Rangitata and the Future of the National Party

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, October 24th, 2020 - 42 comments
Categories: election 2020, national, tech industry, uncategorized - Tags:

Some have recently been making histrionic arm waving about the decline of the Baby Boomer’s influence.

Let me introduce: the National Party.

This wasn’t the worst shot they’ve had. Like Donald Trump, the base has held under their very, very bad year. We can use Rangitata as an illustration of the best future for the National Party. Unlike Donald Trump, they’ll be back and at some point they will be government again. 2026?

National’s Rangitata Chair Alison Driscoll summed it up pretty well in her speech on the night:

I know this party will come back bigger and better. We’ve taken a hiding tonight and there’s a lot of people out there who really need to think long and hard about what they’ve done over the last two weeks because it’s our people that have fucked us up. I’m sorry – it is our people who have done this. I think personally, and I don’t mean to be negative, but the party needed a kick up the pants.”

National will of course come back stronger, and there’s some great opportunities to gain out of Rangitata itself.

Ashburton, Methven, Temuka and Timaru, Rangitata’s population centres, aren’t townships that spring to mind when discussing the Labour Party (big ups to those Labour activists who hung in there and triumphed anyway).

But in no small part when we are discussing the future of the National Party we are discussing the future of farming and the agricultural economy and its societies around that economy. That’s still the stuff that makes us the money.

As highly intensified and advanced agricultural centres, they have collectively managed their land to higher and higher levels of productivity over recent decades, and made a good living. The intensity of irrigation in this electorate is the highest in New Zealand.

One natural path back towards regaining such a seat is for National to reconquer New Zealand as driving wealth through agriculture.

It’s still only National’s agricultural heritage that best links our agricultural produce to crafts. Consider all those little cottage industries that thrived under lockdown. Weaving, for example, has one of the best global support stores out of Ashburton in a little company called Ashford. The whole of National’s caucus should be knitting in Parliament: what an awesome signal that would be to our local business and to crafts. No one would be laughing once all those women voters felt the support for their craft work, and all the wool growers and shearers saw the leadership.

National can also set out how it will enable the agricultural economy to use technology to extract more and more for less and less materials and land and labour. For example, shutting down seasonal workers as much as possible and providing bonuses to farm industries who employ year round. Or cash incentives for full roboticised mechanisation of farms. Or setting up a water price regulator so that farmers are rewarded for using less and less water rather than constantly assuring them of a single tariff for volume. Rangitata as an exemplar for practical high tech is a great illustration of National’s policy sector with huge political upside: our entire technology sector.

National will need more of the right people to gain deep inroads into this broad sector, but if they can do it they can help New Zealand re-imagine farming from being an old man’s game. They proposed a $1.29 billion plan for growing our tech sector. Does National have the right people to make that political bridge between the broad tech sector and agriculture? It should. If it doesn’t yet, it will. At least it started in the right place: with cash. Lots of cash.

Cash, rather than regulation, should be Nationa’s preferred tool for getting very similar results to what the Greens and Labour want. Public cash.

National can also unify New Zealand’s rural agricultural economy to the broader public health effort of Covid19 by bringing rural disease management, conservation pest management, and human disease into a single frame of national effort. It was National who started off the Predator Free nationwide effort. And it was National who took the Mycoplasma eradication effort by the horns (excuse the pun). While urban elites may rejoice that Kauri Dieback is now on the same biosecurity status as Bovine Tuberculosis, where National can lead is a simple underscoring of the growing complexity and interdependence of public and animal and conservation health: bridging agriculture to public health.

Our interdependencies are now across the world susceptible to widespread, irreversible and cascading failure.

Except in New Zealand. There is a political gift to be taken, if National wants to uplift it, of New Zealand as a fully unified effort across all its infection and restoration efforts. That’s conservative as a party in all the right senses. It’s the unification of effort that we are missing and probably only National could do. National needs to find the way to use this current crisis to put the national effort back into National.

New Zealand can also be branded by National as one of the very few countries in the world where there could be integrated management to pest and pathogen alike. You may well ask: how could such a profoundly negative story assist any major political party? Well if Labour can win an election on it, National can too. Whenever the World Health Organisation finishes its investigation into COVID 19, there will be massive new questions about pathogens originating from animal hosts, and that virus transmission risk is highest from animal species that have increased in abundance and even expanded their range by adopting to human-dominated landscapes.

So National can steal back the mantle of national purpose, unifying the city and the country together again as Labour can never do. At a pretty fundamental level, there’s agreement to restore New Zealand to an ever-stronger state of environmental purity. The motives for doing so may differ, but that united political and policy effort has a common national end few disagree with. Only National has that, or will have that.

