The man in the mirror

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 28 comments
Categories: economy, employment, john key - Tags:

The Budget is already costing jobs.
 
AirNZ has announced that it will be cutting flights. 80 jobs will go. The EPMU has said it will fight hard for the jobs. It’ll be tough to save them all.
 
Why is AirNZ cutting the flights? Not enough passengers. AirNZ was hoping for something for tourism in the Budget to boost demand, save the flights and save the jobs. There was nothing in the Budget for tourism.

PM and his Minister for Tourism. No ideas

PM and his Minister for Tourism. No ideas

Key likes to use his joke that he discusses tourism issues with the Minister of Tourism while shaving in the morning. Maybe he should spent less time being a joker. Maybe if he spent more time working on helping our largest export earner it wouldn’t be in such bad shape. Maybe then we wouldn’t be losing these jobs.
 
Maybe the Minister of Tourism should have a word with the man in the mirror.

If he doesn’t change his ways jobs will keep being lost.

28 comments on “The man in the mirror ”

  1. Sweetd 1

    Eighth Successive Month of Fewer Airline Schedules

    5% Fewer Flights and 3% Drop in Seat Capacity for March 2009

    Domestic U.S. Continues to Bear the Brunt of the Cutbacks

    LONDON, March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The world’s airlines have scheduled 4.9% fewer flights for March 2009 compared with the same month last year, with a 3.3% drop in seat capacity, according to the latest statistics from OAG (http://www.oagaviation.com/), the world’s leading aviation data business. This is the eighth successive month of declines, and represents a reduction of more than 122,000 flights and 9.8 million seats year on year. The total number of flights scheduled to operate worldwide this month is 2.38 million, offering 289.8 million seats to travelers around the globe.

    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4PRN/is_2009_March_24/ai_n31466674/

    One idea that came out of the Job Summit was a tourism fund to provide contestable funding for good ideas in the sector. It could work like this. We put in a certain amount of money. Then RTOs, businesses, and other tourism bodies can contest that money if they put in some of their own.

    We’ve already done a bit of this. Just last month we announced that the government is providing an immediate $2.5 million boost for tourism promotion in Australia. Air New Zealand matched this with another $2.5 million.

    Our research suggests that this could create around $65 million of revenue for New Zealand and deliver about 35,000 extra tourists from Australia. It is early days, but it looks like the number of tourists coming out of Australia has increased since this funding boost.

    http://johnkey.co.nz/index.php?/archives/695-Lifting-our-Game-My-Vision-for-Tourism.html

    • Mr Magoo 1.1

      Where the bloody hell are they?

      Sorry…couldn’t resist.

      Facts:

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2457106/Air-NZ-cuts-services

      They are already down a lot more than your quote. This will be ON TOP of that.

      We are talking nearing 2x the downgrade you have shown above.

      Nevertheless, airlines are in trouble worldwide and some losses are enevitable. As tourism is important to us for revenue one would have hoped for more.

  2. burt 2

    Zetetic,

    How on earth did you type all that and add the picture etc with only one free hand?

  3. Steve 3

    The PM addressed a gathering of operators with tourism interests within the Auckland region last week. He spent most of the time telling jokes such as the “talking to the Minister of Tourism” mentioned in your blog. He continued with ‘Wife” jokes about Dan Carter’s appeal to Mrs Key, stories about he and his son fishing with a well known TV fishing type and how “being National and believing in user-pays” he charged his son for his share of the day’s fishing costs (yes another joke I think). But not much else.

    There was a huge void where the audience was waiting for the Minister of Tourism’s insight into how he was going to support and save the No1 industry in the country. It sort of came. Spread over 3 years his govt is going to plough $50m into a cycleway to help boost tourism and employment! A cycleway to support a market niche representing 2% of NZ’s arrival numbers! And this is his answer to saving jobs in the biggest industry in this country?

    Even Air NZ has had to come out today to say they are disappointed with the lack of support for tourism promotion. The cycleway investment is going to go nowhere in helping to keep those 80 jobs the company said they’re shedding.

    And why give $35M to private schools? Why are they not like other businesses which are failing and going into receivorship? Let them fail. That money should be going to our State schools which could absorb the fall out from the private schools closing.

