Common-wealth Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, November 18th, 2019 - 16 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, Conservation, economy, Economy, education, health, law, law and "order", local government, police, public services, public transport, transport, treasury, uncategorized, water, welfare - Tags:

Since I’ve been complaining about lack of structural reform from this government, I felt it was time to test an idea out. I thought I’d sketch out a common accountability framework for the government. It goes like this:

1. WHY

If the goals of eradicating poverty and other social ills are to be achieved, the public sector needs to be a whole lot more coherent than it is. The current targets are set out in their legislative framework here.

With the support of Treasury, this government now has enduring long term targets to achieve. But the motivations to force strong cooperation across Departments just aren’t there. Great targets, but pretty much same system (horizontal coherence was last tried in a weak form under the Growth and Innovation Framework).

2. HOW

The best way to achieve the necessary strong coherence across government is to layer each of the government disciplines onto common administrative areas; enable them to interact; enable them to identify and stabilize common effort; and then act upon their common public policy criteria as laid out in the Wellbeing Budget.

Each year as this horizontal coherence grows, they all gain greater accuracy and agency over results for society, communities, and people. They get to be held accountable to the common cause.

They seriously aren’t at the moment other than in small or temporary instances. As a reminder, here’s how the 2019 Wellbeing Budget puts the money to the targets.

3. WHICH

Administrative boundaries would be the same for Police, Education, Health, Transport, Social Welfare, Housing, Economic Development, and in time water quality. Get that bunch going to start with, layered on top of each other, and others such as Conservation, Corrections and Justice can join in later.

The mergers would emphatically not enable a grab by central government for power. On the contrary it would require the regions to actually have policy coherence about themselves, and put those bids up each November and December in time for Budget formation.

It would however require some mergers in some agencies, and require splits in others. For example, you would merge the District Health Boards down from 21 to 9, like so:

1. Northland,

2. Auckland (merge three),

3. Waikato-Lakes (merge two),

4. East Coast (merge three),

5. West Coast (merge three),

6. Wellington (merge three),

7. Canterbury (merge two),

8. Upper and Western South Islands (merge two),

9. Southern (merge two)

These 9 administrative areas would have the same boundary for all agencies. Departments would all then need to show how their common efforts were giving effect to the targets set in the budget.

It would mean mergers in Health, but it would also mean splitting some operational areas such as in transport and Police. But you can imagine a call centre in which agencies get to triage and intervene from one domestic violence callout from Police to Housing to Social Welfare to Justice to … wherever the best set of support needs to go to get from emergency to short your selves out a permanently as possible.

That is, just extend what’s already happening already, but formalizing it.

You could also do away with a bunch of largely meaningless Ministerial positions and false territories and quango bullshit across Wellington as well (pearl clutching!).

This common accountability government allows for a much stronger budgeting, operational, and political filament between regional and national government: regional identity is strengthened by being broadened, rather than diluted and disrespected like a Super 12 franchise system.

Why?

Because budget bids become regionalized: all follow the money.

This doesn’t require any legislative devolution to local government (clutching of pearls!). Just requires the administrative regionalization we already have to be more coherent.

It doesn’t necessarily mean heading for an Australian Federal-State-Local administrative layering. On the contrary it means those who represent at the regional level are in a real hot seat to both execute well, support all agencies in the area, and secure unanimity across budget bids for proven results.

4. WHATABOUT …?

There are going to be arguments about optimized administrative size being different for each operational and Ministerial discipline (e.g. everyone wanting a brain surgeon, or an international airport, or be “chief” something). There are also going to be arguments about effectively bringing back a regional government system that we did away with in the late 19th century.

I don’t claim technical expertise about multi-disciplinary size optimization across the public sector nor across each discipline. The logic of nationalization would find limits for example in NZSuper, Pharmac, ACC, NZDF, RBNZ, IRD and others, regulators, national research bodies, and systemic admin.

An argument against regionalization is currently in play in the nationalization of Polytechs. Wait and see on that one.

