My brother in law votes National. I have relatives who are industrial farmers.
Are we really going after MP's relatives now? That's not the story. The story is what Luxon means when he says due process has been followed regarding conflicts of interest.
The article decided to focus on her, it's the headline.
I'd say marketing manager for Phillip Morris is right up there for worst things to dedicate your life to. Worse even that voting National and industrial farming.
Few would likely give one about Mr Luxon’s sister in law if she was not in the Tobacco Industry, totally fair game with the current situation with Minister Costello.
I still recall Judith Collins effectively executing Ian Lees Galloway’s career on TV one morning by mentioning an affair. Clarke Gayford was pursued by a nasty online campaign to the extent that NZ Police issued a rare statement along the lines that Mr Gayford was of no interest to them on any matter.
Turn the other cheek, take the high road? I don’t think so in 2024.
But if you are the PM and have a relative by marriage who works for the tobacco industry at a time when there are questions of interference in policy making by tobacco industry chiefs, then you can expect it to be reported by the media and be commented upon elsewhere.
When weka says: "the right can focus on the family of left politicians." The right have been doing that for the past 15 years.
Remember the personal barbs and malicious 'revelations' about Nanaia Mahuta and her family. Remember the salacious and disgusting lies spread about Jacinda Ardern's partner, Clarke Gayford. The police were forced into making a public statement denying them. There were other minsters also whose personal lives were questioned for no other reason other than to discredit them.
We can go back further and remember the salacious and disgusting lies spread about Helen's husband Peter Davis – not to mention Helen Clark herself. Iirc, some of her ministers were also on the receiving end.
The right has practiced dirty politics in the form of personal slander, innuendo and misinformation on a grand scale, so any response in return could almost be claimed as justified. They are the one's who introduced this phenomenon to NZ political society.
“The only target I have is winning government. It’s that simple. All that matters is winning government on October 14.”
Luxon had arrived at the conference wearing a red Crusaders’ jersey, saying he liked the team “because they win. They win nice or they win ugly but they win.”
Asked if that meant he was happy for National to “win ugly”, he said, “I just want to win”.
The only person I have ever seen using those words was you Robert.
Can you produce any evidence of anyone else saying them?
[deleted]
[I don’t know what you are on about, but you’ve been here long enough to know I don’t like having to moderate on Saturdays. Take the weekend off – weka]
Oh yeah Kat. I am personal testament to that. Muldoon had a black list and my name ended up on it courtesy of a jealous person who had a specific 'channel' through which she could feed falsehoods.
Muldoon had a bunch of shady individuals (a few of whom were involved in that scurrilous rag "The Truth”) who did his dirty work for him. Moyle was his most notable target but there were plenty more behind the scenes whose stories have never been told.
There seems to be a pandemic of worrying about the mote in our metaphoric brother's eye. I have a feeling we could mill the beam in our own (to further mangle an allegory), if someone finds a senior Labour person with links to the alcohol industry.
The best known Labour Politician with links to the alcohol industry was probably their first Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage who worked for Sir Ernest Davis' company Hancock and Company from 1908 until he entered Parliament in 1919.
Sir Ernest "Booze" was a major supporter, and financer, of the early Labour organization in New Zealand. This included lodging securities for jailed agitators during the 1912 Waihi miner's dispute and providing John A Lee with a hotel to manage after he lost his seat in Parliament in 1928.
One might not approve of him but Ernest Davis was a fascinating man.
International Tobacco is a vile money trench, second only to the Arms Industry.
Baldrick must have known this connection would be outed…but perhaps just does not give a shit, or take it seriously. A number of Natzos over the years have “worked”–it is just a big cruise for execs–in tobacco, and now there seem to be senior tobacco linked MPs galore.
Yes, tobacco does seem to be a feeder industry for National/NZF politicians. I wonder if this is what they mean when they talk about working in the real world.
C’mon, Baldrick is a money man. It is vital for such types, men particularly, to size up others for their usefulness or threat. They desperately need to know what others in their circles “Do”.
Luxon is being mocked in the House by the Opposition, who respond to his evasions with derisive exclamations. Check out the moment he said, "companies" rather than "countries"; seemingly an inconsequential slip, but indicative of his unreadiness for answering questions from the other side of the House. Theirs is a guttural reaction. Key used to draw disgust with some of his comments and gestures; Luxon gets derision, which is far more damaging, imo.
Without focus group approval, no policy – not even one promoted by the Finance and Revenue ministers working together – could count on the Leader’s support. Progressive initiatives in justice and corrections were jettisoned overnight for no better reason than the polls had pronounced them unpopular. About the only policies that remained sacrosanct were those related to the aims and objectives of identity politics. These had to remain in place – if only to reassure Labour MPs that they were still on the side of the angels. Unfortunately for Labour’s re-election chances, these were the precisely the policies that a majority of the voters hated most.
Yeah, when focus groups head in the opposite direction to voters no Lab politician will ever know what to think, so they will just continue to stand around looking vacant until someone comes along and tells them what to think.
Trotter's facetious verdict is to ask Helen to come out of retirement & rescue them, but yesterday's leaders are rarely relevant today. It's really up to a younger generation within Labour to seize the time. Labour's hollowness is reflected in the poll trend:
Support for Labour increased 1% point to 22% while support for the Greens surged 3% points to 15.5% – the highest support for the Greens for over a year since Oct 2022 & support for the Maori Party up 2.5% points to 5%.
Trotters a useful tool, thats why he's gets his granny soapbox.
It's really up to a younger generation…to form their own party and crack on with it. Convert a sitting or former MP to the cause and off you go, target an electorate as MMP makes it a shed load easier than Oz/UK etc.
Leave the centrists who blew a majority term to it, that's not your party kids look at what happened to Cunliffe. Remember it was almost Shane Jones as leader back then so get out now.
A timely reminder of how things were not so long ago. Leave the pollies of both blue and red hues to wallow in the tar pits of last century's ideology. Let them bicker about their differences, which after all, only a cigarette paper separates them.
Policy ideas for this new party to keep a resurgent Greens honest…
How can Labour have been driven by focus groups when those focus groups apparently would have told them lifting Maori, honouring Te Tiriti, improving water quality, and compassion for transgender people were such unpopular policies?
Trotter's argument (and your own) makes zero sense.
Trotter talks bullshit. His claim Helen Clark manipulated the political scene in the 90s (I paraphrase what he said) to her personal advantage is bordering on conspiratorial claptrap. She's not clairvoyant nor does she have psychic abilities.
