That classroom your kids need is too nice, therefore they shall have no classroom at all.
In a November briefing to the incoming Education Minister Erica Stanford, the Ministry said it would not be able to find more than 2% worth of savings without cutting into its spending on school property.
Hipkins, who was the minister in charge of education for five years, said the former National government underfunded school infrastructure and that Labour upgraded every school in the country through its school investment package.
“We built thousands of classrooms and added urgent temporary teaching spaces as rolls grew,” he said in a statement.
“Everyone will remember children learning in damp, mouldy classroom and schools with no space and no funding under National, who were comfortable with kids being taught in gyms and hallways. We don’t want to go back to that.”
This to further enrich boomer amateur landlords with hundreds and hundreds of millions.
I really want to hear the details on the Marlborough colocation blowout. My suspicion is that Labour are unwilling to point to incompetence at the Ministry. Jan Tinetti seemed to miss the point in strongly asserting that her government always funded the planned builds.
A guy on Wall Street invests in Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and leaves an estate of $1B.
His widow worked at a Bronx medical school so they now get a $B to provide free medical education to students.
Dr. Gottesman said her donation would enable new doctors to begin their careers without medical school debt, which often exceeds $200,000. She also hoped it would broaden the student body to include people who could not otherwise afford to go to medical school.
The Hon Christopher Bishop Housing and Infrastructure Minister speaks
Councils will be required to zone for growth, …. given the opportunity to opt of Medium Density Residential Standards, which would see intensification in suburbia***, but only if they immediately zone enough land for 30 years of housing growth.
Drury reprise … all those landbanking this area already get a big CG before on-selling to developers – and no CGT or wealth taxation or estate taxation on this huge windfall.
allow for mixed use zoning*** near transport nodes. That would mean more residential dwellings above shops and businesses.
There will also be an amendment to the Building Act and the RMA to make it easier to build granny flats or other small structures up to 60sqm, as per the coalition agreement with NZ First.
Cool good one NZF.
"I can also announce today that I will be the decision-maker on relevant district plan changes relating to housing where councils and independent hearings panels do not agree,"
So delay via process impasse will only last so long …
He said that in coming months new policy would be announced which would enable councils to gain a financial windfall from new housing.
"ACT campaigned strongly on sharing a percentage of the GST of new housing with councils. That will be part of the mix as we ponder how to get the incentives right."
Well given the cost of building provides profits to landbankers (not taxed by government) and they are blocking intensification, they have to at least help councils afford the infrastructure cost of expanding out – the issue is who meets this cost and who does not, yet should.
Ryan Ward explains our precarious position that we find ourselves in with the ruthless new Government.
Luxon uses Reagan’s playbook in blaming welfare recipients
The National Party has a useful bogeyman to blame for the failures of a political and economic system that prioritises accumulation of wealth over the lives and livelihoods of people
Though it was also very telling to hear Professor Tim Hazledine on RNZ yesterday evening being really clear that multi-year unemployment welfare dependency was never the intent of our social welfare system. Yet here we are with 90,000 on unemployment benefit for over a year.
I fully applaud the Labour government screwing the labour market so hard down to 3% headline unemployed, and a lot more shifted off welfare dependency. Little, Sepuloni and Robertson together did an outstanding job on this.
More long term on that benefit was inevitable once they placed sickness within the JS Benefit while the domestic workforce was aging (declining in health) and employers were able to bring in younger migrant workers.
Exploiting that statistic is akin to taking assets out of the governments debt statistics, to increase debt to GDP and pose a lack of money excuse for government to partner with others to fund roads, hospital and school building.
In fact the government is responsible for the level of unemployment, particularly the long term unemployed. As Keynes pointed out in his 'The General Theory…' there is such a thing as involuntary unemployment caused by insufficient jobs being available for everyone who would take a job being employed. This is due to the non-government parts of the economy not creating enough demand for everybody to be employed at most times. The only sector which can always choose to employ everybody is the public sector.