The effect however will be public servants knowing how their effort gives effect to NZ results in the regional and societal whole, not just serving the interest of their Department Chief Executive as is the case now. They will succeed if they all cooperate together.

5. EXAMPLES

I can foresee a few benefits, guided by recent history.

The Christchurch and then North Canterbury Earthquakes have shown how government agencies can and do work together to build and rebuild whole societies when they have been damaged.

It’s not easy. It pisses a lot of people off.

But then, you get re-energized societies and environments emerge out of it.

Local government, education administration, transport administration, health service administration, housing, and justice administration all got a good wakeup across Canterbury.

They all figured out how to cooperate because they all had to.

And it’s high time a report was done on how much better than cooperation could have been in Christchurch.

There has been a tepid version of what I propose in what is called TSI; Auckland’s Southern Initiative.

Hobsonville was another case in which many agencies worked together to build effectively a new large town in New Zealand from scratch – with spectacular results.

For all its downsides and structural defects, the merger of Auckland’s Councils into one is another big signal of the benefits of strong regional alignment.

There was no way Auckland was going to have a common public transport card without the merger.

There was no way that the City Rail Link of the entire revival of the city centre would have happened either.

Wellington is now the horrible counterfactual to Auckland’s transport planning: very hard to imagine saying that 10 years ago. Layered and regionalized government such as I postulate allows society to cooperate to achieve bigger step-changes than they could before.

6. M&A

With strong horizontally-and-vertically- alined government, there’s very little point having many of the central agencies. Little point to MoT, MoH, MoE, MSD, etc.

Devolving some of their expertise to the regions and doing away with the foolish policy-provider agency splits that have mired execution since New Public Management entered into Wellington in the late 1980s seriously needs doing as well.

And then there’s the environmental turn embedded within the Zero Carbon bill. Regional government forces the whole of the public sector to engage spatially, more so than centrally as they do now: central policy coherence is traded off against a central government focus upon recourse allocation and accountability to aggregate results.

Treasury would be the focal point of reporting into this common accountability framework.

Resource allocation is, after all, is the primary task of each government and the primary task of parliament to hold that allocation to account.

7. PROOF

One might also expect to see published quarterly tables online and in newspapers that show results for each region:

– Jail numbers

– Traffic deaths and injuries

– Proportion of people getting poorer

– Proportion of people getting sicker

– Proportion of people who need a house

– Number of rivers cleaned up

– Which native bird numbers are going up

– Total Not in Education Employment or Training (NEETS)

– CO2 decreased or mitigated from a baseline.

You could choose your own Top Ten.

Vote accordingly every three years, on the published and tracked results and less on the ideology.

Novel I know. In time the metrics would stabilize and would be accepted across all major parties, and across multiple political terms.

It would of course generate inter-regional rivalry and resource contests – but to be frank that’s a good thing.

At the moment we have Auckland always suspected of taking “more” than its “fair share”, because it’s over a third of the entire country both positively and negatively. Facts schmacts: we know there’s a sucking noise from Auckland and its getting louder and louder.

Regionalisation of government is another way of re-setting this distending pull.

CONCLUSION

Anyway. Vertical and horizontal common accountability frameworks. For a country this size, it’s time to re-fit government to region, and formally map resource to result.

16 comments on “Common-wealth Government ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Dukeofurl 1
    18 November 2019 at 9:24 am

    Southern DHB is already merged…maybe 5 years ago

    https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/my-dhb

    What will happen this will re create the previously disbanded Health Funding Authorities -HFA which National created in the 90s . There were something like 5 or 6 , except it has even more.

    Existing DHBs work with each other – often through long established transport routes , ie West Coast and Canterbury , Nelson-Marlborough is with Wellington.

  2. Sacha 2
    18 November 2019 at 9:34 am

    Prioritising geographic location is 19th century thinking. Our nation is the size of a city. That has huge advantages for us if we do not govern by suburb or shire.

    • Dukeofurl 2.1
      18 November 2019 at 11:05 am

      Distance matters.

