So we keep the Carbon Zero Act, the single health agency, ACC, Pharmac, and pretty much all other delivery agencies that we have, we keep all the benefits Labour put in for 2017, 2018, and 2019, all the Gold Card entitlements and keep the retirement age at 65.
And at some point we get some tax cuts.
Will be a while before we notice much difference on the ground from the last lot.
The last time we had the pleasure of a RW government (with the added joy of Paula Bennet) in 2008, they waited 6 months before wielding the welfare axe. They know better not to do it in the first week, just as they never divulge their real intentions pre-election.
National intended to cut benefits to pay for their tax cuts. This isn't 90s National wacking away at core benefits, they know they can't get away with that anymore, so they do it in different ways.
Seymour had plans to remove entitlements from disabled beneficiaries. I haven't been following to see what is in the agreements, but given the last two RW governments, it seems extremely unlikely that welfare won't be hit hard.
Incidentally Hipkins just reminded NZ, on RadioNZ's Morning Report, that Winston voted in support of creating the media fund as part of the Lab/NZF/Green government.
Imagine being luxon, knowing that if you had an ounce of decency you'd kick the dishonest, deranged peters to the curb , but the cost is loss of power,
If I was luxon I'd be quietly chatting to jones, national have bought him once before they should buy him again and arrange a coup in nzf.
But it never would have been the cost. Luxon only needed to show some leadership ("Winston, you can have policy concessions A and B, a few million in your slush fund, and some other bauble like Foreign Minister outside Cabinet for all I care, but forget about Deputy PM, I'm running things and if you don't like it go and talk to Hipkins").
Chances of WP walking away: zero.
(and that's not hindsight, it was obvious to just about everyone, except Luxon)
If luxon had of ruled winston out pre election we'd have a n/act government, sitting on the fence has lead to one hell of a nasty splinter in luxons arse!!
He wouldn't use that language, obviously I'm paraphrasing. But the message should have been clear, however honeyed the words.
So when you say "walk away", what would that mean? If it's not "keep Hipkins as PM" then it's still support for National on conf & supp, or at worst abstain (very unlikely). Forcing an early election would have been the end of NZF, a suicide note.
All these options would have been wins for Luxon, and far better for him than the mess he's created. He did not have to do it.
These u-turns of Peters are interesting, they appear to be vaguely memory related, forgetting he was involved in the policy formations he is currently railing about. Senility? or is it something else. He was not even supposed to be there, tracking below the 5% until Chris Bishop opened his mouth and gave him credibility a few weeks out from the election. Why?, Was Bishop still wearing ( would not surprise in the slightest ) his Corporate Affairs cap from the tobacco industry when he offered Peters the hand-up but with a few provisos, namely, support and take responsibility for the repeal of smoking legislation and the seat at the big table is all yours sunshine.
Boy, his formulating conspiracies game is fun. Of course anything involving Bishop is entirely possible, particuly with all that tobacco money to play with.
It'd be interesting to know if there were any disgruntled nats who'd have the balls to cross the floor when the Opposition puts the vote of no confidence. It feels naive to think this could happen, but the agenda is so damaging and hateful there may be the necessary small handful who'd be willing to say that the consequences for the country are too grave to be outweighed by party loyalty.
In my view Andrew Shaw had every right to push back on the claims of bribery. That was a direct attack on his and the board's integrity. His only real offence was getting too personal about Winston.
The internal Wellington contest about who will lead the new Infrastructure Agency is not limited to Simeon Brown taking out Shane Jones for the governance oversight lead role.
Note its an Agency so the emphasis is on delivery and its powers and capacity to deliver. It's a whole lot of centralised power.
At the moment there are 5 institutional options to lead, and potentially merge all the others into one:
– Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP)
– National Infrastructure Unit in Treasury
– The delivery arm of Waka Kotahi NZTA – shades of MOW
– Rau Paenga (ex Otakarau from the Christchurch rebuild), and
– Te Waihanga The NZ Infrastructure Commission
Likely to be one boat for a lot of swimmers out of this.
….and less Climate Change Tiger….the funniest thing has been to hear Health Minister Shane Reti hopelessly trying to defend the cigarettes policy (on RadioNZ Checkpoint last night) and Climate Change Minister (outside cabinet) Simon Watts hopelessly trying to defend the resumption of oil and gas exploration (on RadioNZ Morning Report today).
Credibility? What credibility? It’s a one term government.
The jibe from Watts (paraphrasing) "the previous government was importing coal from Indonesia" was really stupid.
The silly argument seems to be that "they were using fossil fuels so that justifies NZ using more fossil fuels."
In fact in the year that NZ faced a possible power shortage and had to import quite a bit of Indonesian coal a few years ago I calculated at the time that the coal generated just 5.1% of NZ's power that year.
In subsequent years I assume the percentage was much less.
Of course now NZ is beginning to seriously invest in solar power, and battery technology is advancing, coal will soon not be needed at all.
Ardernism – the ideology that grounded the decisions of Ardern, Chris Hipkins, and the Sixth Labour Government – never really got defined.
Perceptive observers would point out that there wasn't any. The idea of ideology featuring within any Labour govt has been antique for yonks. Governance is more adaptive than driven. Ardern: “Government isn’t just what you do, it’s how you make people feel."