Reading Paul Buchanan's (Pablo) latest post "The New Zealand Junta" makes infinite more sense:
… New Zealand has had a constitutional coup of sorts. In October an election was held in which the major rightwing party (National) did not reveal its true policy intentions, preferring to instead focus on the usual canards of lower taxes, high crimes rates and too many regulations and bureaucratic red tape on property owners. They were assisted by a compliant corporate media interested in generating clickbait material rather than dealing deeper into party policy platforms, and who supported the “change for change sake” attitude of the NZ public by focusing on personal scandals within the Labour-led government ranks. It mattered little that, in public at least, the major rightwing party had little to offer. What mattered was that it win, be it in coalition or outright. As it turns out, it needed coalition partners in order to do so.
The more extreme rightwing parties, ACT and NZ First, were a bit more honest in their campaigns about their reactionary intent, but the corporate media chose to ignore the extent of their connections to extremist groups and foreign donors/patrons such as anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists and Atlas Institute seed-funded astroturf groups such as the overlapping Free Speech Coalition/Taxpayer’s Union that contributed to their campaigns. Nor did the political press seriously look into the backgrounds of candidates in these parties, instead preferring to focus on the leaders and their immediate subordinates.
What that made for was the instrumental use of the October election by the NZ rightwing in order to gain enough votes to cobble together an authoritarian-minded government coalition that would impose regressive policy prescriptions without full public scrutiny or consultation. It did not matter that the two extremist parties received less than 15 percent of the popular vote, or that National received just 38 percent. What mattered was the win, which was the instrument by which the coalition could impose its political will on the +45 percent that did not vote for them.
And there you have the real reason for what happened on October 14, 2023. Not some of the bullshit I’m reading on this site.
She wants to mobilise them to have the first Greens-led Government. "I strongly believe the Greens are the leading left-wing party in Parliament," she said. "I believe radical change, at this point, is necessary to confront the challenges of our time – tinkering will no longer do that."
In response, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said New Zealand electorate was a broad political spectrum and representation of those different views is important.
He's talking in code. Translation: Labour must represent those who don't want "to confront the challenges of our time". Tinkering is cool, the top tinker believes.
Chloe also sends a message in subliminal code: "Hey guys, I'm really leftist!" By positioning her co-leadership aspiration for "the leading left-wing party in Parliament", she's letting the Green Left Network know they don't need to put up a candidate to oppose her. That's clever, and I suspect she'll succeed in fooling them…
not really. More that I can see past the transgressions to what really matters. Something the Greens could learn from 😉 And a number of gender critical people.
But Chloe's not just "smart", she's a lively intellect and can parse all sorts of issues, elegantly. Why do you think she's failed to grasp your issue-de-jour?
Like I said, No Debate means it's never been talked about. You can't actually talk with people with that belief in that position about the issues. That's intentional, No Debate is intended to suppress dissent. So I literally don't know her thinking apart from the slogans.
I can tell you that there is such a thing as Peak Trans, which is where people who used to believe in gender identity ideology come to realise it's batshit crazy, they 'peak' as they realise that it doesn't make sense. Many left wing people have been through that process. Being smart, having a lively intellect that can parse all sorts of issues doesn't transcend that, and in fact ideology often stops very smart people from understanding things.
My initial point was that I can tolerate someone having quite different views from me and still allow them to be good at what they do. That capacity is being lost from the Greens and it is heartbreaking.
So when CS says she can work across the aisle, I think that means she can work with right wing politicians but she can't work with left wing gender critical feminists. I could be wrong, but afaik she is a strong believer in gender identity ideology and the politics that go with it (as opposed to the people who toe the line because they have a career to protect).
Not sure if you mean it this way, but when you talk about GCF in that way, it comes across as minimising. It's not my issue du jour. It's the most important political issue of our time after climate/ecology. Whole swathes of women have abandoned the left over it, and it's been going on for decades, but particularly the last decade.
I've been writing about GCF on TS since 2020. I've been involved in the debate on twitter since 2018, often substantially. I've lost a big chunk of political engagement (blocked on twitter, NRT no longer allows his blog posts to be cross-posted) because of my beliefs. I've gotten off pretty lightly. Many women have lost jobs, careers, friends and family, been arrested and abused. There are many women who've been working hard on this for a decade, others for longer. Some GCFs believe the political work on this will be decades long.
So please don't treat this as some passing/short lived trend.
Huh. Mainstreamers fucked up the collective climate response more than 20 years ago, definitively. As for discrimination against women, it depends on how many feel they are victims of that. The potential number is huge, the actual number small, I suspect…
As for discrimination against women, it depends on how many feel they are victims of that. The potential number is huge, the actual number small, I suspect…
One in four women are sexually assaulted by a man. How many of those women are actual victims of male violence against women and how many just feel like they are?
Women still get paid less than men. How many are actually paid less compared to how many just feel like they are?
Chloe has lofty aims to make the Greens the largest left wing party in NZ. People can laugh and say she is unrealistic, but look at what happened in Germany?
Die Grunen (The Greens) have 118 seats in the German lower house and are part of the coalition government. They also part of the coalition governments in 10 out of 16 states. They have formed coalition state governments even with the conservative CDU/CSU party and won seats in ultra-conservative Bavaria. They are no longer written off as a loony left opposition fringe party – they are an alternative government.
With organisation, support and of course money, it is possible and Chloe might just be the person to lead it forward into a new era.
Slightly different situation in Germany however, as they also have a separate Left party that is where a good portion of the NZ Greens would naturally fit, being hard core Socialists or even further Left than that.
Having that segment in a separate party makes it easier for the German Greens to go into coalition with parties right across the political spectrum as they are not viewed as anywhere near as loony-left as the NZ Greens are viewed, given the environmentalists and the Socialist are all lumped in together.
NZ Greens have relied on the votes of the hard Left since foundation, so I can't see the NZ Greens fracturing in a hurry.
I think if Swarbrick can stabilise the Greens now and achieve the same level of success at the next election, say 15 MPs, then that will provide a solid base to work from. Their growth is only going to come by further cannibalising Labour and by attracting a higher proportion of first time/younger voters than the other parties, and that will take time.
Becoming the largest left wing party in NZ is a good goal for the party I guess but it won't change much in NZ if they still can't get control of the parliament so they can effect the changes they want. Hard to get that control if the only partner you will go into coalition with is the same party you have been cannibalising…
I agree with your analysis – however their leftist zero-sum thinking re Labour has been self-imposed handicap for so long now it seems unrealistic to expect them to wake up & smell the roses. They could proceed to a convergence with Labour instead if both parties adopt resilience as their basis for a new economy.
Cynics will point out that both parties contain too many morons to enable that to happen but I remain optimistic despite such realism!