      Even Sydney with a population around that of all NZ, has 8 local health districts for different parts of the city ( another 7 for the rest of NSW)

      Some of the posts comments such as

      There was no way Auckland was going to have a common public transport card without the merger.

      There was no way that the City Rail Link of the entire revival of the city centre would have happened either.

      This ignores the previous Auckland wide single transport body ARTA, which essentially became AT .

      Its often just a renaming of existing bureaucracy and Advantages proposals are that writ large . Baffles me why drawing lines on maps and creating/recreating organisation reporting trees fascinates people so much. Often the Greens ideas on decentralisation to communities are far more interesting

      • lprent 2.1.1
        18 November 2019 at 6:26 pm

        This ignores the previous Auckland wide single transport body ARTA, which essentially became AT .

        Your grasp of the crucial detail may be lacking. Just because there is a single body doesn't mean that it was able to act on its own.

        What he was referring to was that in Auckland the previous smaller councils each effectively had a veto over most of the ARA / ARTA transport policies through funding and tradeoffs.

        This was the main reason (in my observation) about why there was virtually no change in even basics like new or changed bus routes from when I was a kid back in the 1960s and 1970s until the last decade. I may not like some of the adaptations* but they now keep changing rather than deadlocking.

        Things inside the ARA / ARTA like fixing the changing bus routes outside of new developments, adding bus lanes, adding bike lanes virtually all got vetoed or stymied for decades. Often they only got put in when NZTA insisted under prompting from the government – and when they funded it.

        Basically the best thing that happened to the transport in Auckland was getting a single council. Many of us native Aucklanders have wanted that for most of our life.

        Now that isn't to say that super-shitty structure that Act and Rodney Hide figured would give them political control on Auckland is ideal or what we desired. Nor was the completely separated structure of AT from the council outside of ownership. But despite the way that it was inflicted on us by a small cortiere of blinkered and tone deaf ideological nutbars chasing their own interests, just having a single funding council is what has been required for decades to break the logjams from everything from transport to sewerage.

        The royal commission version would have been at least an order of magnitude better suited to the conditions. That is why we're seeing annoying inequity creeping in about service delivery (Goff referred to one here). The slow voluntary devolvement of powers from the super council to local boards well beyond the legislative requirement has been helping to reintroduce a local component.

        But the rates have equalised to reduce the freeloader suburb issues (a big issue previously in causing deadlocks in bodies like the ARTA) and we now get plans that are capable of being put into practice for the good of all of Auckland rather just for the benefit of the NIMBYs and freeloaders who could scream the loudest

        //————-

        * try getting a single bus from Grey Lynn to the University without too much walking and you'll see what I mean. With older age, I now have a partial crippling on my right foot due to a pad wearing out between my big toe and foot bones. Walking is a pain…

        • Dukeofurl 2.1.1.1
          18 November 2019 at 6:42 pm

          The link gives the detail you are asking about.

          ARTA's roles included:

          • Integrating transport planning in the Auckland Region, with a goal of an efficient and sustainable network providing modal choice
          • Prioritising transport projects in Auckland and making recommendations on funding (especially since the NZ Transport Agency-related law changes of 2008)
          • Operating the passenger rail network in Auckland in cooperation with KiwiRail, and improving stations, trains and maintenance facilities
          • Designing and operating bus and ferry services….etc etc

          I dont know about any funding tradeoffs ….the ARC applied its own rates which were initially 'added to existing Councils collection' of rates and then the ARC issued it own invoices directly.

          Like all road funding , the Government then and now 'subsidises' local projects according to arcane formulae and bureaucractic stalling …remember the CRL delays by central government . Its as it always was
          Indeed the Auckland double tracking and electrification was ARTA and HAD to happen before a CRL could even start

          AT ? It relies on funding from Auckland Council, so is even more constrained than ARC/ARTA was

          • Ad 2.1.1.1.1
            19 November 2019 at 5:53 am

            ARTA was in constant conflict with the demands of other Councils and struggled to do much at all. Double tracking was a Kiwirail job with direct Treasury funding, not NLTP.