Ancient Greeks called that ethos. Experientially, steering the public mood via role-model influence. She's right, even if one must add that instinctive responses don't necessarily cohere due to factors such as resonance, partiality, framing & memetics etc.
the truth is somewhere in between. Labour ran into trouble when it tied itself in knots unsure exactly what it was delivering.
Not to mention randomising effects of captains calling every now & then. Fortunately the new govt is proceeding on a similar trajectory due to the various incompatibilities between the two contracts. The new captain will have to call a vote to get a cabinet decision on each policy dispute. Will they discover consensus on each such furore? Depends how much time goes into discussion, how adaptive the players, who will play the referee etc. Mass death from boredom seems unlikely… https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-11-2023/the-coalition-deals-leave-a-lot-to-be-fought-over-in-the-next-three-years
Labour does have an ideology it's called managerialism.
Managing the neoliberal economic consensus, throwing a few economic scraps to the peasentary so they don't revolt, while passing revolutionary social policy and legislating against behaviors they perceive to be wrong.
Jacinda had the smarts to campaign like a reformist not a managerialist promising all sorts or transformation to get the peasents out to vote only to rule out any meaningful changes her rank and file membership or working groups suggested.
Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe, Little, Hipkins never pretended to be anything but managerialists and the public responded appropriately.
The last ten Labour leaders and three Labour govts are virtually indistinguishable from national govts apart from on social policy (and John Key even took that from them so they had to more radical socially).
Mmp is like foodstuffs and Woolworths, it looks like there's all these different chains but they are all owned by the same two companies who root out competition and fairness.
Labour does have an ideology it's called managerialism.
I've never thought of it as such but you could be right. Governing is more than just managing, so it could be a tad reductive to leave the analysis at that.
Re the left/right copycat effect, my bitch re Labour is based on the place-holder default. There ought to be more to Labour than just the servant motivation. The original idea of public service has been equated in their minds with serving the establishment – copying Nat policies sufficiently to serve as a place-holder till the next Nat election win. Too wimpish.
One of the biggest differences between Labour and National is their view of employment law.
The Employment Relations Act was a major departure from the Employment Contracts Act. Fair Pay Agreements could have had that impact if Labour had remained in office.
90 day trials is another policy with obvious negative impacts that Labour and National differ on.
Completely superficial analysis that ignores the record number of houses, huge infrastructure investments, important gains for the working class, health reform, and of course brilliant crisis management.
Labour could have done a lot more if not for a global calamity outside its control, called Covid. As it was, Jacinda's brave and responsible leadership saved thousands.
Kiwis have no idea how bad the pandemic was in other countries led by fuckwits like Bojo. I suppose we will get that experience with Luxo
Yeah I see the positive side too , but Joe's view is driven by the election outcome and seems like a reasonable attempt to explain the massive voter switch. Leftist interpreters haven't really made much of an effort to get their heads around it so far, and comprehension of political trends is usually a good idea – so credit to him for giving it a go.
Searching & finding are somewhat different. Soul-searching seems too personal to account for a mass collective shift too. So we must focus more on what shifts folks en masse. Media haven't called it a landslide election (trad framing) but the 20k voter switch in Mt Albert alone demands a persuasive explanation. Political scientists, once upon a time, delivered such explanations to the msm. A suspicious silence emanates from them currently…
Yes, the comprehensive RNZ review pointing to the class takeover effect was good. Can't read the Herald pro thing. Spinoff piece technically correct re Greens cannibalising but Labour voters satisfied with Labour performance would remain staunch and resist that option. Also worth including a tactical shift to NZF to ensure a handbrake on the right.
Peter Davis responded to Joe's view which, imo has a right wing lens to it. From your link.
"One of the most striking features is how big money came to the party, much of it in the area of property development where the government did absolutely the right thing, and for a time had an almost unprecedented bipartisan agreement. Serious money, and serious ideological reckoning with the likes of the New Zealand Initiative providing the intellectual underpinnings for a wholesome swing to the right (if not the far right). There are local factors here, but also international ones with a resurgence of populist and right-wing movements and ideologies, in many instances backed by big money, old wealth and new, with the acquiescence if not support of much of the corporate sector."
"Finally, if these progressives were trying not to upset anybody (the kindness ethos), how is it that their vote halved in a couple of years, and that Ardern suffered probably the most vitriolic personal attacks of any political figure ever recorded in New Zealand? We live with that polarisation, and the current government may well be the beneficiary with its “back to the future” mixture of conservative tendencies garnished with a hard neoliberal edge and a touch of racial unease."
Buying voters is a theory that lacks empirical validation in this country, seems to me – regardless that it's plausible in the USA via media saturation.
The voter measure of Ardern haters clocked in at around a few per cent though, so that strikes me as a red herring.
‘It’s outrageous to say Luxon’s own efforts got him across the line. He was bankrolled by the richest people in New Zealand…the social media game behind him… bankrolled by foreign money”
ACT spent the most on Social Media in the election campaign followed by Labour in 2nd place. (Not sure if Labour's money was foreign or local- hard to track).
Like the Greens, Labour relies on donations from locals, and generally, the donations are small.
"National has received $8.2 million since the start of 2021, followed by ACT on $4.2 million. This brings the total raised by the two parties over this period to more than $12 million."
I agree with that one. Particularly the first two points. I discount the third due to being unaware of any evidence that social media as a game is driven by money rather than player motives! This here blog is social media. Contributors don't get paid to contribute.