Meanwhile the pernicious attitude at MSD of driving unemployed to apply for work, regardless of their chance of being accepted, does no good to anybody, though is often quite hurtful towards beneficiaries. It also wastes a tremendous amount of productivity. A lot of (though not all) people who are on job seekers could instead be employed towards some public good initiatives and would prefer this at minimum wage to job seekers. This would replace job seekers payments with an actual wage, and benefit NZ by roughly the underemployment rate of productive capacity. The employment record of these people would also reduce inflationary pressures and make it easier for people on job seekers to move into other jobs (most job applications are filtered out first by current employment status).
Instead of this (through a collection of really dumb beliefs) we understand unemployment as a supposedly a voluntary choice of the unemployed who can supposedly always find a job (at the going rate) if they apply themselves. This involves gas lighting the public that whatever unemployment rate is prevalent in NZ, its close to a supposedly inflationary wage-price spiral rate (called the NAIRU rate) which is the supposed full employment capacity of the country. This logic prevails somehow even when unemployment is below the NAIRU rate (about 4.5% presently) and inflation is decelerating. Notably during the first term of Muldoon the rate of unemployment went up to 2% or about half of what it is presently.
With the long term on JS benefits, it is important to look at things like the age profile (reluctance to hire older workers into new work areas) and whether they have health conditions (diabetes – to regular dialysis, heart and lung conditions – long covid etc).
This long term dependency is occurring in other nations for the same reasons.
With 40% of long term jobseeker support recipients aged 50 to 64
A company is ending the mailing out of bills to customers (including those with just landlines). Annoying one customer
Landlines are those resilient communications systems that survive natural disasters better than modern methods (requiring power, or batteries that can be charged by solar power).
Unfortunately they are being phased out – people having to move to broadband or to power connected handsets linked to cell towers.
In the unfolding story the company wants to phone her landline in 6 months time – when they will probably talk about the timetable for the end of landlines in her area.
And how a broadband linked phone and device to receive emails (for those bills) can be provided – and the on-line use of debit cards (used to pay the bill in shops can be used on line).
according to Grey Power president Jan Pentecost. "Fifty per cent of people over 85 cannot use digital devices," she said.
"You're asking too much to expect everyone to move with the times, especially given that up-skilling is necessary, very frequently."
Pentecost said it's also yet another example of digital exclusion which affects many people who are not online due to disability, poverty, or age.
There are no requirements to provide non-digital options to customers, but Grey Power has lobbied the government to consider changing that.
What's up with Nash? What a tosser. Even if what he is saying had an element of truth, why would he come out and try and start an internal war at this point of the electoral cycle?
Think he picked up a plum job with a global recruitment consulting outfit, although could well be attempting to 'earn' his salary by engraiting himself the the Nats.
He’s a complete tosser who knows.
He’s probably looking at Shane Jones with envy and thinking if only I was more racist I could be that corrupt. Et voila, this morning’s inspiration on how to help the country from the man we haven’t heard enough from.
An audition for joining NZ First?
I mean I’ve heard plenty about Chippy’s flaws regarding campaigning and leadership, but little about Nash’s virtues.
Nash was so centrist that National probably would have chosen him for THEIR candidate if he had decided to switch parties. He was long time MP for Napier because National supporters found him acceptable, whilst supporting their party with party votes. Napier was the least marginal of the North Island east coast seats, but the one that swung heaviest to National at the last election.
Wasn't he police minister himself at one time? Don't remember him coming out strongly against gangs then.
SirKey moves on…from one international finance capital enclave to…another?
The pony puller in chief has been consistent if nothing else since his student days…he just loves Finance…and Capital…and providing assistance to that world first and foremost.
This is already the most extreme government we've had since the ethnic, political and workers rights crushed since Sid Holland. Which is going back a ways.
I'd have thought that the 4th Labour Government was well in the running for the label 'extreme'. Certainly it transformed NZ in a way that we'd never seen before, or since.
Because Belladonna, they were really Act, and joined later on. Roger Douglas had to do something because Muldoon had bankrupted us, so they floated our dollar.
He wanted to go further, but Lange paused for a "cup of tea".
