Bill English thinks he was pro Springbok tour

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, January 20th, 2017 - 102 comments
Categories: bill english, john key, national, same old national - Tags: ,

Previous Prime Minister John Key could not recall what his views on the Springbok tour were, despite him being aged 19 at the time and despite it being the most dramatic local upheaval that had occurred in decades.

My strong sense that his pronounced view had been calculated within an inch of its life is strong.

New PM Bill English has a somewhat similar view but without the intense PR polishing that Key’s position had.

He thinks that he was probably for the tour.  The sense of calculation is high, the sense of honesty is very low.  It was such an intense divisive time I thought that all 19 year olds would have remembered clearly what they thought.

From Newshub:

The 1981 Springbok Tour provoked sporting and political civil war in New Zealand.

Families and friendships were divided and the country became a two nation state – those that were for the tour versus those against.

Now, Prime Minister Bill English admits he was “probably for it”.

“I was keen to see the tour happen – thought sport shouldn’t be mixed with politics.”

He seems to think that the tour increased his understanding of Maori issues.

“It helped persuade me particularly as a politician to be committed and spend time on the Maori related issues in New Zealand and I’m pretty satisfied about where that’s got to,” Mr English says.

Maybe that is an acknowledgment that he now believes the tour was wrong.

His comments suggest a vacuous superficial approach to the important issues that New Zealand has faced.  They are also pretty meh.  Disinterest rather than upset is my first response.

One thing is clear.  English is no John Key.  He is less polished and less calculated in his responses.

102 comments on “Bill English thinks he was pro Springbok tour ”

  1. James 1

    “One thing is clear. English is no John Key. He is less polished and less calculated in his responses.”

    It does not matter that he is not a John Key. It only matters that he is not an Andrew Little.

    That’s the choice voters will have.

    English would lose against Ket – but I’m fairly confident he will win against Little.

    • Carolyn_nth 1.1

      Although the election vote isn’t between the party leaders, but between the parties. Enough of the personality politics – Key was made too much of as the face of the party.

      Maybe with English as leader, voters will look more closely at policies, and actions, and how the rhetoric relates to the realities.

      Seems to me with his statements on the 1981 tour, English is stating similar views to many Kiwi conservatives – especially those into sports.

  2. Morrissey 2

    English was a well known member of the notoriously right wing Southland Society, which in 1981 was a rowdy (and usually drunken) pro-tour element on the Otago campus.

    It’s a measure of his character that the most he is prepared to admit is that he “thinks” he was pro-Tour.

    • + 1 yep – I distinctly remember abusing those pro-tour louts, (and they pretty well all looked like a young billy), when we marched against the tour in dunners.

      • Corokia 2.1.1

        I’m pretty sure I remember Michael Laws being one of the pro tour crowd at Otago Uni. The atmosphere on campus was tense and the pro rugby boys (and it was basically all male) were intimidating.

        • marty mars 2.1.1.1

          yep I lived under the saddle and wore my anti tour badge with pride at the rugby club. Very tense times and ended my playing and enjoyment of rugby days. Yet marching in dunners and welly filled me with such energy and determination. We believed, we took a stand and we didn’t buckle under extreme police and state provocation. We knew we weren’t alone and we knew we were on the side of justice. Those lessons can be learned by the younger today, those lessons and actions are needed today imho.

        • Morrissey 2.1.1.2

          the pro rugby boys

          You mean pro-apartheid rugby boys. Most of the anti-tour protestors were rugby fans, just not pro-apartheid rugby fans.

          • corokia 2.1.1.2.1

            Pro-tour then. They would never accept being called pro-apartheid, even though the pro-tour stance was supportive of an apartheid state.

            I knew a few anti-tour protestors who were pro-rugby, but to assume that “most” were rugby fans is a bit of a stretch. Seems like the typical Kiwi assumption that we all ‘love our rugby’ . Well I never have and I’m sick of such generalisations.

            Facing up to riot police while trying to march on Carisbrook was a scary experience for a 19 year old girl , but it was the right thing to do. Like marty, I think it gave me life long strength and determination to get out there and stand up for things I think matter.

            • Morrissey 2.1.1.2.1.1

              Fair comment, corokia. But whatever their actual proportion in the community, I dare say there was as high a proportion of rugby fans amongst the protestors as there was among the pro-tour mob.

