Dennis Wesselbaum: Around 900,000 Kiwis experience food insecurity......

Around 900,000 Kiwis experience food insecurity - it’s a quiet crisis that needs urgent attention

Most New Zealanders are feeling the effects of a seemingly relentless rise in the cost of living – at the supermarket, the petrol pump and in their household energy bills. For some, however, this tips over into what scholars call “food insecurity”.

Perhaps the best way to define this is to look at the internationally accepted definition of its opposite – food security.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 4/2/25

Climate change minister froze out farm leaders – but (is he a closet greenie?) warmed to Greenpeace and WWF lobbyists

Your monitors of the Beehive website can tell you what ministers are up to so long as they post a press statement. They can’t tell you what ministers have been doing which they shouldn’t have been doing, if they keep quiet about it. And they can’t tell you what minister haven’t been doing that they should have been doing.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 28/1/25

Simeon Brown steps out as Minister of Health

Your PoO monitors of ministerial doings have noted that, since we last reported, Simeon Brown has stepped out to deliver his first media statement as Minister of Health.

The PM and his refreshed Cabinet team have been …

Bob Edlin: PM’s turbocharging plan...

Science sector is overhauled and overseas investment fostered as part of the PM’s turbocharging plan (but is hot air involved?)

Hot air – by the sounds of things – is, or will be, making a vital contribution to the country’s economic recovery.

The PoO team (we acknowledge) is not strong on the intricacies of turbocharging. But we determined to learn more after the PM proclaimed:

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 9/12/24

Climate Change Commission: it’s the end of the road for Carr (without sending four knights to nobble him)

King Henry II is popularly believed to have signalled his exasperation after repeated disagreements with Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, by blurting: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/10/24

Freedom of speech – Judith Collins sounds a caution against criminalising what people say

Judith Collins has gone out to bat for our right to freedom of speech.

She cautioned against criminalising speech that forms part of public discourse.

Speech that was offsensive or insulting should be condemned, but “without always needing to resort to measures that create a chilling effect on freedom of expression.”

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 21/10/24

Don’t forget the Paddle Ferns, while saluting Kiwi sports teams’ weekend triumphs – and please note Peters’ success in Thailand

Our sports teams did the country proud over the weekend.

Besides holding on to the America’s Cup and winning the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, our teams beat Aussie netballers (here in Wellington) and Indian cricketers on their home turf.

David Farrar: Did Labour break trust in Government?

This chart [below] uses data from the General Social Survey. As you can see trust in four vital government institutions increased slightly from 2016 to 2018. Since then it has plummeted for all four institutions. A movement of an entire point on a ten point scale is huge.

Claire Dale: A looming crisis means New Zealand must rethink how it pays for aged care

The recent submissions to parliament’s Health Select Committee makes one thing clear: a crisis looms for the aged care sector in New Zealand.

This crisis centres on the funding and staffing of residential aged care (ARC) and in-home care and support services.

David Menkes, Barbara Mintzes, Joel Lexchin: Advertising of prescription drugs

Most high-income countries ban direct advertising of prescription drugs – why does NZ still allow it?

New Zealand and the United States are the only high-income countries to allow unrestricted direct-to-consumer advertising of branded medicines, including the name of the drug and the condition for which it is prescribed.

Our recent analysis explores why most other countries outlaw this controversial practice. We review evidence that direct advertising can lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatments, causing potential harm and higher health costs.

Gary Moller: Eight Graphs That Show How We Die in New Zealand

The article from The Spinoff, a woke rag that we'd all be better off without, titled "Eight Graphs That Show How We Die in New Zealand," provides an overview of mortality trends in New Zealand. It looks at different things like how long people live, what causes death, how the assisted-dying law affects people, and how policy affects death rates.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 26/7/24

Tax relief is on the way (hurrah), but help for the wine industry draws attention to the issue of corporate welfare

From one part of the Beehive comes a reminder that tax relief will be delivered next week.

From another comes a reminder that this government is no less willing than its predecessor to dispense the taxes it does collect to provide corporate welfare.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/7/24

An OECD report shows why Seymour is intent on shredding red tape

Our daily monitor of ministerial machinations and Beehive braying has been on the blink for the past week, alas. No, not a technical problem. Rather, a matter of ill-health.

Today we are catching up and herewith record the headlines posted on the government’s official website since we last buzzed on July 4.

Dr Sarah Williams, Professor Leon Benade: School-based healthcare

If the NZ government wants to improve student outcomes, it needs to invest more in school-based healthcare

New Zealand’s school achievement is currently front and centre with the government’s plans to invest NZ$67 million into structured literacy. But what has been largely missing from the discussion on education is the impact health can have on learning and academic achievement.

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”.

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.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 16/2/24

Luxon is one of three prime ministers pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza – but the two-state solution they push looks fanciful

Two days after hundreds of people rallied outside the New Zealand parliament and the US embassy in Wellington to protest against what they maintain is genocide in Gaza, Prime Minister Chris Luxon joined with the Prime Ministers of Australia and Canada to express their concerns that Israel seems to be planning a ground offensive into Rafah.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 15/2/24

Valentine’s Day went unnoticed on the Beehive website – but it is not “baa, humbug” to celebrate National Lamb Day

None of our ministers – a quick check with the Beehive website suggests – found cause to mention, let along celebrate, Valentine’s Day.

But two ministers – Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson – ensured that National Lamb Day did not pass unnoticed.

Health and education are closely linked – NZ needs to integrate them more in primary schools

Given the health and education challenges many New Zealand children face, it is surprising (and even depressing) how little crossover and collaboration there is between these two vital sectors.

The inequities in health and education are both cause and symptom of the lasting socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by so many young New Zealanders. And yet the known interconnection between health and education rarely translates into policy or action, despite extensive evidence of the reciprocal benefits.

NZCPR Newsletter: Aspirational Reform

The last six years of inept management by the Hipkins-Ardern Labour Government has exposed a multitude of problems facing the country that need to be addressed.

Since poor public sector performance has become the norm in most policy areas, the lack of resilience of many New Zealand families to cope with the resulting adversity, is now a growing concern.

Nowhere is this more evident than in health, where the contrast between being forced onto a public hospital waiting list for specialist treatment, and having the resources to pay for private care, could mean the difference between life and death.