Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 11/10/24

Hurrah – the RBNZ has lowered interest rates, but then the Crown accounts put a stopper on any celebrating with champagne

Finance Minister Nicola Willis was sounding chipper on Wednesday, after the Reserve Bank cut the Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 4.75 per cent – this was “welcome news” for families and businesses, she enthused

John MacDonald: Call in the army for our civil defence future

How many reviews and reports do we need before we accept that we are nowhere near as good at emergency and disaster management as we think we are here in New Zealand?

I reckon we’ll never admit it. But we should.

In fact, we shouldn’t just admit that we’re not as good as we think - we should also be looking at some major structural change. Not just more of the tinkering around the edges that the Government is talking about today.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 2/8/23

Govt will be cutting education costs to find $680m after doing its sums on a pay deal for teachers

The Minister of Education has answered our question: how is the government spending (or misspending) our money?

It will be spent on giving secondary school teachers more money in their pay packets – and this will cost heaps.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 1/8/23

Parker performs as a party propagandist, as he exposes the potholes in Nats’ transport proposals

Point of Order hopes to find the answers to questions about what ministers are up to, when our staff monitors the government’s official website.

How are they spending our money, who are they appointing, where are they going…that sort of thing.

Point of Order: 2002 civil defence law had no Treaty clause....

.....but Labour will provide one, along with some guaranteed jobs for Māori

The weight being given to “Treaty of Waitangi” provisions in legislation drafted by the Labour government can be measured by a quick reading of the Emergency Management Bill.

The bill has a Treaty clause. The legislation which it will replace – the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 – made no mention of the Treaty.

The Treaty clause in the Emergency Management Bill “sets out ways in which the Bill recognises and respects the Crown’s responsibility to give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi”.