Mike's Minute: Chris Hipkins the opportunist

Here's a lesson for life - beware the opportunist.

In this case I refer to Christopher Hipkins, leader of the Labour Party and now, apparently, keen speculator and sports fan.

He is telling us it is time to get the America's Cup back to New Zealand. Now why would he be saying that do you think?

Ele Ludemann: But what would she advocate?

Chris Hipkins wants his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern back into public life to advocate for New Zealand:

While Dame Jacinda enjoyed a near-saintly international reputation, at home, her legacy was more contested.

She was loathed by anti-vaxxers for her government’s Covid-19 mandates, and was blamed by many on the right for New Zealand’s post-pandemic economic downturn. . .

David Farrar: The difference six years makes

The latest Crown financial statements have just been published so let’s look at the annual crown financial statements for 2023/24 compared to 2017/18.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Legal letter threatening Auckland University....

Law firm partner who wrote legal letter threatening Auckland University with defamation on behalf of Foodstuffs is also a lecturer .. at Auckland University

Amusingly, when my (now retired) colleague, Tim Hazeldine, wrote at article about the Foodstuffs - Countdown duopoly, Auckland University got threatened with defamation. The letter from Chapman Tripp somehow found its way onto the government's own Commerce Commission Website - you can read it at the end of this link:

Gary Judd KC: A student should not be forced to learn about tikanga to be a lawyer

Yesterday, Parliament's Regulation Review Committee heard oral submissions concerning my complaint to the Committee asking that a member of the committee move a resolution asking the House of Representatives to disallow the regulations promulgated by the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. If the regulations are not disallowed, they will take effect from 1 January 2025. Every first-year law student in New Zealand will be required to take and pass a course in tikanga Māori. In addition, tikanga will be infused into all the other compulsory subjects (contract, tort, property law, et cetera). The Committee allocated 15 minutes for me, 5 minutes for lawyer Thomas Newman (who supported my complaint), and 15 minutes for Justice Neil Campbell, who is now chairman of the NZCLE. For each of us, the allocated time was to include time for questions from Committee members.

Graeme Reeves: The Treaty Principle’s Bill or the Constitutional Principles Bill or neither?

In his blog of 14 October 2024 Professor Robert MacCulloch, in discussing the Treaty Principles Bill suggested that the bill be renamed the “Constitutional Principles Bill”. He suggested that it should simply map out the fundamental values all Kiwis hold dear avoiding the futile treaty interpretation and mind reading game.

If only it were that simple.

Karl du Fresne: The sad, ignoble decline of Frog City

On a recent Monday morning, my wife and I had breakfast at Bordeaux Bakery on Thorndon Quay, Wellington. I expressed surprise that the place was empty. A couple of years ago it would have been humming.We sat by the window with a view over the street. What we saw was a forest of traffic cones and red-and-white posts designating the cycle lanes that have spread like a cancer all over the city (a city, it should be noted, whose topography makes it singularly unsuited to cycling because many of its main thoroughfares are narrow and winding).

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.10.24

Friday October 18, 2024 

News:
Call for a rethink on prosecutions welcomed in some quarters while Government disputes need
A Māori barrister hopes updated prosecution guidelines published by the Solicitor-General this week will make judges and lawyers think carefully about the factors that put people before the courts.

Solicitor-General Una Jagose KC published 27 updated guidelines covering topics from the test for prosecution to diversion schemes which apply to all prosecuting agencies.

Dr Guy Hatchard: Do White Coats Make You More Intelligent?

This week we were subjected to a piece of biotech propaganda from the Hon. David Seymour MP, leader of the ACT Party and soon to be Deputy Prime Minister. Dressed in a white coat Seymour spoke to us as he was visiting Ruminant Biotech.

He held up a bolus (or pill) the size of a potato and announced that once put in a cow it would release a very special and secret synthesised compound that reduces the cow’s methane emissions by 75%. The bolus is a slow release pill that continues to work for six months. Seymour described this as a real win-win because we can keep having steaks and dairy products and not worry about climate change. He finished with “science is awesome and the real solution to our climate challenges”.

