Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 9/5/24

What’s new? A social agency with an emphasis on “investment” instead of “wellbeing” – but (psst!) we have had one of these before

A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency.

As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what works for those people and how to measure progress.

But wait.

Gary Judd KC: Real reason Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Chhour

And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal's jurisdiction?

Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be questioned. See The Summoning The Witness Summons That Did Not Work.

Mike's Minute: How did we get into the gas shortage mess?

This time yesterday when we were talking about the gas shortage we didn’t have a couple of facts.

The first is that Genesis would later in the day announce their intention to import more coal and would be doing so for the next couple of years

David Farrar: Misinformation being used to oppose bars

The Post reports:

Molly Malones in Courtenay Place served its last beer in 2015, yet was one of the “just under 200” licensed premises health authorities used to justify opposition to a new central Wellington bar.

Peter Dunne: Controller and Auditor-General's role

I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure.

According to the legislation, the role of the Controller and Auditor-General is to make sure that public sector organisations are spending public resources well and making good decisions. That is as it should be and consistent with what might be expected of good audit practice.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: New Zealand's budget faces its biggest test since the 1980s

Spare a thought for New Zealand’s Finance Minister, Nicola Willis as she prepares to deliver her first Budget later this month. The economic circumstances she has inherited from her predecessor, Grant Robertson, are the worst any Kiwi finance minister has faced since the tumultuous days of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Cam Slater: What Gets Measured Gets Done

It beggars belief that we are now again recording school attendance daily, and somehow it is a revelation that David Seymour has implemented such a system. What on earth were the last Government doing, other than refusing to release attendance figures – such as they were?

Ele Ludemann: Voting too easy

Voting in New Zealand is easy – maybe too easy.

If you’re 18, a citizen who lives here, or has been in the country in the last three years, or a permanent resident and have lived here continuously for 12 months or more.

If you meet that criteria you can enrol to vote even if you’re on remand, home detention, serving a community-based sentence, or serving a sentence of imprisonment of less than 3 years in a New Zealand prison.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.5.24

Thursday May 9, 2024 

News:
Māori keen on rehabilitation role
Labour Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel says iwi and hapu want to be involved at the design stage of any new prison rehabilitation project.

Corrections Minister Mark Michell has announced a $1.9 billion boost for Corrections in this month’s Budget, including $78 million for rehabilitation, with poisoners on remand able to access services for the first time.

Alwyn Poole: Hipkins would rather no one remember that he was Minister of Education

After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy.

He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017.

He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour were in power.

Capitalist: Sometimes You Have to Face Reality

Recently I celebrated my birthday; a certain milestone was reached and, despite my aversion to ever spending money if it can be avoided, decided to splash out and host a party attended by various lifelong friends.

Bob McCoskrie: Oranga Tamariki v parents who believe in biology

Oranga Tamariki has just signalled it’s ready to knock on family doors if they refuse to let their children change gender. While OT already has the power for children officially “in care”, it now says it can intervene in any family if it believes parental resistance to transitioning threatens the child’s “emotional wellbeing”.

Dr Eric Crampton: Coming to terms with the hard realities of tackling the deficit

They say that denial is the first stage of grief and that overcoming it matters if you want anything to get better.

There has been an awful lot of denial of the serious fiscal problem that the government must start addressing in May’s budget. From the left, every proposed reduction in spending is painted as a calamity. From the right, tax cuts are somehow still on the table. Both are serious forms of denial.

Kerre Woodham: There's got to be better ways of managing our mental health services

You will remember there was some alarm in some quarters when the New Zealand Police Service announced they'd be looking to step back from attending calls from people in psychological distress.

Wednesday May 8, 2024 

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Michael Reddell: The Treasury and productivity

Late last week The Treasury released a new 40 page report on “The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections” (productivity forecasts and projections that is, rather than any possible fiscal implications – the latter will, I guess, be articulated in the Budget documents). In short, if (as it has) productivity growth has slowed down a lot then it makes sense not to rely on optimistic assumptions about rebounds in productivity growth based on not much more than hopeful thinking. Fortunately, “wouldn’t it be nice if productivity were to grow faster” does not seem to be The Treasury’s style.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/5/24

Hurrah for coal – Shane Jones welcomes Genesis Energy’s import plans as natural gas production shrinks

A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal.

For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal.

David Farrar: Support for school phone ban

The Herald reports:

NYU Stern Professor of Marketing Scott Galloway practices what he preaches. The prolific podcaster and Algebra of Wealth author has founded a string of tech, branding and education start-ups, which have pushed his estimated wealth to over $100 million. The Herald asked him for his verdict on New Zealand’s mobile phones-in-schools ban.

Dr Don Brash: Letter sent to the Vice Chancellor AUT

The following was written on behalf of Hobson's Pledge:

Dear Vice Chancellor Damon Salesa,

We are a group of New Zealanders whose primary objective is to fight for equality under the law and advance the vision Governor William Hobson expressed at Waitangi in 1840.