Play on words often hews to tradition. I was just using her framing. Some users of language prefer contemporary usage but we need not do the binary either/or on language use. Notice that I didn't use the antique verb origin (tink).
I don't think Chloe Swarbrick's message was particularly helpful. There's probably a number of ways to press the importance of change without ridiculing your political partner.
Note Hipkins’ response was far more measured and respectful. Best to keep the fire and brimstone for the actual opposition.
He's talking in code. Translation: Labour must represent those who don't want "to confront the challenges of our time". Tinkering is cool, the top tinker believes.
Absolute bullshit. That is not the full quote. I saw him on TV1 news tonight and his response was eminently sensible. He was not aiming any broadside at the Greens. In fact he sent a message of good will to them.
Looks more like msm trying to escalate hostility between NZ & China!
The cancellation of Air New Zealand service NZ0448 from Wellington bound for Auckland on Friday, as strong winds battered the capital, meant Wang was "stuck" and "clueless as to what to do due to the cancellation of my flight to Auckland and the lack of alternatives", he said.
Get used to it, lad. The windy city often does this. Getting high often defuses mental states of cluelessness. You mean the airline still isn't offering such a useful alternative??
Others noted there was an overnight bus from Wellington to Auckland, although that might not have been much help for Wang – given the service departed at 7pm, not long after he posted his tweet.
Yeah, he's right to wish for a high-speed rail option. You only need to figure out the time the bus takes to reach Ak to agree with him. Cue a brain-wave: Belt & Road is usable as policy basis for offering to build such infrastructure into 3rd-world countries like ours.
There are three things, he says. There’s the Zero Carbon Act and the institutions that are associated with that, providing an overall framework. There’s the “massive package” of Emissions Trading Scheme reforms, which will probably be the biggest single difference.
“The third thing is something that is kind of nerdy and that very few people pay attention to is climate-related financial disclosures,” he says. “That is, fundamentally, the economics of climate change at the level of individual businesses. You can see already, only in the first reporting year, that it is really starting to make a difference to the way that businesses think about their emissions and their supply chain and so on.”
Good to see Argentina taking the first steps to rectify the damaging effects of Big Government interventionist economic policies (implemented from both the left and right wing of Argentinian politics).
Argentina is just another example of how these sorts of Government knows best and can drive economic growth policies do real long term structural harm to a country. Left wingers who promote these ideas tend to ignore the evidence of failure from real World outcomes.
Austerity usually isn't popular but if the IMF estimate is validated by performance – "expected economic contraction estimated by the IMF at 2.8%" – it may succeed.
The country is on the verge of a massive default in debt with inflation rate over 200%. I think to get out of that self-inflicted mess requires some short term pain. Remember it is the policies of previous governments of Argentina that caused the mess they are in now not the policies being proposed by the new one.
A very interesting read today in the Herald (yes, I confess I subscribe). I like Mary Holm's no nonsence advice on money matters. Today a letter to her asked 'I find it appalling and upsetting that many people seek your advice on how to beat the tax man.' She basically agreed with the tone of the letter and went on to say that if people do ask how to dodge paying their fair share of tax, she tells them politely where to go. Of course the comments after the various letters received and answered went along the usual lines of Granny Herald commenters – 'it's all the Labour Government's fault'. To this long time Labour voter – yes I've kept the faith since my first vote in 1966 – tax evasion and avoidance (both equally as bad as each other IMHO), is a no no with me and those idiots who do get caught rorting the system deserve all that is dished up to them. I'll include the link, though it is paywalled https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/why-dodging-the-tax-dept-could-backfire-on-you-mary-holm/ZHMVV4KLSJGRFGUDEN4DF3B3BI/
Stuff has done a fascinating analysis of the core Public service in NZ and it's massive growth over the past 6 years under the last Labour led government.
I challenge any left leaning person to explain why we still have a need for over 9,400 "Information Professionals" (i.e. mostly Coms people) since the end of the significant public health risks from Covid-19. The growth in this area under Labour was in the region of 90%. How is the average New Zealander getting better value from their interaction with the Public service as a result of all these extra PR and Coms roles?
This is a major factor in why people got sick of Labour and voted for change last October.
The Public service spends huge amounts of taxpayers money on IT projects. The point of which should be to improve the efficiency of the Public service (i.e. better service with the same or less resources). However instead of requiring less people we have much, much more. Where are the better services that we are getting as a result? Can people name me an area of the Public service that has improved significantly in the past 6 years as a result of IT spending?
How come we have had a massive increase in staffing in the Social Welfare agencies at a time when Unemployment has fallen to lows not seen since the 1960’s? Shouldn't we require less people in this area now considering we have less people to provide support to?
Please provide the figures for massive increase in SW staffing, and unemployment in recent times compared to the 60s. You're in premod until that happens.
Why do I have to provide data on SW staffing levels in the 1960's? I'm not comparing staffing levels front the 1960's to today. I'm stating unemployment has fallen to levels not seen SINCE then so you SHOULD see recent trends in Social welfare staff falling not INCREASING conpared to when they were higher (i.e 7 or 8 years ago)
If the staffing levels were increased due to Covid for an entire budget period then that also is the fault of the Labour led government. This was an emergency period and any increased staff should have been on temporary or fixed term contracts of 2 years maximum. What are these staff doing now given we have stopped Covid payments?
[reread my comment, because you’ve obviously misunderstood. The comma is a clue. I know what you are stating, and I’m telling you as a moderator to produce some evidence for your claims. You make arguments like this a lot that are big assertions without substance. In this case I think your premise is entirely faulty, which is why I’m asking you to produce the evidence so we can examine it.
The claims you made that need evidence:
We have had a massive increase in staffing in the Social Welfare agencies in recent times (and please clarify the time frame)
Unemployment has fallen to lows not seen since the 1960’s
Please provide evidence for both of those things. – weka]
I provided you a link to a Stuff article which details the increase in staffing in these agencies over the past few years (i.e. the period in time I am referring to). Please explain why this is not good enough as evidence for you?
As for the 1960’s claim – fair enough I apologise for using the 1960’s as a baseline. The official unemplyment rate as measured by the HLFS only stretches back to 1986 so it would be more accurate to state it is the lowest since modern reporting on unemployment started i.e. the lowest on record.
-We have had a massive increase in staffing in the Social Welfare agencies in recent times (and please clarify the time frame).