Let's get the record straight. Yes, they were in Labour. They were a minority faction within the Labour caucus, but they held all the power by virtue of their ministerial portfolios. Originally they were given carte blanche by the rest of caucus because of the financial crisis caused by the out-going PM. who wouldn't let go of the reins. It took a long time for their colleagues to get a handle on what they were doing. Neoliberalism was an unknown to all but a few of the original disciples.
Once the rest of the caucus, including the PM, David Lange began to recognise they had gone way too far, things turned nasty and that govt. eventually fell apart. It wasn't until Helen Clark became leader, Labour was able to start rebuilding itself. However by then the market forces strategy had become so embedded in the economy, it was impossible to totally remove.
That is a broad outline of what happened anyway, and I find the plethora of barbs and criticism towards Labour due to what happened in the 1980s somewhat hypocritical.
I find the plethora of barbs and criticism towards Labour due to what happened in the 1980s somewhat hypocritical.
Whereas I find the unwillingness of the Labour supporters (and the left, in general) to admit that the 4th Labour Government even existed, even more hypocritical.
If you are correct then the rest of the Labour party caucus was full of idiots. Neo-liberal economic policies were well known in 1984. Margaret Thatcher had been in power in the UK since 1979 and Reagan since 1980. Even Australia under Hawke Keating government implemented neoliberal inspired reforms before NZ.
Don't re-write history. The fourth Labour Government were Labour.
Floating the dollar is a very minor part of the radical change that they engineered in NZ society.
You can argue that some of what they did, needed doing. But the misery they created is equally part of that change.
They also left a legacy of fear of radical change in politics, which we are still living with. Any time a politician proposes radical change, chills run up people's spines, remembering the 80s.
The fact that some of them later went on to found a different political party – has nothing to do with what happened in the 80s.
Still National lite. Just cause this national lot is worse than the last lot doesn't mean Labour has moved.
If they have I missed the policy announcements about bringing back the 8 hour working day, 40 hour working week, state housing for life, universal family benefit, increased tax on high incomes, putting benefit rates back to the same as NZS, stamp duty, estate duties, putting government offices and jobs back in regions (even easier now with technology), fixing the rail network including building trains in house ………..
At least you acknowledge the coalition is "worse" than other prior groups.
Any group who ignores the science for politics and to reward their backers instead of building and maintaining schools, treating Maori health cancer rates and early deaths etc is not any type of Labour Party. This Government have removed social legislation, based on science and research for rabid 3 a pronged attack on the poor and they are not even willing to discuss why or how they came to do what they are.
Apart from Luxon saying "I am incredibly focussed" Yes but what exactly is he focussed on.
Well worse than other groups except the 1984 Labour Government.
Labour's refusal to implement left wing policies is well documented. The refusal to implement WEAG recommendations at a time when they had massive public support was but just one further neo-liberal failure.
Covid caused costs unprecedented, and implementation of WEAG was overtaken by emergency covid funding and vaccination costs. You ignore what they did manage to co during a Pandemic.
The decision not to release benefit rates was justified on the basis that advice from MSD was not to.
They made that decision also in May 2019 and had clearly known earlier what the recommendations would be. Absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic.
“We have decided not to implement the report’s recommendations to increase benefit levels by up to 47% immediately. As we have said, we will be looking at a staged implementation of the report. There are a range of ways to improve people’s financial wellbeing and reduce the number of people on benefits that live in poverty, in line with our commitment to reduce the overall rates of child poverty in New Zealand, and we will be looking at these over the coming years,” Carmel Sepuloni said.
What COVID showed is that they could have increased them if they wished as there was plenty of money. This is no different to Helen Clark putting the $20-00 deduction back on NZS but not on benefits. Purely a political not a financial decision – hint it was cheaper to put it back on benefits which by that stage were at least $100-00 per week lower when they once were the same.
In 2020 it was clear the implementation had been minimal.
Altogether, the government’s three WEAG launch announcements amounted to a spend that was noted later to be roughly one percent of the recommended total spend.
And indeed the advice from MSD was to not do it. Not surprising given who they appointed as CE.
It is important that this work weighs the impacts on financial incentives to work, as discussed in the WEAG report, fiscal affordability, and risks of unintended consequences that would undermine the goals of these reforms, particularly through interactions with other government systems.
