of one in five children before, concluding that post with this quote (pdf):

Can it be mere coincidence that there are similar proportions (one in five) of New Zealand children in the Ministry’s “tail of underachievement” as there are children in the greatest poverty that is, non-working, beneficiary-dependent families?

If the Nats wanted to do something serious about addressing educational underachievement, they would be addressing child poverty, not farting about privatising education. Below is an impassioned plea from an American teacher. Because of it’s relevance to what is going on in NZ right now I’m going to quote quite a bit of it:

The hard bigotry of poverty: Why ignoring it will doom school reform
By 

This was written by Brock Cohen, a teacher and student advocate in the Los Angeles Unified School District who contends that we can no longer afford to trivialize the critical role that poverty plays in a child’s learning experiences – and that true school reform begins with social justice. Brock’s students were recently featured in an NPR piece that charts some of his students’ daily struggles as they pursue their education.

By Brock Cohen

…  What had grown increasingly clear to me was that my students’ academic struggles did not simply stem from inaction, ineffective parenting, drug use, or neglect. While these elements were usually present in various forms, or to greater or lesser degrees, they weren’t the root causes of their failure; they were the effects of poverty. What I’d learned in less than a semester of teaching was that poverty wasn’t merely a temporary, though unpleasant, condition — like a hangover or the sniffles. It was a debilitating, often generational, epidemic.

While my teaching credential classes were perpetually bogged down with trivialities like journal reflections, acceptable formatting options for the three-tier lesson plan, and tales of woe that rivaled A.A. meetings, discussions or assignments that sought to unravel the poverty-learning conundrum never took place. In pursuit of other alternatives, I commenced my own research.

Study after study validated my experiences and observations from spending the past five months with disadvantaged teens. Healthy children require a nutritious diet, ample sleep, stable households, regular physical exercise, and access affordable health care. They require regular cognitive stimulation to give them the neurological foundations required for complex learning tasks. And they require affection and positive reinforcement to engender them with self-worth.

Most jolting to me was a 1995 study that remains every bit as relevant today. Published by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risely,Meaningful Differences details the magnitude of a child’s early learning environment. It concludes that low-income children are typically burdened with a 32-million word gap by age 4, as well as deficits in “complexity” and “tone,” which measure the depth and intensity of verbal exchanges.

While I continued searching for answers, either Congress or the Bush administration could have thrown me a life preserver. They opted for an anchor. Rather than instantly improving the state of public education by proposing legislation that attacked poverty at its core, they put their bipartisan muscle behind one of the most onerous, ineffectual, and wasteful slabs of federal legislation in decades.

What was then billed as a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), No Child Left Behind made quick work of common sense, setting multiple-choice standardized tests as the touchstone by which the nation’s students, schools, and, in many cases, teachers would be evaluated. The law’s founders assured Americans that what high-poverty kids needed was not better health care, smaller class sizes, expanded access to pre-K education, or supervised instruction in using 21st-century technology. They needed to be tested more. Teacher and school accountability, tied to test scores, would rescue poor children from the brink of failure. (After all, it wasn’t cynical policymakers or a misguided electorate who were failing our nation’s public schoolchildren: The real bogeyman was “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”)

Put another way, a first-generation El Salvadoran teenager, crammed into a Van Nuys apartment while acting as the primary caregiver for three younger siblings, would ultimately be held to the same performance-level expectations on the same high-stakes tests as a girl from Palo Alto whose parents attended Dartmouth. Failure of schools to ensure this would (and has) lead to monetary sanctions, mass firings, state and private takeovers, and school closings.

And so, with the stroke of our President’s pen, the act of leveling the playing field was ostensibly underway.

But then the National Alliance for Educational Progress (NAEP) started producing stacks of data that divulged what many educators had already predicted: Testing the bejesus out of high-needs kids probably wasn’t going to make them smarter. Given to a cross-section of the nation’s public school students in 4th, 8th, and 12th grade each year, NAEP test results perennially revealed that the policies of NCLB have had no discernable impact on bridging the still seismic math and literacy gaps between low-income children and their wealthier counterparts.