Obviously money produced the tech systems social media operate on but that's not what the quote suggests, right? However this is all a digression for the swathe of folks who switched away from Labour & the psychology of that switch. Does anyone take seriously the view that marketing pizzazz won it for the Nats? Crass shit rarely impresses enough to get that much leverage (Trump blends it with other stuff). Yeah, probably most of the Nat voters rated it as useful but what percentage so desperate the poor buggers actually need it to survive?? 20%? Doubt it'd reach double figures..
Of course social media is driven by money, big money and it decides what and who is going to be promoted or not and there are people who are paid to influence social media.
Aside from random attacks on workers & renters & public health, there's potentially an even more concerning impact that National's tax cuts will have on the future of Aotearoa.
Luxon is planning tax cuts for middle and high income earners, and landlords at the same time as the cost of servicing debt increases, the cost of entitlements increases, and the cost of building upon and protecting our infrastructure and communities increases.
This is, to phrase it as politely as possible, madness.
…
This is a doom loop: New Zealand’s $210b infrastructure deficit is a drag on productivity, and the low tax base means we’re never in a position to close that gap and grow our way out of a newly expensive debt environment.
…
This is exactly the time when tax cuts threaten the government and economy, and a wealth and capital gains tax could help protect it.
…
If National and Labour were serious parties they’d propose new taxes, not even lower taxes. But they’re not ‒ and we’ll pay for it in the next 15 years.
You can delay and disguise the doom loop for a while by sky-high immigration. More people to buy stuff makes it look like a growing economy. Though it deepens the infrastructure deficit.
I think Luxon is going for the Trump model – tax cuts to excite the 1%, prop up the economy with deficit spending and immigration, to hell with the working class or future generations.
Yes, there are always people wanting to buy their way in from places like China and those with the big bucks in other Asian countries.
This creates an artificial housing boom where lots of big, showoff housing is constructed in new developments, but as they are geared to a specific market they don't have much appeal to others.
Unless you want to run a rooming house or a brothel, something with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms is unlikely to appeal.
"More people to buy stuff makes it look like a growing economy."
More goods and services being sold is literally how the economy grows. As many more are starting to realise, our economic system is based entirely upon consumption and our monetary system entirely upon debt.(All money, every single digital dollar in existence is created as debt being 'borrowed' into existence.) Kinda weird when you think about it.
One person's freedom (in your case a worker joining a union) will ultimately impact someone else's freedom (in this case employer's freedom to sack the worker, underpay the worker, make the worker work on the weekends…).
They are for the freedom of employers to pay the lowest wages possible consistent with obtaining sufficient workers in an unregulated market. Charlatans like ACT always invent 'freedoms' that serve their interests and deny the existence of those that don't.
I don't think I have heard anyone speak with such empathy, knowledge, humanity and clarity about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
In it, he outlines the historical conflict. That in itself is worth a listen.
Gabor Mate is a holocaust survivor, who once was a Zionist, but who now supports the Palestinian people's right for their own land.
There are lessons for Aotearoa New Zealand here as well, especially with the direction of the new government. Gabor Mate lives in Canada and we should listen to his thoughts there. Many people here, like many Israelis, have little knowledge, understanding or lived experience of the oppressed and colonised people.
He references the Hungarian experience of 1956 and the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Gabor Maté is a treasure and I want to read everything he has written. I was gonna get his latest book "in the realm of hungry ghosts" for a friend struggling with addiction, but sadly he died recently.
Public policy lags behind leading edge science due to the inertial effect of thought, but it's now getting close to a decade since personal bacterial clouds were detected. Funny how they never showed up in media coverage of the pandemic despite obvious causal relevance. Folks may be averse to thinking of themselves as ecosystems.
Bacterial clouds from the occupants were statistically distinct, allowing the identification of some individual occupants. Our results confirm that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one, and demonstrate for the first time that individuals release their own personalized microbial cloud. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26417541/
High flying bacteria colonised atmospheric currents so long ago that they became part of how Gaia operates. Each media pro has a personal responsibility to publicise such glimpses into the deep Green view of life. The slackers still fail to get up to speed though, routinely. Laziness is contagious.
If the Green Party were to suddenly get real, it would incorporate transformative media policy as a priority. No need for clueless dork syndrome to retain hegemony.
Hmm, maybe we could figure out a way to train them / genetically alter them / program them to reflect warming radiation back into space, to the precise amounts we choose,,,
Fa'anānā Efeso Collins — Local Government, Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, ACC, Pacific Peoples, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Seniors, Veterans, Sport and Recreation
Big vote of confidence here! You'd think treaty issues too hot for a newcomer but perhaps they're relying on his undeniable skill as a communicator to the public.
Went to a local body meeting last year where Collins was the speaker. Came away very impressed. Not only was he across the problems in Auckland, he held a broad and inclusive view on how to tackle them.
What a different outcome we would be seeing if he had been elected Mayor. But…. racism in all its manifestations.
Presumably they're going to have to do most of this under Parliamentary urgency given there's so few sitting days until the end of the year, and I haven't seen a Parliamentary calendar for 2024 Jan and Feb yet.
Politics is about compromise, right? And framing it so the voters see your compromise as the better one. John Key was a skilful exponent of this approach (as was Keith Holyoake in an earlier age), and Chris Luxon isn’t too bad either. But in politics, the process whereby an old ...
