Thomas Cranmer: New Zealand Politics -The Land of No Consequences

The latest mini-scandal to hit the Labour government only reinforces the need for a comprehensive overhaul of the regulations relating to conflicts, political donations and lobbying.

The revelations that the Race Relations Commissioner, Meng Foon, made donations to politicians during the 2020 election cycle, including to the then Labour backbench MP, Kiri Allan, is the latest is a series of self-inflicted mini-scandals which are plaguing the government.

Just as the Prime Minister had caught his breath from Minister Stuart Nash's resignation for disclosing confidential information from a Cabinet meeting to two businessmen, who were also former donors, Hipkins is now faced with the headache of dealing with Foon's donations to Allan's election campaign.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Australia’s immigration announcement is a positive change for NZ in the ANZAC relationship

I totally disagree with anyone seeing any negatives in Australia’s immigration announcement at the weekend, this is one of the most positive and significant changes for New Zealand in the ANZAC relationship.

I don’t believe it’s going to lead to a significant brain drain, that brain drain’s already happening.

Kiwis have already been moving to Australia regardless of the fact that they couldn’t get citizenship until now, I don’t think this is going to shift the needle much for people.

Lushington D. Brady: Is the BOM Over Heating Records?

Whenever the legacy media and climate alarmists prattle about “record temperatures”, they rarely bother to qualify their hysteria. Understandably, really: because they’re invariably talking about differences in the tenths, if not hundredths of degrees. After all, who’s going to be overly panicked if the media were to truthfully say that the hottest day this summer was so marginally hotter than one 10 years ago that you wouldn’t even be able to see it on a thermometer?

In fact, the difficulty of reading such fine measurements on old-school mercury thermometers, as compared to modern laser digital thermometers, is a persistent problem in compiling long-term temperature records. Add to that, the fact that laser thermometers can record even the briefest fluctuation in temperature, and you’re left comparing apples with pumpkins.

Point of Order: While the PM gloried in citizenship announcement.....

....our media were helping us weigh the even-handedness of Meng Foon

You might have the impression the PM went to Australia simply to claim the credit for persuading the Albanese Government to make it easier for Kiwis to become Aussie citizens.

He had succeeded where other New Zealand prime ministers had failed.

This impression was fortified when he said:

Chris Trotter: Sweetening The Deal: Why Are The Aussies Suddenly Being Nice To Their Kiwi Mates?

Let's get something straight, right from the start, Australia is still discriminating against New Zealanders. They’re making it a lot quicker and easier for Kiwis to become Aussie citizens, which is great, so – “Thanks, Cobber!” – but, that’s all they’re doing.

An Aussie, crossing the Tasman, is guaranteed instant residence here and can apply for permanent resident status after just two years. Permanent residents, in New Zealand, get to enjoy pretty much the same rights and privileges as full New Zealand citizens. They can vote, they have full access to health and education services, they can get the dole. About the only thing a permanent resident can’t do is stand for public office. That right is reserved for citizens alone.

Bryce Edwards: Why donations from public servants to politicians stink

Minister of Justice Kiri Allan is currently pushing through a programme of reform to the rules around political fundraising by politicians. And yet it turns out Allan herself has received large donations that raise questions about the integrity of the politician, the donor, and the Beehive systems that are meant to protect the democratic process.

On Friday 1News’ Benedict Collins revealed that in 2020 Kiri Allan received donations from Race Relations Conciliator Meng Foon to assist with her campaign to win the East Coast electorate. The donations were made up of $9185.04 in rent subsidies and $1500 in cash. Foon also donated the lesser amount of $1000 to unsuccessful National Party candidate Tania Tapsell.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is defending Foon’s donations, describing them as a “balanced approach” because he donated to both major parties. But a senior public servant giving money to politicians brings everyone into disrepute.

Tim Dower: I can't see anything good in this deal for us

The Aussies, and come to that our own prime minister, have gone overboard telling us what a great deal they’ve done for New Zealanders living in Australia.

And on the face of it, yes. It’s a great deal for our people already living across the ditch.

Six, maybe seven-hundred thousand of them.

Alwyn Poole: NCEA 2023 Version (aka What Chance for Kids?)

I am often asked to make clear the NCEA system. I have done my best below but please keep in mind I only have an undergrad (economics), a Masters (education), a teaching diploma and a post grad in sports management. Oh… and 32years in the “system”.

Back in the day the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) replaced School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and University Bursary. University Entrance remained but the form it takes has altered.

Karl du Fresne: We are no better than Putin's Russia or Xi's China

Someone using the name Jordan Heathcote has submitted provocative comments on my two most recent posts. I doubt that the name is genuine but I’ve published the comments because I welcome alternative perspectives and because I think there’s some truth in what the commenter says, although he (I assume it’s a "he") over-eggs the pudding somewhat – for example, by treating all journalists as liars. I worked in the media for more than half a century and can’t recall any instance when a colleague knowingly reported something untruthful. (Bias and distortion are another matter.)

