Judith Collins announced:

The new Investment Plan focuses on supporting research that can be of economic, environmental or health benefit to New Zealand.  The new Terms of Reference outline that approximately 50 per cent of funds will go towards supporting proposals with economic benefits to New Zealand.

“The Marsden Fund will continue to support blue-skies research, the type that advances new ideas and encourages innovation and creativity and where the benefit may not be immediately apparent. It is important that we support new ideas which lead to developing new technologies and products, boosting economic growth, and enhancing New Zealand’s quality of life,” Ms Collins says. 

“The focus of the Fund will shift to core science, with the humanities and social sciences panels disbanded and no longer supported. Real impact on our economy will come from areas such as physics, chemistry, maths, engineering and biomedical sciences.

This is a great and badly needed decision. I have covered many times how a growing proportion of the Marsden Fund was going on identity politics research, wokeism and social sciences.

A focus on core science is desperately needed. Now we just need to make sure that those deciding on the applications are not the usual suspects.

The Government is also focusing the Catalyst Fund on “clear growth areas of quantum technology, health, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, space, and Antarctic research”

Sadly critical research such as disabled indigenous stories about climate change and decolonising ocean worlds from imperial borders will no longer get taxpayer funding – well not until the next Labour Government!

Bronwyn Howell writes:

KiwiRail is a state-owned enterprise, and so by law its principal objective is “to operate as a successful business”.1 Success in the business world means that you provide something that your customers are willing to pay for, at a price for that exceeds your cost of production, leaving something to reward your owners/investors for the resources they have committed. 

Something all the other SOEs have managed.

That is a very powerful graph. In 16 years they have not managed to grow their revenue despite the economy as a while increasing 115%.

But they have taken is $12 billion from taxpayers which is around $6,000 per household.

From 2014 to 2017 taxpayer subsidies made up around 25% of Kiwirail cash, but since 2017 it has exploded to over 60%. And remember this is meant to be a commercial SOE, making money.

To put these figures in context, the $3bn of government funds that went into KiwiRail over the past two years could have paid for the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, which is at risk of being scaled back for affordability reasons.

A great reminder of opportunity cost.

Independent analysis shows that Interislander is a profitable business for KiwiRail. Interislander’s private-sector competitor, BlueBridge, certainly is. And I have no reason to believe that KiwiRail is not recovering its costs from Auckland Transport and Wellington Regional Council.5 So, the gap between revenues and costs would appear to be primarily attributable to KiwiRail’s freight services.

This is a fascinating aspect to the analysis. So we’ve put in $12 billion to help subsidise a freight service.

Maybe we should turn the Interislander into a standalone SOE, and sell the Auckland and Wellington train lines to the local operators.

A much quoted definition of insanity is “repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results”.6 Successive New Zealand governments have officially accepted arguments that KiwiRail is just one big subsidy cheque away from meeting its principle objective, to operate as a successful business. Sixteen years of financial accounts suggest otherwise.

If KiwiRail’s assets are still in poor condition, and its market share and commercial viability are in a worse state, then what has the government’s continuing investment in KiwiRail actually achieved?

I think it is high time we had a mature national conversation about KiwiRail.

Hard agree.

For the next five days I’m away on a Disney cruise ship with my eight and five year old. Even better than the water slides, pools, shows, kids clubs, pirate parties, character meets etc is that there is little or no Internet or phone connectivity.

So basically I’m uncontactable until at least Monday.

I have timed posts to appear during my absence, but don’t expect breaking news to be covered.

Thomas Coughlan writes:

The Government will shortly unveil its plan to give voters a choice on moving to a four-year Parliamentary term. …

Act’s bill was first put up as a members’ bill in the last Parliament. That bill would not have automatically extended the maximum length of that term to four years. Instead, it would have given the Governor General the ability to extend the term from three years to four if control over Parliament’s select committees was effectively handed over to the Opposition, allowing a far greater deal of scrutiny of the Government.

The changes would only take effect if a majority of voters approved them in a referendum.  …

If approved at a referendum, the proposal could lead to the largest transfer of power back to the legislature in recent times, and would likely have flow-on effects on how Parliament functions and the type of candidates selected to be MPs.

I desperately want both these reforms to happen. Both could play a huge role in improving policy making in New Zealand.

