Twyford’s big announcement

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, November 24th, 2018 - 71 comments
Categories: Economy, housing, labour, phil twyford, Politics - Tags:

The government has just announced the creation of the most massive and powerful housing and land development agency that we have ever seen.

The Housing and Urban Development Authority will have cut-through powers to build quality state and affordable homes and create thriving master-planned communities.

The new authority will be responsible for leading the Government’s large-scale urban development projects and for being a world class state housing landlord. It will bring together three existing agencies that build homes – Housing New Zealand, its subsidiary HLC, and the KiwiBuild Unit.

Now, I had worried back in 2017 that the state’s actual capacity to roll out its housing programmes needed real musculature, and that it was lacking the strength to really achieve it.

It doesn’t get stronger than this one.

The Minister noted this morning:

The authority will transform the way New Zealanders live, work and play by building communities with a mix of public, affordable, and market housing, as well as the jobs, transport links, open spaces and facilities people need – it will do this at scale and pace so we can build our way out of the national housing crisis.

The authority will lead a range of large and small urban development projects throughout the country in partnership with local government, iwi and the private sector. For some large-scale complex development projects, it will have access to a range of statutory powers including:

• shortened planning and consenting processes;

• building and changing infrastructure;

• funding infrastructure and development;

• bringing together parcels of land; and

• reconfiguring reserves.

Over the coming months, we will continue to communicate the progress we’re making on our KiwiBuild and state home build programmes and further detail on how the urban development authority will operate.

It will take years of course before such an agency has the same confidence and rollout capacity as NZTA, the transport agency. The transport agency itself is growing in power and is likely to take on more and more of the arterial roads, and public transport, not just motorways. But that is what New Zealand society needs: transport should serve housing and communities, and it needs an agency with the strength to match that of transport.

This new spatial agency will be big enough to transform whole suburbs. There will not be too many local government agencies that will have the capacity to engage well with it – even Panuku does not appear to have much traction within Wellington, for example. But the Cannons Creek and Mt Roskill examples are signals of the ambition of this government to truly impact whole localities and to rebuild communities.

I would expect Housing New Zealand tenants may feel nervous. The Minister comments that:

There will be no change for Housing NZ tenants. Being a world-class public landlord will be a key priority for the new agency. It will have a strong social focus on the wellbeing of both its current and future tenants.

We believe public and affordable housing should be at the heart of our developments. This move puts public housing at the heart of our ambitious plan to build master-planned communities,” Phil Twyford said.

New legislation to establish the Housing and Urban Development Authority will be introduced to Parliament in 2019, with the first projects expected to be up and running in early 2020.

We should expect a fair bit of thrashing of the proposed legislation as it goes through its stages in the House. In particular: when you accrete a lot of power who regulates it on behalf of the defence of the citizen? Comparisons to Mortal Engine will I am sure be made:

(Same of course applies to transport. It is now clear to the Minister that NZTA itself doesn’t regulate well and on Friday afternoon has launched an investigation by MOT to regulate NZTA. Results out in late March.)

I can imagine that this is the kind of entity that would partner with NZTA to build much of Mangere through the light rail project. That’s got shades of the process by which rail was funded through the Hutt Valley a century or so ago: an entity that buys the land, subdivides and sells it, and uses the proceeds to build the rail one. Who knows what the actual instruments will be or how they will combine, but it’s clearly more powerful than any agency we’ve seen – stronger in its powers than even the development entities in Victoria.

Where this appears to be going is a strong aggregation of powers and assets across New Zealand to achieve housing targets that are bold and involve risk. The real estate agencies on record funding the National Party will choke on their zinfandel, but the Minister is generating powers to tilt housing real estate itself, and seems heading toward aggregating all of the state’s land assets in time into one umbrella.

So long as the citizen is defended, to me it feels an appropriate response to the scale of market failure and the distorted weighting towards massive motorway projects at the expense of communities, that has damaged our society for too long.

71 comments on “Twyford’s big announcement ”

  1. Ad 1

    “… on record funding the National aParty…”
    Correction.