            Merging the Councils and unifying the bureaucracy has actually delivered the results ARTA should have. For example in public transport use.

            AT is the entity that sets all the funding application levels and applies to the NLTP. It’s done so with Council direction, and consults with the public in parallel.

      • Ad 2.1.2
        19 November 2019 at 5:46 am

        Surprisingly few who were in ARTA transferred to AT.

        ARTA completely failed to generate a single card, and Infratil continued to oppose it right through to 2011. AT really did make a difference there.

        ARTA also played around with CRLL (as had many others since WW1), but plans only became serious under AT who formed a dedicated team for it, and AC who brokered the deal in 2012 with what was then AMP Properties, and then AT and AC negotiating with the Kay-led government for several years to partner up and signing on in Oct 2016.

        So you are simply wrong on both counts.

        Thanks for trying to contribute, but you are indeed baffled.

        • Dukeofurl 2.1.2.1
          19 November 2019 at 10:06 am

          You dont have any links …well I do and guess what ?

          "Near the start of the new millennium, the Auckland Regional Authority revived the push for electrification and for expansion of a passenger rail network. This was championed by the authority's chair and long-time public transport advocate Mike Lee.

          "In 2009, KiwiRail and Auckland's regional transport agency (ARTA) announced it would start a detailed study into the possibility of an underground route that would link the Britomart rail terminal with the Mount Eden railway station."

          https://www.cityraillink.co.nz/auckland-rail-renaissance#top

          Double tracking and electrification had to happen before the CRL could begin, these projects were either under way or detailed investigations had begun before Super City and AT . Indeed ARTA couldnt do more as of course they were abolished along with the ARC in Nov 2010 very soon after they started on CRL !!

          The issues on the card used by Infratil and their buses ( Snapper) and the HOP card are far too complicated for me to explain and I was living out of Auckland at the time, but thanks to Greater Auckland who covered it in detail we can find out what and when.

          But the new Hop card system seemed to begin on buses in May 2011 , 6 months after the Super city began . This means that it was planned before AT existed !!

          https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2011/05/20/tactics-for-the-second-hop-changover/

          No need to patronise me , my very first job was in Transport planning for the ARC. It wasnt a career path I followed but I remained interested in the background

  3. Stuart Munro. 3
    18 November 2019 at 12:02 pm

    Although the idea is on the face of it attractive, it needs to be considered who will be taking the measurements, and which they will prioritize. Thus far it would seem to be bureaucrats, and so the system would favour the outcomes that reflect well on them – bush robin numbers perhaps, as opposed to kea numbers.

    In principle the measurements already exist within a democracy, so that when a citizen notices a significant negative phenomenon, they report it, and the resources of the state analyze and act to resolve it.

    The problem lies in practice, where problematic behaviour is often shown to be entrenched. Abuse in churches and social agencies. Rent-seeking behaviour in road safety or house construction permits. Ideological capture among state economists.It was bureaucratic convenience not population science that drove the introduction of the disasterous fisheries quota management system.

    The test for the integrity of reforms is whether they preserve or extend the opportunities available to the individual – whether that individual is expressed as Solon's ideal small farmer or Rawls's most disadvantaged person. A bureaucracy that respects the individual, which NZ had prior to Rogergnomics, can be both humane and efficient. One that does not merely proliferates injustice.

    • Ad 3.1
      19 November 2019 at 6:05 am

      This government has no shortage of measurements of its social performance.

      It's passed a law with the support of Treasury about them.

      They're just not yet at a point where they are telling a coherent story about them, for the public to be able to evaluate them – and then vote accordingly.

  4. McFlock 4
    18 November 2019 at 12:32 pm

    Quarterly measures of generational problems can be misleading, e.g. poverty. A bit of bounce even from year to year is to be expected, the real performance measure is on a multi-year trend. It just gives BS for media and political wonks to jump up and down about.

    Not sure about the efficiency of forcing all agencies to share the same district boundaries, either. Great from a macro level, might be a bit weird on a local operational level for some agencies.

    I'm also not sure that the savings on fewer ministers wouldn't be swallowed by local government salaries increasing to deal with their increased workload.