The four year term is badly needed. Almost every other country has four or five years. Three years is simply not enough time to implement good policy, and see if it has worked before the next election. We almost always give a government a second term because we rightly think three years is not enough. With a four year term, I think we would see some bad governments lose office after just one term.

But also very important is the proposal to hand over control of the select committees to the opposition. This would allow far more rigorous questioning of Ministers and CEs, lead to more inquiries into important issues and generally improve golding the Government to account.

The Browns announced:

The Government is restoring democratic accountability to transport decision-making in Auckland, ensuring voters can hold their elected representatives responsible for the city’s transport policies, Transport and Auckland Minister Simeon Brown, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown say.

The changes are:

• Transport policy and planning functions will move from Auckland Transport back to Auckland Council.
• A new Auckland Regional Transport Committee will be formed to develop a 30-year Integrated Transport Plan for Auckland, to be agreed upon by both Cabinet and Auckland Council.
• Designate Auckland Council as the Road Controlling Authority with decision-making shared between the Governing Body and Local Boards. 
• Auckland Council will retain a transport council-controlled organisation focused solely on delivering transport projects and services.

These are all good changes, but worth also reading this column by Steven Joyce who points out that the lack of political will at Auckland Council is key. Once control passes more fully to them, the Council needs to do its job.

The Spinoff has an article by Zeni Gibson which details eight years of harassment by a man called Greg. Her suffering has been appalling, and hey tormenter has made a mockery of the law that should be protecting her.

I can’t even summarise all the multiple failings, but it sadly doesn’t surprise me. There have been so many cases where protection orders are basically worthless.

I think we need a massive law change, where breaches of protection orders (after a threshold) just get you automatic jail time. I would advocate something along the lines of:

• 1st breach – Police contact offender within 24 hours to warn them they have broken the order and are facing arrest
• 2nd breach – Police arrest offender, process them, and schedule a court hearing
• 3rd breach – Police arrest offender, a dedicated court hears case within 24 hours, and automatic 48 hour jail sentence
• 4th breach – automatic 96 hour jail sentence
• 6th breach – one week etc etc

No one should have to go through what Zeni Gibson did. If she is assaulted or killed by her harasser this will be a preventable crime. It is not good enough.

The former UK Labour Deputy PM John Prescott has died aged 86.

He was one of the last genuine working class Labour Ministers. He worked as a ship’s steward before becoming an MP. He was the UK Labour Deputy Leader for 13 years under Blair. He was the Deputy PM for 10 years.

In 2001 he became extremely popular for his response to a protester who threw an egg at him. Prescott, a former amateur boxer, responded with an excellent left jab to the jaw

The Royal Commission concluded:

The case for vaccine requirements of all kinds weakened in early 2022 with the arrival of the Omicron variant since vaccination was now much less effective in preventing COVID-19 transmission and immunity waned over time. While beneficial to the individual concerned, vaccination now offered less protection to others and the public health case for requiring it was weak.

In our view, some workplace, occupational and other vaccine requirements were applied too broadly and remained in place for too long, which caused harm to individuals and families and contributed to loss of social capital.

I agree with this conclusion. In the early days the vaccines did help prevent transmission, which did justify some of the coercive measures on the grounds they protected others. But once it became clear that with the dominant Omicron variant there was little impact on transmission, the government should have changed policies.

Basically they did not follow the science. The science changed as the virus mutated, but the Government did not want to be seen to be changing course – so they put perception above reality.

The NZDF announced:

Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding stood up a Court of Inquiry following the incident in order to understand the facts of what occurred.

“The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been,” Rear Admiral Golding said.

“The crew did not realise Manawanui remained in autopilot and, as a consequence, mistakenly believed its failure to respond to direction changes was the result of a thruster control failure.

“Having mistakenly assessed a thruster control failure, standard procedures should have prompted ship’s crew to check that the ship was under manual control rather than in autopilot. This check did not occur. Remaining in autopilot resulted in the ship maintaining a course toward land, until grounding and eventually stranding.”

So a $150 million ship sunk because no one thought to check if the autopilot was off!!!

This is beyond embarrassing. It is a huge people failure or training failure or both.

Rear Admiral Golding said given human error was identified as the cause, a separate disciplinary process would need to be commenced once the Court of Inquiry had concluded.

I can only imagine multiple officers will go through the disciplinary process.

As I covered in March, DOC had been keeping Cathedral Cove closed for over a year, despite it being very simple to safely access it.