75. A key recommendation from the WEAG is an increase of between 12 and 47 percent to main benefit rates, as well as changes to abatement thresholds and benefit indexation. The package of income supports proposed by the WEAG report in recommendations 19 to 24 is substantial. This reflects an ongoing lack of investment towards income support over many decades. 76. I am not proposing an immediate one-off increase to main benefit rates in Budget 2019.
Again don't rewrite history. The increase in benefits rates was a deliberate political decision at the time and had nothing to do with COVID-19.
WEAG called for an immediate increase to those rates – neither Labour nor the public service leadership wanted to do that. The main argument was not fiscal but needing to preserve the incentive to find shitty low paid work.
And just one of the unignorable facts is how in the sixth year of labour rule..it was announced that 23 thousand more children had moved into poverty..
Willow-Jean Prime in tears.
The Speaker gets bound up and won’t listen to explanations from Willow-Jean nor Debbie. I hope there’s a follow up explanation.
This is a great interview by RNZ's Lisa Owen with University of Otago public health professor Janet Hoek. It confirms the Government's determination to ignore research and facts about the health benefits of Labour's planned anti-smoking law changes, and to spin lies about the frequency of dairy ram raids, which have apparently been decreasing since 2022. The most commonly stolen items were cash and cash registers, not tobacco products. The Government's moral bankruptcy is encapsulated in the interview in this link.
"Data disproves the government's claims that reducing the number of tobacco retailers would lead to an increase in ram raids, according to a public health professor.
The coalition government plans to repeal smokefree legislation that would slash the number of tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, take 95 percent of the nicotine out of cigarettes and ban sales to anyone born after 2009.
On Tuesday morning, the prime minister doubled down on his claim that reducing the number of tobacco outlets would increase the black market and dairy crime, despite evidence suggesting otherwise".
I heard the interview and thought professor Janet Hoek was brilliant.
A couple of things occurred to me, she was an unusually brave and frank academic.
Also, when Lisa Owen asked a question that was more about Hoek's opinion of the PM's scripted lines policy position she gave it. 'Unacquainted with the facts' etc. Most folk of her ilk would demure and stick to their knitting (the research).
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
That classroom your kids need is too nice, therefore they shall have no classroom at all.
This to further enrich boomer amateur landlords with hundreds and hundreds of millions.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350192903/government-scrapping-classroom-upgrades-pay-tax-cuts-labour-claims
National under-estimated its road transport build by 100% using old figures.
The cost of Labour's school building programme has blown out for the same reasons – inflation.
We are behind on hospital build/age care – and that cost is rising.
There is historic under-investment in health, education, state and aged care housing (and water infrastructure) across governments.
National prioritises new roads and reducing tax on the landlords rent income and CG (bright-line reduced to a token 2 years).
National are already talking about private sector partnerships in funding school building.
They agreed with ACT to do this with health sector building in their coalition agreement.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504309/government-considering-different-funding-models-to-build-new-hospitals
Wonder how many nat mps went to public schools
Virtually all of them, I suspect – if you include the State integrated options.
I wonder how many nat mps children go to public schools …
I really want to hear the details on the Marlborough colocation blowout. My suspicion is that Labour are unwilling to point to incompetence at the Ministry. Jan Tinetti seemed to miss the point in strongly asserting that her government always funded the planned builds.
A guy on Wall Street invests in Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and leaves an estate of $1B.
His widow worked at a Bronx medical school so they now get a $B to provide free medical education to students.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/albert-einstein-college-medicine-bronx-donation.html
Here we get resistance to CGT on landlords, wealth taxation or estate taxation.
They have CGT and estate taxation in the USA by the way.
The Hon Christopher Bishop Housing and Infrastructure Minister speaks
Drury reprise … all those landbanking this area already get a big CG before on-selling to developers – and no CGT or wealth taxation or estate taxation on this huge windfall.
Cool good one NZF.
So delay via process impasse will only last so long …
Well given the cost of building provides profits to landbankers (not taxed by government) and they are blocking intensification, they have to at least help councils afford the infrastructure cost of expanding out – the issue is who meets this cost and who does not, yet should.