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Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The National Party insists there has been no conflict of interest in David Macleod's chairing the committee considering the contentious fast-track bill. ...
Joel MacManus endures five hours of fear and hatred as some of New Zealand’s most controversial figures – and a sitting MP – gather to fight against trans rights. Note: This article contains quotes that may offend. They have been included to present an accurate report of what was said ...
It raises valid concerns about Kāinga Ora, but there’s little to suggest the new direction for state housing charted in Sir Bill English’s report will address Aotearoa’s chronic shortage of affordable rental housing, argues Alan Johnson.Given previous National governments’ indifference or even hostility toward the idea of state housing, ...
Education is facing a bunch of changes, but the important ones are not banned cell phones or ‘woke’ foods. The Government has ordered teachers to adopt ‘structured literacy’ to get children reading. That means Reading Recovery, a system New Zealand pioneered and spread to the world, along with ‘whole language’, ...
What a difference a year has made for Caroline Powell. After coming last at the Badminton Horse Trials in 2023, Powell triumphed at this year’s event earlier this month, on board her sometimes-feisty Irish-bred mare Greenacres Special Cavalier – much to her astonishment. Now she hopes to succeed at the ...
The publishing sensation of 2024 is wartime memoir The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour and Jude Dobson, which tells the amazing story of a woman who operated behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. Sales went through the roof as soon as it was published: in its first week it became ...
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Comment: NZ’s main political parties need to reach a consensus on how to adjust to China’s dominance and coercion The post Bridging the Aukus chasm appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Jacinda Ardern’s leadership significantly enhanced New Zealand’s profile on the global stage. In the first five months of her second term of government, between December 2020 and April 2021, her name appeared 24 times in the Washington Post, 10 in the New York Times, 27 in the Times and ...
Comment: The public has seen the PM’s ruthless side, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a member of the coalition faces the same punishment The post Christopher Luxon the disciplinarian appeared first on Newsroom. ...
By Maia Ingoe, RNZ News journalist A NZ Defence Force plane carrying 50 New Zealanders evacuated from New Caledonia landed at Auckland International Airport last night. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would be working with France and Australia to ensure the safe departure of several evacuation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Snow, Research Scientist, CSIRO CSIRO How often do you check your local weather forecast? How about your local climate projections for 2050? For many farmers, the answer to the first question is all the time. But the answer to the ...
Pacific Media Watch A Māori supporter of Pacific independence movements claims the French government has “constructed the crisis” in New Caledonia by pushing the indigenous Kanak population to the edge, reports Atereano Mateariki of Waatea News. A NZ Defence Force Hercules is today evacuating about 50 New Zealanders stranded in ...
COMMENTARY:By Gordon Campbell The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed ...
Reacting to today’s Budget Speech from Labour’s Finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “It is encouraging to see that one of Labour’s stated priorities is to focus on creating ‘a level ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Turner, System Lead, Sustainable Economies, Climateworks Centre atk work/Shutterstock In the budget last week, the government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Opposition Leader Peter Dutton might have done us a favour. As part of his budget reply speech on Thursday night he promised to stop foreigners buying existing Australian homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle The request by Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders is a significant step in the effort to ...
RNZ Pacific A New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s says liberation “must come” for Kanaky/New Caledonia. Professor David Robie sailed on board Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand in July 1985 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Renwick, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand Fonterra caught the business world by surprise last week with plans to sell off its consumer brands and businesses – including supermarket mainstays such as Anchor, Fresh’n Fruity and Mainland. The move ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Small, Senior lecturer, Above the Bar School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury With an air force plane on its way to rescue New Zealanders stranded by the violent uprising in New Caledonia, many familiar with the island’s history ...
A New Zealand government plane is heading to New Caledonia to assist with bringing New Zealanders home. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today confirmed it was the first in a series of proposed flights. Peters said the flight would carry around 50 passengers with the most pressing needs from Nouméa ...
Regional councils must focus on building meaningful and enduring relationships with iwi and hapū to support better freshwater management, says the Auditor-General in a new report. ...
Chris Glaudel, Deputy Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, sees the announcement as a step towards addressing New Zealand’s high and rising levels of homelessness by improving our approach and system to delivering affordable homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Mamouri, Research fellow, Middle East studies, Deakin University The death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash this week occurred during one of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s most challenging periods. Raisi, a prominent figure in the political elite, ...
The end of universal flu shot funding for under-12s is a step backwards for New Zealand child health, say experts from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago. New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent ...
The PSA is taking action to force the Ministry of Education to comply with its legal obligations to do everything it can to find other roles for staff it is laying off because of the Government’s spending cuts. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Senior Lecturer & Research Fellow, Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Netflix There has been much excitement in the lead up to the first four episodes of Bridgerton’s season three, featuring leading couple Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa De Bortoli, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research Taylor Flowe/Unsplash, CC BY Australian teenagers have more disruptive maths classrooms and experience bullying at greater levels than the OECD average, a new report shows. But in better news, Australian ...
Poet, editor and former bookseller Jane Arthur’s debut children’s novel Brown Bird is the story of a shy, self-conscious 11-year-old – partly based on her childhood self – venturing out of her quiet comfort zone. Children’s books are close to my heart because mostly I believe that adults are rings ...