The timeframe in question is from Labour's time in office (i.e. from 2017 to 2023). An increase in numbers of a third over such a short period of time is very large. In comparison the total population of NZ till the end of last year only grew by less than ten percent
Population in 2017 divided by population in 2023 :
Off the top of my head in the 60's there wasn't the massive, massive subsidy to landlords by way of accommodation supplement, benefits were paid at the same rate as the pension so people didn't have to keep applying for hardship payments, sole parents like my grandmother who left a violent relationship got nothing unless they were a widow, all the benefit was paid to the husband for couples, sick people were left alone to be sick and get better and had doctors and hospitals in their little towns, the welfare system in most towns was a job in the public service esp all those injured war veterans who also had good support through the rehab leagues set up around the country to help them get back to work, unwell were locked up in mental institution, while those with intellectual disabilities were locked up in their own institutions, 51,000 people were getting war pensions in 1965 and 116,000 superannuation (compared to 898,000 getting superannuation now). It was also run as a bureaucracy i.e. rules based where either you qualified for help or not and that was that. You aren't comparing apples with apples and your comparison is quite facile.
Puao-Te-Ata-Tu is the only good source I've found that shows staff numbers albeit in 1988. 6,268. This would not have included the Labour department staff who were a separate department and didn't merge til about 1998.
Stuff article has MSD staff at 9,077. but notes extra were taken on to do COVID payments, etc. They were likely funded for a full budget cycle so presumably will drop off at the end of it as is the normal budget / funding process.
Also a fall in the unemployment rate doesn't necessarily mean a fall in benefit numbers.
It is a maths puzzle.
Number of jobs increase so labour market is larger. Immigrants come into NZ and do those jobs. Number of NZer's unemployed stays the same. Unemployment rate drops as while the number unemployed is the same it is now a smaller proportion of a larger labour market.
With the massive increase in immigration in the last couple of years combined with people working longer to make ends meet there is an increasing disconnect between the two things.
Looking at stats info – in 1999 there were 18,000 over 65 year olds in the workforce. There is now 118,000. That is also impacting on freeing up jobs for young people.
Definitely gonzo, loved the multi-colour graphic showing how tiny the health spend is compared to the biggies – no wonder the hospitals are in perpetual crisis. Kindness??
that in National’s last year of power in 2016/17 it spent $550m on consultants, or about twice what had been spent in the 2008/09 year.
The problem for Labour is that, even without the public servant cap, its government spent $1.2b on consultants in 2023. So it roughly doubled the consultant-spend – albeit under a more inclusive measure – while also increasing the number of public servants substantially.
Labour's creation of a supersized gravy train for consultants will be the envy of Nat supporters everywhere!! All Hipkins needs to do to guarantee himself a knighthood in the next honours list is to say "Hey, I did that!" It will help if he explains that it was a carefully-orchestrated directive campaign behind the scenes, so as to reassure the Nats that they really are on the same side.
”Another thing about the new government is its utter disdain for the public. Polls only mattered in the election campaign but now are ignored. Fighting crime was a priority before the election, then it was not. It did not reveal its full coalition agenda during the campaign and did not consult with other parties or the public in the implementation of its first 100 day plan of action. Instead, the coalition has rewarded its donors and supporters in (among others) the fossil fuel and tobacco industries even though their repeal policies are unpopular and in some instances detrimental to public health, environmental and other social outcomes. This is truly a government for and by the few, even if it was able to claim an electoral victory as its legitimating mantle.
For this reason I prefer not to call them something silly like the “coalition of chaos.” They are that, to be sure, because to put it kindly the talent pool in the coalition parties runs very thin while the egos of their leaders and lieutenants run very deep. This could eventually lead to their collapse and downfall, but for the moment what strikes me is their despotic dispositions. In other words, it is their way or the highway, minus the resort to repression that we see in military dictatorships.
For this reason I choose to refer to the National-ACT-NZ First triumvirate as New Zealand’s junta. In the broadest and original sense, junta refers to a military or political group ruling the country after it has been taken over. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a council or committee for political or governmental purposes.” What is important is that it does not always have to have a military component and it does not always involve a violent accession to power and usurpation of previous authority. A junta, as it turns out, can be installed constitutionally, peacefully and via normal political institutions and procedures.”
The NZ Midwifery Council's controversial changes to their Scope of Practice
2 Feb 2024 Interview with Deb Hayes, a practising midwife – the petition organiser
New Zealand's Midwifery Council has spent four years devising new guidelines which have taken out the words 'mother' and 'baby', and replaced them with the word 'whanau', a word which in te reo Māori means 'family', including extended family. Deb Hayes, a practising midwife, has been instrumental in initiating a Parliamentary Petition against the change of language in the NZ Midwifery Council's Scope of Practice guidelines.
The petition, hosted on the Women's Rights Party NZ website, can be signed here – https://womensrightsparty.nz/midwifer…
or, go direct to it here: https://petitions.parliament.nz/6e261…
I don't care whether they use the words 'mother' or 'baby' or 'gestational vessel' or 'whanau' I just want people to stop having kids they don't want, having kids they won't support, or killing their kids.
I take it that you are not a supporter of the current Government then?
As their mean spirited welfare, wage, health, environmental and infrastructure policies are going to result in killing and/or, blighting, the lives of many thousands more children.
Now that Luxon has a Maori alter ego to be his shadow at the marae, it's time to move onto puns about the blind man and his seeing eye dog chum Potaka wandering around Waitangi together.
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Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
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Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
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The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
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Look, everyone must have a job and her chosen job is to peddle carcinogens to poor people. Nothing wrong with that:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350166539/pm-christopher-luxons-sister-law-works-tobacco-company
My brother in law votes National. I have relatives who are industrial farmers.
Are we really going after MP's relatives now? That's not the story. The story is what Luxon means when he says due process has been followed regarding conflicts of interest.
The criticism isn't of her.
Another brick in the wall, that's all.
Muttonbird decided to focus on her. Which means the right can focus on the family of left politicians.
The right do do that, all the time.
The article decided to focus on her, it's the headline.
I'd say marketing manager for Phillip Morris is right up there for worst things to dedicate your life to. Worse even that voting National and industrial farming.
Good to know you are setting your standards by National and the MSM.
If you are going to do what they do, then you can't complain when they do it.
Few would likely give one about Mr Luxon’s sister in law if she was not in the Tobacco Industry, totally fair game with the current situation with Minister Costello.
I still recall Judith Collins effectively executing Ian Lees Galloway’s career on TV one morning by mentioning an affair. Clarke Gayford was pursued by a nasty online campaign to the extent that NZ Police issued a rare statement along the lines that Mr Gayford was of no interest to them on any matter.
Turn the other cheek, take the high road? I don’t think so in 2024.
If you have tory relatives it is not your fault!
If you have tory relatives it is not your fault!
Correct. Most of us have them.
But if you are the PM and have a relative by marriage who works for the tobacco industry at a time when there are questions of interference in policy making by tobacco industry chiefs, then you can expect it to be reported by the media and be commented upon elsewhere.