    Yes, as you say, the Min of Tourism, amongst others, should be talking back to the man in the mirror.

    • calltoaccount 3.1

      That first para is so much like a speech the guy gave down in Christchurch before the election. Different time, subject, audience and place. Same pattern, same waste of time.

      ( Is that you, Steve (Pierson)? Hope so. Must be hard to resist joining in what is getting to be like a turkey shoot?! )

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1

        So, basically, you stopped in to say SFA?

        • calltoaccount 3.1.1.1

          So, basically, I stopped in to check if “Steve” is the one and only Pierson. A hope more than a question I guess, but a reasonable one to ask.

          • Zetetic 3.1.1.1.1

            Pretty sure Clinton who wrote as Steve P is Wellington-based.

            The story you both tell of Key’s speeches being little more than hollow stories and no substance is one I’m hearing a lot.

            In fact. To get my blood up I was reading one of those NZ Management magazines the other day. (why is it that they need so much to be admired, no loved, for their ‘success). There was a story in it of Key giving a speech.

            Looked like it was going to be crappy business journalist loves Key. Then half way through it turned. Said Key didn’t say anything of substance and didn’t take questions from the audience. Just not interested. Even in a business audience.

            I tore out the article to post it on here. Then my drunk friend ripped it up. I’ll see if I can reconstruct it.

          • Steve 3.1.1.1.2

            No, not Pierson although he must be a good guy!

  4. burt 4

    Steve

    This is why tax payers should not own airlines. Have you put you hand into your own back pocket to save the workers? Or should the govt suddenly put its hands into all of our back pockets to save the jobs. Did we vote for that?

    How much have tax payers already invested in Air NZ. Already invested to save jobs and preserve Air NZ as a brand, to protect tourism. How has the business of Air NZ operated as a ‘peoples airline’? It has hired staff via low wage arrangements in off shore entities while enjoying monopoly pricing on many NZ routes.

    Perhaps If the NZ govt had spent the money it has spent on Air NZ by giving out free flights to NZ on cereal packs in the UK, tourism would be better off for it today. We might not have a national carrier, but there would be a steady stream of visitors all going back bleating about NZ.

  5. Daveo 5

    The EPMU only represents the workers in ground services and Zeal 320. The rest are ALPA and FARSA. There’s probably not too much they can do. They’ll fight to reduce the number of jobs lost and to make sure the process is fair but at the end of the day it’s managerial prerogative.

  6. ak 6

    Wife jokes

    Oh Sunny boy

    The lights, the lights are falling

    From burt to Glen

    They’ve glimpsed the fractured side

    The summer’s gone

    And all the shoots are dying

    ‘Tis you, ’tis you must grow

    Lest we subside.

    But come ye back

    With something more than shadow

    Or when your valley’s flush

    With more than snow

    “Tis we’ll be here

    Still standing in the shallows

    Oh Sunny boy, oh Sunny boy

    Mum pushed him not

    He loved you so.

    • Ianmac 6.1

      Ak Very clever! (It took 2 readings.) I do wonder what it must be like for a wife of a PM watching the charming grin become ineffective and the disillusionment spread. She would have to be stauncher that a Black Power Gang Member!

  7. starboard 7

    “The Budget is already costing jobs.

    AirNZ has announced that it will be cutting flights. 80 jobs will go. The EPMU has said it will fight hard for the jobs. It’ll be tough to save them all.”

    Nothing to do with the budget you twats…increased competition between Pac Blue and Jetstar is damaging Air NZ…but dont let the facts get in the way of a good story…

    • felix 7.1

      oh look, it’s learnt how to log in.

      Still the same old troll though.

      • billiousharridan 7.1.1

        Is that Sue Bradford off to the Starboard …….. toot toot launch torpedoes lads there’s something billious that needs sinking.

  8. infused 8

    I’ve come to the conclusion Zetetic is the crappiest post on here. I thought my arguments lacked detail and information.

    One day after the budget they plan to slash jobs? Bullshit. Sounds like its been in the works for awhile and the budget was a good way to justify it.