Rather than reversing the wayward course of NCLB, however, President Obama’s approach has proven even more ineffectual — and draconian. …

Darling-Hammond has galvanized opposition to the brigade of privateers, economists, public officials, and think-tankers who insist that poverty isnot a towering roadblock to a child’s cognitive development. In a piece that rails against the government’s fusillade of sanctions aimed at so-called failing schools, she writes:

Poverty rates make a huge difference in student achievement. Few people are aware, for example, that in 2009 U.S. schools with fewer than 10 percent of student in poverty ranked first among all nations on the Programme for International Achievement tests in reading, while those serving more than 75 percent of students in poverty scored alongside nations like Serbia, ranking about fiftieth.

… In education, there are choices to be made that can indeed move the needle of student achievement. Developing a collaborative model, for example, can lead to improvements in the skills and study habits of disadvantaged children. But closing the so-called achievement gap between rich and poor will first require Americans to recognize a far more uncomfortable reality: The policies employed to purportedly address the struggles of low-income children have ushered in a new era of school segregation. Claiming that poverty is no excuse for student failure trivializes the damage caused by years of actions and inactions that have widened the gaps between rich and poor communities. Good schools aren’t molded through harsh sanctions, private takeovers, or even soaring rhetoric. They emerge from healthy, stable communities. That is, they emerge from a commitment to justice.

I don’t think I have anything to add.

45 comments on “Education and poverty ”

  1. Excellent post, Anthony, you have clearly expressed the real issues around educational under achievement and provided useful evidence for why our Government’s approach will inevitably fail.

    I was concerned that the panel on Q&A missed mentioning the huge effect poverty has on education underachievement. Instead they still blamed schools for not dealing with the deficits that children bring to their learning. Of course teachers make a difference but as respected educationalist Margaret Wu claims, of all the influences on a child’s academic achievement (parents, socioeconomic factors etc) teachers only contribute 10%.

    National Standards won’t make a difference, league tables won’t help, Charter Schools are doomed to failure, we just need to lift the incomes and aspirations of our growing population of struggling poor!

    • Dv 1.1

      I think I heard Key saying on the news that if charter schools fai, he would dump them?

      That begs the question of what failure is and who will pick up the kids from the failing charter schools.

      Thank you Rob for the article.

  2. Dr Terry 2

    Thanks for this fine article, and thanks Dave for comment. Great to see that intelligence is still used in this manner! (I am concerned about the effects of MENTAL poverty among leaders).

  3. No it isn’t a coincidence, and yes, all we’ve got to do to reduce educational underachievement is reduce poverty. Or, in other words, all we’ve got to do to fix this relatively minor problem is first fix a relatively much more difficult and complicated problem. I’m sure you can figure out why that piece of information doesn’t actually get us very far along.

    • McFlock 3.1

      On the contrary: the first step to solving any problem is to correctly identify it and its cause.

      • Kotahi Tāne Huna 3.1.1

        +1

        Oh, and other countries have found solutions. The barriers are political not practical.

      • Psycho Milt 3.1.2

        As an identifiable cause, this one files under Well, duh. It’s as obvious to the people in govt as it is to us, the difference is they have a professional interest in pretending otherwise. This is as true under Labour as it is under National because neither of them has a solution for the problem of poverty, it being as described above “a relatively much more difficult and complex problem,” ie one without an obvious and easily-achievable solution. Pointing out the nature of the problem is easy – the tricky bit is where you come up with proposed solutions.

        • Colonial Viper 3.1.2.1

          Its not difficult to address poverty in NZ. Simply get the vast capital stocks which have been hoarded and accumulated on the sidelines (many tens of billions worth according to Bernard Hickey below), moving once again through local communities, and into the physical, tangible economy.

          There’s no scarcity of money in the NZ economy, just a scarcity of the movement of money through local communities.

          http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10824614

        • mike e 3.1.2.2

          this country has done this before but has lost the balls to deal with it instead we have psycho rwnj’s telling us it can’t be done.
          RWNJ”S cover up solutions by spreading cynicism!