The previous Labour Ministers did nothing to get it reopened. They allowed DOC to talk about it being closed for many many years.

But Tama Potaka told DOC to find a way to get it open before summer, and they have. He announced:

The Government has delivered on its promise to restore public walking access to the popular Mautohe Cathedral Cove in time for Summer 2024-2025.

It is great to have the second most popular tourist attraction in NZ re-opened. Go and enjoy it.

1 News reported:

One of those receiving a Jobseeker benefit is Napier woman Suzzy Fairbairn.

A former truck driver, she’s spent the last nine months looking for work but has had no success.

To demonstrate that there were no jobs for truck drivers in Hawke’s Bay they showed a search for jobs:

But as readers will notice, they misspelt “truck drivers” as “truck drivbers”. Even worse they ignored the prompt saying to check for spelling errors, they were so keen to show how it is all the fault of the Government that there are no jobs available.

If there was no spelling error, Seek would show 62 jobs for truck drivers in Hawke’s Bay.

Very, very sloppy.

Joe Biden announced:

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. 

He kept his word up until when he didn’t keep his word, and made the most venal pardon in the history of pardons.

Trump was rightfully attacked for his tramping of norms. All those who attacked Trump for doing so, should show integrity and attack Biden for this shattering of norms.

I wonder if it is time for a constitutional amendment to remove the pardon power from the presidency. Once it has been used to pardon family members, it can only keep going downhill.

It is worth noting that Biden didn’t just pardon his son for the offences he has been charged with. He has pardoned him for any and all crimes Hunter may have committed since 2014.

The Herald reported:

The Government has $115 million at risk from the collapse of SolarZero.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she was seeking urgent advice on the SolarZero situation. She had no further comment.

NZ Green Investment Finance – a “green investment bank” created by the previous Government to fund environmentally-friendly businesses – made a $145m debt facility available to SolarZero, as well as facilitating $220m in credit lines from international private lenders First Sentier Investors, Natixis Investment Managers and Société Générale.

There are scores of investment funds that are looking to invest tens of billions of dollars in green energy firms. If SolarZero couldn’t attract enough investors willing to risk their own money, taxpayers should not have been forced to invest in it.

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins knows his party has a fight on its hands to win back support in Auckland, and he says being more visible in New Zealand’s biggest city will help with that.

Labour suffered significant losses in Auckland during last year’s election, winning just six electorates – half the number from 2020. What were assumed as safe seats, like New Lynn and Mt Roskill, fell into the hands of National.

Visiting Auckland is not the same as having front bench MPs in Auckland. The composition of Labour’s front bench is:

• Auckland 2
• Wellington 4
• Christchurch 1
• Provincial 2

Labour’s party vote in the general Auckland electorates under MMP has been:

1. 2020: 50.0%
2. 2002: 42.4%
3. 2005: 41.8%
4. 1999: 39.1%
5. 2017: 36.8%
6. 2008: 32.5%
7. 2011: 30.4%
8. 2014: 27.7%
9. 2023: 25.9%

So their 2023 result was the worst ever for them in Auckland in the history of MMP.

Hipkins is now making regular visits to Auckland. He says he understands there was a perception that Labour was too Wellington-focussed and he has to change that.

He thinks it was only a perception?

The Ministry of Health announced:

The Ministry of Health is today releasing an evidence brief and position statement on the use of puberty blockers for gender identity issues and outlining a more cautious approach to their use.

The evidence brief shows a lack of good quality evidence to back the effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers when used for this purpose.

Their finding was:

Overall, the evidence brief found significant limitations in the quality of evidence for either the
benefits or risks (or lack thereof) of the use of puberty blockers. This means there is insufficient basis
to say that puberty blockers are safe or reversible (or not) for use as an intervention for gender
dysphoria in adolescents.

Their position on use now is:

Noting that the Government has signalled an intent to consider regulating puberty blocker
prescribing in gender-affirming care, clinicians should exercise caution in prescribing.
Clinicians who initiate puberty blockers should be experienced in providing gender-affirming
care and be part of an interprofessional team offering a full range of supports to young
people presenting with gender-related issues.

Back in early 2023 I blogged:

I do think people aged under 18 who are firm about wanting to change their gender identity should generally be able to start treatment before they are 18, but decisions on individual cases should reflect the individual circumstances, and not just be treated as an automatic yes.