Cam Slater: Off to the Privileges Committee We Go

Speaker Gerry Brownlee has referred the behaviour of Julie Anne Genter to the powerful Privileges Committee, even as the Green Party says her behaviour won’t cost her any jobs.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: A Left-Right Ranking of Universities in NZ

A Left-Right Ranking of Universities in NZ: a Practical Guide for Students and Parents

Here is my subjective ranking on a "most-left" to "most-right" scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.

Mike's Minute: The economy is stuffed and the reports show it

We now have three reports this week that help us understand just what an astonishingly bad place our economy is in.

The OECD report on Monday, which was blunt and although slightly political in terms of ideas around capital gains tax, was irrefutably accurate when it talked of our issues around productivity, education, and debt.

What the 2017-2023 Government left us is fiscally criminal.

Ian Bradford: A mini ice age may have already begun - are you prepared?

Milankovich cycles

Milankovich cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements on its climate over thousands of years. In the eyes of Milutin Milankovich there has been a noticeable trend in climate, temperature and seasons due to this cycle. We can accredit these long term climate changes to three variations in geometry between the Earth and the sun.  

Milankovich was a Serbian geophysicist and astronomer who in the 1920’s hypothesized that variations in the Earth’s eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession combined to result in cyclical variations in the intra-annual and altitudinal distribution of solar radiation at the Earth’s surface, and that this strongly influenced the Earth’s climatic patterns. 

David Lillis and Peter Schwerdtfeger: Enhancing Science, Innovation and Technology in New Zealand

The Science System Advisory Group has been established by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in order to provide advice to Government on science, innovation and technology. It will review challenges and aspirations of the sector and its structure, efficiency and effectiveness. A two-part report will be published; the first delivered end of June and the second in October. The first part will focus on principles for the sector and providing advice and recommendations. The second will provide final recommendations and advice on long-term changes in order to ensure the future success of science in New Zealand.

Chris Trotter: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into 'Pillar 2' – or they are going to China

Had Zheng He's fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed to make landfall on the Pacific coast of North America half-a-century before Columbus. The colonisation of the Americas, from East to West, would have consolidated China’s global hegemony irreversibly. The cramped and fratricidal states of the European peninsula would have remained minor players in a Chinese world.

In the worst geopolitical nightmares of the United States and its Pacific allies, a China grown as powerful as the empire which sent forth Zheng He’s mighty fleet, threatens to transform the Pacific into a Chinese lake.

Bruce Cotterill: The Remuneration Authority it tone deaf

The latest announcements by the Remuneration Authority suggesting an increase in parliamentary salaries strikes me as a government department that is tone deaf to the state of the country and the needs of the people.

Most of us are feeling the pressure brought about by a challenging economy, higher than usual inflation and the enforced interest rate increases that come with such changes. At least some, but not all, of our economic malaise, has come about as a result of poor economic management of the country’s financial position. The fault for that lays fairly at the feet of a select group of our political leaders who are now set to benefit from salary increases.

Dr Eric Crampton: Inflation and GST thresholds

I hadn't thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.

It's pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation - whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real consumption bundle.

But what about the threshold for filing GST?

Stuart Smith: ECAN and the Blythe River

As local MP I have had a lot of complaints about the inaccuracies in ECan’s report which led me to write to them seeking an explanation.

What is particularly alarming is ECan’s dismissive response to these legitimate grievances. Instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue and addressing the substantive issues raised, ECan has chosen to cling to hollow assurances of being “Honest Brokers” and championing the accuracy and integrity of its science reports. Such platitudes ring hollow in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Kerre Woodham: We need the prevention as well as the "cure"

We thought we'd start with the announcement on law and order and Corrections, given that this was one of the big drivers for National and ACT, and indeed New Zealand First’s election campaigns, and one in which the coalition government was elected upon.

Tuesday May 7, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 7/5/24

Correcting the Corrections announcement – a fiscal farce that should bother the OECD

One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates.

Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years.

Clive Bibby: We can’t afford to cut and run

The responses from the usual suspects to the recent TVOne opinion poll are not unexpected but the real danger of treating it as anything other than a snapshot in time is a concern.

For the MSM and what remains of the last irresponsible “free spending” Government, this result is a bit of welcome good news that could be interpreted to mean their days of baying at the moon may be shorter lived than had been previously thought.

Simon O'Connor: MPs behaving badly ...

No political Party is exempt from poor behaving MPs, but it does seem treatment of them varies.

So, another week and another Green MP is in trouble. This time Julie-Anne Genter, who broke the rules of Parliament when aggressively crossing the aisle and physically fronting government minister. It then turns out she has allegedly been aggressive to several business people in Wellington as well. I suspect there is more to come – the old, ‘where there is smoke, there’s fire.’

David Farrar: More on Carr vs Peters

The Conversation in 2019 reported:

Former federal trade minister Andrew Robb says he has quit his A$880,000-a-year consultancy job with Chinese-owned Landbridge Group because it didn’t have anything for him to do.

Former Victorian premier John Brumby says he has quit as a director of Chinese tech giant Huawei in Australia because he has too much else to do.

David Farrar: Why have the media ignored this outrageous speech?

