Lindsay Mitchell: National's problem epitomised

Why did National pick two former welfare-dependent sole mothers to be Ministers of Social Development?

Because National is woke. They buy into the leftist public service fetish for 'lived experience'.

New Zealand's unique welfare problem isn't disability or unemployment. Other developed nations can match us.

Cam Slater: Is Paula Bennett Being Bought in to Knife Luxon

Word on the street is that Paula Bennett, after her stellar fundraising efforts before the election is being bought in as National Party President to replace the rather hapless Sylvia “Who” Wood.

In fairness to Paula she is a good fundraiser and wonderful at ratf**king caucus members who aren't doing what she wants them to do. Apparently the caucus are a bit worried none of them are quite good enough to knife Luxon, so they are colluding around the Bennett campaign for Party President so they have someone who can deliver the bad news to Luxon.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Seymour should never have politicized Pharmac....

Seymour should never have politicized Pharmac by making National's Biggest Fundraiser, Paula Bennett, its Chair.

I thought the ACT Party was meant to stand for meritocracy, something that has been missing in this country the past six years. I though ACT was meant to stand for the ideal of an independent Central Bank, run by monetary policy technocrats whose sole focus is to achieve price stability, which is a job that requires technocratic, not political, skills.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/4/24

If there has been any fiddling with Pharmac’s funding, we can count on Paula to figure out the fiscal facts – can’t we?”

Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business.

Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”.

Cam Slater: It’s Cronyism, Pure and Simple

Paula Bennett’s pay off for raising millions of dollars of donations for the National Party has been realised. She’s been appointed chair of Pharmac in a brazen display of cronyism from the Government:

David Farrar: Paula or Desley?

The Herald reports:

Are Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson and former deputy prime minister Paula Bennett both eyeing a run for the Auckland mayoralty in 2025?

Paula Bennett: Why should you give a damn?

Are you a spectator or a participant? Do you get involved? Do you give a damn?

I never wanted to merely be an observer of other people doing things. I wanted to get involved. I had the Kiwi attitude of “give it a go”. I was no good at sports, so I wasn’t going to be any good at participating in team sports. I found my participation in my former career in politics. I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines and criticise other people. I wanted to get in there and try and make a difference.

This year we need everyone to get involved. It is election year. At the last election around 82% of eligible people voted. We can do better than that.

Bryce Edwards: Wouldn’t it be great if political parties opened their books

An unusual thing happened on Friday, when the National Party proactively released public information about financial donations it had just received. The party declared that its former deputy leader Paula Bennett had just raised $1.8 million dollars in donations from a handful of wealthy supporters. And she had raised the money in just three weeks. One donation of $250,000 was from New Zealand’s wealthiest man, Graeme Hart.

The unusual part was that the party was releasing the details of the large donations publicly and early, instead of just leaving it to be silently added to the register at a later date on the Electoral Commission website, which would be picked up by the media later down the track.

Normally parties are keen to downplay large donations from the rich. With public suspicions that political parties are beholden to and even corrupted by large donations, there is a reluctance to allow this information to be publicised.