Peter Jackson is bringing Lord of the Rings back to Wellington, producing two new Gollum films in Wellington. Madeleine Chapman (Gollum) argues with Madeleine Chapman (Smeagol) about it. First of all, I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Of course it’s great news!I don’t know, it gives me ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a part-time media librarian and superannuitant explains how he spends and saves. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Male Age: 65 Ethnicity: EuropeanRole: Media librarian ...
The Government’s Environmental Select Committee is refusing to engage meaningfully when it matters the most over new fast tracking environmental legislation, says Ngāti Ruanui. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Marsh, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Christoph Soeder/dpa New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent gains in uptake. And it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Anja Kallio, Deputy Director (Research), Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University Many young people in contact with the justice system come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, parental abuse or neglect, parental incarceration and disrupted education. These complex traumas often manifest as addictions ...
The agency was found to be underperforming and ‘not financially viable’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A damning report A government-ordered ...
Asia Pacific Report For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of “hell on earth”, it is a paradox that there exists an extraordinary oasis of peace and nature. ...
You’ll never set foot in one. But its emissions still effect you. Shanti Mathias reports on a campaign to make private jet owners pay for their emissions in some way. The private jet passengers saunter down the red carpet, wearing sunglasses and heels; paparazzi cameras flash. The sky is blue, ...
Quality teachers back on the front line can only be a good thing. One of the difficult things we teach in senior English classes at secondary school is the development of an idea. This involves deepening your argument, without instead “going sideways” and merely adding examples while repeating the same ...
Opinion: People with certain types of health conditions are more likely than others to have their symptoms dismissed, minimised or disbelieved. These conditions are diagnosed based on the patient self-report of symptoms, where there is no definitive diagnostic test that can prove the existence of disease or demonstrate structural or ...
The intensity of it, ironically, can feel like bullying. Social media activism is reaching something of a peak with the war in Gaza, using the hashtag Blockout2024. It started at this year’s MetGala when influencer and model Haley Kalil was caught on video muttering ‘let them eat cake’ – suddenly ...
It’s 2011 and I am 43 years old. My partner, Christine, and I got together when I was 36. We had been friends for about 10 years before that. One of the first things I asked Christine was whether she wanted to have kids. I had just come out of ...
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So we keep the Carbon Zero Act, the single health agency, ACC, Pharmac, and pretty much all other delivery agencies that we have, we keep all the benefits Labour put in for 2017, 2018, and 2019, all the Gold Card entitlements and keep the retirement age at 65.
And at some point we get some tax cuts.
Will be a while before we notice much difference on the ground from the last lot.
have National reversed their welfare policies then?
Will things really change there? The work testing is already pretty strong.
The last time we had the pleasure of a RW government (with the added joy of Paula Bennet) in 2008, they waited 6 months before wielding the welfare axe. They know better not to do it in the first week, just as they never divulge their real intentions pre-election.
The change in indexation will hurt as CPI drops.
National intended to cut benefits to pay for their tax cuts. This isn't 90s National wacking away at core benefits, they know they can't get away with that anymore, so they do it in different ways.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132862140/labour-lambasts-nationals-benefits-policy-as-condemning-children-to-poverty
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-how-much-nzs-350000-beneficiaries-will-miss-out-on-under-nationals-changes/37M33ZQSBBC6ZJHQNDFU5SY2TA/ (paywalled).
Seymour had plans to remove entitlements from disabled beneficiaries. I haven't been following to see what is in the agreements, but given the last two RW governments, it seems extremely unlikely that welfare won't be hit hard.
So Winston was just using a "turn of phrase" when he accused the Labour government of bribery. So that is all right then. Willis is out of her depth.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301017039/live-winston-peters-claims-of-media-bribery-a-turn-of-phrase-nicola-willis-says
Incidentally Hipkins just reminded NZ, on RadioNZ's Morning Report, that Winston voted in support of creating the media fund as part of the Lab/NZF/Green government.
Imagine being luxon, knowing that if you had an ounce of decency you'd kick the dishonest, deranged peters to the curb , but the cost is loss of power,
If I was luxon I'd be quietly chatting to jones, national have bought him once before they should buy him again and arrange a coup in nzf.
But it never would have been the cost. Luxon only needed to show some leadership ("Winston, you can have policy concessions A and B, a few million in your slush fund, and some other bauble like Foreign Minister outside Cabinet for all I care, but forget about Deputy PM, I'm running things and if you don't like it go and talk to Hipkins").
Chances of WP walking away: zero.
(and that's not hindsight, it was obvious to just about everyone, except Luxon)
If luxon had of ruled winston out pre election we'd have a n/act government, sitting on the fence has lead to one hell of a nasty splinter in luxons arse!!
Chances of WP walking away: zero.
I think if he talked to Winston as you just said, Winston would do just that. However, that's just my opinion.
He wouldn't use that language, obviously I'm paraphrasing. But the message should have been clear, however honeyed the words.
So when you say "walk away", what would that mean? If it's not "keep Hipkins as PM" then it's still support for National on conf & supp, or at worst abstain (very unlikely). Forcing an early election would have been the end of NZF, a suicide note.
All these options would have been wins for Luxon, and far better for him than the mess he's created. He did not have to do it.
These u-turns of Peters are interesting, they appear to be vaguely memory related, forgetting he was involved in the policy formations he is currently railing about. Senility? or is it something else. He was not even supposed to be there, tracking below the 5% until Chris Bishop opened his mouth and gave him credibility a few weeks out from the election. Why?, Was Bishop still wearing ( would not surprise in the slightest ) his Corporate Affairs cap from the tobacco industry when he offered Peters the hand-up but with a few provisos, namely, support and take responsibility for the repeal of smoking legislation and the seat at the big table is all yours sunshine.