When weka says: "the right can focus on the family of left politicians." The right have been doing that for the past 15 years.
Remember the personal barbs and malicious 'revelations' about Nanaia Mahuta and her family. Remember the salacious and disgusting lies spread about Jacinda Ardern's partner, Clarke Gayford. The police were forced into making a public statement denying them. There were other minsters also whose personal lives were questioned for no other reason other than to discredit them.
We can go back further and remember the salacious and disgusting lies spread about Helen's husband Peter Davis – not to mention Helen Clark herself. Iirc, some of her ministers were also on the receiving end.
The right has practiced dirty politics in the form of personal slander, innuendo and misinformation on a grand scale, so any response in return could almost be claimed as justified. They are the one's who introduced this phenomenon to NZ political society.
Goes way way back…..Muldoon in the public toilets with the Moyle affair 1976….
That National reflect 39% of the electorate is a sad indictment on the hollow values many people in this country support.
Winning is everything and if you have to play dirty to win, so be it!
Brash, wasn't it, who said words to that effect.
Luxon prior to last election:
“The only target I have is winning government. It’s that simple. All that matters is winning government on October 14.”
Luxon had arrived at the conference wearing a red Crusaders’ jersey, saying he liked the team “because they win. They win nice or they win ugly but they win.”
Asked if that meant he was happy for National to “win ugly”, he said, “I just want to win”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/national-party-leader-christopher-luxon-admits-45-per-cent-election-result-target-is-a-stretch-goal/I7VYCGVDFJCRJJHBDCAL6OYNGU/
On a par with;
”I did not have sex with that woman.”
”I did not inhale.”
The only person I have ever seen using those words was you Robert.
Can you produce any evidence of anyone else saying them?
[deleted]
[I don’t know what you are on about, but you’ve been here long enough to know I don’t like having to moderate on Saturdays. Take the weekend off – weka]
Are you stalking a member of this forum?
Not great.
You'll feel compelled, alwyn, to provide evidence (see:
3 February 2024 at 1:05 pm )
As well, you'll probably have to face weka et al, who don't seem to favour the kind of sly innuendo you've indulged in here.
mod note
"Goes way way back…."
Oh yeah Kat. I am personal testament to that. Muldoon had a black list and my name ended up on it courtesy of a jealous person who had a specific 'channel' through which she could feed falsehoods.
Muldoon had a bunch of shady individuals (a few of whom were involved in that scurrilous rag "The Truth”) who did his dirty work for him. Moyle was his most notable target but there were plenty more behind the scenes whose stories have never been told.
"Are we really going after MP's relatives now?"
You are right, weka. I admire yr patience.
There seems to be a pandemic of worrying about the mote in our metaphoric brother's eye. I have a feeling we could mill the beam in our own (to further mangle an allegory), if someone finds a senior Labour person with links to the alcohol industry.
The best known Labour Politician with links to the alcohol industry was probably their first Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage who worked for Sir Ernest Davis' company Hancock and Company from 1908 until he entered Parliament in 1919.
Sir Ernest "Booze" was a major supporter, and financer, of the early Labour organization in New Zealand. This included lodging securities for jailed agitators during the 1912 Waihi miner's dispute and providing John A Lee with a hotel to manage after he lost his seat in Parliament in 1928.
One might not approve of him but Ernest Davis was a fascinating man.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4d7/davis-ernest-hyam
Cheers, Alwyn. I will give him a looksie.
I haven't read enough of NZ political history, but what I have, I find interesting.
John A Lee's autobiography is one of the most recent.
Funny how his version of events differs a lot from public perception of those early Labour leaders.
International Tobacco is a vile money trench, second only to the Arms Industry.
Baldrick must have known this connection would be outed…but perhaps just does not give a shit, or take it seriously. A number of Natzos over the years have “worked”–it is just a big cruise for execs–in tobacco, and now there seem to be senior tobacco linked MPs galore.
Yes, tobacco does seem to be a feeder industry for National/NZF politicians. I wonder if this is what they mean when they talk about working in the real world.
anyone remember Todd Barclay?…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tobacco-lobbyists-stand-for-national-seats/DKVPIFNF7H3BUDCAXF4SGU6QZE/
Yes.
Yes.
She has been in the job since 2004, probably before being an in law.
It's quite likely she has never discussed the tobacco industry with the Christopher the Unready.
C’mon, Baldrick is a money man. It is vital for such types, men particularly, to size up others for their usefulness or threat. They desperately need to know what others in their circles “Do”.
Luxon is being mocked in the House by the Opposition, who respond to his evasions with derisive exclamations. Check out the moment he said, "companies" rather than "countries"; seemingly an inconsequential slip, but indicative of his unreadiness for answering questions from the other side of the House. Theirs is a guttural reaction. Key used to draw disgust with some of his comments and gestures; Luxon gets derision, which is far more damaging, imo.
Luxon makes Shipley look competent and intellectual….and one of the top three National PM's in a generation…..take your pick on the other two.
Hager painted the Nats as hollow men, Trotter paints the Labs same: https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-hollow-party.html
Yeah, when focus groups head in the opposite direction to voters no Lab politician will ever know what to think, so they will just continue to stand around looking vacant until someone comes along and tells them what to think.
Trotter's facetious verdict is to ask Helen to come out of retirement & rescue them, but yesterday's leaders are rarely relevant today. It's really up to a younger generation within Labour to seize the time. Labour's hollowness is reflected in the poll trend:
A biased snip of February snipes – rigor catches up with the best of us, eventually.
"Why, why, why Delilah"
Trotters a useful tool, thats why he's gets his granny soapbox.
It's really up to a younger generation…to form their own party and crack on with it. Convert a sitting or former MP to the cause and off you go, target an electorate as MMP makes it a shed load easier than Oz/UK etc.
Leave the centrists who blew a majority term to it, that's not your party kids look at what happened to Cunliffe. Remember it was almost Shane Jones as leader back then so get out now.
I think you are on the money tc.
A timely reminder of how things were not so long ago. Leave the pollies of both blue and red hues to wallow in the tar pits of last century's ideology. Let them bicker about their differences, which after all, only a cigarette paper separates them.
Policy ideas for this new party to keep a resurgent Greens honest…
F.T.T. to pay for a UBI.
Any migrant arriving is part of a union.
Meaningful reform of housing/landlording.
Internet/water/energy are non profit activities.
How can Labour have been driven by focus groups when those focus groups apparently would have told them lifting Maori, honouring Te Tiriti, improving water quality, and compassion for transgender people were such unpopular policies?
Trotter's argument (and your own) makes zero sense.