    • Ad 4.1
      19 November 2019 at 6:02 am

      We have plenty of good data trends that come out quarterly already and give a god sense of where we are. They are mostly economic, such as GDP, unemployment, and inflation. But they don't have a parallel set of social measures come out at the same time, and it would make the government performance much more useful if they did.

      • McFlock 4.1.1
        19 November 2019 at 2:23 pm

        How?

        Even if it's based off measures freshly gathered each quarter (rather than wishful IDI-based interpolations), there's an undetermined lag between policy implementation and measurable impact. Even many of the current measures are of questionable frequency. Would it be so bad if GDP were reported as an annual measure?

        I'm all for distributing useful information to the population, if it allows them to draw meaningful conclusions. The kiwibuild progress monitor, for example. But at some level of granularity measures cease being useful monitors and become just fodder for pundits. "ooo, up this month!" "sudden fall this quarter!". And the expression "no meaningful change from last year" gets lost amongst the frantic purveyors of doom.

  5. Jackel 5
    18 November 2019 at 8:06 pm

    Yes, I sort of see where you're going with this. Except for trade things do happen mostly at the regional level. Not sure New Zealand has the scale for this though. Cross agency cooperation where government operates more as a single animal rather than a whole lot of individual parts is more efficient and effective for service delivery.

    I believe that government should facilitate more in people's lives rather than just picking up the pieces of capitalisms failures. But then as long as we have a capitalist system this unfortunately will be the main role of any government.

  6. AB 6
    18 November 2019 at 11:14 pm

    Efficiency of execution is nice – though I actually doubt that the efficiency of any particular organisational arrangement can be accurately predicted beforehand, except maybe at a really gross level. Ultimately though, efficiency is just a matter of low-level housekeeping. What stops things from getting done is not inefficiency or poor structural alignment of operating parts or whatever – it's a lack of broad moral and intellectual commitment to the goal.

    • Ad 6.1
      19 November 2019 at 5:59 am

      I agree, but we've had enough structural revolutions in the bureaucracy over 150 years to be ale to see which ones worked better and which ones worked really badly.

      I do see your point about goals – this government has plenty of that. But they remain pretty crap at execution. They have taken too long to address the structures they have to achieve their dreams.

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    It is quiet reading time in Room 13! It is so quiet you can hear the Tui outside. It is so quiet you can hear the Fulton Hogan crew.It is so quiet you can hear old Mr Grant and old Mr Bradbury standing by the roadworks and counting the conesand going on ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • A question of confidence is raised by the Minister of Police, but he had to be questioned by RNZ to ...
    It looks like the new ministerial press secretaries have quickly learned the art of camouflaging exactly what their ministers are saying – or, at least, of keeping the hard news  out of the headlines and/or the opening sentences of the statements they post on the home page of the governments ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • Xmas  good  cheer  for the dairy industry  as Fonterra lifts its forecast
    The big dairy co-op Fonterra  had  some Christmas  cheer to offer  its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for  the year after what it calls a strong start to the year. The forecast  midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • MICHAEL BASSETT: Modern Maori myths
    Michael Bassett writes – Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is happening ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • Dreams of eternal sunshine at a spotless COP28
    Mary Robinson asked Al Jaber a series of very simple, direct and highly pertinent questions and he responded with a high-octane public meltdown. Photos: Getty Images / montage: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR The hygiene effects of direct sunshine are making some inroads, perhaps for the very first time, on the normalised ‘deficit ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Transport Agencies don’t want Harbour Tunnels
    It seems even our transport agencies don’t want Labour’s harbour crossing plans. In August the previous government and Waka Kotahi announced their absurd preferred option the new harbour crossing that at the time was estimated to cost $35-45 billion. It included both road tunnels and a wiggly light rail tunnel ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    4 days ago

  • Webworm Presents: Jurassic Park on 35mm
    Hi,Paying Webworm members such as yourself keep this thing running, so as 2023 draws to close, I wanted to do two things to say a giant, loud “THANKS”. Firstly — I’m giving away 10 Mister Organ blu-rays in New Zealand, and another 10 in America. More details down below.Secondly — ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    4 days ago