Boy, his formulating conspiracies game is fun. Of course anything involving Bishop is entirely possible, particuly with all that tobacco money to play with.
It'd be interesting to know if there were any disgruntled nats who'd have the balls to cross the floor when the Opposition puts the vote of no confidence. It feels naive to think this could happen, but the agenda is so damaging and hateful there may be the necessary small handful who'd be willing to say that the consequences for the country are too grave to be outweighed by party loyalty.
In my view Andrew Shaw had every right to push back on the claims of bribery. That was a direct attack on his and the board's integrity. His only real offence was getting too personal about Winston.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/11/media-minister-melissa-lee-wants-answers-from-officials-over-handling-of-nz-on-air-board-member-andrew-shaw-s-resignation.html
The internal Wellington contest about who will lead the new Infrastructure Agency is not limited to Simeon Brown taking out Shane Jones for the governance oversight lead role.
Note its an Agency so the emphasis is on delivery and its powers and capacity to deliver. It's a whole lot of centralised power.
At the moment there are 5 institutional options to lead, and potentially merge all the others into one:
– Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP)
– National Infrastructure Unit in Treasury
– The delivery arm of Waka Kotahi NZTA – shades of MOW
– Rau Paenga (ex Otakarau from the Christchurch rebuild), and
– Te Waihanga The NZ Infrastructure Commission
Likely to be one boat for a lot of swimmers out of this.
Can anyone recall a time when a newly elected Government has within 2 days created such concern not only in NZ but around the World?
But never fear. PM Luxon is here. Ha.
Yep, more guns, more meth (via niche home bakers), more cigarettes! they have done well.
….and less Climate Change Tiger….the funniest thing has been to hear Health Minister Shane Reti hopelessly trying to defend the cigarettes policy (on RadioNZ Checkpoint last night) and Climate Change Minister (outside cabinet) Simon Watts hopelessly trying to defend the resumption of oil and gas exploration (on RadioNZ Morning Report today).
Credibility? What credibility? It’s a one term government.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/503501/new-climate-change-minister-simon-watts-not-expecting-criticism-at-cop28-over-fossil-fuels-u-turn
He must be living on another planet.
The jibe from Watts (paraphrasing) "the previous government was importing coal from Indonesia" was really stupid.
The silly argument seems to be that "they were using fossil fuels so that justifies NZ using more fossil fuels."
In fact in the year that NZ faced a possible power shortage and had to import quite a bit of Indonesian coal a few years ago I calculated at the time that the coal generated just 5.1% of NZ's power that year.
In subsequent years I assume the percentage was much less.
Of course now NZ is beginning to seriously invest in solar power, and battery technology is advancing, coal will soon not be needed at all.
https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/technology/nzs-largest-solar-farm-powers-up/
A thoughtful review of the govt that exited stage left recently: https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/11/29/the-choices-ardernism-made/
Perceptive observers would point out that there wasn't any. The idea of ideology featuring within any Labour govt has been antique for yonks. Governance is more adaptive than driven. Ardern: “Government isn’t just what you do, it’s how you make people feel."
Ancient Greeks called that ethos. Experientially, steering the public mood via role-model influence. She's right, even if one must add that instinctive responses don't necessarily cohere due to factors such as resonance, partiality, framing & memetics etc.
Not to mention randomising effects of captains calling every now & then. Fortunately the new govt is proceeding on a similar trajectory due to the various incompatibilities between the two contracts. The new captain will have to call a vote to get a cabinet decision on each policy dispute. Will they discover consensus on each such furore? Depends how much time goes into discussion, how adaptive the players, who will play the referee etc. Mass death from boredom seems unlikely…
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-11-2023/the-coalition-deals-leave-a-lot-to-be-fought-over-in-the-next-three-years
Labour does have an ideology it's called managerialism.
Managing the neoliberal economic consensus, throwing a few economic scraps to the peasentary so they don't revolt, while passing revolutionary social policy and legislating against behaviors they perceive to be wrong.
Jacinda had the smarts to campaign like a reformist not a managerialist promising all sorts or transformation to get the peasents out to vote only to rule out any meaningful changes her rank and file membership or working groups suggested.
Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe, Little, Hipkins never pretended to be anything but managerialists and the public responded appropriately.
The last ten Labour leaders and three Labour govts are virtually indistinguishable from national govts apart from on social policy (and John Key even took that from them so they had to more radical socially).
Mmp is like foodstuffs and Woolworths, it looks like there's all these different chains but they are all owned by the same two companies who root out competition and fairness.
Labour does have an ideology it's called managerialism.
I've never thought of it as such but you could be right. Governing is more than just managing, so it could be a tad reductive to leave the analysis at that.
Re the left/right copycat effect, my bitch re Labour is based on the place-holder default. There ought to be more to Labour than just the servant motivation. The original idea of public service has been equated in their minds with serving the establishment – copying Nat policies sufficiently to serve as a place-holder till the next Nat election win. Too wimpish.
One of the biggest differences between Labour and National is their view of employment law.
The Employment Relations Act was a major departure from the Employment Contracts Act. Fair Pay Agreements could have had that impact if Labour had remained in office.