Trotter talks bullshit. His claim Helen Clark manipulated the political scene in the 90s (I paraphrase what he said) to her personal advantage is bordering on conspiratorial claptrap. She's not clairvoyant nor does she have psychic abilities.
Reading Paul Buchanan's (Pablo) latest post "The New Zealand Junta" makes infinite more sense:
And there you have the real reason for what happened on October 14, 2023. Not some of the bullshit I’m reading on this site.
See first on sidebar for full post!
Get this, from Hipkins in response to Chloe:
He's talking in code. Translation: Labour must represent those who don't want "to confront the challenges of our time". Tinkering is cool, the top tinker believes.
Chloe also sends a message in subliminal code: "Hey guys, I'm really leftist!" By positioning her co-leadership aspiration for "the leading left-wing party in Parliament", she's letting the Green Left Network know they don't need to put up a candidate to oppose her. That's clever, and I suspect she'll succeed in fooling them…![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png?x42494)
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/02/chl-e-swarbrick-s-big-plans-to-get-first-green-party-led-government-elected.html
Have to say I'm coming round to CS again now as co-leader. I hope that any other candidates go hard on the Green-led government as well.
However, I'd also like to see the plan not just the rhetoric.
"Have to say I'm coming round to CS again now as co-leader…"
Have you forgiven her trespasses against you? 🙂
not really. More that I can see past the transgressions to what really matters. Something the Greens could learn from 😉 And a number of gender critical people.
Why do you reckon Chloe doesn't get it?
She's smart-as 🙂
no idea. No Debate means it doesn't get talked about.
Smart people can be dumb in some things, that's not unusual.
But Chloe's not just "smart", she's a lively intellect and can parse all sorts of issues, elegantly. Why do you think she's failed to grasp your issue-de-jour?
Group-think. Even got James under control.
Like I said, No Debate means it's never been talked about. You can't actually talk with people with that belief in that position about the issues. That's intentional, No Debate is intended to suppress dissent. So I literally don't know her thinking apart from the slogans.
I can tell you that there is such a thing as Peak Trans, which is where people who used to believe in gender identity ideology come to realise it's batshit crazy, they 'peak' as they realise that it doesn't make sense. Many left wing people have been through that process. Being smart, having a lively intellect that can parse all sorts of issues doesn't transcend that, and in fact ideology often stops very smart people from understanding things.
My initial point was that I can tolerate someone having quite different views from me and still allow them to be good at what they do. That capacity is being lost from the Greens and it is heartbreaking.
So when CS says she can work across the aisle, I think that means she can work with right wing politicians but she can't work with left wing gender critical feminists. I could be wrong, but afaik she is a strong believer in gender identity ideology and the politics that go with it (as opposed to the people who toe the line because they have a career to protect).
Not sure if you mean it this way, but when you talk about GCF in that way, it comes across as minimising. It's not my issue du jour. It's the most important political issue of our time after climate/ecology. Whole swathes of women have abandoned the left over it, and it's been going on for decades, but particularly the last decade.
I've been writing about GCF on TS since 2020. I've been involved in the debate on twitter since 2018, often substantially. I've lost a big chunk of political engagement (blocked on twitter, NRT no longer allows his blog posts to be cross-posted) because of my beliefs. I've gotten off pretty lightly. Many women have lost jobs, careers, friends and family, been arrested and abused. There are many women who've been working hard on this for a decade, others for longer. Some GCFs believe the political work on this will be decades long.
So please don't treat this as some passing/short lived trend.
Issue-de-jour was careless, I meant, the issue that consumes so much of your energy. I didn't mean it was a passing phase for you.
"It's the most important political issue of our time after climate/ecology."
Is it?
If we f*ck up the the climate response, is that on par with getting the "what is a woman" debate wrong?
Will we all burn in hell? 🙂
Huh. Mainstreamers fucked up the collective climate response more than 20 years ago, definitively. As for discrimination against women, it depends on how many feel they are victims of that. The potential number is huge, the actual number small, I suspect…
One in four women are sexually assaulted by a man. How many of those women are actual victims of male violence against women and how many just feel like they are?
Women still get paid less than men. How many are actually paid less compared to how many just feel like they are?
Just the women initially. Been there, done that. It's part of why we're destroying the planet.
Not respecting women and not respecting nature are the same thing.
I don't think Swarbrick's message is subliminal, it's overt.
Chloe has lofty aims to make the Greens the largest left wing party in NZ. People can laugh and say she is unrealistic, but look at what happened in Germany?
Die Grunen (The Greens) have 118 seats in the German lower house and are part of the coalition government. They also part of the coalition governments in 10 out of 16 states. They have formed coalition state governments even with the conservative CDU/CSU party and won seats in ultra-conservative Bavaria. They are no longer written off as a loony left opposition fringe party – they are an alternative government.
With organisation, support and of course money, it is possible and Chloe might just be the person to lead it forward into a new era.
At the same time, Chloe must counter Brooke.
Chloe: "I raise you three hundred cycle lanes to your pittance of a minimum wage increase….."
Slightly different situation in Germany however, as they also have a separate Left party that is where a good portion of the NZ Greens would naturally fit, being hard core Socialists or even further Left than that.
Having that segment in a separate party makes it easier for the German Greens to go into coalition with parties right across the political spectrum as they are not viewed as anywhere near as loony-left as the NZ Greens are viewed, given the environmentalists and the Socialist are all lumped in together.
NZ Greens have relied on the votes of the hard Left since foundation, so I can't see the NZ Greens fracturing in a hurry.
I think if Swarbrick can stabilise the Greens now and achieve the same level of success at the next election, say 15 MPs, then that will provide a solid base to work from. Their growth is only going to come by further cannibalising Labour and by attracting a higher proportion of first time/younger voters than the other parties, and that will take time.
Becoming the largest left wing party in NZ is a good goal for the party I guess but it won't change much in NZ if they still can't get control of the parliament so they can effect the changes they want. Hard to get that control if the only partner you will go into coalition with is the same party you have been cannibalising…
I agree with your analysis – however their leftist zero-sum thinking re Labour has been self-imposed handicap for so long now it seems unrealistic to expect them to wake up & smell the roses. They could proceed to a convergence with Labour instead if both parties adopt resilience as their basis for a new economy.
Cynics will point out that both parties contain too many morons to enable that to happen but I remain optimistic despite such realism!
Tinkering is cool, the top tinker (sic) believes.
A tinker a mender of pots and pans. Don't you mean "tinkerer".
Play on words often hews to tradition. I was just using her framing. Some users of language prefer contemporary usage but we need not do the binary either/or on language use. Notice that I didn't use the antique verb origin (tink).![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png?x42494)
Labours new election slogan for 2026…..NO TINKER WE TAYLOR….