  • The Prime Minister's Dream.
    Yesterday saw the State Opening of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and then Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s dream for Aotearoa in his first address. But first the pomp and ceremony, the arrival of the Governor General.Dame Cindy Kiro arrived on the forecourt outside of parliament to a Māori welcome. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • National’s new MP; the proud part-Maori boy raised in a state house
    Probably not since 1975 have we seen a government take office up against such a wall of protest and complaint. That was highlighted yesterday, the day that the new Parliament was sworn in, with news that King Tuheitia has called a national hui for late January to develop a ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago

  • Climate Adam: Battlefield Earth – How War Fuels Climate Catastrophe
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). War, conflict and climate change are tearing apart lives across the world. But these aren't separate harms - they're intricately connected. ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • They do not speak for us, and they do not speak for the future
    These dire woeful and intolerant people have been so determinedly going about their small and petulant business, it’s hard to keep up. At the end of the new government’s first woeful week, Audrey Young took the time to count off its various acts of denigration of Te Ao Māori:Review the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Another attack on te reo
    The new white supremacist government made attacking te reo a key part of its platform, promising to rename government agencies and force them to "communicate primarily in English" (which they already do). But today they've gone further, by trying to cut the pay of public servants who speak te reo: ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • For the record, the Beehive buzz can now be regarded as “official”
    Buzz from the Beehive The biggest buzz we bring you from the Beehive today is that the government’s official website is up and going after being out of action for more than a week. The latest press statement came  from  Education Minister  Eric Stanford, who seized on the 2022 PISA ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • Climate Change: Failed again
    There was another ETS auction this morning. and like all the other ones this year, it failed to clear - meaning that 23 million tons of carbon (15 million ordinary units plus 8 million in the cost containment reserve) went up in smoke. Or rather, they didn't. Being unsold at ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Assault On Maori
    This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, Audrey Young has compiled a useful list of the many, many ways that ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    5 days ago

  • Rising costs hit farmers hard, but  there’s more  positive news  for  them this  week 
    New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has  been under  pressure  from rising  costs. Down on the  farm, this  has  been  hitting  hard. But there  was more positive news this week,  first   from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where  prices  rose,  and  then from  a  report ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    5 days ago

  • ROB MacCULLOCH:  Newshub and NZ Herald report misleading garbage about ACT’s van Veldon not follo...
    Rob MacCulloch writes –  In their rush to discredit the new government (which our MainStream Media regard as illegitimate and having no right to enact the democratic will of voters) the NZ Herald and Newshub are arguing ACT’s Deputy Leader Brooke van Veldon is not following Treasury advice ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Top 10 for Wednesday, December 6
    Even many young people who smoke support smokefree policies, fitting in with previous research showing the large majority of people who smoke regret starting and most want to quit. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Wednesday, December ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Eleven years of work.
    Well it didn’t take six months, but the leaks have begun. Yes the good ship Coalition has inadvertently released a confidential cabinet paper into the public domain, discussing their axing of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs).Oops.Just when you were admiring how smoothly things were going for the new government, they’ve had ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Why we're missing out on sharply lower inflation
    A wave of new and higher fees, rates and charges will ripple out over the economy in the next 18 months as mayors, councillors, heads of department and price-setters for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and parking ramp up charges. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Just when most ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • How Did We Get Here?
    Hi,Kiwis — keep the evening of December 22nd free. I have a meetup planned, and will send out an invite over the next day or so. This sounds sort of crazy to write, but today will be Tony Stamp’s final Totally Normal column of 2023. Somehow we’ve made it to ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago

  • At a glance – Has the greenhouse effect been falsified?
    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
    6 days ago

  • New Zealaders  have  high expectations of  new  government:  now let’s see if it can deliver?
    The electorate has high expectations of the  new  government.  The question is: can  it  deliver?    Some  might  say  the  signs are not  promising. Protestors   are  already marching in the streets. The  new  Prime Minister has had  little experience of managing  very diverse politicians  in coalition. The economy he  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    6 days ago

