Clive Bibby: Recovery is not a dirty word - but does have consequences

It should be no surprise that Central and Local Government are concentrating on recovery - in the case of Central Government, it is a strategy forced upon them after the reckless spending of the previous Labour Government that had put the country into an unsustainable economic straitjacket from which we are struggling to emerge.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 25/1/24

Nicola Willis agrees more needs doing when welcoming CPI data but Mark Mitchell lacks words to trumpet handout news

Most of our readers by now will be aware that the PM joined other politicians in what has become the annual trek to the Ratana Pa to try to curry favour with the Maori who celebrate the birth of the founder of the Ratana Church.

His speech can be found on the government’s official website, enabling you to learn what he said rather than what critics of the government were urging him to say.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/9/23

Better-than-expected BoP figures give Robertson something to bray about – but revisions helped, and the deficit is still troubling

The latest balance of payments statistics – providing a broad measure of what the country earns and spends internationally – gave grist to Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s publicity mill today.

The current account deficit narrowed to 7.5 per cent of GDP in the June year compared with 8.2 per cent of GDP in March.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 19/7/23

New law strikes at snake oil peddling, but rongoā healers will be spared because regulators can’t define what they do

The Government claims to be delivering certainty to displaced homeowners affected by the recent North Island extreme weather events, providing an interim payment to support them when their insurance payments for temporary accommodation run out.

But certainty for taxpayers is missing from the press statement from the Minister for Social Development and Employment, Carmel Sepuloni. It contains not one figure with a dollar sign. which means the sum being budgeted by the government for this initiative is a mystery.