    [Fixed – MS]

  2. ScottGN 2

    Interesting to see that Judith Collins’ didn’t come out and bag it first off, rather she used the announcement to try and promote her own ideas around so-called reform of the RMA Act.
    Maybe it’s finally filtering through to National that infrastructure (or lack thereof) is going to be big in elections to come.
    Daniel Andrews in Victoria has been campaigning on about Labor spending about 50 billion dollars worth of infrastructure In that state and even had the guts to say he would borrow for some of it. Polls have shown him stretching his lead over Guy as the campaign has gone on.

    • Collins is starting to practice what Shane Reti is doing in Whangarei. He picks up on whatever the coalition govt is doing well, and turns it into something he can agree on and will “then work hard to make sure it happens” : this is a trend he has started in his weekly columns in the local papers.

  3. Sacha 3

    “the process by which rail was funded through the Hutt Valley a century or so ago: an entity that buys the land, subdivides and sells it, and uses the proceeds to build the rail”

    The idea is to use big borrowing to build the transport and other infrastructure first, and retain ownership long enough to draw on the increased local property values from that to repay the loans.

    For this to work, mendacious dimwits like Madame Collins must be kept away from stopping that cycle from completing. We’ve seen how her type look at long-term funds like ACC or EQC as something to be stripped for short-term political gain.

    • patricia bremner 3.1

      Perhaps a portion of ASS’s money could legitimately be used in planning and providing safe and productive residential environments thus minimizing the cause of accidents.

      ‘Planning and building communities with green and open spaces with work homes and transport links’ (so less car accidents, a more harmonious society?)

      The ACC money could provide “Development and Infrastructure Bonds”, a superannuation product, which could assist with the enormous problem of work accommodation recreation and transport infrastructure.

      Perhaps that is Parker’s thinking. He has brought up using some of this huge fund for long term projects.

  4. Now do the same with NZ Post and Kiwibank. Both are state owned entities.

    • patricia bremner 4.1

      I agree peter peterson, and this would return assets to the commons in a modern frame.

      Especially important to control our money supply and communications.

      Imagine 4.5 billion more to work with. Huge.

  5. cleangreen 5

    Phil Twyford MP for Te Atatū must be gearing up to run for Mayor of Auckland as that is all we hear from him now is; – Auckland – Auckland – Auckland!!!!!!!

    Another typical jaffa as they all think nothing else is important to think about that goes on south of the Bombay hills.

    Sickening to us all.

    • Ad 5.1

      Have you checked out the Cannons Creek development near Wellington?

    • Draco T Bastard 5.2

      What a load of bollocks.

      Auckland has been subsidising the rest of NZ for decades now. Don’t you think that maybe it’s time we got some of it back?

      • Tricledrown 5.2.1

        Yep otherwise Auckland costs will be to high and productivity will decline affecting all of New Zealand.

    • OnceWasTim 5.3

      Don’t feel too dejected @CG. With Chippie’s PS reform (for some reason I keep thinking of him as ‘Skippie’) chugging away in the background, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen as Rache used to say.
      Amongst various reforms, I was hoping for something like a Munstry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure – this comes near enough to it.
      I was also hoping for the Munstry of Everything to be dismantled but instead the onion layers that comprise it are gradually being peeled away – even though they haven’t begun with the bleeding non-performing obvious.
      Chippie has publicly spoken about the various ‘non-joined-up’ services involved when having an ankle biter across agencies.

      Btw, I discovered this little gem the other day – Joyce and Coleman’s cabinet paper justifying their creation of that ‘Ministry for Everything’ and pointing out some ‘perceived’ conflicts of OBJECTIVES ffs (we now know what the objectives were of course):
      “If real or perceived conflicts of objective within the Ministry’s role (for example, social versus economic objectives; employer versus worker objectives; producer versus consumer interests) are not managed, there is a risk that the new Ministry will not be sustainable over time. This risk will be managed through organisational design and diligent management”
      How did that design and diligent management turn out do you reckon?.
      And all that sounds like the sort of neo-liberal shit-speak I’d have once had to write in a past life as a public servant post 1987.