        • Kotahi Tāne Huna 3.1.2.3

          PM – not “the problem of poverty” – the problem is increased inequality. It’s not the same thing, and other countries have addressed it successfully.

  4. Craig Glen Eden 4

    Very sad to see Matt McCarten spouting the same right wing bullshit about one in five and blaming schools and their teachers. Quite frankly I am sick of people like him and brain dead pollies talking about stuff that they have no education in or done any real reading in. Labour Politicians like Jacinda and left wing commentators like Matt keep repeating the one in five line. One question about the one in five is who makes up the one in five? How many of the one in five have English as their second language, how many are special needs, how many come from poor homes, how many have learning difficulties how many are the suffering the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome bla bla.
    How all these issues are the fault of teachers who people like stupid John Tamahere blame again and again is just beyond me. For goodness sake when is someone on the left going to smash this one in five line out of the park.

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 4.1

      One more question about the “one in five” – is it even true? The pass rate for NCEA level 2 is 85%…

      But it’s the old story – it doesn’t matter how well versed you are in the facts when your debating “partner” is happy to invent their own facts. No-one has yet figured out how to deal with a Gish gallop in a live broadcast – the lie races ’round the world in the time it takes the truth to get its shoes on.

    • Rodel 4.3

      At last. Someone speaks sense. The crap that is presented as statistically valid,by all politicians and even by some academics is appalling. Thanks..Craig but who will take notice?

  5. Adele 5

    Tēnā koe, Craig

    Matt McCarten does have knowledge of the educational under-achievement of Māori students within mainstream education. Mainstream education will blame the students, the parents, the communities, the drugs, the alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome, the ozone layer – without ever thinking that maybe it is failing those students – who aren’t middle class, or white, or smart, or cute, or pleasant, or agreeable, or able. Students that generally won’t allow mainstream education to feel good about itself.

    Matt McCarten is ideally positioned to comment on educational under-achievement and poverty as both issues disproportionally impact on Māori. He also knows alot about institutional racism and bigotry.

    • Yeah, it’s all the education system’s fault – all the loonier Kiwiblog commenters seem to agree on that one.

      • mike e 5.1.1

        PM Sonkeys strategyTwo birds with one stone.
        Shift the blame
        Them make the teachers the scape goat

      • Adele 5.1.2

        Psycho Milt

        In terms of Māori being educated I would categorically agree with you – it is the system’s fault. The lack of recognition that perhaps non-Western peoples have a different way of acquiring knowledge or that cultural context is important to learning outcomes continues to be a failing of mainstream education. . .

        I am not too worried about loony Kiwiblog commentators – its the psycho-standardnistas that cause my eyes to roll.

        • Psycho Milt 5.1.2.1

          See the comment 5.2 by Kotahi Taane Huna below – that’s the main reason you and the Kiwiblog commenters are wrong about this.

          However, it’s also worth noting that our education system has great success with pupils of many cultures. Which means making Maori underachievement about culture is not only wrong, it’s a free gift for racists.

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 5.2

      Adele, teacher effect accounts for about 10% of educational outcomes. Schools cannot make up for the problems caused by institutional racism and inequality. By blaming them you are buying into a completely false narrative.

      • Adele 5.2.1

        Kotahi

        The false narrative is yours. Schools are contributors to institutional racism and inequality. The 10% of effort that teachers contribute to educational outcomes generally miss the mark completely when dealing with Maori students.

        As long ago as the early 1960s Maori teachers teaching in a ‘Maori’ way were making great strides in improving learning outcomes for Maori students. One such teacher (who was a renowned Maori artist and has since passed on) used to teach in a rural school in Northland. Most, if not all the Maori students there were labelled failures because they generally failed the tests provided by the school. He took to examining the class on subjects flavoured by Aotearoa. Where was this place, mountain, river, who was this Maori rangatira, etc etc. Of course the Maori students did spectacularly well whereas the non-Maori students failed.