Climate change and irrigation: Rangitata. Yes, it will likely need to bite the bullet of national water price regulation, not just water quality regulation. But as well as pushing irrigation as the driver for higher and more stable productivity for annual wealth per hectare, National could promote irrigation as New Zealand’s best defence against climate change. Water security has damaged Labour’s Phil Goff, is expanding the economic and social security of the Nelson area, and completely drives the economy of mid-Canterbury. Labour is also wading (sorry) into water governance reforms this term, which will of course piss off rural towns. Irrigation should be a major political issue where National can gain a strong edge back against Labour.

None of the above, of course involves National’s usual cut costs and cut worker power approach. It’s a conservative+liberal rural+tech approach. It’s Rangitata.

Rangitata isn’t the most obvious place to look for solutions to National’s future, but they should.

42 comments on “Rangitata and the Future of the National Party ”

  1. Robert Guyton 1

    The engineering approach to water scarcity is the wrong one and will exacerbate the problems. Water is best stored in the soil, as molecules attached to humus. Until that's understood and actioned, the environment will continue to degrade and degrade and degrade…

    Lee Valley.

  2. Patricia Bremner 3

    Mycoplasma bovis and National and control… ha ha.

    • Muttonbird 3.1

      He trolling.

      So National can steal back the mantle of national purpose, unifying the city and the country together again as Labour can never do. At a pretty fundamental level, there’s agreement to restore New Zealand to an ever-stronger state of environmental purity. The motives for doing so may differ, but that united political and policy effort has a common national end few disagree with. Only National has that, or will have that.

      Why can't Labour do it? He hasn't explained why, and in fact it looks like they just did over the last three years.

      If National do finally get on board it will only be because Labour and the Greens have shown them the way.

      • vic gill 3.1.1

        think back to 2008. Jim Anderton proposed a fund funded by govt and farmers to develop agriculture based products for the benefit of farmers and the country. Labour adopted the proposal for that election, National won and threw the policy out. Great thinking national and why would they be so progressive now.

  3. Maurice 4

    Beware the Revenge of the Boomers …

    Leaving nothing but debts for the Future!

    • RosieLee 4.1

      Bullshit.

      • Maurice 4.1.1

        That is a not so pretty "rural" comment!

        • Phillip ure 4.1.1.1

          You are generation-blaming for the neoliberal political ideology followed by both labour and national…that has got us into this shithole…?….that has an inherent logic/fact chasm ..and is both simplistic and fatuous…which you could really shorthand to 'bullshit'..eh..?

  4. Gabby 5

    All that heavily irrigated productive land won't outweigh the voters drinking shitty water and wading in shit.

    • Stuart Munro 5.1

      The combination of aquifers scraping bottom and sealevels rising mean salination of the aquifers is only a heartbeat away. Let that happen and the Canterbury dairy bubble will go the way of Carthage.

      • Descendant Of Smith 5.1.1

        Salination isn't just caused by sea water. If downstream areas dry out due to upstream water storage or excessive irrigation then salts are unable to carried away on a regular basis. Later rising of the water tables, say through a flooding event then spreads the salts into the whole area. You don't need to be near the sea to get salination.

        • Stuart Munro 5.1.1.1

          It can happen though – it's a function of relative pressures. Take all the fresh water out and the strata become prone to flows from whatever external source is nearby.

  5. Phillip ure 6

    Maybe send collins some knitting-needles..?..as a prompt .?..but seriously!..national must know they need a re-brand/re-evaluation..and I thought that muller and kaye were going to attempt that..to bring national back into the centre (and outflank labour..like clark did to them..)…but the far-right were having none of that..and muller's meltdown..and nationals' failure to appoint kaye as leader in his wake..(as the best tory to go up against j.a…) put the kibosh on those ideas..but that is what national have to do…and part of that move to the centre will be a greening of the party..(in best case scenario outflanking labour)…if they take care of that..and offer viable solutions to poverty/housing etc .rent-to-own was mentioned this time out ..so they are getting there..it would seem..but make no mistake..if national do this they will be back as contendors..they just have to change their spots…if they don't they will just continue their march into irrelevancy..

  6. RedLogix 7

    I've been reading Mark Lynas over the past week or so, an ecologist in the eco-modernist school. His thoughts on agriculture expand the vision of it's role:

    But what if the current definition of sustainable intensification is also too narrow? In a new open-access paper published in the journal Ambio, the Swedish environmental scientist Johan Rockstrom and colleagues argue for a radically expanded concept of sustainable intensification. This is one that would put agriculture at the centre of a positive transformation rather than simply trying to limit its negative impact while still producing sufficient crops to feed humanity.