    • Red Hand 2.2

      “thinking” he was pro-Tour might be personal reticence.

      “His personal reticence could have something to do with the unwelcome media attention he received last year when gay website GayNZ.com alleged in an article that one of his teenaged sons had posted abusive statements with homophobic overtones on Bebo. Bill reportedly called the allegations a “disgusting and sick attack” on his son. It was an issue which affected the whole family, many of whom share Bill’s desire for privacy, despite his public life.”

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517639

  3. Cinny 3

    There are some moments in NZ history that you don’t forget. The ’81 Springbok tour is one of those moments, i was nine.

    Is this all the news that newshub could find to generate on the outgoing PM? By crikey there has been a huge absence of any national mps doing any actual work this year.

    All I’ve been seeing in the media is a massive amount of work being done by the opposition parties, but nada from the out going government. Just this lame as story via News Hub attempting to make the soon to be ex PM appear relevant. What a load of click bait crap from NewsHub.

  4. Enough is Enough 4

    “Maybe that is an acknowledgment that he now believes the tour was wrong”

    I think that is the sentiment of many pro tour people. It is possible to change one view in time. I know many people who didn’t think sport and politics should not mix, but with the benefit of hindsight agree that the tour should not have happened.

    I don’t think it is a sensible strategy to condemn everyone who supported a sporting tour 36 years ago, if in that intervening period they have changed their world view.

    • red-blooded 4.1

      I think that’s a fair call Enough is Enough, however I’d expect English (or anyone else) to front up and say, “I was pro-tour, but I realise now that I was wrong.” That would be an honest, honourable answer.

  5. whateva next? 5

    sport shouldn’t be mixed with politics? would you bring back the roman sport of gladiatorial games then? It would be cheaper than the All Blacks

    • Carolyn_nth 5.1

      John Key did a lot of mixing of politics and sport – using it for his own PR and to boost his popularity. Interesting that Bling sidesteps that approach in more recent times, and focuses on his learning about “Maori related issues.”

    • mickysavage 5.2

      Rugby was a cornerstone of the Apartheid system. Not selecting players because they were black and only allowing Maori to tour South Africa as “honorary whites” were examples of how awful the system was.

      If politics should be kept out of Court then Muldoon should have not signed the Gleneagles agreement. His subsequent breach of this trashed New Zealand’s international reputation.

      • Paul Campbell 5.2.1

        The “honorary white” thing was only at the end, earlier they simply banned Maori’s from touring at all and the NZRFU accepted that as valid – to me that says a lot

        Of course the NZRFU’s timing was always bad, they toured during the Sharpville massacre, and during the Soweto uprising … many people forget that in 1976 African nations boycotted the Olympics not because South Africa was there, but because New Zealand was, and the All Blacks had just toured SA

  6. Nick 6

    English is a classic politician, tell lies when it suits him, tell the truth when it suits him, and obfuscate when he doesn’t know whether to speak the truth or lie.

  7. Bill 7

    So he was a right prick of a kid who grew up to become a middle aged right wing prick. But along the way he might have learned something about Maori issues…maybe. And he’s got a little insight into what a prick of a kid he used to be…maybe.

    But stepping back for a moment.

    If anyone who fucks up is roundly condemned and dismissed because “wrong thoughts”, then there’s no avenue for them to move down. And the condemnation leaves everything entrenched and us all a bit fucked. And that same culture also acts as a barrier and prevents people from acknowledging any fuck ups they may make.

    Example from a discussion I was having the other day. Some years back, a friend put a learning module for kids together that sought to explain or demonstrate blood flow by suggesting that when skin is pinched it turns white. After the module went out, someone pointed out the inherent (and unintended) racism. But my friends boss sought to defend her by arguing that she (my friend) was a good person, a conscientious person, and so therefore could not possibly do anything racist. And so my friend (who was young at the time) while quietly acknowledging she’d fucked up, found that by acknowledging her unintentional racism, she was forced to doubt her own ‘goodness’, because good people (apparently) aren’t capable of being racist. Only bad people are racist.

    Hope I’ve explained that clearly enough to make the point.

  8. Brutus Iscariot 8

    Still flogging this horse?

    You’re like the old US cold warriors still harping on about the commies 35 years later.

    Time to move on. There’s only a tiny rump of NZ’ers who are interested now.