90 day trials is another policy with obvious negative impacts that Labour and National differ on.
Completely superficial analysis that ignores the record number of houses, huge infrastructure investments, important gains for the working class, health reform, and of course brilliant crisis management.
Labour could have done a lot more if not for a global calamity outside its control, called Covid. As it was, Jacinda's brave and responsible leadership saved thousands.
Kiwis have no idea how bad the pandemic was in other countries led by fuckwits like Bojo. I suppose we will get that experience with Luxo
Yeah I see the positive side too , but Joe's view is driven by the election outcome and seems like a reasonable attempt to explain the massive voter switch. Leftist interpreters haven't really made much of an effort to get their heads around it so far, and comprehension of political trends is usually a good idea – so credit to him for giving it a go.
"Leftist interpreters haven't really made much of an effort to get their heads around it"
Maybe you haven't but there's been plenty of soul searching around here and elsewhere.
Searching & finding are somewhat different. Soul-searching seems too personal to account for a mass collective shift too. So we must focus more on what shifts folks en masse. Media haven't called it a landslide election (trad framing) but the 20k voter switch in Mt Albert alone demands a persuasive explanation. Political scientists, once upon a time, delivered such explanations to the msm. A suspicious silence emanates from them currently…
???
There's been plenty of good analysis from everywhere.
Election 2023 result: Anatomy of Labour’s collapse, from unprecedented support to devastating loss in three years – NZ Herald
The Left's postmortem on Labour's defeat | RNZ News
Where it all went wrong for Labour – and how the Greens could be partly to blame | The SpinOff
etc, etc
Yes, the comprehensive RNZ review pointing to the class takeover effect was good. Can't read the Herald pro thing. Spinoff piece technically correct re Greens cannibalising but Labour voters satisfied with Labour performance would remain staunch and resist that option. Also worth including a tactical shift to NZF to ensure a handbrake on the right.
Peter Davis responded to Joe's view which, imo has a right wing lens to it. From your link.
"One of the most striking features is how big money came to the party, much of it in the area of property development where the government did absolutely the right thing, and for a time had an almost unprecedented bipartisan agreement. Serious money, and serious ideological reckoning with the likes of the New Zealand Initiative providing the intellectual underpinnings for a wholesome swing to the right (if not the far right). There are local factors here, but also international ones with a resurgence of populist and right-wing movements and ideologies, in many instances backed by big money, old wealth and new, with the acquiescence if not support of much of the corporate sector."
"Finally, if these progressives were trying not to upset anybody (the kindness ethos), how is it that their vote halved in a couple of years, and that Ardern suffered probably the most vitriolic personal attacks of any political figure ever recorded in New Zealand? We live with that polarisation, and the current government may well be the beneficiary with its “back to the future” mixture of conservative tendencies garnished with a hard neoliberal edge and a touch of racial unease."
Buying voters is a theory that lacks empirical validation in this country, seems to me – regardless that it's plausible in the USA via media saturation.
The voter measure of Ardern haters clocked in at around a few per cent though, so that strikes me as a red herring.
That's your opinion. Here is another.
‘It’s outrageous to say Luxon’s own efforts got him across the line. He was bankrolled by the richest people in New Zealand…the social media game behind him… bankrolled by foreign money”
ACT spent the most on Social Media in the election campaign followed by Labour in 2nd place. (Not sure if Labour's money was foreign or local- hard to track).
Like the Greens, Labour relies on donations from locals, and generally, the donations are small.
"National has received $8.2 million since the start of 2021, followed by ACT on $4.2 million. This brings the total raised by the two parties over this period to more than $12 million."
https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/08/23/national-banks-75-times-more-in-donations-than-labour/
Big money brings Winston back
https://www.politik.co.nz/big-money-brings-winston-back/
I agree with that one. Particularly the first two points. I discount the third due to being unaware of any evidence that social media as a game is driven by money rather than player motives! This here blog is social media. Contributors don't get paid to contribute.
Obviously money produced the tech systems social media operate on but that's not what the quote suggests, right? However this is all a digression for the swathe of folks who switched away from Labour & the psychology of that switch. Does anyone take seriously the view that marketing pizzazz won it for the Nats? Crass shit rarely impresses enough to get that much leverage (Trump blends it with other stuff). Yeah, probably most of the Nat voters rated it as useful but what percentage so desperate the poor buggers actually need it to survive?? 20%? Doubt it'd reach double figures..
Of course social media is driven by money, big money and it decides what and who is going to be promoted or not and there are people who are paid to influence social media.
Rob on your posts.
😇 Ta
Aside from random attacks on workers & renters & public health, there's potentially an even more concerning impact that National's tax cuts will have on the future of Aotearoa.
From Morgan Godfery, "The only way we can pay for tax cuts is a decade of austerity | The Post"
You can delay and disguise the doom loop for a while by sky-high immigration. More people to buy stuff makes it look like a growing economy. Though it deepens the infrastructure deficit.
I think Luxon is going for the Trump model – tax cuts to excite the 1%, prop up the economy with deficit spending and immigration, to hell with the working class or future generations.
Yes, there are always people wanting to buy their way in from places like China and those with the big bucks in other Asian countries.
This creates an artificial housing boom where lots of big, showoff housing is constructed in new developments, but as they are geared to a specific market they don't have much appeal to others.
Unless you want to run a rooming house or a brothel, something with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms is unlikely to appeal.