    Conventional thinking tends to see balancing food production with the conservation of ecosystems as competing imperatives: more food equals less natural land and therefore reduced biodiversity. Hence the need to increase yields, producing more food per unit of land area so more of the Earth’s surface can be spared for valuable ecosystems like rainforests and wetlands.

    But Rockstrom and colleagues argue for something much more profound, which they term a “paradigm shift” aimed at “repositioning world agriculture from its current role as the world s single largest driver of global environmental change, to becoming a key contributor of a global transition to a sustainable world within a safe operating space on Earth”.

    The paper being referenced is here.

    In essence we need to stop viewing farming as an extractive, ultimately destructive activity, and reframe it as a core tool in our quest to become responsible stewards of the planet. But at present we have two broadly competing models of how to get there.

    One is the mass industrialised system we see in most of the breadbasket food plains of the world. It represents a fantastic intensification of production, enabling our population to be sustained through to it's current peak phase. But it also steps over boundaries, especially in terms of water use, nutrient run-off and bio-diversity loss.

    The other, that I'll respectfully label 'the Robert Guyton' model (because we can instantly understand what this stands for), represents a far more nuanced and intense understanding of biological systems. It dives deep, where the industrial model spreads wide.

    The opportunity lies in converging these two bodies of knowledge. The is of course a natural tension involved here, but this is the driving force of evolution.

    Bringing this back to the OP, I tend to agree with Ad. If we want progress it will be National who deliver it. There is a rule in politics that says deep radical change ultimately comes from your centre right/conservative party, because the hard core conservatives who might otherwise block change …. have nowhere else to go. (As an example it was a National govt that introduced MMP.)

    But the left also plays a role in this process by ensuring there is a constructive dialog and a fertile space to cultivate the seeds of change. A toxic political space will yield only more weeds.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.1

      There is a rule in politics that says deep radical change ultimately comes from your centre right/conservative party, because the hard core conservatives who might otherwise block change …. have nowhere else to go. (As an example it was a National govt that introduced MMP.)

      That's not a rule – that's a belief. National also tried to get rid of MMP and replace it with a less democratic system because it knew that it was on a long term slide to irrelevance.

      The solution is not with National or any other conservatives.

      • RedLogix 7.1.1

        The exact opposite is true, when conservatives are on board with a change you know it is secure. As for your counterfactual about some elements of National not wanting MMP is irrelevant, because the majority of them voted otherwise. The point is that the ones who didn't want MMP had nowhere else to go on that issue, and for this reason MMP became a fixed feature of our political system.

        When National gets on board with the agricultural innovations Ad is talking about, you will know they will stick … again because the minority who are still skeptical will have nowhere else to go.

        The trick of course is to create the political landscape in which National can safely make that leap.

        The solution is not with National or any other conservatives.

        This idea you have that the conservative segment of the human population can be somehow marginalised and permanently ignored is a monumental conceit. As irksome as it is acknowledge this, at least 90% of new ideas are either bad ideas or ill-timed. Conservatives protect us from them.

        • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1.1

          The exact opposite is true, when conservatives are on board with a change you know it is secure.

          Ah, no.

          Sure, when conservatives back a change then its less likely to be changed afterwards but that doesn't mean that the conservatives are going start a change in the first place.

          As for your counterfactual about some elements of National not wanting MMP is irrelevant, because the majority of them voted otherwise.

          IIRC, only ~51% of the voting population at the time voted to keep MMP which indicates that a majority of National voters voted to change it and the chances are that they wanted to change it to the less democratic system that John Key championed.

          Even when MMP was put to the voters it still only won with little more than a bare majority.

          Chances are that it was majority left-wing voters with a minority of right-wing voters in both cases.

          When National gets on board with the agricultural innovations Ad is talking about,

          Which will only happen once its already happened.

          The trick of course is to create the political landscape in which National can safely make that leap.

          No, the trick is to bring in the changes and make sure that the majority of people are better off because of them and then National will work to keep them.

          This idea you have that the conservative segment of the human population can be somehow marginalised and permanently ignored is a monumental conceit.

          I don't ignore them. I just don't expect them to have any new ideas about making life better for the majority of the population and am pleasantly surprised when they do.

          As irksome as it is acknowledge this, at least 90% of new ideas are either bad ideas or ill-timed.

          That's probably true but the ideas still need to be looked at and evaluated.