        Even today there is marked improvement in outcomes when Maori students are taught in a particular way. The kohanga reo movement is a classic case in point. Whole families have been successfully engaged in the learning outcomes of tamariki – despite the deprivation and the social context.

        That movement was started by kuia on behalf of their mokopuna. 25 years later those kuia are now in their mid-eighties and still involved in the movement. In many ways the kohanga reo movement is a forefunner to charter schools.

        • Psycho Milt 5.2.1.1

          He took to examining the class on subjects flavoured by Aotearoa. Where was this place, mountain, river, who was this Maori rangatira, etc etc.

          In other words, like many teachers in small rural schools before and since, he found the local kids lacked much interest in reading and writing or maths and sciences, so he concentrated on giving them some basic stuff that would be useful to them in their future lives as peasants, labourers and housewives. It’s not an inspiring story, it’s a depressing one.

          • Adele 5.2.1.1.1

            Psycho

            The only thing depressing in this scenario is your opinions.

            Unlike you this teacher saw the potential in these children. Why do you assume that Maori children from rural or isolated communities would lack interest in reading and writing or maths and sciences. He reframed the teachings to be inclusive of their worldview. Rather than learn about the English Royal Family and the geography of Europe – they learnt instead geography using local and regional locations and the whakapapa of Rangatira. Having engaged their minds and their hearts these children would have a greater appreciation for knowledge acquisition of whatever sort.

            The teacher himself came from a similar background and his artworks now hang in galleries and private collections world-wide. Far from being stuck in a provincial rut he propelled Māori art into a contemporary age. Not bad for someone from a densely poor and rural background. And I guess the thinking was that if he could succeed when the dominant culture says – you’re a failure – than so could the children under his tutelage.

            Your type of thinking in a teacher is what is dimming the light on the potential of Maori children.

            • Kotahi Tāne Huna 5.2.1.1.1.1

              “…what is dimming the light on the potential of Maori children”?

              Is it teachers? Is it schools? Or is it the relentless grinding inequality and discrimination that Māori experience on a daily basis?

              Inequality that has increased faster in New Zealand than anywhere else in the developed world. That has been shown to affect rates of crime, violence, stress, health, and yes, educational performance.

              Now you may think that statement is controversial – it isn’t. Unless you get your opinions from politicians, that is…

              • UpandComer

                If that logic held then no one from a poor background would ever do well at school. Clearly, it’s rubbish, and it’s not just down to those kids having semi-decent IQ’s.

                Also, Kotahi tane huna, why are you opposed to something that might help to change the intractable depressing statistics on Maori educational achievement? You are actually at odds with the majority of Maori with your stance, Maori who are constructive, progressive, pragmatic and tired of useless attitudes and blame-mongering. As Adele says, why don’t you blame the Ozone layer too while you are at it.

                • Kotahi Tāne Huna

                  Is that what passes for logic in your mind – “no one from a poor background would ever do well at school.”

                  Do you think this is a strong argument, as opposed to a pitiful strawman?

                  You also appear to think that proposing a solution for “the intractable depressing statistics on Māori educational achievement” is the same as being “opposed to something that might help to change the intractable depressing statistics on Māori educational achievement”.

                  I conclude that you have diminished mental capacity. I will attempt to address this issue on an emotional level:

                  Inequality hurts people. If you want to make them better, reduce inequality.

                  • Adele

                    Kotahi Koretake

                    It is laughable that you try to educate Māori on inequality – you pompous twat. Its your type of hypocrisy and mealy-mouth platitudes that cause most brown people to vomit.

                    Your type of attitude is damaging to the efforts of brown people that understand the issues and realise the solutions and if you cannot support their efforts then get the fuck out of the way.

                    And as for suggesting that I am hating on teachers – if you read my posts with both eyeballs focussed in front – you will note that I was in fact praising the efforts of one particular teacher – or don’t fully qualified Māori teachers count in the scheme of your warped sense of social equity..

                    • Kotahi Tāne Huna

                      I am not the pain in your mind, and I’m not lecturing Māori, I’m schooling a potty-mouthed ignoramus, specifically, you.