Peter Dunne: Health system reforms

The last thing the beleaguered public health system needs right now is a distracting debate about which language hospital staff should use when communicating with patients. There should be no argument that English, the most widely used language in New Zealand, is the one that should be used in all communications with or about patients, unless they do not speak English and need to be communicated with in a different language. But, at the same time, how, and in what language, hospital staff talk privately to each other, away from their patients, should be their own business. This is not a question of cultural respect, but simply a matter of practicality. As such, it does not deserve the attention it is currently receiving.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: New Nato leader arrives at a crunch time

There are easier jobs than NATO Secretary-General. And if you have just finished almost 14 years as Dutch PM, it is hardly a downscaling option.

Yet that is what Mark Rutte has chosen to do. He formally started his new job on 1 October – and he has inherited a military alliance facing its most significant challenges since the Cold War.

Russia wages its war in Ukraine. China expands its global influence. Within NATO itself, political tensions threaten its future. Yet Rutte, in his first statements, appears undaunted by the task ahead.

JC: The Sad Story at 1News

Staff at 1News are part of the problem, but they could also be part of the solution if they presented the news in an objective, non-partisan manner. Then some viewers and advertisers might return and aid the company’s balance sheet

The 1News at six pm is often an hour of doom and gloom. A major part of the news is on war, crime or those suffering in the poorer end of town. For many watching, six o’clock is their dinner hour and while what is being served up on the plate might be appetising, what is being served up on the screen is probably less so. The ease by which food can be enjoyed relies on the lower esophageal sphincter muscle working properly. If it’s not (tightening instead of relaxing), stomach acid can flow back up into the esophagus causing acid reflux.

JD: Looking at the Stats in Reality

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Despite the protestations of those who wish to make political capital out of it, the average length of life among Māori has nothing to do with racism – systemic, endemic or otherwise.

My wife is ill. So much so that, between outpatient clinics and inpatient surgical wards, she has spent most of the past six weeks in and around the hospital.

So far, so unremarkable, given that this scenario plays out for many unfortunate families every year. But then we come to what, considering the current NZ political narrative, is remarkable.

Thursday October 17, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 17/10/24

Dig deeper into these benefit numbers (as Louise Upston did) and you will find something cheering about job seeking

The tables [below] come from a report just published, titled…

Benefit Fact Sheets

Snapshot

September 2024 Quarter

The Benefit Fact Sheets, which “provide a highlevel view of trends in benefit receipt”, are published quarterly to provide information on income support provided by the Ministry of Social Development.

Mike's Minute: What will the Greens do on Darleen Day?

I assume you are as excited as I am for today is Decision Day.

It’s Meeting Day, Deal with Darleen Day.

Darleen is off to court, as you do, but her former party is going to have another meeting, and it is suggested they may even make a decision.

Ele Ludemann: Performance sabotaged by identity politics

A former Reserve Bank staffer wants the bank to put performance ahead of identity politics :

The government should abandon any requirement for the Reserve Bank to have “gender or ethnic balance” on its board, a former senior staffer says – and there should be stronger assessment of its performance.

David Farrar: How does a block of apartments cost so much?

The Herald reports:

A new Kāinga Ora complex has opened in Auckland at a cost of $1.2 million per apartment as one of New Zealand’s leading developers calls the state-run agency’s record of running up billions in debt a national scandal and embarrassment. …

Professor Robert MacCulloch: An economist on the Great Treaty Debate

The Great Treaty Debate. Why its words are self-contradictory (in so far as they address Statehood, Sovereignty & Government) at least for an Economist.

Our previous blog about the Treaty of Waitangi Sovereignty Debate spurred much comment on social media sites. Many readers insist that they know "the truth" - the truth about why sovereignty was ceded - or the truth as to why it was not ceded (which is why these "truths" have become more like "beliefs", in my view). I challenge those holding strong views - on both sides - to consider their answer to the following puzzle, which I can't figure out myself:

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The inflation fight is over, but the economy still suffers

Well, how good is that inflation number out today?

2.2 percent - we're there, baby! We're pretty much bang on where inflation is supposed to sit - at 2 percent, halfway between 1 and 3 in the target band.

We’ve made it. We have had inflation run out of control in this country for three years, but we have finally got it back to where it’s supposed to be. That is absolutely reason to celebrate - we're there.