          Conservatives protect us from them.

          That probably isn't as the Conservative reaction will just be a reflexive kneejerk against anything new. They won't even look at it to see if it could work.

          That's not protecting us from the new ideas – its trying to prevent the status quo from being changed.

          • RedLogix 7.1.1.1.1

            The status quo is what put put food on your table this morning, the lights on in your home, and allows you to safely step outside your front door. It's why you don't live in absolute poverty and you have a life expectancy of around 80 years, and not 40.

            Don't be quite so dismissive of it.

            • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1.1.1.1

              Who said I was being dismissive of it?

              Being able to see its failings is the first step to changing it.

              National, and others, refuse to see its failings and that's why they're never keen to change it and will actively try to prevent those needed changes.

              Probably because those failings are what allow them to bludge so well.

    • Robert Guyton 7.2

      Well, RedLogix, I'm bound to respond; firstly to say that I thrill to your Mark Lynas quote: that's it in a nutshell: "“repositioning world agriculture from its current role as the world's single largest driver of global environmental change, to becoming a key contributor of a global transition to a sustainable world within a safe operating space on Earth”."- it's what I've long thought/professed. As to National-will-deliver, I tend to agree, in the same way as I believe farmers-will-deliver; who is better placed?

      I liked also: "The opportunity lies in converging these two bodies of knowledge. There is of course a natural tension involved here, but this is the driving force of evolution."

      Let's keep moving 🙂

  7. Stuart Munro 8

    They may be highly intensified, but they sure as hell aren't advanced or they wouldn't have set up intensive operations without nitrate remediation or an abundant and secure water supply.

    They're like the US CAFOs, but thirty years behind – not having to deal with environmental regulations about manure lakes yet – regulation being decades behind thanks to a do-nothing political culture.

    Unionise their slave workers and you'd have a Labour stronghold – for all the good that would do anyone.

    • Adrian 8.1

      Most of the "slave " workers are small business owners these days with their own signwritten utes and tractors and equipment, some of it worth half a million + dollars a piece, and are expert in irrigation, soil health, animal health like Artificial Insemination and nutrition, vet services ,shearing gangs, earthmoving and transportation. The lone farm worker is long gone, even the sheperds with a dog are in utes with full internet satellite connections and are now called Farm Managers with a degree from Lincoln . That is the same in viticulture and horticulture.

      Those are the rural National voters that Labour needs to connect with, when their fathers and grand-fathers voted they voted Labour because they had the shitty end of the class stick but not when you have a million of dollars of assets, they are business men and women.

      Their children on the other hand may be the key to change as they are concerned about the country they will inherit.

      • Stuart Munro 8.1.1

        The ones recruited through employment brokers don't fit your description.

        they are concerned about the country they will inherit

        So were we – and our governments sold it out from under us. There is nothing to suggest they will be any more loyal to migrants than they were to us.

        • Adrian 8.1.1.1

          Keep in mind Stuart that the migrant workers here who generally all get at least minimum wage and up to 50% more than that are in the top 10% of earners in their own country.

          They are considered wealthy much like all the young Kiwis who de-camped to the Aussie mines, we never thought of them as slaves or exploited.

          • Stuart Munro 8.1.1.1.1

            It's all a matter of who you run across Adrian – The stories I'm hearing are of sustained exploitation, and there are many of them. You could just have followed the law and hired New Zealanders you know – but you decided to be tricky instead.

            I never want to see another unskilled worker enter NZ, unless they're a refugee. All the rest better have something that really helps make the place work – we've seen the squalor your lot create, if you’re given any slack.

  8. Draco T Bastard 9

    That’s still the stuff that makes us the money.

    People cannot live on money.

    As highly intensified and advanced agricultural centres, they have collectively managed their land to higher and higher levels of productivity over recent decades, and made a good living. The intensity of irrigation in this electorate is the highest in New Zealand.

    You say that as if its a Good Thing.

    One natural path back towards regaining such a seat is for National to reconquer New Zealand as driving wealth through agriculture.

    Except that the majority of the population have nothing to do with farming, see that its not actually making us richer but poorer and that high tech development does better for wealth production.

  9. Incognito 10

    There’s considerable overlap in technology that can be used in agriculture and pest control, for example. However, consideration of Genetic Engineering and the use of Genetically Modified Organisms in NZ is an ethical issue as much as it is a scientific-technological one. I personally can’t see National unify anything or anybody because it goes against their nature and ideology. They will continue to try to rule by divide & conquer, wedge & identity politics, class division, polarising PR campaigns, et cetera. On the other hand, Labour-Greens are much better positioned to build the necessary bridges and include Māori too.