    • shorts 8.1

      its a wonderful character test – the answer given shows character or lack thereof – not by if they were pro or anti but in their ability to actually answer, given how badly the previous Prime Minister handled questions on his personal views about the tour…. it is now a “thing”

      deal with it

      • Puckish Rogue 8.1.1

        Its not a “thing”, the only people that care about the answer is the tragics for who the tour protests were the high points of their lives

        Most others couldn’t care less

        • McFlock 8.1.1.1

          lol

          I think you’ve just taken a character test closely associated with the one shorts described.

          • Puckish Rogue 8.1.1.1.1

            As I was around 7-8 years at the time it sort of passed over my head

            • McFlock 8.1.1.1.1.1

              About the same here, but I still care about whether the people who were old enough to give a damn, did.

              And I also care about whether our current leadership has the integrity to give a straight answer about their attitudes to those events, with the benefit of hindsight.

              • Puckish Rogue

                The question has become so politically loaded that any answer given will be criticized no matter whats said so I don’t blame English for his answer

                • If “any answer given” will be criticised, including that given by English, why wouldn’t he simply go with the truth, unspun?
                  ‘Coz, Tory?

                • McFlock

                  So why do tory pms seem to choose the response that receives criticism on the basis that they’re political cowards, rather than pandering to the majority or, even more shocking, simply telling the truth and showing integrity?

      • AB 8.1.2

        +1 Shorts.
        Taking the test myself and trying to be honest.
        I was anti-tour. But in hindsight I wish I had had the courage to be more active about it.

    • Yep – goes to character. Bill knows he was on the wrong side of history, so there’s a question of whether he has the integrity to own it publicly. The answer apparently is “No, he doesn’t.” Key’s blanket refusal to answer suggests even less integrity than Bill, but more cunning.

      It may have happened over 35 years ago, but for those who were around at the time it’s an excellent character test. Unfortunately for Key and English, they were both around at the time.

    • mickysavage 8.3

      It is the current response and the level of spin applied that is relevant.

      People’s views can change. How they present this says a lot about them.

      • Brutus Iscariot 8.3.1

        Of course he’s going to spin it.

        He knows it’s a “gotcha” question, why else would it be asked?

        • McFlock 8.3.1.1

          How is it a “gotcha” question?

          If he answers it honestly, and if he’s honestly not a jerk, it’s fine.

    • Tricledrown 8.4

      Thanks etu Brutus you have betrayed all your rwnj’s who harp on about Venezuela etc.
      Bill English is not that dumb and has cleared the Deck’s
      Rugby is a religion in this country and people have long memories .
      Labour Green’s have to make hay while the Sun shines.
      This issue is not going to change 1 voters intentions.
      Well said.

  9. Puckish Rogue 9

    How many people really care about that now?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54KUWTkxU_M

    • DoublePlusGood 9.1

      People who care about integrity in one’s actions. It’s not about whether he supported the tour or not, it’s about whether he discusses his views honestly and with integrity. Those are supposed to be vital attributes in politicians (even if National have well proven otherwise)

  10. Paul 10

    I hour 20 minutes.
    The length of time it takes the trolls to get their lines for the day from their puppet master.
    Note the remarkable similarity between bi and pr’s messages (@8 and @9)

  11. …the trolls … get their lines for the day from their puppet master.

    Well, either that or there’s a fairly obvious response to this post from a right-wing perspective, and more than one right-winger made that response. But yeah, that “puppet master” thing seems a lot more likely…

  12. Tricledrown 12

    Its the economy stupid.
    The 1981 Tour lost Labour that election
    We are barking up the wrong tree.
    The Economy is ticking along smoothly.
    Labour has to focus on issues that will win votes.

    • Paul Campbell 12.1

      Labour gained seats in the ’81 election, National ended up with a majority of 1 (in a FPP election), remember it was Marilyn Waring crossing the floor over nuclear warships later that term that nominally brought them down.

    • red-blooded 12.2

      Tricledrown – “Labour” didn’t ask the question, and “Labour” aren’t discussing it. It was asked by a reporter and is being discussed by a group of people who think it’s worth discussing. Apparently, that includes you.