Drury precedent.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-council-has-approved-a-plan-to-collect-11b-from-developers-in-drury-over-the-next-30-years/TKREW3SR4FCSPPWMJ6CEEKRN3I/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350192974/live-chris-bishop-speaks-public-housing-and-infrastructure
Ryan Ward explains our precarious position that we find ourselves in with the ruthless new Government.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/02/27/luxon-uses-reagans-playbook-in-blaming-welfare-recipients/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=07293a4b4b-Daily_Briefing+27.02.2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-07293a4b4b-95522477&mc_cid=07293a4b4b&mc_eid=88a3081e75
Though it was also very telling to hear Professor Tim Hazledine on RNZ yesterday evening being really clear that multi-year unemployment welfare dependency was never the intent of our social welfare system. Yet here we are with 90,000 on unemployment benefit for over a year.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/research/investigating-the-relationship-between-unemployment-and-benefit-receipt/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jobseeker-benefit-more-than-half-of-189000-kiwis-have-been-on-welfare-for-more-than-a-year/5Y2MNIG2BVEI7BH5ND4NIWAY2M/
I fully applaud the Labour government screwing the labour market so hard down to 3% headline unemployed, and a lot more shifted off welfare dependency. Little, Sepuloni and Robertson together did an outstanding job on this.
But that task must never cease.
More long term on that benefit was inevitable once they placed sickness within the JS Benefit while the domestic workforce was aging (declining in health) and employers were able to bring in younger migrant workers.
Exploiting that statistic is akin to taking assets out of the governments debt statistics, to increase debt to GDP and pose a lack of money excuse for government to partner with others to fund roads, hospital and school building.
But then the RB sees that as a buoyant potentially inflationary economy and jumps on it, forcing more people out of work?
And we used to run government departments to employ long term unemployed. Was it Keynes who said we should invent jobs for the unemployed?
In fact the government is responsible for the level of unemployment, particularly the long term unemployed. As Keynes pointed out in his 'The General Theory…' there is such a thing as involuntary unemployment caused by insufficient jobs being available for everyone who would take a job being employed. This is due to the non-government parts of the economy not creating enough demand for everybody to be employed at most times. The only sector which can always choose to employ everybody is the public sector.
Meanwhile the pernicious attitude at MSD of driving unemployed to apply for work, regardless of their chance of being accepted, does no good to anybody, though is often quite hurtful towards beneficiaries. It also wastes a tremendous amount of productivity. A lot of (though not all) people who are on job seekers could instead be employed towards some public good initiatives and would prefer this at minimum wage to job seekers. This would replace job seekers payments with an actual wage, and benefit NZ by roughly the underemployment rate of productive capacity. The employment record of these people would also reduce inflationary pressures and make it easier for people on job seekers to move into other jobs (most job applications are filtered out first by current employment status).
Instead of this (through a collection of really dumb beliefs) we understand unemployment as a supposedly a voluntary choice of the unemployed who can supposedly always find a job (at the going rate) if they apply themselves. This involves gas lighting the public that whatever unemployment rate is prevalent in NZ, its close to a supposedly inflationary wage-price spiral rate (called the NAIRU rate) which is the supposed full employment capacity of the country. This logic prevails somehow even when unemployment is below the NAIRU rate (about 4.5% presently) and inflation is decelerating. Notably during the first term of Muldoon the rate of unemployment went up to 2% or about half of what it is presently.
It appears that has ceased now withthe coalition of cuts…n
With the long term on JS benefits, it is important to look at things like the age profile (reluctance to hire older workers into new work areas) and whether they have health conditions (diabetes – to regular dialysis, heart and lung conditions – long covid etc).
This long term dependency is occurring in other nations for the same reasons.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131044912/are-you-past-landing-a-job-at-55-the-reality-of-ageism-despite-labour-shortages
A company is ending the mailing out of bills to customers (including those with just landlines). Annoying one customer
Landlines are those resilient communications systems that survive natural disasters better than modern methods (requiring power, or batteries that can be charged by solar power).
Unfortunately they are being phased out – people having to move to broadband or to power connected handsets linked to cell towers.
