Why in the middle of a pandemic an immediate change to Orange is magical thinking

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, April 5th, 2022 - 77 comments
Categories: covid-19, health, jacinda ardern, labour, Media - Tags:

National’s friends are in unison complaining that the Government should be announcing now when we will be back into Orange.  It seems that every day different media interview restaurant owners and business owners complaining about the lack of certainty.  Opposing voices are few and far between.

This morning two particularly strident voices were heard and amplified.

Barry Soper in the Herald said this:

Jacinda Ardern seemed to me to give every indication during her round of media interviews yesterday – which didn’t include Newstalk ZB unfortunately – that we could expect some movement to the country’s red light setting that’s been frozen for the past several months now.

The PM waxed about how the peak had been reached in Auckland and Wellington and that the hospital system, that they’ve had years to fix, wasn’t overwhelmed.

It was with a sense of guarded relief that restaurateurs thought people could begin moving around inside, rather than being stuck to their seats, and that event planners could start planning on crowd sizes increasing from the impossible to manage indoor restrictions.

You can imagine how disappointed they then were as they tuned in to hear from a Pulpit of Truth that seemed to have reverted back to the Delta days, with Ashley Bloomfield standing at Ardern’s side as she put a dampener on things.

Only in Soperworld is a review a guarantee that things will change.

And Business New Zealand head Kirk Hope also had a go.  On Morning Report he claimed that there was justification to move Auckland to orange.  He also complained that it was difficult to understand what the conditions for moving to Orange are.  And that there was no greater clarity about when the Government might choose to move parts of New Zealand to orange.

He complained that with the infection trajectory declining things should be loosened up.  His priority was for businesses  to have “clarity and certainty”.

He said there should be a “test to work” regime and that the seven day stand down period should not apply.  I hate to break it to him but people often continue to shed the virus for up to two weeks after recovering.  If it was a test to work regime most periods away from work would increase.

These claims that there is no clarity should not be taken seriously.  The Government did announce a roadmap when it announced the traffic light system.

Red would be required where action is needed to protect health system and the system is facing an unsustainable number of hospitalisations or when action is needed to protect at-risk populations.

The conditions for Orange is that there is Community transmission with pressure on the health system and the whole of the health system primary care, public health, and hospitals, is focusing resources but can manage.

Things are improving.  Clearly in Auckland the peak of new infections has passed.  And hospitalisations appear to have peaked although numbers have not dropped recently.

But there is still significant pressure on the health system.  And in the middle of a pandemic why would you confidently announce the loosening up of requirements even though the pandemic is still having a significant effect?

This is magical thinking by business, that changing to orange will somehow make everything better.

And it should be noted that the Government has loosened up the settings and the red level now is much easier on businesses than previously.

As previously said on RNZ’s mediawatch:

Businesses calling for restrictions to end were misidentifying the problem, [Newsroom’s Marc Daalder] said.

“It goes back to magical thinking about what the alternative was to elimination or tightly controlling the virus. It was never going to be ‘sure the hospitals are full, and sure, 1 in 20 people in the city has Covid right now that we know of, but I’m still going to go out and pretend there’s nothing different from 2019’. It was always going to be ‘well hang on, there’s a pandemic, I’m going to do things a bit differently’. Congratulations, we opened up. This is living with Covid.”

Those insisting on certainty are also those insisting that things return to normal.  I understand their desires for normality to be returned.  But right now is not the time to think that ignoring Covid will somehow make it go away.

The biggest threat is a new variant.  As said by Jacinda Ardern two weeks ago:

We do have an ask for everyone though. If a variant arises in the world, that evades vaccines or is more deadly, contact tracing will once again provide a critical role. Please stand ready as a business to stand up QR codes again, or as a citizen to pull out your tracer app at a moment’s notice. Don’t remove the app from your phone just yet.

With the emergence of a new XE variant that is potentially 10% more transmissible than Omicron we are not out of this yet.

And to everyone complaining about the Government’s refusal to loosen up things please pay attention to the most important statistic of them all.

77 comments on “Why in the middle of a pandemic an immediate change to Orange is magical thinking ”

  • Comments are now closed

    • SPC 1.1
      5 April 2022 at 11:08 am

      It's not really a threat, it has been around in the UK since January and its not that prevalent there yet. No evidence of worse health outcomes, nor that it will infect those who had Omicron.