      I agree that this isn’t going to change people’s votes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worthy of discussion. The pro/anti-Tour issue definitely helps to give a sense of a person’s values if they were old enough to form their own views at that time, and so does the way that person has developed since then and “owns” this issue. As I said, above, I could respect someone who said they had been pro-Tour at the time but now realised they were wrong. Fudging the issue doesn’t impress me, though.

  13. Gabby 13

    I doubt if he gave much of a shit beyond appearing to fit in, which would be tricky in Dunedin in 1981.

    • Paul Campbell 13.1

      There were marches down the main street of Dunedin twice a week during the ’81 tour, people were arrested in the game at Carisbrook (who knew there was a law against more than one people blowing a whistle at a rugby game), the Carisbrook rugby posts were cut down, the airport was shut down, TV was shutdown during the Auckland test in the bottom half of the South Island.

      If he didn’t fit in it was because he was pro-apartheid

  14. Brutus Iscariot 14

    You should ask his opinion on the 1951 Waterfront Strike, and then dissect his answer to make a thread about it here.

    • Puckish Rogue 14.1

      To be fair the question worked out so well in the last debate between Clark and Key…

    • Wonderpup 14.2

      I shook the hand of a watersider on a picket line this very morning. To think that time simply evaporates issues around worker’s and human rights is inane. Its powerful to be in a left progressive heritage that stretches back to include generations of struggle.

  15. swordfish 15

    As a teenage geezer, I marched against the 81 Tour (and I know Mickey, 1Prent and a few other Standardistas did as well), but … and I hate to say it … I can’t help agreeing with our close and much-cherished Tory chums on this thread – we’re getting into flogging a dead horse territory here.

    Many New Zealanders were pro-Tour in 81 … particularly Nats, particularly rural folk and particularly Southlanders … so hardly a revelation.

    Indeed, too much attention on the matter could become counter-productive for the Left. Most voters really couldn’t give a shit what English thought 36 years ago and they might well view any current Opposition focus on the issue as both dangerously out-of-touch in election year and just possibly bordering on a little vindictive.

    After three successive Election defeats, it’s absolutely vital Labour and Greens escape the activist echo-chamber and immerse themselves in as deep a possible understanding of the issues most important to swing (and perhaps, non-) voters. I may be going out on an outrageous limb, here, but I’d suggest the rights and wrongs of the 1981 Springbok Tour ain’t one of them. Even if expanded into issues surrounding English’s current honesty and character – still Won’t resonate.

    Although I kept schtum at the time, I have to say I also thought the posts over recent years critical of Key’s rendition of his Tour views were pretty pointless too. Slight whiff of desperation and a kind of esoteric self-indulgence on the part of activists.

    Then again, if it’s just confined to a one-off post on The Standard purely to help motivate us ageing anti-Tour marchers at the start of a long election campaign – no probs and forget everything I just said (assuming you hadn’t already 🙂 ).

    • Puckish Rogue 15.1

      Careful swordfish that kind of treasonous talk can get you in trouble, next thing you know it’ll be..

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C4uTEEOJlM

    • Pat 15.2

      stop talking sense

    • Ad 15.3

      It’s such a baby-wee-warm-bath logic to be able to forget Takaparawha Day 501, and while we’re at it Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day and Labour Day and all that ewww stuff involving actual political contest and work – after all we haven’t had a good Maori versus the troops fight for a while what’s the point of complaining, or indeed a decent hundreds-dead overseas war for a while either so why ever bother naming and shaming politicians who took us to war, and hell what are unions for or marches in the street for anyway, right?

      Who the fuck needs memory or historical accountability anyway?

      Why don’t we just rid ourselves of all that hopey-changey stuff that the left has got its head kicked in for over two centuries like collective action against injustice and discrimination, and consign ourselves to fighting the election to things we don’t really need a memory or conscience for, like: consumer confidence, inflation, savings, and unemployment?

      Relax, and just let the whole of the past go. Let’s just leave all that silly stuff about the past for historians and people who give a damn about what actually formed this country in the first place.

      • swordfish 15.3.1

        As always … you excitedly grab hold of the wrong end of the stick (or should that be baton ?).

        It’s Election Year … and I’m talking tactics (with the average swing-voter in mind) … not the moral rights and wrongs of the 1981 Springbok Tour. I know it’s tempting but try putting aside your virtue signalling just for a moment. Like I said, … at the tender age of 17, … I marched against the Tour, put my body on the line against a pretty vicious Red / Blue Squad (and indeed wider Police Force) and I’m proud of it.