I don't think Chloe Swarbrick's message was particularly helpful. There's probably a number of ways to press the importance of change without ridiculing your political partner.
Note Hipkins’ response was far more measured and respectful. Best to keep the fire and brimstone for the actual opposition.
who did she ridicule?
Absolute bullshit. That is not the full quote. I saw him on TV1 news tonight and his response was eminently sensible. He was not aiming any broadside at the Greens. In fact he sent a message of good will to them.
The video is not up on their site yet.
Diddums?
Looks more like msm trying to escalate hostility between NZ & China!
Get used to it, lad. The windy city often does this. Getting high often defuses mental states of cluelessness. You mean the airline still isn't offering such a useful alternative??
Yeah, he's right to wish for a high-speed rail option. You only need to figure out the time the bus takes to reach Ak to agree with him. Cue a brain-wave: Belt & Road is usable as policy basis for offering to build such infrastructure into 3rd-world countries like ours.
Michael Leunig captures the moment.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=405723482125404&set=a.163598666337888
Thanks, Robert. I love Michael Leunig but hadn't seen anything of his lately. Spurred me to visit his website and scroll through his recent cartoons.
I liked his Interview With God.
Another announcing new technology which recycles used plastic bags into politicians caused a chuckle.
James presents a triad to Newsroom:
Three usually creates process, so this governance triad is likely to embed, and will therefore become an effective legacy for him.
"this governance triad"
is the result of their governance a triasco?
Good to see Argentina taking the first steps to rectify the damaging effects of Big Government interventionist economic policies (implemented from both the left and right wing of Argentinian politics).
Argentina is just another example of how these sorts of Government knows best and can drive economic growth policies do real long term structural harm to a country. Left wingers who promote these ideas tend to ignore the evidence of failure from real World outcomes.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/no-obstacle-argentina-mega-reform-bill-congress-government-says-2024-01-30/
Austerity usually isn't popular but if the IMF estimate is validated by performance – "expected economic contraction estimated by the IMF at 2.8%" – it may succeed.
The country is on the verge of a massive default in debt with inflation rate over 200%. I think to get out of that self-inflicted mess requires some short term pain. Remember it is the policies of previous governments of Argentina that caused the mess they are in now not the policies being proposed by the new one.
A very interesting read today in the Herald (yes, I confess I subscribe). I like Mary Holm's no nonsence advice on money matters. Today a letter to her asked 'I find it appalling and upsetting that many people seek your advice on how to beat the tax man.' She basically agreed with the tone of the letter and went on to say that if people do ask how to dodge paying their fair share of tax, she tells them politely where to go. Of course the comments after the various letters received and answered went along the usual lines of Granny Herald commenters – 'it's all the Labour Government's fault'. To this long time Labour voter – yes I've kept the faith since my first vote in 1966 – tax evasion and avoidance (both equally as bad as each other IMHO), is a no no with me and those idiots who do get caught rorting the system deserve all that is dished up to them. I'll include the link, though it is paywalled https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/why-dodging-the-tax-dept-could-backfire-on-you-mary-holm/ZHMVV4KLSJGRFGUDEN4DF3B3BI/
Stuff has done a fascinating analysis of the core Public service in NZ and it's massive growth over the past 6 years under the last Labour led government.
I challenge any left leaning person to explain why we still have a need for over 9,400 "Information Professionals" (i.e. mostly Coms people) since the end of the significant public health risks from Covid-19. The growth in this area under Labour was in the region of 90%. How is the average New Zealander getting better value from their interaction with the Public service as a result of all these extra PR and Coms roles?
This is a major factor in why people got sick of Labour and voted for change last October.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350164796/heres-what-our-63000-public-servants-actually-do-and-why-we-have-so-many-them-now
The Public service spends huge amounts of taxpayers money on IT projects. The point of which should be to improve the efficiency of the Public service (i.e. better service with the same or less resources). However instead of requiring less people we have much, much more. Where are the better services that we are getting as a result? Can people name me an area of the Public service that has improved significantly in the past 6 years as a result of IT spending?
"and indeed Inland Revenue actually reduced its contact centre staff significantly as a big IT upgrade allowed it to handle more things online."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350164796/heres-what-our-63000-public-servants-actually-do-and-why-we-have-so-many-them-now
How come we have had a massive increase in staffing in the Social Welfare agencies at a time when Unemployment has fallen to lows not seen since the 1960’s? Shouldn't we require less people in this area now considering we have less people to provide support to?
Please provide the figures for massive increase in SW staffing, and unemployment in recent times compared to the 60s. You're in premod until that happens.
Wouldn't it be nice if our government produced a scorecard that monitored core KPIs on its own performance?
That way everyone who paid taxes could have confidence (or otherwise) in the performance of our elected (and non elected) administrators.
But the turkeys aren't going to vote for Xmas are they…
Why do I have to provide data on SW staffing levels in the 1960's? I'm not comparing staffing levels front the 1960's to today. I'm stating unemployment has fallen to levels not seen SINCE then so you SHOULD see recent trends in Social welfare staff falling not INCREASING conpared to when they were higher (i.e 7 or 8 years ago)
If the staffing levels were increased due to Covid for an entire budget period then that also is the fault of the Labour led government. This was an emergency period and any increased staff should have been on temporary or fixed term contracts of 2 years maximum. What are these staff doing now given we have stopped Covid payments?
[reread my comment, because you’ve obviously misunderstood. The comma is a clue. I know what you are stating, and I’m telling you as a moderator to produce some evidence for your claims. You make arguments like this a lot that are big assertions without substance. In this case I think your premise is entirely faulty, which is why I’m asking you to produce the evidence so we can examine it.
The claims you made that need evidence:
Please provide evidence for both of those things. – weka]
I provided you a link to a Stuff article which details the increase in staffing in these agencies over the past few years (i.e. the period in time I am referring to). Please explain why this is not good enough as evidence for you?
As for the 1960’s claim – fair enough I apologise for using the 1960’s as a baseline. The official unemplyment rate as measured by the HLFS only stretches back to 1986 so it would be more accurate to state it is the lowest since modern reporting on unemployment started i.e. the lowest on record.
Evidence here is the following for each claim you made. Plus clarifying the timeframe on the first:
Moderators aren’t going to read an article to parse what you mean.
The rationale for all this is to increase the standard of debate. I already explained the problem with your original comment.
Claim:
-We have had a massive increase in staffing in the Social Welfare agencies in recent times (and please clarify the time frame).