                    • Kotahi Tāne Huna

                      PS: Is Papaarangi Reid “lecturing Māori”? Get a clue.

                    • Adele

                      Kotahi Hōhā

                      ‘Potty mouthed ignoramus’

                      Wow, such a ferocious backlash. Actually, I am chuffed and will share this with my pakeke roopu in the weekend:

                      Kuia 1: You were called what?

                      Me: A potty mouthed ignoramus.

                      Kuia 2: Honey, you’re too young to be using a potty.

                      Kuia 3: No, no, put your hearing aid in – some arsehole was calling her a dumbarse.

                      Kuia 4: Well, you go and bring him to us and we’ll sort the fucker out.

                      Koroua 1: That’ll be right – their husbands are all dead.

                      Kuia 4: And you can shut up.

                      From the ludicrous to the absurd – don’t quote Paparangi Reid to me, I work in health. Inequality is created by people like you thinking that they know better than people like me and Paparangi Reid.

                    • Kotahi Tāne Huna

                      Good, I’m glad I could bring some joy to alleviate your bigotry and prejudice.

                      Did I say I think I know better than Papaarangi Reid? No: that’s just a pitiful strawman you invented. In fact, Papaarangi Reid and others in the medical profession inform my opinion on this subject.

                      I note that the ethnicity of the messenger has a profound effect on your ability to understand the message.

                    • Adele

                      Kotahi Hōhā Koretake

                      You haven’t actually said anything meaningful at all in your posts accept to accuse me of introducing strawmen (wrong) and throwing in a Māori (Reid) to add credence to your white privilege posturings.

                      Ethnicity does in fact play a large part in the debate on inequality because it is largely along racial lines. So yes I do focus on your ethnicity especially when you as a white person attempt to lecture me as a brown person on what is inequality in this country and how inequality can be addressed to the benefit of the dis-possessed.

                      Inequality is driven largely by people like you in positions of authority – be it as politician, policy maker, purse-holder. I would rather deal with the likes of Crimp who is absolutely open about his prejudices than with people like you.

                      The last word is yours.

                    • Kotahi Tāne Huna

                      You work in the health sector, which puts you in a far higher “position of authority” than I will ever hold.

                      Your entire contribution has been to dismiss my opinion on the basis of my ancestry. Accusing me of “saying nothing” in these circumstances is a tad ironic, no?

                      Strawman No.1: ” you cannot support their efforts”

                      Strawman No.2: “don’t fully qualified Māori teachers count in the scheme of your warped sense of social equity.”

                      Strawman No.3: “people like you thinking that they know better than people like me and Paparangi Reid.”

                      If you want a lecture fuck off back to school. All I’m presenting here is my opinion, though I have a bit more than anecdotes about pioneering teachers to back it up.

                      We allocate massive resources to combat crime, to improve physical and mental health, to educate, etc. etc. Negative outcomes in all of these areas are driven by increased inequality. That we would be much better off addressing the inequality, rather than the symptoms, is self-evident.

                      As for your elegant justification for your racism: I’m sure Louis Crimp has one for his; perhaps that explains your preference.

        • Kotahi Tāne Huna 5.2.1.2

          Adele schools reflect the society they’re in? What an amazing revelation! Once again: teacher effect accounts for no more than 10% of academic achievement; no amount of hating on teachers in going to change that.

        • UpandComer 5.2.1.3

          Thank-you for this excellent comment.

          It simply puzzles me why it is that those who place complete faith in the public system in the face of decades of long-standing Maori/Pacific Island underachievement are so viciously opposed to anything that might change the status quo.

          • Kotahi Tāne Huna 5.2.1.3.1

            The answer to your puzzlement is simple – you’re wrong. The complete faith you imagine doesn’t exist, and neither does the opposition. However, when you grow up you will perhaps come to understand a well known phrase – “Something must be done, this is something, therefore this must be done!”

            • Rob 5.2.1.3.1.1

              Yes, a similar approach was tried in World War 1 in trench warfare. Wave after wave of young soldiers went sent over the trench wall to advance slowly upon the enemy. That kept all the bosses happy too that at least they were doing somehing. Still didn’t make any sense or difference did it.