In the unfolding story the company wants to phone her landline in 6 months time – when they will probably talk about the timetable for the end of landlines in her area.
And how a broadband linked phone and device to receive emails (for those bills) can be provided – and the on-line use of debit cards (used to pay the bill in shops can be used on line).
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/27/digital-exclusion-is-it-ok-to-refuse-to-post-out-a-bill/
Didn't pay because didnt get a bill?
Would that work?
Yep, but unfortunately so would..
Disconnected phone number because bill wasn't paid.
'digital exclusion ' that's a good espression.
What's up with Nash? What a tosser. Even if what he is saying had an element of truth, why would he come out and try and start an internal war at this point of the electoral cycle?
Revenge is a dish best served cold?
Or is there a leadership challenge coming and this is the opening salvo?
Must be plum job coming up he wants national to give him.
Think he picked up a plum job with a global recruitment consulting outfit, although could well be attempting to 'earn' his salary by engraiting himself the the Nats.
The former.
He’s a complete tosser who knows.
He’s probably looking at Shane Jones with envy and thinking if only I was more racist I could be that corrupt. Et voila, this morning’s inspiration on how to help the country from the man we haven’t heard enough from.
An audition for joining NZ First?
I mean I’ve heard plenty about Chippy’s flaws regarding campaigning and leadership, but little about Nash’s virtues.
Nash was so centrist that National probably would have chosen him for THEIR candidate if he had decided to switch parties. He was long time MP for Napier because National supporters found him acceptable, whilst supporting their party with party votes. Napier was the least marginal of the North Island east coast seats, but the one that swung heaviest to National at the last election.
Wasn't he police minister himself at one time? Don't remember him coming out strongly against gangs then.
According to Nash, he did so – but was outvoted by Kiri Allan – who had the ear of Hipkins.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/stuart-nash-hits-out-at-labour-kiri-allans-stance-on-gang-asset-seizures/3JDIBQHCTRFDFGY43LEOMSOR2I/
Nash was first elected with help from the right..
A fly-in populist candidate split the right vote…
And nash waltzed thru….
(Take it from there )
" ANZ says Sir John Key will retire from all of its boards from March 14.
He was appointed chair of ANZ in New Zealand in January 2018 and joined the wider group board the following month.
He will be replaced by Scott St John."
Scott who??
Saint John???
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350193328/john-key-steps-down-anz-board
Scott Hata Hone ??
Toti Hata Hone
My guess is that Scott is the husband of Susan St John (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_St_John).
My first thought too Brigitte.
Think it's pronounced Sin Jin.
Two weeks notice seems ….. rushed.
SirKey moves on…from one international finance capital enclave to…another?
The pony puller in chief has been consistent if nothing else since his student days…he just loves Finance…and Capital…and providing assistance to that world first and foremost.
Was wondering about that. What appointment is he expecting from Luxon?
Tight race between Winston Peters, Rimmer, and Shane Cigareti for the title of most useless Māori.
Cigareti edging it at the moment, to be fair.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350193412/bills-disestablish-maori-health-authority-smokefree-be-passed-under-urgency
A race they look to be enjoying which I find quite depressing.
Casey Costello deserves to be added to the tight race list.
Some here said Labour was "National Lite"
So what do you think now National are bulldozing any social legislation and playing to the Atlas Policy Strands? I don’t remember that from Labour.
+100
This is already the most extreme government we've had since the ethnic, political and workers rights crushed since Sid Holland. Which is going back a ways.
Yes, and we can expect a modern day version of this:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/the-1951-waterfront-dispute
I was 10 when my Dad was in the thick of that Yes this is similar. playing on people's fears to gain power, to remove any obstacles to money making.
I'd have thought that the 4th Labour Government was well in the running for the label 'extreme'. Certainly it transformed NZ in a way that we'd never seen before, or since.
Because Belladonna, they were really Act, and joined later on. Roger Douglas had to do something because Muldoon had bankrupted us, so they floated our dollar.
He wanted to go further, but Lange paused for a "cup of tea".
They weren't really ACT. They were actually in real life Labour. Let's not rewrite history.