The timeframe in question is from Labour's time in office (i.e. from 2017 to 2023). An increase in numbers of a third over such a short period of time is very large. In comparison the total population of NZ till the end of last year only grew by less than ten percent
Population in 2017 divided by population in 2023 :
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/national-population-estimates-at-30-june-2017
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/national-population-estimates-at-30-june-2023/
"MSD, the second-largest organisation, grew by a more hefty 33%. Most of this growth was in social workers and contact centre workers."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350164796/heres-what-our-63000-public-servants-actually-do-and-why-we-have-so-many-them-now
Claim:
– Unemployment has fallen to lows not seen since the 1960’s
As stated this should more accurately have stated the unemployment rate has falled to levels not seen since modern record keeping began.
"Unemployment fell in the December quarter to 3.2 per cent, the lowest since modern records began in 1986."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/unemployment-lowest-since-1986-falls-to-32-per-cent/YCIAG7QWZH3KBAYZAOJHE3FA6A/
thank-you Gosman. That’s perfect, and a really good example of how to back up one’s argument. Out of premod now.
Off the top of my head in the 60's there wasn't the massive, massive subsidy to landlords by way of accommodation supplement, benefits were paid at the same rate as the pension so people didn't have to keep applying for hardship payments, sole parents like my grandmother who left a violent relationship got nothing unless they were a widow, all the benefit was paid to the husband for couples, sick people were left alone to be sick and get better and had doctors and hospitals in their little towns, the welfare system in most towns was a job in the public service esp all those injured war veterans who also had good support through the rehab leagues set up around the country to help them get back to work, unwell were locked up in mental institution, while those with intellectual disabilities were locked up in their own institutions, 51,000 people were getting war pensions in 1965 and 116,000 superannuation (compared to 898,000 getting superannuation now). It was also run as a bureaucracy i.e. rules based where either you qualified for help or not and that was that. You aren't comparing apples with apples and your comparison is quite facile.
Puao-Te-Ata-Tu is the only good source I've found that shows staff numbers albeit in 1988. 6,268. This would not have included the Labour department staff who were a separate department and didn't merge til about 1998.
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/archive/1988-puaoteatatu.pdf
Stuff article has MSD staff at 9,077. but notes extra were taken on to do COVID payments, etc. They were likely funded for a full budget cycle so presumably will drop off at the end of it as is the normal budget / funding process.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350164796/heres-what-our-63000-public-servants-actually-do-and-why-we-have-so-many-them-now
Also a fall in the unemployment rate doesn't necessarily mean a fall in benefit numbers.
It is a maths puzzle.
Number of jobs increase so labour market is larger. Immigrants come into NZ and do those jobs. Number of NZer's unemployed stays the same. Unemployment rate drops as while the number unemployed is the same it is now a smaller proportion of a larger labour market.
With the massive increase in immigration in the last couple of years combined with people working longer to make ends meet there is an increasing disconnect between the two things.
Looking at stats info – in 1999 there were 18,000 over 65 year olds in the workforce. There is now 118,000. That is also impacting on freeing up jobs for young people.
https://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/ViewTable.aspx?pxID=659101e7-c4ff-4caa-a281-41a4e44779fa
Definitely gonzo, loved the multi-colour graphic showing how tiny the health spend is compared to the biggies – no wonder the hospitals are in perpetual crisis. Kindness??
Labour's creation of a supersized gravy train for consultants will be the envy of Nat supporters everywhere!! All Hipkins needs to do to guarantee himself a knighthood in the next honours list is to say "Hey, I did that!" It will help if he explains that it was a carefully-orchestrated directive campaign behind the scenes, so as to reassure the Nats that they really are on the same side.
Really –![indecision indecision](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/whatchutalkingabout_smile.png?x42494)
For the first time, I'm worried about violence this Waitangi day. Its going to take real leadership from both sides to make this a peaceful day.
Pablo has an interesting take on our new “government.”
https://www.kiwipolitico.com/2024/02/the-new-zealand-junta/
”Another thing about the new government is its utter disdain for the public. Polls only mattered in the election campaign but now are ignored. Fighting crime was a priority before the election, then it was not. It did not reveal its full coalition agenda during the campaign and did not consult with other parties or the public in the implementation of its first 100 day plan of action. Instead, the coalition has rewarded its donors and supporters in (among others) the fossil fuel and tobacco industries even though their repeal policies are unpopular and in some instances detrimental to public health, environmental and other social outcomes. This is truly a government for and by the few, even if it was able to claim an electoral victory as its legitimating mantle.
For this reason I prefer not to call them something silly like the “coalition of chaos.” They are that, to be sure, because to put it kindly the talent pool in the coalition parties runs very thin while the egos of their leaders and lieutenants run very deep. This could eventually lead to their collapse and downfall, but for the moment what strikes me is their despotic dispositions. In other words, it is their way or the highway, minus the resort to repression that we see in military dictatorships.
For this reason I choose to refer to the National-ACT-NZ First triumvirate as New Zealand’s junta. In the broadest and original sense, junta refers to a military or political group ruling the country after it has been taken over. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a council or committee for political or governmental purposes.” What is important is that it does not always have to have a military component and it does not always involve a violent accession to power and usurpation of previous authority. A junta, as it turns out, can be installed constitutionally, peacefully and via normal political institutions and procedures.”
The NZ Midwifery Council's controversial changes to their Scope of Practice
2 Feb 2024 Interview with Deb Hayes, a practising midwife – the petition organiser
New Zealand's Midwifery Council has spent four years devising new guidelines which have taken out the words 'mother' and 'baby', and replaced them with the word 'whanau', a word which in te reo Māori means 'family', including extended family. Deb Hayes, a practising midwife, has been instrumental in initiating a Parliamentary Petition against the change of language in the NZ Midwifery Council's Scope of Practice guidelines.
The petition, hosted on the Women's Rights Party NZ website, can be signed here – https://womensrightsparty.nz/midwifer…
or, go direct to it here: https://petitions.parliament.nz/6e261…
I don't care whether they use the words 'mother' or 'baby' or 'gestational vessel' or 'whanau' I just want people to stop having kids they don't want, having kids they won't support, or killing their kids.
I take it that you are not a supporter of the current Government then?
As their mean spirited welfare, wage, health, environmental and infrastructure policies are going to result in killing and/or, blighting, the lives of many thousands more children.
No I'm not, but link please?
National, ACT and NZF policies were well canvassed during the recent general election, you can look those up yourself pretty easily.
Luxon is an ex PM walking……….just trying to find the link…..
Now that Luxon has a Maori alter ego to be his shadow at the marae, it's time to move onto puns about the blind man and his seeing eye dog chum Potaka wandering around Waitangi together.