    • Robert Guyton 10.1

      Maori seek to align with whoever brings the results they seek. Be that and you'll have their support.

      • Incognito 10.1.1

        Māori are a diverse group and there are over 800,000 Māori with fewer than 300,000 enrolled on the Māori Roll so I think it is unlikely that would align with one single party or even necessarily with the Māori Party for that matter. As far as I know, Māori interests could align with anything ranging from ACT (or Billy) to the Greens. For example, they may agree with ACT’s gun nuts but not so much with ACT’s euthanasia ideas.

  10. swordfish 11

    Ashburton, Methven, Temuka and Timaru, Rangitata’s population centres, aren’t townships that spring to mind when discussing the Labour Party (big ups to those Labour activists who hung in there and triumphed anyway).

    Ashburton & Methven have always been Blue centres but Timaru & Temuka were traditionally Red places … by no means deepest Red but not a wishy-washy pale pink either. (The old FPP seat of Timaru – centred almost entirely on the City itself – remained Labour from the late 20s under the “Red Rev” Clyde Carr right through to the mid-80s under Basil Arthur).

    In the knife-edge 2005 election, both Timaru & Temuka remained Labour but both turned Blue during the Key years & were still slightly Nat-leaning in 2017.

  11. Morrissey 12

    What a miserable bunch. Have they improved at all since that sad photo was taken?

  12. bwaghorn 13

    All that's left in national are the religious fools and the act fuctards, I hope this is the beginning of the end .

    If I was labour everytime collins has a dig I'd ask her what the new leader luxon from botany thinks .

  13. Scott 14

    I would have thought that Rangitata would be one of the first places for National to look for answers.

    It should also be one of the places the Labour govt should look if they want to move politics to the left.

    Ashburton and Temuka may not be towns for Labour to seek out votes but Timaru certainly was – in the 20+ general elections before MMP it only lost twice.

    Gisborne, Whanganui, and New Plymouth were also large centers where Labour could expect to do well in pre-MMP, plus the bellwethers of Hamilton.

    There is a difference between a rural seat like Wairaki and King Country and a provincial seats like Whanganui and Rangitata, that have large settlements in them and none of the commentators seem to recognise that.

    If Whangarei flips in the specials then I count 11 provincial centers to Lab against Nationals 5! That's massive

    It was not the farmers who abandoned National but the provincial households and the small businesses in those centers who after 30 years of neglect from successive governments have said forget you National, we're gonna give the nice lady a go – and good on them for that,

    And this is where for Labour, and the Greens, the opportunity lies, to move to more progressive governments. now and in the future.

    As a lefty liberal blah blah Wellingtonian, I don't give a toss for my ideals or those of the left.

    I don't want a transformation that's gonna sting people the way the 80s did, or not last beyond this govt.

    If Labour can deliver those provincial centers a change to their lives for the better, as well as welfare reform, housing and employment, and retain those centers in 3 years time, then they would have crowded out National from the center and be able to concede ground to the Greens on the left.

    National will be gone burgers as they figure out how to align their factions while losing more ground to Act, causing a split between the conservative and liberal arms of the Nats. They've got real issues and are still going to be without an answer in 3 years' time.

    For JA it's how do they tangibly deliver this term and next while putting in place the kind of generational transition not done before.

    Kieran McAnulty, Kiri Allan, and Penni Henare for 2026 and it starts now.

    • Draco T Bastard 14.1

      If Labour can deliver those provincial centers a change to their lives for the better,

      They can – if they realise that the government is not fiscally constrained.

      Which, unfortunately, is unlikely.

      For JA it's how do they tangibly deliver this term and next while putting in place the kind of generational transition not done before.

      For J.A and Labour its do or die now.

      They have to transform the economy away from the failure of capitalism else they will be voted out next election and that will be the worst thing that could happen to NZ at this time.

  14. greywarshark 15

    Look at the National cohort with their short haircuts, they are little grey men no matter what their height, and any females are also affected – the dread creeping greyness. They need to go to a workshop run by Nandor!* Learn about life, let some sunlight into your mouldy ideas and brains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1ndor_T%C3%A1nczos

    Nándor Tánczos – with his dreadlocks and stance he gives the feeling of life and vitality and happiness. Nats in the title photo look like European versions of the Chinese terracotta figures.

  15. Byd0nz 16

    Why would you want the Nats to make a come-back. Put the boot in,smash their blatant self interest Capitalism. Better to encourage Labour to find their Socialist roots and create a world without money.

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    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 day ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
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