Let's get the record straight. Yes, they were in Labour. They were a minority faction within the Labour caucus, but they held all the power by virtue of their ministerial portfolios. Originally they were given carte blanche by the rest of caucus because of the financial crisis caused by the out-going PM. who wouldn't let go of the reins. It took a long time for their colleagues to get a handle on what they were doing. Neoliberalism was an unknown to all but a few of the original disciples.
Once the rest of the caucus, including the PM, David Lange began to recognise they had gone way too far, things turned nasty and that govt. eventually fell apart. It wasn't until Helen Clark became leader, Labour was able to start rebuilding itself. However by then the market forces strategy had become so embedded in the economy, it was impossible to totally remove.
That is a broad outline of what happened anyway, and I find the plethora of barbs and criticism towards Labour due to what happened in the 1980s somewhat hypocritical.
Whereas I find the unwillingness of the Labour supporters (and the left, in general) to admit that the 4th Labour Government even existed, even more hypocritical.
If you are correct then the rest of the Labour party caucus was full of idiots. Neo-liberal economic policies were well known in 1984. Margaret Thatcher had been in power in the UK since 1979 and Reagan since 1980. Even Australia under Hawke Keating government implemented neoliberal inspired reforms before NZ.
Not to forget that Helen Clark – that saviour of the Labour Party – was a minister in the 4th Labour Government – from 1987 onwards.
Even Pink Floyd knew prior to 1984. The punks well before that. Claiming ignorance is just facile.
The Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDDzR2zSgsM
Don't re-write history. The fourth Labour Government were Labour.
Floating the dollar is a very minor part of the radical change that they engineered in NZ society.
You can argue that some of what they did, needed doing. But the misery they created is equally part of that change.
They also left a legacy of fear of radical change in politics, which we are still living with. Any time a politician proposes radical change, chills run up people's spines, remembering the 80s.
The fact that some of them later went on to found a different political party – has nothing to do with what happened in the 80s.
Still National lite. Just cause this national lot is worse than the last lot doesn't mean Labour has moved.
If they have I missed the policy announcements about bringing back the 8 hour working day, 40 hour working week, state housing for life, universal family benefit, increased tax on high incomes, putting benefit rates back to the same as NZS, stamp duty, estate duties, putting government offices and jobs back in regions (even easier now with technology), fixing the rail network including building trains in house ………..
At least you acknowledge the coalition is "worse" than other prior groups.
Any group who ignores the science for politics and to reward their backers instead of building and maintaining schools, treating Maori health cancer rates and early deaths etc is not any type of Labour Party. This Government have removed social legislation, based on science and research for rabid 3 a pronged attack on the poor and they are not even willing to discuss why or how they came to do what they are.
Apart from Luxon saying "I am incredibly focussed" Yes but what exactly is he focussed on.
Well worse than other groups except the 1984 Labour Government.
Labour's refusal to implement left wing policies is well documented. The refusal to implement WEAG recommendations at a time when they had massive public support was but just one further neo-liberal failure.
Covid caused costs unprecedented, and implementation of WEAG was overtaken by emergency covid funding and vaccination costs. You ignore what they did manage to co during a Pandemic.
As for the rest see my comment to Belladonna.
Nonsense. WEAG was released in May 2019.
The decision not to release benefit rates was justified on the basis that advice from MSD was not to.
They made that decision also in May 2019 and had clearly known earlier what the recommendations would be. Absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic.
“We have decided not to implement the report’s recommendations to increase benefit levels by up to 47% immediately. As we have said, we will be looking at a staged implementation of the report. There are a range of ways to improve people’s financial wellbeing and reduce the number of people on benefits that live in poverty, in line with our commitment to reduce the overall rates of child poverty in New Zealand, and we will be looking at these over the coming years,” Carmel Sepuloni said.
What COVID showed is that they could have increased them if they wished as there was plenty of money. This is no different to Helen Clark putting the $20-00 deduction back on NZS but not on benefits. Purely a political not a financial decision – hint it was cheaper to put it back on benefits which by that stage were at least $100-00 per week lower when they once were the same.