        ” … or indeed a decent hundreds-dead overseas war for a while either so why ever bother naming and shaming politicians who took us to war”

        Blimey ! This from someone who appears to be closely associated with the local Clintonista Cold War Warrior brigade – an unusually gutless little band of Establishment shills practically frothing at the mouth for the outbreak of WWIII (chicken-hawks that they are).

        Much of the rest of your comment was bordering on incoherent.

        • Pat 15.3.1.1

          or is he playing devils advocate…hard to tell with Ad.

          • Morrissey 15.3.1.1.1

            “I was playing devil’s advocate” is invariably the response—he would call it a riposte—of Jim Mora on the rare occasion one of his guests challenges one of his complacent right wing statements.

        • mickysavage 15.3.1.2

          I didn’t spend much time on the post.

          It is not a campaign weapon as such. It is an analysis of how National politicians respond to questions of what they did at a younger age.

          English’s attempt was not too bad. Key’s response used to really annoy. I guess that I am somewhat sensitive because I was born just after Key and just before English and I damn well know what my attitude to the tour was.

          • Carolyn_nth 15.3.1.2.1

            I think for a lot of left wingers who were old enough in the 1980s, the 1981 tour and protests were a significant moment in NZ history (a rupture and challenge to the establishment). Maybe not so much for conservatives.

    • tc 15.4

      +100 swordfish

      How about focusing on the bs he’s dished out as a major player in the hollowing out of our economy.

      Fiscally neutral tax cuts, balanced budgets, asset sale proceeds etc

      Ffs move on people and grab the initiative

    • Hanswurst 15.5

      I agree that it lacks real relevance or impact. Additionally, I can’t really see the point of trying to hang the label of a bumbling incompetent on English, simply because he manifestly isn’t one. In terms of his answer and is being less polished than Key’s, it’s six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, as far as I’m concerned. Neither is a brilliant answer (and Key came in for limited and fruitless lambasting over it, just as is happening / will happen to English — how quickly we forget), but nor is either especially bad.

      More importantly, I think that criticising National over a lack of political slickness is a bad tactic for the left, engaging in a fight that it will not win, because the idea of progressivism is about something else. By all means, try to be as slick as possible, but trying too hard to exploit the slightest hint of unvarnished spin perfection from the Right will simply distract from the issues where their massive financial and PR assets don’t give them such a disproportionate advantage.

  16. Ant 16

    English:

    “I was an enthusiastic supporter of the Springbok tour. The NZ resistance opened my eyes to the reality of apartheid and also to the admirable conscience of my fellow Kiwis. I’ve certainly grown since then.”

    Why is that such an impossible response for a politician? Would it really cost a million votes?

    • It’s difficult for a right-wing politician to answer, which is why Brutus Iscariot calls it a “gotcha” question further up.

      Most people these days accept that it was wrong to help maintain Apartheid, which is effectively what the tour supporters were doing. So English won’t want to admit to being one of them.

      But there’s still a sizeable National-voting constituency out there who were also tour supporters and still believe they were right, not to mention a lot of South Africans who fled here following the demise of Apartheid. So English can’t say supporting the tour was wrong without alienating his support base.

      That leaves him with not a lot to say, unless he values personal integrity more than he values staying on-message.

      • Paul Campbell 16.1.1

        I think it’s only a “gotcha” question if you’re trying to do that mealy-mouthed thing of trying to appease the morally wrong people who still think that supporting apartheid was the right thing to do

      • Brutus Iscariot 16.1.2

        Yes, it’s the “when did you stop beating your wife” question of NZ politics.

        • Paul Campbell 16.1.2.1

          Only for National trying to appease their right wing racist voters (not all their voters, but a significant minority they depend on to get elected) – Helen was openly proud to have been anti-tour

        • Psycho Milt 16.1.2.2

          Meh. At one time, left-wing politicians would have had trouble answering an enquiry as to whether they’d viewed Stalin favourably, because a truthful answer wouldn’t have reflected well on them. Being on the wrong side of history is a bugger.

      • Robert Guyton 16.1.3

        “That leaves him with not a lot to say, unless he values personal integrity more than he values staying on-message.”

        Qft

  17. BM 17

    Yes Apartheid was bad I think everyone gets that.

