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

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care

The World's Media Reports Horrific Headlines about NZ quoting numbers from the Royal Commission into Abuse that its own consultants told it "may never be known with any degree of precision".

A most awful, terrible report by a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in NZ from 1950 to 2019 has just been released. The PM & world's media reacted with horror. One case of child abuse is horrendous, but 200,000, which is the number featuring in national & global news headlines? Today one of the "Most Read" stories in the United Kingdom is that "Almost one in three people in NZ care was abused". CNN in the United States stated, "NZ enquiry finds 200,000 children and vulnerable adults abused in care". The Commission itself says “unimaginable” and widespread abuse in care between 1950 and 2019 is a “national disgrace”. It says Māori were disproportionately affected & subjected to overt & targeted racism & calls for apologies from the Government, Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 27/3/24

After hogging out on the Budget Policy Statement, media had less appetite for science reform “plan” (which is to seek advice)

The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities

This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver urgently needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders” while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track.