Best of 2025: Ryan Bridge - We shouldn't have to work for the government

Do you know what's really starts to rub me the wrong way?

It's governments telling us to do more things.

This morning, we've got the government coming out with yet another hotline.

Bob Edlin: You may well learn who’s doing what, when you translate the te reo and turn the acronyms into simple English

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency became NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi early in December 2023.

The road-building agency at that time was believed to be the first government department to dump its te reo Māori name first in favour of its English name.

The New Zealand Herald reported:

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/8/24

You may have heard of “congestion charging” but buckle up and brace for “time of use” schemes

The Government has announced it will soon introduce legislation allowing councils to charge drivers for using roads at certain times or locations, depending on how busy the road is.

That’s the way the news was reported by OneNews under the headline…

Point of Order: Hipkins enthuses about the Fourth National Action Plan......

.....but who remembers the first three?

Just two statements had been posted on the Beehive website, when we made our daily check this morning. This suggested the PM and her ministers were easing up on their workloads as Christmas Day nears.

But two more statements have been posted since then, one of them grandly headlined: