The government plans to put up to 2000 more Kiwis behind bars by 2034 at a potential cost of up to $1.2bn per budget in today’s money. Meanwhile crime, including violent crime is increasing across all of NZ.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Act’s Treaty Principles Bill had been approved by Cabinet for drafting and introduction into Parliament in November this year. Get ready for the circus to start.
Remember when Christopher Luxon told the National Party that we had a maths teaching crisis? Experts have concluded that the statement is misleading. And an OIA dump suggests that behind the scenes there is an attempt to radically rewrite the existing curriculum.
Nicola Willis’s bungling of the Kiwirail Interislander project cancellation has so far cost Kiwis $1bn, but that’s not all. Today RNZ’s reporting reveals the government may have also undermined NZ’s relationship with South Korea.
This is going to take some explaining. The police have decided to take no action against National MP David MacLeod for failing to declare $178,394 in electoral donations. No this is not an Onion headline.
NZ Parliament sitting where Labour’s Kieran McAnulty implores the Coalition government to stop deceiving Kiwis, and Winston Peters and Louise Upton both get fired up. Meanwhile, Casey Costello still doesn’t know who wrote her tobacco Ministerial papers.
Dan Bidois has unwittingly exposed that National has a list of well honed talking points that are used and repeated ad mauseum. Normally within context, sometimes not.
We are in a power crisis and the government has had to respond, but will their response make any difference?
There is increasing concern that recently introduced policy changes by National have made housing for the most needy amongst us more tenuous.
Even though National and NZ First have ruled out supporting Act’s Treaty Principles Bill beyond the first reading David Seymour thinks that the Bill has a chance of succeeding and wishes to proceed with introduction of the bill.
Lester Levy again asks Kiwis to pray for him. But who will pray for us, Dr Levy?
The Waitangi Tribunal has in a scathing interim report slammed Act’s Treaty Principles Bill. And Christopher Luxon has underlined his weakness by refusing to halt the bill.
Te Ao Māori forms an increasingly important part of our cultural identity. And most of us realise this and celebrate it. This Government’s stance is at odds with this increasingly strong consensus.
Shane Jones, went onto radio yesterday and pledged a solution to high power prices. What are his chances and why are we in this mess?
National’s decision to cancel the replacement Cook Strait ferry project is developing into a full blown political crisis for the Government with estimates that it could cost the Crown up to a billion dollars and with further costs to come.
National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.
The PM of NZ is accused of spreading intentional disinformation on Health NZ as the evidence piles up against the Coalition government. Here’s how it went down.
Yesterday in Parliament was pretty weird. Act MPs staged a show down event and expressed increasing dissatisfaction with their Government’s speaker Gerry Brownlee.
Senior medical figures have questioned the accuracy of what the Government is saying about the health crisis in Northland. And in an example of unbelievably bad timing it has been revealed that the Goverment put aside $216 million to fund a exise duty reduction for Phillip Morris.
This Government continues its trend to resembling something akin to Liz Truss’s rule of England. And Health is clearly among its targets.
Just as with the Three Strikes Policy National has never seen an irrational itch it will not scratch for political advantage. Despite the reality.
It has emerged that National has sneakily reduced child poverty targets.
The Royal Commission’s recently released report into abuse in care has highlighted how unsuccessful and how damaging boot camps can be at the time the Government is celebrating the opening of its latest attempted version of a boot camp.
It is now clear why Simon Watts rushed out a three page brochure setting out what this Government’s response to climate change will be. It knew that the latest Climate Change Emissions Reduction Plan was coming out for consultation. And that it could not come up with a credible plan.
Chris Bishop’s plan to “flood the market” with housing development described as being “unaffordable, unworkable and unfair” is also “unsustainable” and even “unhinged”.
The National Government has won in its long standing pay dispute with New Zealand police. With Australia offering $20,000 cash bonuses and attractive packages to poach our cops, what’s going to happen to an already demoralised and stretched police force?
This week Change Minister Simon Watts showed the depth of the Government’s thinking by releasing a three page brochure outlining its collective thoughts. If the Government is at that level of thinking the country is well and truly stuffed. And meanwhile ACT’s Mark Cameron wants to prevent local government from considering climate change when formulating regional plans.
National activist Sunny Kaushall is to head a committee with a budget of $3.6 million over two years to advise the Government on complex legal and privacy issues for which Kaushal’s qualifications are not clear.
As reports confirm that the Government intends to sell off Kiwirail ferries, the question has to be asked: “Why is the Government paying thousands of dollars to former National Party members for advice” and when is independent advice not reliable?
The Government is hoping that Carbon Capture and Sequestration will reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emission levels. But it is refusing to protect forests and trees, which are the best Carbon Capture and Sequestration devices going.
Chris Bishop has announced proposed changes to planning laws that will increase urban sprawl and damage to the environment.
The bastard son of the three strikes law alka the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament. And other measures announced will mean added cost, misery and injustice to the operation of our justice system.
Are things back on track? How about for those who can least afford to feed themselves? It appears not with reports that funding for food banks is being slashed. And the consequence could be dire.
The Government is in a rather precarious position relating to the contract to replace the ageing Cook Straight ferries, which clearly need replacing.
The focus groups have spoken and the Government has completed its 360 degree backflip and decided to fund Pharmac so that National can meet its pledge to introduce 13 new cancer drugs.
The grounding of the ferry Aratere is potentially a political gift to National.