    • Nic the NZer 1.2
      5 April 2022 at 6:13 pm

      Where did you get that quote from? Seems either you made it up, or the Herald edited it out due to it being fiction?

  2. Ad 2
    5 April 2022 at 10:06 am

    Kirk Hope can pop over to my place, maskless. I contracted it on Sunday.

    • mickysavage 2.1
      5 April 2022 at 11:45 am

      Bugger. Need anything?

    • mary_a 2.2
      5 April 2022 at 1:01 pm

      Take care Adsmiley

    • Patricia Bremner 2.3
      5 April 2022 at 1:33 pm

      Ad, unless it is very mild, whatever else, REST. 10 min activity 2 hours rest. This has to be the pattern for two weeks, and gradual return to activities over the next week or so. Keep up fluids. If you get in a sweat you are doing too much. Bed rest is best.

      Pain Killers/anti inflams/antihistamines. Avoiding relapsing and long covid is key. It is similar to glandular fever, over do it and you pay.

      All the very best. Our son Grant took four weeks but is fine now.

  3. roblogic 3
    5 April 2022 at 10:08 am

    The extreme, overreaching, oppressive L4 lockdown in Auckland last year made the housing crisis worse, and directly caused the nationwide shortage of Gib board.

    Every decision like this has a cost.

    • Tricledrown 3.1
      5 April 2022 at 10:19 am

      Roblogic imports have been cut as well due to shipping disruption caused by covid,no doubt raw materials for manufacturing here as well.

      If we didn't have level 4 we would have had far worse outcomes across the board excuse the pun.

      But more services would have suffered especially as Delta was far more deadly.

      Hospitals would have not been able to operate.

      Highly trained staff would have been dying and many more leaving for safety reasons.

      Look at the UK or US in the graphs above and explain the difference to NZ.
      With your let it RIP logic a massive death toll would have freed up more housing.

    • mickysavage 3.2
      5 April 2022 at 1:44 pm

      Que? There is world wide disruption because of supply chain ructions and yet you blame Auckland's lockdown.

      • roblogic 3.2.1
        5 April 2022 at 6:17 pm

        Facts. Govt decisions had a major impact, blaming global conditions is a lame. excuse.

        https://www.newsroom.co.nz/building-projects-grind-to-a-halt-as-dominant-fletcher-freezes-gib-orders

        “The lockdown created a backlog of orders for Winstone Wallboards to pick and deliver and resulted in longer lead times,” it said, in a statement to customers. …

        “Winstone Wallboards is running its two manufacturing plants 24/7 producing plasterboard products at record levels in order supply the industry…

        • mickysavage 3.2.1.1
          5 April 2022 at 8:01 pm

          Damn this Government. They may have saved tens of thousands of lives but they disrupted the supply of Gib Board.

          • joe90 3.2.1.1.1
            5 April 2022 at 8:36 pm

            they disrupted the supply of Gib Board.

            The long, gib-disrupting arm of Labour reaches the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US, too.

          • roblogic 3.2.1.1.2
            5 April 2022 at 10:10 pm

            Just one example. We paid a heavy price. Makes no sense to pretend that everything is rosy.

            Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand – Wikipedia

            • McFlock 3.2.1.1.2.1
              6 April 2022 at 12:31 am

              Who the fuck is pretending everything is rosy?

              But we're still – even now – paying a much lower cost than most of the rest of the world. We delayed the inevitable for two years, and doing so saved lives and had a better economy than many.

              And yeah, it's still not over for any country. Mostly because some nations thought they could "business as usual" their way out of it, and all they did was create breeding grounds for new variants.

              By following expert advice, out government saved thousands of lives and had less of an economic hit in the first global wave of the pandemic. There were many problems and screw ups, sure. But we got the best start in the new global normal that was possible.

            • Drowsy M. Kram 3.2.1.1.2.2
              6 April 2022 at 4:38 am

              I've been impressed with how our govt mitigated the health impacts of the first two years of the pandemic, and how our over-burdened public health professionals coped. In the last month, however, ~300 Kiwi deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 infection, and the 7-day moving average is approaching 20 deaths per day – that’s too many.

              https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/new-zealand/

              Imho the public health restrictions on individual freedoms should have been maintained a few weeks longer in an attempt to further flatten the curve of Omicron infections.