The two major factors are the age of the young person, and the severity of the treatment. The younger someone is, the more caution you should apply to starting treatment. A 12 year old is not the same as a 17 year old.

Also taking hormone blockers is different to having sex change surgery.

The problem is that in many countries, it was an automatic “yes” to every gender dysphoric child, and in fact staff who raised concerns were shunned and pushed out. Some of the stories from the UK and US were horrifying.

As I have said before I am no fan of Candace Owens. I think she is a grifter who peddles conspiracy theories and has promoted many deeply anti-semitic things.

But if enough New Zealanders wish to pay money to hear from her, they should be able to do so. The decision by Immigration NZ prevents them from being able to do so.

As a matter of reality, these bans will actually make her more popular and amplifier her views even more. I would much rather have her at a live public event where she can be challenged and have to respond, than have more people subscribing to her podcasts (which are broadcast only) because of the bans.

And while I don’t like her views, she is far from a fringe figure. She has interviewed one on one the President-Elect of the United States. Her YouTube channel has over 3 million subscribers and almost half a billion views. On Instagram she has over 5 million followers, Twitter 6 million and almost a many on Facebook. That is more than the entree NZ media combined.

Banning Candace Owens doesn’t hurt her. It is wonderful for her – she gets to be the victim. It gets her more and more followers. It makes her voice more powerful.

I hope Owens appeals the ban, and if it goes to a Minister they make a decision that treats NZers as adults, not children.

News.com.au reports:

A police officer has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman after he said “bugger it” and fired his service Taser at her in a rural nursing home. 

Clare Nowland died of injuries sustained when Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, discharged the weapon at her chest in the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17 last year. 

The jury heard he issued several warnings as she approached him with both hands on her walking frame and holding a knife, before he said “bugger it” and fired the weapon at her. 

If a police officer can’t disarm a 48 kg 95 year old on a walker without using a taser, they should not be a police officer.

It is a just verdict.

The Herald reports:

During that time, Chambers took a lead role marshalling the troops during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was later put in charge of the operation to remove the vaccine mandate protesters occupying the Parliament precinct in early 2022.

The stand-off ended with a mass eviction on March 22, 2022, which descended into a remarkable scene in New Zealand: a riot with police officers being attacked with makeshift weapons like cobblestones, and returning fire with sponge rounds, while protesters set fire to the grounds.

“It was really, really tough,” Chambers said. “The whole issue around Covid mandates had divided the country. New Zealand Police reflects the community so within our own ranks we had different views on what we should and shouldn’t do,” Chambers said.

“But as police officers, we’ve got a job to do. Everyone put aside their personal views and got on with the job. I was so proud of everyone.”

In the fortnight leading up to that watershed moment, Chambers would leave the confines of Police National Headquarters and head down Molesworth St to walk around the occupied grounds of Parliament each day.

He spoke with staff to canvas their thoughts, but also to get a visceral sense of what it felt like on the ground.

“No doubt it was a tense environment. We hadn’t seen this kind of division since the Springbok Tour in 1981,” Chambers said.

“But the vast majority of the people at the protest were there for the right reasons. They were good people, it was only a small few that came with a different purpose in mind.

Nice to have the new Commissioner say this. As someone who visited it, and actually had my staff do a poll of participants who were there, I agree with the Commissioner. It’s a shame that Government Ministers called them scum, rather than acknowledging this.

Of course those who violently resisted eviction were not good people, but again they were a small minority.

NewstalkZB report:

Santa and his elves must wear seatbelts for Christchurch’s Christmas parade following new health and safety advice – a move labelled by some city councillors as “woke nonsense” and “over the top”. 

Christchurch’s Christmas Show Parade director Jason Reekers said an audit of the parade’s floats recommended installing seatbelts on some of them. 

This included Santa in his sleigh and the elves, Reekers confirmed. Other floats have also had safety bars installed. 

Reekers said there was an “extremely low” safety risk but said no one had fallen off a float in the 75 years the parade has been running. 

“With today’s health and safety rules and with WorkSafe the way they are, once we’ve had something brought to our attention, if we don’t show that we’ve done mitigation, then we’ll be held liable. 

“So, we kind of get put between a rock and a hard place.” 

This is the consequence of a safety at all costs mantra.

It is inane that a flat which moves at 5 km/hr needs seatbelts. Are they worried one of the fake reindeer will panic and storm off?