      Good to see though the various layers of that stinky onion either being forcibly peeled off, or rotting away

    • patricia bremner 5.4

      Cleangreen, this may be a way for them to speed things up. Don’t give up just yet.

  6. Dennis Frank 6

    Think big, eh? I like it. I like the ambition, and the enterprise, the evocative stuff. Is it really a re-invention of socialism? If so, I’ll reserve judgment because it will probably need a tweak or three as it proceeds from design to implementation.

    A conceptual challenge for the Nats here. Given that they have supported state enterprise to some extent in the distant past, will they support this when it is established? Doing so can be framed as a pragmatic return to traditional nationalism. They could even call it national socialism. Contagious meme? May catch on… 😎

  7. Chris T 7

    This will end badly, like KiwiBuy

    • patricia bremner 7.1

      Kiwi build is just beginning.

    • Red Blooded One 7.2

      How’s that half-empty glass you’re drinking from? The tainted blue Kool-Aid not tasting so sweet?

      • patricia bremner 7.2.1

        “Blue Kool- Aid” feck that’s funny. Red Blooded One.

        Probably feeling the loss of money from their real estate and chinese supporters, it must be causing that ‘half empty glass’. LOL LOL.

        May be that’s why Simon is canvassing Winston’s goldcard group with his emails, asking for opinions and cash to fight the election in 2020..

        • Red Blooded One 7.2.1.1

          Hi patricia bremner, cheers. It just amazes me how relentlessly negative our friends here from the right are, this “won’t work, end badly, isn’t fair” wah wah wah. definitely glass half empty types. One can only wish them well and hope they find some positivity beyond their despair.

  8. “public and affordable housing”…its funny, thats two fairly small and distinct groups.

    To get onto ‘Public Housing’ waiting lists you need to be more than desperate for a house, you need to be incredibly lucky, its the equivalent of winning lotto. Meantime to buy an ‘Affordable’ house you need to be, well, lets just say, not struggling.

    So we will end up with very unusual communities really, taken from two quite different socio economic groups, significantly, both heading in opposite directions because no one is daring to suggest ‘Affordable’ housing could/should be anything other than a leg up into the Glorious Housing Market..

    But more importantly, it will exclude the majority of renters, young and old, who have no chance of a State House or a massive mortgage.

    It will, if nothing else, be an interesting social experiment, and I look forward to see the trickle down of actual affordable housing for the masses.

    I wonder how long it will be till ‘Affordable’ houses turn up on the rental market? Requiring rental subsidies no doubt.

  9. Phil 9

    Whilst I don’t want to see anyone homeless, this policy scares me. New Zealand already has the largest fraction of endangered species of any country on Earth.

    Unless this policy is accompanied by policies to stablise the population; to protect native ecosystem; and to increase and restore natural habitats close to urban centres; then things (such as the likelyhood of the collapse of our civilisation; and the extiction of our species) will ony continue to get worse.

    • DJ Ward 9.1

      Immigration used as economic stimulus, support for the finance sector, transpher of taxpayers money in subsidies to support landlords as shortages arise from immigration is a big (intellectually corrupt) mistake.

      It would be better to address the issues causing families to have only 1.8 children when we should be aiming for 2.0 to 2.1 births per woman. Immigration should be for genuine skill shortages, not the basis of artificial GDP growth, and wealth transfer from the taxpayer to the rich.

      • Tricledrown 9.1.1

        Your talking about the previous govts immigration policy.
        The cost of housing is the reason for lower birth rates families can’t afford a single income while paying high rents and mortgage.

        • DJ Ward 9.1.1.1

          Labour under Clarke used immigration as well.
          Yes high rents is a big factor as well as females delaying childbirth and males rejecting parenting.

          • lprent 9.1.1.1.1

            The primary reason for parents to delay or not have children through much of my working life if you are looking at people doing it from their own resources is:-

            A: because you can have an education, a career and buy housing and have kids late after paying down the student loans

            OR

            B: if you are lucky to both get trade skills and work very hard you can buy a house and have children while relatively young and continue to scratch
            OR

            C: you can be working poor with children and spend most of your income on rent.

