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.
This is what David Seymour was told. But he and the Government still chose to push through significant cuts to the scheme.
It seems clear that the Government refused to do anything to stop Winston Pulp from closing its mills. And the Government’s plans to address price volatility by the use of LPG is counterproductive, especially when the cost of renewable energy is considered.
David Seymour finally released some hard information about Act’s coalition bone – Treaty Principles bill. The regulatory impact statement is damning and points to the status quo as being preferable. It will provide an interesting scope for Judith Collins in her non-partisan role as Attorney-General.
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.
The Government has mistakenly released confidential legal advice confirming that the Charter School legislation breaches ILO conventions, free trade agreements and potentially the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
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.
Shane Jones has been getting into the news recently after his comment that High Court Judge Cheryl Gwyn was a communist made at a private meeting was revealed in the media. He has been called out by Judith Collins and Winston Peters but surprisingly not by Christopher Luxon.
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.
The year is 2035 and after the McAnaulty-Sepuloni Government is removed from power new National Prime Minister Simeon Brown makes his first new announcement. Guess what it is?
Guest post by Nigel Haworth discussing recent publicity given to the Labour Party’s debate around tax reform.
94% of councils that have voted vote to retain Maori wards. Many of them are National background Councillors and previously urged Central Government to not push ahead with the legislation. The forced local referendums are now expected to cost ratepayers and take away from Council workloads
While Luxon and Brown hand it to the Councils, a grassroots campaign is taking effect and the power is with the people. Warning: article contains satire.
We are in a power crisis and the government has had to respond, but will their response make any difference?
Energy Minister Simeon Brown is peddling lies about a gas shortage. The country exports around 40 percent of its annual gas production as methanol. More is used to make synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, a nasty greenhouse emission source, for our farms. We don’t need expensive LNG distribution facilities while exporting the bulk of our own gas.
There is increasing concern that recently introduced policy changes by National have made housing for the most needy amongst us more tenuous.
Roger Douglas, the most revolutionary minister in the postwar history of Aotearoa, knew how to exert change in three years. Rogernomics transformed the economy with dizzying speed, from protectionist welfare state to a neoliberal free market. Elliot Crossan argues that the left needs to take the same approach to end the era of neoliberalism.
David Seymour’s new Ministry has 91 staff, including 3 Deputy CEOs who earn up to $348K each – more than Ministers. Seymour wants to use it as a vehicle to change how NZ makes laws and invokes Ruth Richardson in his vision.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced that the Government will do away with Local Government’s obligations to consider the social, cultural and environmental implications of their decisions.
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?
It is well time the Prime Minister set out how it is in our interests to move against China by buying into AUKUS.
It is a painful experience, to have fought long and hard for something you knew was inadequate and to have even that taken away. The Labour Party has long urged activists to be ‘realistic’. Elliot Crossan argues that it will not return to be a socialist party of the working class.
It is a shame that Ipredict is not still around. Otherwise I would be putting money on Chhour being the first to go.
Lester Levy gave a keynote address this weak signalling painful, strong medicine is needed for Health NZ. But his claims contradict frontline staff and experts.
When Luxon claimed $1000 a week of tax-free, taxpayers money for accommodation, because he didn’t want the 2 free properties he was offered, he said he was entitled to it. But according to the government, all beneficiaries now require harsher rules or risk having their entitlements stripped. Yet only ~5% aren’t compliant and last quarter, 1500 were cut off. What do the numbers say?
The jobseeker beneficiary sanctions and targets are not adding up. It also inflicts a lack of dignity and shame on recipients at a time when austerity is actively increasing unemployment.
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.
“Don’t give me culture, I’m not hearing you Rob. I can buzz around like a Beehive boy, but I’d like to see you do my job”
National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.
Seymour was once called the “most dangerous man in Aotearoa right now.” But is he just misunderstood? Let’s revisit Section 7AA and Karen Chhour’s tears too.
Another minister is lauding themselves falsely. David Seymour bragged about school attendance at the start of term three, and claiming the credit for that happening. The problem is that it was worse than the attendance for the start of term two. It was a worse school attendance after he tried to improve attendance. Is he competent as a minister?
After months of warnings from doctors, nurses and hospitals, a Northland patient is dead after no doctors were present at the hospital. The budget cuts and chosen austerity measures are hurting us all. Here’s more.
God Bless the ALP, Bill Shorten and all the Labour MP’s across the ditch for tackling the real issues facing people with disabilities in Australia. It takes courage, fortitude, a good heart to seek redress to wrongs done to the weakest amongst us. They are taking those steps.
NZ government are just good at dithering.
