Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 1/9/23

Govt takes a punt on the game development industry while nobbling supermarkets with a code to encourage fair play

Favours are being bestowed on the business sector – some businesses, at least – in the latest bunch of Beehive announcements.

First, the government has decided it must do something to buttress the winning chances of the game development industry, which – we must suppose – is deemed to be in no condition to survive without a dollop of corporate welfare.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 16/6/23

Now that the police have been equipped to nobble drug importers, let’s equip them to nobble the ram raiders

Our buzz from the Beehive today alerted us to the buzz some Kiwis might have got from the contents of maple syrup jars.

A shipment of maple syrup from Canada – the police said – was found to be concealing 713kg of methamphetamine, which they estimated had a street value of $250 million and would produce around 35 million doses.

Point of Order: Too much fun is coming out of Otago....

.....so the govt has put $2.25m into a trough for other regions to have a lick

It’s a toss-up to decide which is more unnecessary – the investment of $2.25 million of public money in an industry which has almost doubled its revenue over the past year or the drafting and legislating of a bill to have things done that could be done without a statute.

The investment is in the rapidly growing game development sector. The latest data from the New Zealand Game Developers Association shows the total revenue for the industry is $407 million, compared to $276 million a year ago.