  • You won't believe some of the numbers you have to pull when you're a Finance Minister
    Nicola of Marsden:Yo, normies! We will fix your cost of living worries by giving you a tax cut of 150 dollars. 150! Cash money! Vote National.Various people who can read and count:Actually that's 150 over a fortnight. Not a week, which is how you usually express these things.And actually, it looks ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • Pushback
    When this government came to power, it did so on an explicitly white supremacist platform. Undermining the Waitangi Tribunal, removing Māori representation in local government, over-riding the courts which had tried to make their foreshore and seabed legislation work, eradicating te reo from public life, and ultimately trying to repudiate ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Defence ministerial meeting meant Collins missed the Maori Party’s mischief-making capers in Parli...
    Buzz from the Beehive Maybe this is not the best time for our Minister of Defence to have gone overseas. Not when the Maori Party is inviting (or should that be inciting?) its followers to join a revolution in a post which promoted its protest plans with a picture of ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Threats of war have been followed by an invitation to join the revolution – now let’s see how th...
     A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to ….  Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand!  Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations.  • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Top 10 for Tuesday, December 4
    The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Nicola Willis' 'show me the money' moment
    Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • CRL costs money but also provides huge benefits
    The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    6 days ago

  • And I don't want the world to see us.
    Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • Cooking the books
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • Most people don’t realize how much progress we’ve made on climate change
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
    Skeptical Science
    7 days ago

  • Of Parliamentary Oaths and Clive Boonham
    As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    7 days ago

  • Bearing True Allegiance?
    Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
    Bowalley Road
    7 days ago

  • You cannot be serious
    Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago

  • A promise kept: govt pulls the plug on Lake Onslow scheme – but this saving of $16bn is denounced...
    Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme –  that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago

  • CHRIS TROTTER: The Maori Party and Oath of Allegiance
    If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?   Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • BRIAN EASTON:  Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies. Brian Easton writes – The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: Fossils
    When the new government promised to allow new offshore oil and gas exploration, they were warned that there would be international criticism and reputational damage. Naturally, they arrogantly denied any possibility that that would happen. And then they finally turned up at COP, to criticism from Palau, and a "fossil ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • GEOFFREY MILLER:  NZ’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 week ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the government’s smokefree laws debacle
    The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    1 week ago

  • Top 10 links at 10 am for Monday, December 4
    As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • Be Honest.
    Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 week ago

  • Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive
    Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • First big test coming
    The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 week ago

  • COP28 National Statement for New Zealand
    Tēnā koutou katoa Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. An island nation at the bottom of the Pacific, New Zealand is unique.          Our geography, our mountains, lakes, winds and rainfall helps set us up for the future, allowing for nearly 90 per cent of our electricity to come from renewable sources. I’m ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Ministers visit Hawke’s Bay to grasp recovery needs
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • New Zealand condemns malicious cyber activity
    New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Disestablishment of Te Pūkenga begins
    The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says.  “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Climate Change Minister to attend COP28 in Dubai
    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • New Zealand to host 2024 Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Study shows need to remove distractions in class
    The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.   The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Minister sets expectations of Commissioner
    Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New Zealand needs a strong and stable ETS
    New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says.  At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • PISA results show urgent need to teach the basics
    With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids.  The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Collins leaves for Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Working for Families gets cost of living boost
    Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Post-Cabinet press conference
    Most weeks, following Cabinet, the Prime Minister holds a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This page contains the transcripts from those press conferences, which are supplied by Hansard to the Office of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that the transcripts have not been edited ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme scrapped
    The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ welcomes further pause in fighting in Gaza
    New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Condolences on passing of Henry Kissinger
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Backing our kids to learn the basics
    Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • US Business Summit Speech – Regional stability through trade
    I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber.  I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Keynote Address to the United States Business Summit, Auckland
    Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States.  This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • India New Zealand Business Council Speech, India as a Strategic Priority
    Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Coalition Government unveils 100-day plan
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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