Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 1/7/23

Mahuta (reiterating NZ’s anti-nuclear position in world affairs) says we are a small country but we have sharp teeth

Speaking as Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control, Nanaia Mahuta addressed a conference (unidentified in her speech notes) on the theme of “Populism and Global Politics”.

While discussing foreign policy challenges and the threats from populism, Mahuta said a crucial distinction must be made between populism and popularity.

Point of Order: Mahuta is back in the swim....

......with a Bill to spare us from sinking in water-supply costs

The government hadn’t done with legislating and regulating our water-supply systems, when we last reported on the flow of announcements from the Beehive.

Nanaia Mahuta (in tandem with Commerce and Communications Minister David Clark) had one more press statement to issue –

Point of Order: Empowerment and partnership.....

........both concepts come into the considerations of Ardern’s Treaty-sensitive government

“Empowerment” is a bit like “Treaty partnership”. Just a decade or so ago you would rarely have heard of it.

Since then, its use has burgeoned and its meaning – like the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi’s three simple clauses – has evolved to be applied to whatever the government wants to validate.

In a book titled Empowerment: The History of a Key Concept in Contemporary Development Discourse, Anne-Emmanuelle Calvès writes:

Point of Order: Take that, Mr Putin:

More support for Ukraine is to be provided by NZ

Sticking it to the Russians by providing more support for Ukraine was the most significant news item officially posted on the Beehive website since our previous report.

An announcement about immigration regulations and visas might have nudged it as a headline grabber, butit didn’t mention “nurses”.

The latest posts tell us our hard-working ministers have been –