    Nothing has changed though, South Africa is still a racist shit hole the only difference is that it’s the blacks holding the whip and the whites getting persecuted.

    There’s absolutely no future for white people in South Africa, the government has made that very clear, given the opportunity all white South Africans would be gone in a heartbeat if they could.

  18. Sabine 18

    God the double dipper form Dipton is fucking bore.

    He can’t remember what he supported in 1981 and he may have or have not changed his mind about what he can’t really remember from 1981 and please fucking vote for me.

    Yeah, fucking right Tui.

    • james 18.1

      “God the double dipper form Dipton is fucking bore.”

      But then again so is “Angry ‘I wear contacts now’ Andy”.

      Good thing is English has proven a safe set of hands (most people polled say that the economy is going in the right direction).

      Given the choice of the borings ones – I pick an English win.

      • Robert Guyton 18.2.1

        Pucky – you are to be congratulated for having ceased the continual droning you used to do, big noting Key and National, handing them the victory you were certain they’d already won, etc. At least now you’ve a modicum of good manners here. Sad though, that James has taken up your bilious blue baton and is parroting <ad nauseam the very same message that you wore out so boringly.James is the new Pucky. Ho and hum. How very, very dull.

      • alwyn 18.2.2

        That is just a rogue poll. The truth is nothing like that.
        People (Labour Party insiders) have told me in confidence that the Labour Party internal polling has Labour at 37%, the Greens at 19% and National down to 29%. They know because Andy has told them.
        Mind you he did read the results without his glasses on. Everything looks better if it is totally blurred.
        Andrew is going to release the numbers on Monday.

  19. Tamati Tautuhi 19

    Amazing the Double Dipper and JK can’t really remember whether they supported the Springbok Tour or not, and these guys are running the country?

  20. Key’s would be impossible for most people to read, being written in Parseltongue, ‘n’all.

    • BM 20.1

      Parseltongue?, I hadn’t realised snakes had gotten around to putting their language to paper.

      On a Harry Potter theme, maybe English is one of Keys Horcruxes through which he’ll live on?

  21. English is a muggle.

  22. Peter Dunne is Dobby.

  23. Judith Collins, Aragog.

  24. So, who is J.K.Rowling?

    • alwyn 24.1

      “So, who is J.K.Rowling”
      Wasn’t he the one who succeeded Norman Kirk as leader of the Labour Party?
      The one described as “a shiver looking for a spine to run up” by Muldoon, who then beat the hell out of him 3 times in a row?
      Or was that perhaps another Rowling?

  25. Seems you know very little about Bill Rowling, alwyn, or at least you seem to hold to the shallowist description of him. If you were to be described as a J.K.Rowling character, would you be a cashier at Gringotts?

    • alwyn 25.1

      “you know very little about Bill Rowling”.
      Really? I presume you are talking about Wallace Rowling, or don’t you know his real name?
      I just listed enough about him for even a semi-literate person to recognise who I meant.
      Is there anything I said that was wrong? He was described that way, and he did lose 3 times against Piggy didn’t he? I could go on at enormous length about his career if you like but, given you don’t even appear to know his real name it would be rather a waste of effort.
      Actually I tend to favour the view that both Rowling and Muldoon were in the wrong parties. Rowling would have been far better suited to National and Muldoon was a typical Labour Party bully-boy of the time.

      As far as the fantasy characters of the Potter books I haven’t any idea. I have never read any of them. They are children’s books aren’t they any therefore I am long past bothering with them. That is not to say you shouldn’t stay with them. If you enjoy them keep reading them.

  26. Rob 27

    I was pro tour , I was 8.

  27. English 28

    It does not matter that he is not a John Key. It only matters that he is not an Andrew Little.

  28. DS 29

    The problem with Key isn’t that he was pro-Tour. Half the country was pro-Tour in 1981. Had Key just said “I was pro-Tour, I was wrong, let’s move on,” no-one would bother with it (no-one gave Jim Bolger a hard time during the All Blacks/Springbok matches in 1996, despite Bolger actually being in the Muldoon cabinet fifteen years earlier). The problem with Key was that he chose to *lie* about his stance.

    There is no issue with English here. Yes, he was pro-Tour, but as I said before, so was half the country. He’s prepared to admit it. Let’s move on.

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    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    8 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
    9 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
    23 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
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    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
    5 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
    21 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
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  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
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