              Are the loosened Covid-19 rules enough? Experts have their say [23 March 2022]
              "The data from overseas is really clear – those countries that have dropped restrictions as their Omicron wave was subsiding are now experiencing another wave."
              …
              "Rather than saying 'oh, let's lift all the restrictions', try and keep ahead of what we think the virus will do and I think cautiously remove controls and try and avoid having a second peak."

              Otoh, maybe it was (past) time to ‘rip the plaster off’ – maybe.

              • Christopher Randal …
                6 April 2022 at 8:00 am

                20 deaths per day?

                If the Nats and ACT had had their way you could probably multiply that by 100

                • Drowsy M. Kram …
                  6 April 2022 at 10:00 am

                  Agree NZ's COVID-19 death toll would likely be higher (possibly much higher) under a NAct govt – fortunately we'll never know.

    • Kiwijoker 3.3
      6 April 2022 at 8:35 am

      And erectile disfunction stats are on the rise as well!

  4. Tricledrown 4
    5 April 2022 at 10:10 am

    Puckish so our health systems aren't being over run.

    I would have thought our prison system is under threat to if staff have to cover shortages,plus any outbreaks.

    Have a little empathy or has working with people who don't have a lot of empathy hardened your heart.

    • Puckish Rogue 4.1
      5 April 2022 at 5:16 pm

      Go hard, go early!

      Flatten the curve!

      But wait theres yet another variant on the horizon, who could have seen this coming…

      • roblogic 4.1.1
        5 April 2022 at 6:00 pm

        Remember the ad campaigns?

        “2 shots for Summer!!”

        “The greater our immunity, the greater our possibilities!”

        So everyone got vaccinated. But Jacinda can’t let go of her anxious control freakery. Broke the implied promise of freedom after mega lockdowns and world beating vaccination levels. And lost all her govt’s good will

        • Nic the NZer 4.1.1.1
          5 April 2022 at 6:06 pm

          Just what activities of yours has the traffic light system prevented?

          • roblogic 4.1.1.1.1
            5 April 2022 at 6:11 pm

            Cut me off from community support network and fucked up my mental health, if you must know

            • Nic the NZer 4.1.1.1.1.1
              5 April 2022 at 6:30 pm

              Well you should certainly define your own best mental health advice, but I have not observed people obsessed with govt did it to me narratives to be well balanced. I've tended to understand any limitations were basically down to the pandemic which required some health measures to deal with. I do understand that is an unusual attitude and there are many who think every decision being made and every nuance of its presentation has a bottom line in opinion polls and at the ballot box.

              • roblogic …
                5 April 2022 at 6:38 pm

                Rationalising won't take away the pain of people unable to attend funerals/tangi or comfort elders on their deathbeds.

                • Descendant Of Smith …
                  6 April 2022 at 11:38 am

                  Nor will it take away the fact that there are loads and loads of people who would have been dealing with lots more funerals and tangi and comforting people on their deathbeds had COVID been allowed to run rampant.

                  In effect a choice between having substantially more funerals to attend, including possibly your own, versus a hiatus and an acceptance that for a period of time this would not be possible.

                  In a normal pre-COVID environment lots of people don't make to funerals / tangis anyway. Distance to travel/being overseas/cost – there have always been reasons people cannot make it.

                  Many Maori communities stopped tangi during the Spanish flu to reduce spread and many did so this time – regardless of government mandate. In fact the government mandate was pretty irrelevant as they implemented their own tikanga specifically due to the circumstances.

                  There is in my view an over-hyping of the impact of non-attendance and an over hyping of the blame on the government / health processes. I'm sure the over hyping of the impact is cumulatively more detrimental to peoples mental health than anything.

                  You see the same thing with I can't come home to visit my parents from people who haven't been home to do so in twelve years. Was talking to someone yesterday who winged about the restrictions and how now he can finally go and see his parents in the UK. When did he last see them I asked – 30 years ago – but somehow it is the current governments fault.

                  I do get people couldn't go and that it is a sacrifice but it is one people should take pride in because it prevented further death – and in fact contributed to some of our elderly living six months longer. I wasn't able to attend several myself and found it easy to accept the need for that. Coming from a small community where we well knew some hapu lost 40% or more of their family members in the Spanish flu it was a no brainer.

                  I guess it reinforces that to a large extent we are all products of the environment and institutions we grew up in. For me it is sensical and causes no anguish for others it is the opposite.