Should I have published comments from someone I suspect is hiding behind a pseudonym? That question forces me to revisit the vexed question of anonymity. But it also raises a far bigger and more disturbing issue – namely, the climate of fear that obviously deters many people from exercising their democratic right to say what they think, using their own names.

Lushington D. Brady: Don’t Knock the Wind Turbines

Is there anything good about wind turbines? The monstrosities are a blight on rural landscapes: a munching, menacing monster to birds and bats (including dozens of endangered wedge-tailed eagles in Tasmania) and a toxic nightmare to both build and dispose of. And for all that, we get unreliable, intermittent electricity and soaring power bills.

The best the bastard things could do is fall over.

Which, as it happens, is exactly what more and more of them are doing.

NZCPR Podcast: Labour delivers control of fresh water to Maori

Labour has changed the name of its Three Waters policy and increased the number of water entities from four to 10. It's now called the "Affordable Water Reform", despite it being less affordable than Three Waters! 

 Has anything really changed, or is Labour's water reform a trojan horse to deliver control of fresh water to Maori?

This is a podcast of the latest NZCPR feature article - to read the article click HERE. 

Garrick Tremain: Unkindness

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on the world has gone mad! 

Don Brash: Australia our closest frenemy

The announcement over the weekend that Australia has decided to allow New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for four years to acquire Australian citizenship has been greeted with mixed emotions in New Zealand.

On the one hand, a great many people have welcomed the new policy with enthusiasm – it makes it easier for New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for many years, but who have been denied many of the benefits of Australian citizenship, to acquire those benefits. And it makes it easier for New Zealanders who are finding it tough in New Zealand at the moment to contemplate moving across the Tasman.

Francesca Rudkin: For some, these changes will be the tipping point that sends Kiwis to Australia

So, there’s been big news over the weekend as New Zealanders living in Australia are now afforded similar rights to Australians who live in New Zealand when it comes to having a pathway to citizenship.

Since 2001, New Zealanders have been able to live and work in Australia indefinitely on a Special Category Visa, but getting permanent residency and citizenship has been a long, difficult and expensive processes. Some changes were made in 2016, but these still didn’t make getting citizenship, and the rights it gives, any easier.

Practically, it has meant New Zealanders in Australia have been unable to access benefits such as student loans or the National Disability Insurance Scheme (our ACC), join the Defence Force, or vote.

Andrea Vance: Why Labour is starting to look a little grubby

It’s usually the third term before the rot sets in.

Labour is displaying early symptoms of third term-itis, a kind of arrogance and complacency that can be fatal to future electoral success.

The longer they spend in office, the more a government start to look a little grubby. And there is nothing dirtier than money in politics.

Stuart Smith: We Must Fight to Retain Our Democracy

Democracy in New Zealand is being challenged from within.

And those who fought and died to protect our freedom would never have believed that the biggest threat to our democracy is not a foreign power, but our very own government.

The Three Waters rebranding is a strategy aimed at diverting attention from the true intent of the policy and reducing the intensity of the ongoing debate.

James Kierstead: Why Britain is in the Pacific

On March 31st, at a meeting of member-countries, it was agreed that the UK would join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The CPTPP is one of the world’s largest free-trade blocs, accounting for 13% of global GDP, 15% of global trade, and 500 million people.

New Zealand is a founding member of the agreement as well as its depositary – the nation to whom an international treaty is entrusted. New Zealand is also the chair of the CPTPP this year, though its role in helping Britain to the table goes back further, to when New Zealand sent trade negotiators to the UK after the Brexit vote.

Dr. Muriel Newman on the State of Politics in New Zealand with Paul Brennan

 

Dr Muriel Newman is the founder and Director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research (NZCPR) - a public policy think tank she established in 2005 after nine years as a Member of Parliament. Muriel's background is in business and education.

Listen HERE

Point of Order: Albanese makes it easier for Kiwis to become Aussie citizens....

.....and that looks likely to make emigration even more attractive

Travel has loomed large in Beehive press statements over the past 24 hours or so.

The PM has travelled to Australia, the Minister of Education is off to the US for a teaching conference, kiwis have returned to the Tongariro Forest, and the last live farm animals to travel by sea from this country have been shipped out of New Plymouth.

The PM’s press statement today is the most significant insofar as it tells us we all have been given a strong incentive to make our own travel plans and emigrate to Australia.

Brian Easton: Watering Down Three Waters?

How far has the government’s Three Waters policy retreated?

There are plenty of anecdotes which illustrate that the current management of fresh water, wastewater and storm water is failing. But they don’t explain the problem.

The Auditor-General observed in 2019/20, that the amount councils (excluding earthquake-recovering Christchurch) spent renewing pipes and other plant was 74 per cent of depreciation for water supply, 64 per cent for waste water and just 39 per cent for storm water. Councils struggling with funding shortages are failing to maintain their invisible piping; the anecdotal failures are a consequence. Shifting responsibility to separate visible agencies is a remedy. This government deserves credit for at last having faced up to the problem. It gets less credit for its solution.

The government’s first proposed solution was so unpopular and, in my judgement, so flawed that it has announced a retreat. How much better is the new one?