            Every other combination requires that you have parents or relatives giving you or leaving you substantial money to get a deposit while helping with any training costs. This includes every aspirational story I have read so far from the Herald about property ‘hard work’ stories. They are basically fairy stories put out on behalf of their property advertisers.

            Personally when I look at the level of financial effort and tradeoff required for parents to have children, I can’t see any particularly good reasons to bother doing it. In my case (and that of my current partner) we could always sèe things to do that looked a whole lot more fufilling. Instead we became close support uncle and aunt.

            But a substantial number of both my generation and the ones immesiately following didn’t have kids was because of sky high interest rates and rents (80s-90s) followed by diminished incomes to housing costs (90s-00s).

            A lot of them only started having kids when Working For Families came in because it allowed them to balance paying for a mortgage or rent while one of the parents was off or on diminished work raising under 5yo kids.

            It has absolutely nothing to do with “..females delaying childbirth and males rejecting parenting.”

            It is largely simple economics without the pathetic moral compass you seem to be deluded on.

            • RedLogix 9.1.1.1.1.1

              It has absolutely nothing to do with “..females delaying childbirth and males rejecting parenting.”

              This is an observable phenomenon across much of the developed, especially the Western world. While the economic factors you outline play their part, it’s not at all clear they are the dominant factor as you imply. Indeed the wealthier a society is, the lower the birth-rate for reasons that seem to have little to do with income.

              My sense is that females are delaying childbirth, putting it off as long as their biological clock will permit, for two reasons; one because they have ‘better things to do” as you say and secondly because it maximises their opportunity to select the highest value mate they can attract. Males similarly have plenty of distractions, but increasingly see marriage and fatherhood as a role that has not much social respect and a high chance of ending badly for them.

              Another poorly understood factor is falling testosterone and male fertility levels across all developed nations. At current trends a significant fraction of Western males will be sterile sometime around mid-century.

              https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/29/infertility-crisis-sperm-counts-halved

              Even more intriguing is that young people seem to have simply lost interest in having sex in the first place:

              https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/qvqbmv/young-people-tell-us-why-theyre-having-less-sex

              Combine all of these negative factors together and the data is clear, we’re seeing marriage rates continue to fall across the West, and childbirth rates in Italy, Japan and a number of countries at well below replacement.

    • Ad 9.2

      It’s in urban areas.

      • Tricledrown 9.2.1

        It’s also the regions now because Auckland is so dear. People are moving to the regions.

    • A 9.3

      Yeah that was my reaction too.

    • patricia bremner 9.4

      Phil that is happening now, but better infrastructure will help keep our water clean. our energy sources environment to cause less carbon, not to mention providing transport links to take cars off the roads.

      Conservation areas built in and funded as necessary lungs, and wild life refuges along with Community gardens would be good for mental and physical health.
      We need to do this. The urban ad hock growth days are numbered worldwide. imo.

  10. Herodotus 10

    Not a mention of this ??
    “The HUDA will also have the power of forced acquisition, where private land owners can be can be forced to sell to make way for a development, though the minister says the powers are just “in the back pocket”.
    Whilst the govt can force a land owner to sell under the “Public Works Act”
    https://www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/acquisition-and-disposal-land/land-involved-public-works/landowners-rights-when-crown
    “I don’t think it’s likely at all that someone’s private property or their house will be acquired for one of these projects, – Then why is this draconian clause included ??? If you cannot justify it openly then reading between the lines there must be a reason that this was included, a reason that Phil Twyford will not say.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/11/phil-twyford-unveils-new-housing-and-urban-development-authority.html

    • Ad 10.1

      Await the legislation being introduced.

      PWA has its uses, including building a lot of public houses over decades already.

      Powers aren’t always used. AMETI properties were largely bought on the open market. As he says’ it’s “back pocket.”

      Similarly HLC Mt Roskill and Hobsonville used existing public land.

      • Anon 10.1.1

        So basically a threat, to force people into low-ball “private sales”.

        • Ad 10.1.1.1

          Not so far.