                  Both experiences are valid and normal but ultimately you can only implement one strategy.

                  https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/14270/NZAE_Poster_postponed_deaths.pdf?sequence=14

      • roblogic 4.1.2
        5 April 2022 at 6:06 pm

        Kiwis have done their part. Now this austerity and power addicted government needs to do its part and

        1. start paying health workers properly – and give bonuses for all who worked thru the pandemic
        2. make it easier for health workers to immigrate – accommodation packages and incentives and cut red tape
        3. Start prosecuting careless wankers who go around spreading Covid and don’t get tested when they are clearly symptomatic

        https://twitter.com/cannibality/status/1510704829420617730?s=21&t=o5TyXk6OTLNEOdjVGoKjjQ

        • Puckish Rogue 4.1.2.1
          5 April 2022 at 6:15 pm

          Now be fair its not like its they've had a few years to sort this out or anything like that

      • Psycho Milt 4.1.3
        5 April 2022 at 9:21 pm

        Well, yes. Highly infectious diseases are like that. The fantasy of "back to normal" is exactly that, a fantasy. Learn to cope, because dealing with Covid is trivial compared to what dealing with climate change is going to look like. If we're smart, we won't elect a govt that intends to just pretend none of this shit is happening.

  5. dv 5
    5 April 2022 at 10:25 am

    "His priority was for businesses to have “clarity and certainty”

    YEP no problem yer closed for a year.

    Is that clear enough and certain enough?

    NO?
    Ok 2 years then

    • JO 5.1
      5 April 2022 at 7:34 pm

      Nice taut retort.
      This might fit in here, given the relentless demands for certainty from 'business' as if that's ever possible in this life. In the pandemic we have had to live with Volatility, Uncertainty, Conflict and Ambiguity. If a friend's architecture firm can confront those four dark riders, the captains of industry can surely do it too.

      After reading this I'm ashamed it's taken me so long to learn more about Antonio Gramski. A 1964 third year BA history paper on the 1917 Russian Revolution had no space for a man who the academics will have concluded was a very dead failure. The section in bold struck a powerful chord for me about NZ since 1984.

      'If Gramsci has aged better than many of his peers, it is in part because he became a thinker for a defeated, rather than a triumphalist, left. With his own cause in ruins, Gramsci became ever more interested in the ways of the enemy. One of his abiding inquiries was how capitalist elites and their publicists laundered their perversions of the social order into “common sense,” how they spun morality tales around their economic interests, and how they were able to preserve their leadership of society after each crisis delivered by the capitalist system. The ground of this inquiry may have shifted in the decades since his death, but the main battle lines remain the same, and this still makes Gram­sci a thinker worth turning to in our moment.

      https://newrepublic.com/article/165617/antonio-gramsci-live-resist-book-review-unlikely-persistence

  6. AB 6
    5 April 2022 at 10:46 am

    Magical thinking: advocating for higher levels of serious illness among your customers, and then imagining that more of them will turn up at your business.

  7. Incognito 7
    5 April 2022 at 10:52 am

    The next review by Cabinet of the traffic light settings will be on Thursday 14 April, which just so happens to be the day before Easter Break. I bet one orange chocolate egg that settings will change at 11:59 pm that day.

    • Jimmy 7.1
      5 April 2022 at 1:09 pm

      Yep and that is too late for planning for Easter trade for a lot of businesses.

      • KJT 7.1.1
        5 April 2022 at 1:15 pm

        Only if you entertain the "Magical thinking" that people are suddenly going to sacrifice themselves to Omicron en-mass,to prop up businesses who don't keep them safe.

      • Incognito 7.1.2
        5 April 2022 at 1:21 pm

        There never are ironclad guarantees in business, so my bet is as good as any.

        Today is the 5th of April.

        In any case, a change of settings doesn’t guarantee an immediate change of customer behaviour; people are watching the stats in the daily updates and will draw their own conclusions. My guess is that a good weather forecast for Easter will make a big difference 🙂

  8. SPC 8
    5 April 2022 at 11:12 am

    There is/was a case for orange in Auckland, but for the opening up of borders (not just incoming colds and flu etc but also contact with aging relatives on the return) and Pacifica church going at Easter (vulnerable populations).

  9. Stephen D 9
    5 April 2022 at 11:20 am

    I'd love to see some modelling of the case and death rates had we gone with National's and Act's sudggestions at the beginning of the pandemic.

    Perhaps they'd shut up then.

    • mickysavage 9.1
      5 April 2022 at 11:46 am

      That Our World in Data gives you an idea. I would anticipate it would be somewhere between Australia's and the UK's death rates.