    • Zetetic 8.1

      You’re not calling me wrong. You’re calling AirNZ liars. You’re calling your hero Rob Fyfe a liar.

      He’s the one who said they were hoping for something in the budget for tourism. Nothing coming. So means that passenger numbers are going to stay down. Those empty flights they’ve been carrying, hoping for something in the Budget get canned.

      • Anita 8.1.1

        Do you have a link for that? I can find him complaining about the lack of tourism funding in the budget (e.g. here) but I can’t find him saying that the cuts were because of that.

        It’d be really impressive if Fyfe were willing to publicly blame Key for job losses and I’d love the quote.

        • Zetetic 8.1.1.1

          Heard it on National Radio yesterday. There’s a presser on newsroom if you have access. I don’t at home. It links the Budget and the jobs. Scoop doesn’t have it.

      • infused 8.1.2

        As others have said, you’re wrong. You can’t just announce job cuts that specific a day after the budget. It had been planned for awhile. The budget was an excuse.

        The reason I think this is because if I was in his position, that’s what I’d do.

        • Anita 8.1.2.1

          Actually I reckon one could.

          If things were really bad but there was genuine hope that the budget might help it would make sense to build the cut package but hold it back until the budget in the hope it wouldn’t be needed. It would also make tactical sense to tell the Government that is what was being done, and if they didn’t make adequate reassurances then leak it to the media “Air NZ is hoping for good news in the budget so they don’t have to cut…” to up the pressure on the government.

          One could do it, but I don’t see evidence that Fyfe/AirNZ did do it.

  9. Sweetd 9

    Zetetic

    I shot down your wank bit in my first comment. Air lines are down globally. Air NZ has got money from Key for tourism pitched at getting Aussie tourists.

    • Zetetic 9.1

      Not my wank. Rob Fyfe’s official reason for canning the jobs. They were going to have to go if the Budget had nothing to save them. It didn’t. Bye bye jobs.

      You calling Rob Fyfe a liar? Because he’s one of John-boy’s best mates. He’s got no reason to lie.

      • Anita 9.1.1

        That he’s one of Key’s mates is why I’d be amazed if he did blame Key for the job cuts. Did you find the link?

  10. Zetetic 10

    That mirror’s some pretty nifty artwork. If I do say so myself.

  11. Steve 11

    Got to say that Starboard and Burt are the real twats here. Air NZ wasn’t asking for funding for Air NZ, it was for tourism promotion in general. Sure they are feeling the pinch but then all airlines serving NZ are feeling the pinch. And if you look at the record you’ll see there are something like 29 or more competitor airlines flying to this country and Air NZ has never shied ayway from that competition.

    The entire tourism industry is hurting. Wouldn’t you think that as the major player in tourism in this country that the national carrier has an obligation to show some leadership and challenge this NACT government on their tourism spend. I still can’t get over that $50m is being directed towards that damn stupid cycleway (over 3 yrs). Imagine what that funding, more appropriately directed to tourism marketing, would do for all the businesses in NZ’s tourism. Apart from anything else it would have to go some way to saving tourism jobs…and then think of the flow on effect to jobs in industries which feed off tourism…food manufacturing, farming, restaurants, taxis, general transport, even foreign airlines who employ hundreds of kiwis…the list goes on.

  12. OhPlease 12

    The recent rise in the NZD was a direct consequence of the conservative budget which most economist would have predicted. This is bad for tourism and bad for exporters. How does that help our current account debt? Doesn’t it show you that a conservative fiscal stance was actually the worst of all possible worlds?

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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
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    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.
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    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
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    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
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    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
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    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
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    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
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  • Racism’s double standards
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    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
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    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
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  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
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    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
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    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
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    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’
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  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
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    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
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  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
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  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
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    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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 ...
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    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
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    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 ...
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    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 ...
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    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
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  • Government delivering on tax commitments
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    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
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  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
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    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
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    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
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    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
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  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
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    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
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  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
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    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
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    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
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    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
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  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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    7 days ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
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    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
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  • Trustee tax change welcomed
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  • Minister’s Ramadan message
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    1 week ago
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    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
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    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
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    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
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    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
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    1 week ago
  • Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity
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    1 week ago

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