          Was no threat generating Hobsonville.

          Nor Te Atatu peninsula from Waitakere.

          Nor Cannons Creek.

          It’s time.

        • McFlock 10.1.1.2

          Not sure about “low-ball” offers.

          The flipside was ISTR with Dunedin Stadium there was a hold-out landowner who made a pretty penny after everything else had been bought.

          Not that you should be able to use PWA to build a stadium, but nevermind.

        • Gabby 10.1.1.3

          Or a threat, to discourage speculators from buying up ahead of development and holding the government to ransom nonny.

    • A 10.2

      Typical Labour. Swing the pendulum right over the edge of sanity.

      Its offensive to think there is any power whatsoever to do this – public works act bad enough and is the cause of much strife.

      • Ad 10.2.1

        You know it was National that brought in the Public Works Act in the first place?

        Do you recall the National Development Act?

        The strife is in falling home ownership and too little rental housing.

  11. Dean Reynolds 11

    Re NZTA, as well as public transport & motorways, NZTA now has railway development as part of its remit – joined up thinking!

    • Ad 11.1

      The next NLTP will see better integration of Kiwirail, so that NZTA can operate a “one system” approach.

  12. One Two 12

    ‘Being a World Class Public Landlord’

    What utter drivel!

  13. Graeme 13

    Well from a Queenstown perspective this is going to be rather interesting. A large site that was the High School has just been transferred to HNZ. https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/school-site-now-set-state-housing

    There’s lots of brown fields (the Gorge Road abandoned / superseded industrial area) around it and reserve. All walking distance to CBD. Local providers in place http://www.qlcht.org.nz and Iwi appear interested and acutely aware of housing issues having multiple businesses in town.

    Interesting times.

    But the blowback from Realestate interests will be intense. Remember the dancing cossacks during the 1976 election, that was about the fear that Labour’s superannuation scheme was going to turn new Zealand into a communist state by buying out capitalism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Cossacks_advertisement

    Yes, we knew Muldoon was deluded, there’s a slight logical flaw in that premise, but expect his philosophical children in the property game to be just as apoplectic with this policy.

    • Ad 13.1

      I agree the real estate companies who actively fund the National Party will no doubt be as creative again.

      But here’s a difference.

      On RNZ this morning Kim Campbell the head of the Employers and Manufacturers Association – not normally a hotbed of Labour support – gave his fulsome backing to the proposal.

      He said that it was well past time government had the power to clear away the planning rules that had evolved since the 1940s.

      Also the real estate developer community appear in part to be supportive. Standing side by side with Minister Twyford yesterday at a housing symposium in Henderson was the head of Ockham Developments.

      Also notable is that because National proposed a very similar UDA legislation in its last term, the attack lines in Parliament for next year are now very, very narrow. Hence Collin’s quite muted and oblique criticism.

      This Minister appears to have his ducks lined up.

      • Graeme 13.1.1

        Yeah, good work by the Minister, and his staff, for getting this together. A much needed capacity that should never have been removed in the first place, and should have been put in place before the demands of immigration came to bear.

        The ongoing challenge will be structuring the resulting developments so they don’t become an asset that can be sold off by future generations or governments, without replacement capacity being in place before sale.

        I felt the only reason National got dragged screaming and kicking to the UDA table was that they had run out of things to sell, so needed to create some ‘assets”, otherwise they were reduced to selling their seats, well Jamie’s seat…

      • The Chairman 13.1.2

        “Also the real estate developer community appear in part to be supportive.”

        With conservation land, council parks, scenic and historic reserves up for grabs coupled with broad powers, including the power of forced acquisition, the ability to ignore existing council designations, amend or write its own by-laws, override, add to or suspend provisions in the Resource Management Act and grant its own resource consent, of course property developers appear to be supportive. The removal of red tape is something they have long been pining for.

        However, what some see and define as the removal of red tape, others see it as the removal of safeguards.

        • Ad 13.1.2.1

          All reserves and conservation areas are subject to different acts. To sell those you would have to go through Reserves Act procedures even before you got to the Public Works Act procedures.