      • Tricledrown 9.1.1
        5 April 2022 at 12:37 pm

        Probably closer to Russia than the UK. If we had followed simple Simon's open the border at the end of the first lockdown in 2020 when vaccines weren't available.

    • Jimmy 9.2
      5 April 2022 at 1:06 pm

      Shaun Hendy's 80,000 would die model.

      • Incognito 9.2.1
        5 April 2022 at 1:24 pm

        Oh dear, a false equivalence as clear as day & night.

      • Psycho Milt 9.2.2
        5 April 2022 at 9:24 pm

        You're thinking National would have delivered a worst-case scenario? That's harsh. I mean, I'm not exactly a fan of theirs, but even if they had been fucking up with public health measures as badly as you'd expect from them, individuals would still have taken their own measures to protect themselves.

  10. Kiwijoker 10
    5 April 2022 at 11:49 am

    Hope, Wilson, Barnett, Soper, the ZB cohort, the whining continues. As moaning seems to be the only productive thing this lot do may be we should incorporate it into our GDP figures. We’d be the highest in the OECD

    • Nic the NZer 10.1
      5 April 2022 at 12:06 pm

      Probably better to have the productivity commission review their contribution and see if they can be diverted into more productive activities.

  11. Tricledrown 11
    5 April 2022 at 12:34 pm

    Nic it's very difficult and expensive to deal with toxic waste.

    These minions get well paid for spreading it.

    While the left get very little money or airtime for holding them to account.

    Amazon in the US have had to allow a union to form in one of its giant distribution centres.

    They managed to fight millions of dollars and intimidation spent by Billionaire oligarch Bezos to win the right to form a Union.

    The poor in NZ need to do the same thing.

    Poverty is endemic has been for 40yrs. Big Business has controlled the conversation .

    Unions need to unify and reach out to the poor to bring about longterm change.

    Tinkering at the edges is making the problem worse.

    It's like the Greeks they are facing longterm austerity for the corrupt govt and massive banks who got bailed out for $100's of billions for ponzi loans to the likes of Greece while the peasants get to be homeless and hungry.

    Same here the $50 to $60 billion print ended up in the wealthiest top 10 to 20% of new Zealanders while rents and housing costs have gone through the roof literally.

    Exasperating poverty for another generation or 2.

    Yet no opposing view in mainstream media corporate claptrap instead.

    • roblogic 11.1
      5 April 2022 at 6:40 pm

      In other words, Labour used the pandemic as a distraction from their failures to deliver on multiple policy fronts, the worst of which is the deepening crisis of poverty and inequality in Aotearoa.

  12. mary_a 12
    5 April 2022 at 1:11 pm

    National and ACTS's discontents' attitude, is all about me, myself, more of me and of course profit! Greedy selfish uncaring gits.

    If NatACT had been government, the doors would have been thrown open for all and sundry to mix and mingle … few precautions if any, burnt out health workers, more stress on our public health system and even more deaths. But hey who cares, profit is the name of the game here … gimme moneyangry

    • Tricledrown 12.1
      5 April 2022 at 2:09 pm

      Mary a even the economic arguments don't stack up the countries that had a lit it rip policy did far worse than the countries with hard lockdowns and tough public health measures.

      So Nactional have no argument other than opposing for opposing sake.

    • Anne 12.2
      5 April 2022 at 6:51 pm

      And what's more they would have got away with it because most first world countries did throw the doors open too widely and too soon and they would have said… "but we had no more deaths per head of population than anyone else so we are not to blame" and the silly good people of Aotearoa would have believed them.

      see roblogic @ 13 😉

  13. roblogic 13
    5 April 2022 at 3:00 pm

    A substantial number of Kiwis do not want to hear about any more restrictions. Personally I am over Jacinda. I think she is a good person and a great leader. Big fan. But I am sick of her endless blah blah media scrums that amount to "we make your life worse for some indefinable goal in the future".

    I mean, I understand, but I don't like it. But plenty of people do not understand, or don't want to.

    • Nordy 13.1
      5 April 2022 at 4:46 pm

      It's clear there are some (a very vocal minority) that don't want to listen to reason, logic and science. They aren't interested in anyone else. Their selfishness seemingly knows no bounds.

      I am glad we have a government that does use logic, reason and science to make decisions in the best interests of all NZers.