Read the whole tweet (below). A Member of Parliament got up in the House and said the Government (which has a Cabinet which is 35% Māori) wants to exterminate Māori. Has the media reported this, with the editorials decrying such nonsensical and abusive language?

Mike's Minute: We don't need as many councillors or MPs

We have a lot to thank Jamie Arbuckle for.

Jamie is a Marlborough councillor and an MP for New Zealand First.

He is this week's political headline because he has two jobs and two salaries and has, for now, decided to keep all of them.

Cam Slater: Why Is Stuff Treating Public Service Cuts Like a Game?

Stuff‘s reporting on public service cuts is almost like watching a game or sports contest, where they are keeping a running total and breathlessly reporting on the cuts like they are a bad thing.

Why?

It’s as if they are gamifying and reporting on job losses like keeping score.

Ele Ludemann: Too much opinion too little analysis

One reason the media is held in such low regard is because there’s too much opinion and too little analysis.

Opinion is the journalist’s views which might, or might not, be based on analysis. Too often if there is analysis, it’s superficial, not necessarily balanced and contaminated by the opinion which, overtly or not, seeks to persuade.

David Farrar: Worst landlord #87247

Stuff reports:

Kāinga Ora has been ordered to pay a tenant $6000 after she was “terrorised” by her neighbours and fellow social housing tenants, who pooed outside her door and allegedly threw a woman off a balcony.

Poor woman.

Gary Judd KC: A law school to be avoided

The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for law students,” written these enlightened words:

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Should we expect all this violence to be the new normal?

We have a young producer working on this show called Jack, who’s recently moved over from London.

He asked us today why we're all so worked up about this one shooting on Ponsonby Road - and why if you open any of the local newspapers' websites today, it’s right there at the top of the front page.

David Farrar: A balanced and an unbalanced article

Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles.

This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more promising.

Dr Guy Hatchard: The Labour Government Deliberately Gaslit the New Zealand Public

The Labour Government deliberately gaslighted the NZ public and hid vital information they received from Five Eyes about the pandemic.

The UK Daily Telegraph has revealed that in January 2021, the United States government shared “gobsmacking” intelligence information with its Five Eyes partners (UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), which suggested a very “high likelihood” that the Covid virus leaked from a Chinese lab. The Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations were convened to discuss the probability of a lab leak as the US warned that China had covered up research on coronaviruses and military activity at a laboratory in Wuhan.

Kerre Woodham: If there's one thing we leave behind

If there's one thing we leave behind, it should be clean streams, pristine seas and first-world water services

Last week, I think it must have been Wednesday or Thursday, I was harrumphing and muttering away like Waldorf and Statler from The Muppets. I was doing a little bit of that while I was reading about the latest sewage spill into a waterway in Wellington Harbour. I'm like, how in this day and age, can this still be? This is an outrage - and Helen tries to tune it out until she hears her name, and I said Helen, let's see if we can get Simeon Brown on... this is unacceptable. Sure. OK, fine.

 Monday May 6, 2024 

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Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 6/5/24

Other councils are keen to be next to strike a water deal with govt

Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well.

This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:

David Farrar: Upheld over one word being wrong

The Media Council released:

The NZ Media Council has found that an opinion piece written by Damien Grant contained a significant factual inaccuracy.

However, the Council agreed with Dr Ali that the statement: “The worst intentional crime committed by Israel is to buy land off West Bank farmers and build houses” was inaccurate. The word “buy” is problematic.

Mike's Minute: Sport and Politics Shouldn't Mix

Sporting question - why are we angsting about Qatar and rugby?

Why won't Mark Robinson at the NZRU talk about the Middle East and whether we are going there, or expanding there, or holding tournaments there?

Why are we so edgy about Saudi Arabia and Qatar and all the other moneyed places that want to expand their sporting portfolios?

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Chlöe Swarbrick says capital taxes are "basic economic sense"

Chlöe Swarbrick says capital taxes are "basic economic sense", which goes to show she doesn't have any

Chlöe Swarbrick is reported by the National Business Review as being adamant that tax reform is needed in NZ. She says that adopting a capital gains tax is just "basic economic sense". I wonder which books in economics she is reading?

Cam Slater: Wayne Brown to Auckland Transport: Shaddap You Face

Auckland Mayor, Wayne Brown, has channelled Joe Dolce and basically told Auckland Transport to “shut up and listen”. They seem to lack ears, so it will remain to be seen if Wayne Brown can make them listen to Aucklanders’ concerns over Auckland Transport.

Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s geopolitical friendly fire has its limits

The gloves are off.

That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers.

Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand.

Ele Ludemann: Local solutions work better

Auckland is getting a local solution for its water:

The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining local control of water assets.

Lindsay Mitchell: Meanwhile “… the disturbing trend of increasing violence towards children continues to worsen.”

The Children's Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child's best interests. In her words,

Kevin: Genter Shows Her True Colours

These days it seems that you can’t go a week without having some Green MP go off the rails in one way or another. Case in point: Julie Anne Genter, Green MP and cycling advocate.