"More people to buy stuff makes it look like a growing economy."
More goods and services being sold is literally how the economy grows. As many more are starting to realise, our economic system is based entirely upon consumption and our monetary system entirely upon debt.(All money, every single digital dollar in existence is created as debt being 'borrowed' into existence.) Kinda weird when you think about it.
Apart from our infrastructure shortfall (and required renewal), this country has to transform major industries to avoid climate breakdown, like:
How is this possible without billions, trillion dollars of investment (government and private)?
So act are against the personal freedom to join a union.
One person's freedom (in your case a worker joining a union) will ultimately impact someone else's freedom (in this case employer's freedom to sack the worker, underpay the worker, make the worker work on the weekends…).
They are for the freedom of employers to pay the lowest wages possible consistent with obtaining sufficient workers in an unregulated market. Charlatans like ACT always invent 'freedoms' that serve their interests and deny the existence of those that don't.
Dr. Gabor Mate is such an amazing human being.
I don't think I have heard anyone speak with such empathy, knowledge, humanity and clarity about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
In it, he outlines the historical conflict. That in itself is worth a listen.
Gabor Mate is a holocaust survivor, who once was a Zionist, but who now supports the Palestinian people's right for their own land.
There are lessons for Aotearoa New Zealand here as well, especially with the direction of the new government. Gabor Mate lives in Canada and we should listen to his thoughts there. Many people here, like many Israelis, have little knowledge, understanding or lived experience of the oppressed and colonised people.
He references the Hungarian experience of 1956 and the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
This video is worth of a post in its own right.
Gabor Maté is a treasure and I want to read everything he has written. I was gonna get his latest book "in the realm of hungry ghosts" for a friend struggling with addiction, but sadly he died recently.
Sorry to hear that roblogic.
Cheers Ed, it was pretty tragic but at least he's not fighting those demons any more.
Thanks that's a strong recommendation will check it out tonight.
Public policy lags behind leading edge science due to the inertial effect of thought, but it's now getting close to a decade since personal bacterial clouds were detected. Funny how they never showed up in media coverage of the pandemic despite obvious causal relevance. Folks may be averse to thinking of themselves as ecosystems.
High flying bacteria colonised atmospheric currents so long ago that they became part of how Gaia operates. Each media pro has a personal responsibility to publicise such glimpses into the deep Green view of life. The slackers still fail to get up to speed though, routinely. Laziness is contagious.
If the Green Party were to suddenly get real, it would incorporate transformative media policy as a priority. No need for clueless dork syndrome to retain hegemony.
"High flying bacteria colonised atmospheric currents…"
Hmm, maybe we could figure out a way to train them / genetically alter them / program them to reflect warming radiation back into space, to the precise amounts we choose,,,
Since we are likely to get a cyclone this season and the tropical systems are already forming,
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/third-tropical-cyclone-could-form-next-week-no-indication-of-risk-to-nz/42TYXI3ZUZBFVOWMZ7SQNXSAIM/
I have a certain degree of dread about how this kind of government would handle a decent crisis.
National deserves to be compared to Ardern and co's smooth and empathic handling of multiple crises.
This is major reason I'm worried about this government. I thought Grant's handling of the economy in these crises was very good.
If Nicola applied her Fonterra experience it'll be asset sales to fund disasters as we've no offshore companies of any value to flog like they do.
We've seen Wayne brown inaction in action so not much for luxon to beat there. I'm sure he's up for it as he used to run an airline you know.
Greens announced new portfolios this morning:https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/11/29/greens-unveil-portfolio-spokespeople/
Big vote of confidence here! You'd think treaty issues too hot for a newcomer but perhaps they're relying on his undeniable skill as a communicator to the public.
Went to a local body meeting last year where Collins was the speaker. Came away very impressed. Not only was he across the problems in Auckland, he held a broad and inclusive view on how to tackle them.
What a different outcome we would be seeing if he had been elected Mayor. But…. racism in all its manifestations.
Or, members of the new government who own multiple properies grant themselves a retrospective tax cut.
Residential landlords will be able to claim back tax that they paid under the previous Government, the National-Act coalition deal indicates.
Such a retrospective law changes would be “highly unusual and unorthodox,” says one tax expert. Retrospective law-making is generally frowned upon.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/11/29/govt-plans-retrospective-cut-in-taxes-on-landlords/
Presumably they're going to have to do most of this under Parliamentary urgency given there's so few sitting days until the end of the year, and I haven't seen a Parliamentary calendar for 2024 Jan and Feb yet.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2311/S00025/coalition-government-unveils-100-day-plan.htm
Busy!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301017039/live-christopher-luxon-unveils-100dayplan-urgent-changes-coming-before-christmas
So many of these things are urgent? Muppets yes, but malicious muppets.
I guess we just have to hope that
TrumpPeters burns the house down.As always, there's what comes out of Luxon's mouth, and then later there's reality. Two different things.
He wants Parliament to be sitting in mid-January. When that doesn't happen he will "forget" what he said.
Incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon grills AM host Ryan Bridge over Christmas leave | Newshub
Luxon attacks bus lanes and cycleways at the end of this interview, saying that National will build roads to ease congestion. Has he learnt nothing?
Each bus takes multiple cars off the road. Each bike takes a car off the road.
Seems to be that Nicotine Willis' role is to make excuses or back down from others public utterances.
She will be busy.