  14. coge 14
    5 April 2022 at 5:09 pm

    Let's be clear here. The good people of NZ simply aren't prepared to tolerate further prescriptive segregation. That train has left the station.

  15. felix 15
    5 April 2022 at 6:04 pm

    The govt can protect the health system any time they like by funding it properly.

    Perhaps if they hadn't spent the first year of the pandemic trying to screw the nurses out of a very modest pay raise I might be inclined to take their concerns about the health system a bit more seriously.

    • pat 15.1
      5 April 2022 at 6:48 pm

      Increased funding will make no immediate difference

      • felix 15.1.1
        5 April 2022 at 7:41 pm

        You have it backwards. Without funding nothing will make any difference.

        • pat 15.1.1.1
          5 April 2022 at 8:02 pm

          Without resources

          • felix 15.1.1.1.1
            6 April 2022 at 3:21 pm

            Um, perhaps you have been asleep for the last couple of years, but if the govt takes a problem seriously they have the resources available to literally shut down the whole country and pay everyone to stay home.

            This bullshit about constrained resources doesn't fly any more. All resources are available IF the problem is taken sufficiently seriously by govt.

            Which tells us, doesn't it, which problems are taken seriously. eg housing clearly isn't. Neither is child poverty. Nor climate change.

            That's the gift covid has given us. Now, when the govt says they're doing everything they can about an issue, you know for a fact it's bullshit, because now you know what it looks like when they REALLY do everything they can, and it's impressive.

      • felix 15.1.2
        5 April 2022 at 7:47 pm

        People who say you can’t solve problems by throwing money at them have never seen really large amounts of money being thrown with great precision.

        • pat 15.1.2.1
          5 April 2022 at 8:01 pm

          KEY DATES

          Apr 2028 Expected Construction Completion

          May 2022 Expected Construction Commencement

          2017 Project Announcement

          https://infrastructurepipeline.org/project/new-dunedin-hospital

          • felix 15.1.2.1.1
            6 April 2022 at 3:23 pm

            11 years. Pathetic. The one in the video has 1500 beds for covid patients and was built in just over a week.

            • McFlock 15.1.2.1.1.1
              6 April 2022 at 3:31 pm

              The standard trade-off is you can have it done well, done affordably, or done quickly – pick two out of three.

              But I do wonder whether in ten years their new hospital will be leaking worse than the current Dunedin hospital.

              • felix …
                11 April 2022 at 5:23 pm

                I like that formulation and I often use it when quoting jobs. But it doesn't so much apply when you have a virtually unlimited supply of labour and cash. Just one of the many joys of totalitarianism. Their hospital will be fine.

    • roblogic 15.2
      5 April 2022 at 6:50 pm

      No, no it's more important to prop up housing speculators and landlords.

      Bernard Hickey: The $1 trillion housing wealth crime of the century | The Spinoff

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    Alwyn Poole writes –  In New Zealand we have approximately 460 high schools. The gaps between the schools that produce the best results for students and those at the other end of the spectrum are enormous.In terms of the data for their leavers, the top 30 schools have ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    19 hours ago

  • Can Shane Jones be trusted in making Fast-track decisions?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    20 hours ago

  • Thinking About The Property Rights In Resource Decisions As Well As Transaction Costs
    Brian Easton writes –  The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    20 hours ago

  • Gordon Campbell On Israel’s Political Split, And The New Caledonia Crisis
    The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open. ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    21 hours ago

  • After much debate, the Auckland Future Fund was approved. So what should it be used for?
    On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting. The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time ...
    Greater AucklandBy Connor Sharp
    23 hours ago

  • The State of the Planet with Chlöe & Marama.
    Pakanga o muaTukua, ka ngaroPuritia taku ringaNgaro ana te ara ki pae rauThere's a battle aheadMany battles are lostBut you'll never see the end of the roadWhile you're travelling with meLate yesterday morning I headed to Wynyard Quarter to see Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick give their pre-budget State of ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago

  • It’s up to Willis now
    Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago

  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #20
    A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • Bernard’s pick ‘n’ mix 6 @ 6:06am on Sunday, May 19
    TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Lords of the flies
    Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Fact Brief – Does breathing contribute to CO2 buildup in the atmosphere?
    Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does breathing contribute to CO2 ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
    David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Behind Blue Eyes.
    No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Road food
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • Some Reader Feedback For Your Weekend
    Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago

  • Thinking About the Property Rights in Resource Decisions As Well As Transaction Costs.
    The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Can Shane Jones be trusted in making Fast-track decisions?
    New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago

