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).
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
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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
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).