Ele Ludemann: From $50,000 to less than $1,000

Minister Brooke van Velden shows what can be achieved when common sense and practicality meets bureaucracy:

Kiwis told us that they wanted their Government Departments to be easier to engage with by putting English names first, as it is the language that the vast majority of the country speaks.

Barry Brill - Passports: Reverting to "New Zealand"

Letter to The Minister of Internal Affairs - Hon Brooke van Velden

Kia 
ora
 Minister

The 
media 
has 
reported
 your intention
 to 
restore 
the 
priority 
of 
the
 English 
language
 version
 of
our 
passports.
 In 
this regard,
 you 
might
 be 
interested 
in 
our 
experience 
in
 Mauritania:

Ryan Bridge: Have we lost the plot on Health and Safety rules?

Brooke van Velden's anti-health and safety crusade's taken a rather bizarre twist - it's the plot twist nobody saw coming.

She's consulting the public on safe activities kids are allowed to do on farms, like watering plants and collecting chicken eggs.

It's a bit of an odd strategy, but the strategy seems to be that there's a potential problem with the law.

Damien Grant: Brooke Van Velden is one of a handful of ministers directly combatting NZ’s decline

We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we've done it” is attributed to former Luxenberg Prime Minister and European Union head Jean-Claude Juncker.

Juncker was referring to the crisis in the Eurozone some two decades past. I don’t know enough about that period to comment further but keep his wisdom in mind as we concentrate on the here and now.

Let’s focus on this week’s heroine; Brooke van Velden, who brought this nation to attention with her response to Stuff columnist’s Andrea Vance’s colourful characterisation of herself, Nicola Willis and others.

Kerre Woodham: There's got to be a happy medium in health and safety

The war on road cones has ratcheted up, with the coalition government setting up a hotline for people to report the overzealous use of road cones and no, it's not an April Fool's joke. The hotline is part of a first tranche of measures introduced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden, designed to reform the country's health and safety laws so businesses can focus on the necessary and the essential - not on the “senseless and superfluous” as Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking this morning.

David Farrar: National Library should not censor

Stuff reported:

A renowned Auckland University of Technology historian has cancelled an upcoming speech at the National Library of New Zealand, after claims they tried to censor what he was going to say.

Professor Paul Moon was set to give a lecture in February 2025 on British policy leading up to the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi.

Dr Bryce Edwards: The Act Party’s highly influential year

The Act Party ends the year on 9.6% in an average of the last public polls, a moderate gain on its 2023 election result of 8.64% but still a strong result considering the poor track record of minor parties in MMP, and a testimony to the high profile enjoyed by its leader David Seymour and his Treaty Principles Bill.

Mike's Minute: Our Covid Inquiry has to look at more

God bless Brooke van Velden.

As part of the coalition agreement, the Government are looking to expand the terms of the Covid Inquiry.

Why?

Christie: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

David Seymour needs to pull his head in

I was considering voting for ACT at the election. Maybe I still will, but I have to admit, David Seymour’s recent antics have made me think twice. The election is now only a few weeks away. If voting mirrors the current polling in any way, we should have a National-ACT government next month. It cannot come soon enough.

Point of Order: Willie Jackson is coy about a meeting....

.......(if there was one) to determine what media will tell us about Treaty issues

Our monitors of the government’s official website have spotted no press statements from Willie Jackson since July 8, when he paid tribute to Dr Ihakara (Kara) Porutu Puketapu.

We are disappointed because we are expecting – correction, we are hoping – to see something today, preferably a denial that Jackson is meeting with mainstream media people to determine how Maori and Treaty issues should be reported.