  • Seymour appeals to PPTA to call off meetings on charter schools – but does he seriously believe he...
    Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • Police don’t fight crime
    What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • Two central banks
    Michael Reddell writes –  I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
    Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
    Point of OrderBy gadams1000
    4 days ago

  • The missing Green MP
    David Farrar writes –  The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • The contest for the future heart and soul of the Labour Party
    Peter Dunne writes –  It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Lobbying for Waikato’s Medical School causing problems for the Govt
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the psychological horror film Possession
    This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    4 days ago

  • Portrait of a Man.
    I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • The Hoon around the week to May 17
    Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Weekly Roundup 17-May-2024
    We’re at the end of another week. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked if the Herald’s poor journalism will cost lives On Tuesday Matt covered Wayne Brown’s proposal for public transport in the Long ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago

  • Rishi’s relaunch
    With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    4 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #20 2024
    Open access notables Publicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change: We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • The thrilling possibilities of charter schools
    You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • This Unreasonable Government.
    Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Supreme Court weighs in on name suppression
    Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
    Media Law JournalBy Steven
    5 days ago

  • Is This A “Merchants” Government?
    The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • This is what corruption looks like
    When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants: On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Take that, Vladimir – and be warned: we have plenty more sanctions (at least, we hope so) in our ...
    Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point.  Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • More Harm Than Good.
    How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • The Ombudsman fails again
    In 2020, the Operation Burnham inquiry reported back, finding that NZDF had lied to Ministers and the New Zealand public about its actions in Afghanistan. The inquiry saw a large number of documents declassified and released, which raised another problem: whether they had also lied to the Ombudsman in his ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • No Time To Think: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    “Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Lobbying for Waikato’s Medical School causing problems for the Govt
    It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 days ago

  • Picking Sides.
    Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s  “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
    Henry Ergas writes –  When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • The teacher trainee challenge
    David Farrar writes –  Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Words and (in)actions
    New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision   Michael Reddell writes –  When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • What do you hope for/fear from the budget?
    Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on ACT’s charter schools experiment
    If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    5 days ago

  • Drought fuels wildfire concerns as Canada braces for another intense summer
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus and pick ‘n’ mix for Thursday, May 16
    Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Controversial proposal could threaten coalition
    The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago

  • Of Rings of Power Annatar, Dramatic Irony, and Disguises
    As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    5 days ago

  • The future of Nick's Kōrero.
    This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • The PM promises tax relief in the Budget – but will it be enough to satisfy the Taxpayers’ Union...
    Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when  the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Fucking useless
    Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Setting things straight.
    Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    6 days ago

  • Far too light a sentence
    David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Unwinding Labour’s Agenda
    Muriel Newman writes –  Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Sequel to “Real reason Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Chhour”
    Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • The Govt’s Fast-Track is being demolished by submissions to Parliament
    Bryce Edwards writes –  The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • A generation is leaving at a rate of one A320-load per day
    An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • NZUP RORS back to life
    The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    6 days ago

  • School Is Out.
    School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • How Are You Doing?
    Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago

  • The Rings of Power: Season Two Teaser Trailer
    I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    6 days ago

  • At a glance – What ended the Little ice Age?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    Skeptical Science
    7 days ago

  • Talking Reo with the PM
    “The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago

  • Waitangi Tribunal’s authority in Chhour case is upheld – but bill’s introduction to Parliament...
    Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour.  The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago

  • Australia jails another whistleblower
    In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Government to rollout roadside drug testing
    The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.  “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago

  • Minister responds to review of Kāinga Ora
    The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    14 hours ago

  • Pseudoephedrine back on shelves
    Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago

  • New Zealand-China Business Summit
    Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao.  Good morning everyone.   Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago

  • New measures to protect powerlines from trees
    Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events.  “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani win top Māori dairy farming award
    Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • DJ Fred Again – Assurance report received
    "On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden.  “I raised my concerns after being ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • District Court Judges appointed
    Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Unions should put learning ahead of ideology
    Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools.     “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Craig Stobo appointed as chair of FMA
    Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Budget 2024 invests in lifeguards and coastguard
    Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • New Zealand and Tuvalu reaffirm close relationship
    New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says.  “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019.  “It is my pleasure ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New Zealand calls for calm, constructive dialogue in New Caledonia
    New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.  “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says.  “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New Zealand welcomes Samoa Head of State
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