In 2020 it was clear the implementation had been minimal.
Altogether, the government’s three WEAG launch announcements amounted to a spend that was noted later to be roughly one percent of the recommended total spend.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60189fe639b6d67b861cf5c4/t/6143c978d85bb20a2acba388/1631832443228/WEAG+Stocktake+Final+27+Nov.pdf
And indeed the advice from MSD was to not do it. Not surprising given who they appointed as CE.
It is important that this work weighs the impacts on financial incentives to work, as discussed in the WEAG report, fiscal affordability, and risks of unintended consequences that would undermine the goals of these reforms, particularly through interactions with other government systems.
75. A key recommendation from the WEAG is an increase of between 12 and 47 percent to main benefit rates, as well as changes to abatement thresholds and benefit indexation. The package of income supports proposed by the WEAG report in recommendations 19 to 24 is substantial. This reflects an ongoing lack of investment towards income support over many decades. 76. I am not proposing an immediate one-off increase to main benefit rates in Budget 2019.
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/information-releases/weag-report-release/cabinet-paper-welfare-overhaul-advice-from-the-welfare-expert-advisor….pdf
Again don't rewrite history. The increase in benefits rates was a deliberate political decision at the time and had nothing to do with COVID-19.
WEAG called for an immediate increase to those rates – neither Labour nor the public service leadership wanted to do that. The main argument was not fiscal but needing to preserve the incentive to find shitty low paid work.
Yes..this lot are utter bastards..
But let's not forget that they weren't elected…
Labour were thrown out…
For non-delivery on the promises that got them elected…
These loosely grouped under housing/poverty/environment..
That rejection underlined by the record setting loss from ruling alone..to ignominious defeat…
I blame labour for these bastards being in power..
And pointing at these bastards and going 'look how much worse they are..!'
really doesn't wash…eh..?
And because Labour was neo-liberal and not left it opened the door for National to move further right – ACT was just a suitable proxy.
And just one of the unignorable facts is how in the sixth year of labour rule..it was announced that 23 thousand more children had moved into poverty..
For shame..!…really…eh..?
Ayesha Verral calls Reti's behaviour, "shameful".
Willow-Jean Prime in tears.
The Speaker gets bound up and won’t listen to explanations from Willow-Jean nor Debbie. I hope there’s a follow up explanation.
Peeni Henare implies that Reti is not telling the truth.
https://ondemand.parliament.nz
I've just given your link 5 minutes of my life.
Willie Jackson korero.
That is supporting and enabling the empire on steroids.
Are you watching Arena Williams (Labour)?
Stunningly bright.
5 minutes was more than enough, thanks.
The empire will cope without my attention.
This is a great interview by RNZ's Lisa Owen with University of Otago public health professor Janet Hoek. It confirms the Government's determination to ignore research and facts about the health benefits of Labour's planned anti-smoking law changes, and to spin lies about the frequency of dairy ram raids, which have apparently been decreasing since 2022. The most commonly stolen items were cash and cash registers, not tobacco products. The Government's moral bankruptcy is encapsulated in the interview in this link.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018927806/govt-claims-reducing-tobacco-retailers-will-increase-ram-raids-data-disproves
"Data disproves the government's claims that reducing the number of tobacco retailers would lead to an increase in ram raids, according to a public health professor.
The coalition government plans to repeal smokefree legislation that would slash the number of tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, take 95 percent of the nicotine out of cigarettes and ban sales to anyone born after 2009.
In documents obtained by RNZ, the Health Ministry urged the associate health minister to keep elements of the current law and suggested compromises, but the minister rejected them.
On Tuesday morning, the prime minister doubled down on his claim that reducing the number of tobacco outlets would increase the black market and dairy crime, despite evidence suggesting otherwise".
100% I agree.
I heard the interview and thought professor Janet Hoek was brilliant.
A couple of things occurred to me, she was an unusually brave and frank academic.
Also, when Lisa Owen asked a question that was more about Hoek's opinion of the PM's
scripted linespolicy position she gave it. 'Unacquainted with the facts' etc. Most folk of her ilk would demure and stick to their knitting (the research).