              Juts mindlessly repeating failed actions is not a good idea.

  6. Carol 6

    Basil Bernstein said it back in the late 60s/early 70s:

    “Education cannot compensate for society” – he was talking about social class inequalities, but it could also refer to the any students from non-white middleclass backgrounds tend to find the education system a bit of a struggle. Our education system so often incorporates the values of the dominant groups in society.

    And, yes, education may go some way to help students from less well-off backgrounds, but poverty , as Anthony’s post indicates, has negative impacts on a child’s education in many ways.

  7. lefty 7

    I get very sick of people who say lack of education is a reason for individuals failure to be able to get good jobs and support themselves.

    The education system cannot lead to change. It will always reflect the society it is based in, and the fate of individuals in it will reflect the fate of individuals in society as a whole.

    If we structure our society to produce winners and losers our education system will always reflect that, regardless of how good our teachers are and how big the education spend is. The best any improvements in the education system can do while our society is structured to glorify individual wealth accummulation as its main purpose is to produce better educated losers.

    In other words it’s pretty much a percentage game and the percentage of those failing at school must reflect the percentage of those the rich want kept on the margins.

    No change to the education system can alter that.

    • Colonial Viper 7.1

      Further, whether or not you leave school at 16 without qualifications, or at 23 with a Masters degree and $80,000 of student debt – there are no jobs available to you, apart from stacking shelves at the local supermarket.

      And in that case, the 16 year old school leaver is instantly $80,000 better off than the post-grad.

      • Dv 7.1.1

        PLUS 7 years of income at min wage – 182,000

        • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.1

          Exactly – and when young people ask me these days, I ask them to think seriously about getting into a good trade with practical skills instead of doing years at uni accumulating debt and textbooks.

  8. seeker 8

    “Claiming that poverty is no excuse for student failure trivializes the damage caused by years of actions and inactions that have widened the gaps between rich and poor communities. Good schools aren’t molded through harsh sanctions, private takeovers, or even soaring rhetoric. They emerge from healthy, stable communities. That is, they emerge from a commitment to justice.”

    Thank you for this stunning, pertinent and “laying out the truth for us all to see” post Anthony. Am going to quote, quote and quote from it again and again, especially ”trivializes the damage”…

  9. aerobubble 9

    I’m eagerly awaiting to see these statistics, house buying will be so much easier when
    I know how stupid the kids are in the area, I mean what a joke, does the government
    really believe that all the time children spend growing up without the presence of
    a teacher, their intrinsic genetic, behavioral, cultural and religious can substantial be
    modified by teachers. I’m sorry but it says more about the educational standard of
    our present right wing government, who also believe that concentrating solely on
    results and ignoring inputs, like people, ecology, resource limits, and concentrate
    solely on profits only driven economics, is it any wonder they are so blind to their
    own stupidity. But then I suppose society chooses to become more inequitable and
    sectarianism needs these educational stats if its to become rooted and grow.

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 9.1

      Society chooses no such thing – it’s the consequence of stupidity, not malice.

      The debate is slowly moving in the right direction though. I would like to see more discussion on policy to combat inequality.

      Should we redistribute wealth more evenly, for example? I think I know what sort of reaction that would raise in our right-wing acquaintances, but it would work.

      What about wage policy? Japan doesn’t need to redistribute wealth so much because there isn’t such a huge gap in salary levels to begin with. A policy to limit high salaries would add nothing to the wages bill, since companies could simply redistribute more equitably themselves.

      What about secondary measures like strengthening communities organisations such as unions, restoring rights to collective action?

      Just flying kites here, but I get fed up with debating all these issues – education, health, crime etc. as though they were unconnected.

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    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
    9 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
    10 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
    12 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
    24 hours 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 ...
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    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
    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
    2 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
    3 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
    4 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
    4 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
    5 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
    5 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
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days 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
    6 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
    7 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
    8 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
    22 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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
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