          As the Ruataniwha Dam case proved, even the state trying to divest a weeny bit for another public (local) good means you get your ass kicked all over the paddock in the Supreme Court.

          Different if you are living next to Remuera Golf Course though.
          That puppy can get carved up no problemo. Not a reserve.

        • mike 13.1.2.2

          i think you will find its things like golf courses ,avondale racing club single level houses down dominion road

  14. patricia bremner 14

    The trolls have to ‘chew this one over’ A stunning shift of power.

    The effect and strength of ‘joined up thinking’.

    This is a step change.

    Well done the Coalition.

  15. Timeforacupoftea 15

    Seen this all before !

    Just going back to the 1950’s.

    It was about bloody time these political clowns got on with the of housing the poor, the homeless, the injured etc.

    We still need to educate people to have one or two kids – not heaps of them while on welfare though.

    They need jobs, and this is starting to look better these days.

    Next up coming your way, minimum hourly rate of $25

    • patricia bremner 15.1

      This politician isn’t a clown. Twyford is gaining credibility.

      Great Post Topic this.

  16. Craig H 16

    In the title: Announcement, not ‘anouncement’.

    [Oops thanks. Now corrected – MS]

  17. Antoine 17

    We shall see how it goes

    A.

    • Antoine 17.1

      Readers should consider this. The combination of several different agencies (with different objectives) into a single super-agency is not, in and of itself, a cause for celebration. If you didn’t cheer the creation of the Auckland Super City, MBIE or MPI, then you shouldn’t cheer this.

      In saying that, it may do well and I hope it does.

      A.

  18. Antoine 18

    (Why can’t everyone get some of those ‘shortened planning and consenting processes’?)

    A.

    • Ad 18.1

      95% of consents sail through fine.

      Really big private ones get both extra scrutiny and extra Council resource applied, as you would expect given their effects.

      But these developments will be signed off by Cabinet before proceeding. That means they are government policy. They are getting special powers because they are executing government policy to deliver faster and better than the market can deliver or than Councils can regulate.

      That reflects the government view of the scale of market and regulatory failure in this policy area, hence the scale of market and regulatory correction required.

      • Antoine 18.1.1

        I am having trouble reconciling your statement that “95% of consents sail through fine” with your conclusion that there is large scale regulatory failure.

        Seems like a desire to ‘have your cake (allow the Govt to bypass regulation) and eat it too (continue to subject the private sector to the same regulation)’.

        In short, if there is regulatory failure, then developers other than the Govt should not remain subject to the failed regulation.

        A.

        • mickysavage 18.1.1.1

          95% of consents sail through fine means that consent is granted without any difficulty. This does not mean that the system is working for the benefit of us, only that it is working as designed.

          Blame the last government for “streamlining and simplifying” the system so that public oversight of consents was muted.

          • Antoine 18.1.1.1.1

            But this is even more confusing.

            You are saying that it is too easy to get consents. So, the Government is awarding itself more powers, to make it… even easier to get consents?

            A.

            • Sacha 18.1.1.1.1.1

              In exchange for allowing govt’s new dedicated development agency to oversee planning of bigger developments, council and private partners get faster signoff.

              This will not affect smaller developments which will remain with Council as the oversight agency.

              • Antoine

                Thanks, I understand better how the process will work now.

                My original question remains – why not extend the same benefit to all parties seeking consent.

                A.

  19. Mr Marshy 19

    Another day, another pipe dream from the man who knows about everything, Twitford. Wonder if he has costed it better than Kiwifail?

    • Sacha 19.1

      You ought to take prose that sparkling to kiwibog right away. Excelsior!

      • Antoine 19.1.1

        There is a point hidden in the marsh however, which is that rolling several agencies together into one super-agency has often been found to increase the total cost rather than reducing it (via increased economy of scale) as one would hope.

        A.

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    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    10 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    22 hours ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    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
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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
    4 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
    4 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
  • AT Need To Lift Their Game
    Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
    6 days ago
  • Christopher's Whopper.
    Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    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
    4 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
    6 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
    6 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
    20 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
    24 hours 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
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