Stuff reports:

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has been bringing her dog to work, where it is not allowed.

The Post reports Whanau has been breaching the council’s tenancy agreement by bringing her dog, Teddy, to the office.

In an emailed response to The Post, her office confirmed the lease agreement the council had for its offices on The Terrace “does not allow animals on the premises”.

However, it said the council hadn’t received a formal breach notice from the landlord, nor had the landlord asked her to stop bringing the dog in.

Having dogs at work is a great idea. I love seeing photos of dogs at Parliament after Trevor Mallard changed the rules to allow them.

If WCC owned its own building, then the Mayor could bring her dog in, as well as Councillors and staff. That would be great.

But WCC have a legal lease agreement which bans animals from the premises.

The issue here is whether the Mayor is above the rules that apply to everyone else. Other Councillors have been told they can’t bring dogs in. No staff are allowed to bring their dogs in.

The fact the landlord hasn’t complained to the Council is irrelevant. The landlord may not even be aware. The Council has a legal obligation to not breach the lease terms.

The Council could have approached the landlord and asked for a waiver. They did not.

What is unclear is whether the Mayor was aware she was breaching the lease by bringing her dog in. Did no one on staff ever tell her? If so, then the staff are at fault, not her. But if the staff did tell her, and she decided the Mayor gets to ignore legal requirements, then she is at fault.

The Herald reports:

The gunman responsible for this morning’s deadly shootings in Auckland’s CBD was on home detention for domestic violence.

The Herald understands that Matu Tangi Matua Reid was serving a community-based sentence of home detention at the time of the shooting and was subject to electronic monitoring via an ankle bracelet tracker.

Three people are dead, including the gunman, after the incident at a construction site in Auckland’s CBD. Six others have been injured, including police officers.

Reid, 24, had appeared for sentencing in the Auckland District Court earlier this year after admitting charges of impeding breathing, injuring with intent to injure, wilful damage, and male assaults female.

When news broke this morning it seemed surreal. Having someone shoot eight people in public is something I am used to reading about in other countries, not Auckland. My thoughts have been with those affected in Auckland.

All credit to the brave Police officers who eventually stopped him. It is a reminder that their job requires them to out themselves into critical danger, to keep the rest of us safe.

6.0% inflation is I guess better than 7.0% inflation, but the cumulative impact off high inflation is huge.

Overall prices are 17.6% higher than three years ago. This is a greater increase than the 15.0% increase over nine years of the Key/English Government (and that included a GST increase which had compensating tax cuts).

Also note the hike in petrol tax came in on 1 July so won’t be captured in the data just released.

The Herald reports:

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall corrected an answer to Parliament this evening, admitting her office had stopped health data from being released because of the timing of other Government announcements.

Earlier in the day, Verrall had denied this was the case under questioning from National’s Shane Reti.

They don’t learn, do they!

The information they delayed releasing is the fact that only 72% of ED patients get seen within six hours. We have gone from 7% having to wait over six hours to 28% – four times as many. In absolute terms, this means we’ve gone from 20,000 patients waiting over six hours to 80,000.

Reading the Hansard of the debate about Education Minister Jan Tinetti misleading Parliament, it becomes apparent how flimsy her claims are. Key aspects are:

• She thought she didn’t need to correct her statement to the House because so long as she thought the answer was correct when she gave it, she didn’t need to correct the answer even after finding out it was incorrect. Could you imagine trying that in a school exam – I know the answer is wrong, but I believed it was right at the time, so it is right!
• Tinetti claims that between January 2023 and 21 February 2023, when her staff were in regular contact with the Ministry of Education and in contact with the Office of the Prime Minister, including the Deputy Chief of Staff and a senior adviser, she had no knowledge at all of that activity going on
• She knew the Deputy Secretary of Education had told select committee he was really keen to get it out this side of Christmas, and she never ever wondered or inquired why it was not released until 21 February
• That when she twice told media on 21 February term 3 attendance data would be released that same day, she didn’t actually know it would be released that day, but flaked a lucky guess
• Tinetti also claimed that one factor in not correcting her answer was because there were no further questions on the attendance data, but that is because MPs at the time took her at her word that she had not delayed it. So her defence to not correcting a lie, is that as the lie worked, it didn’t need correction!

When you have forgotten that you have been elected by taxpayers …

When you think spending other people’s money is a right not a privilege …

When you don’t have to provide support for assertions (unlike school students would) …

When you have learned your petulance from badly-behaved children …

Stuff reports:

The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) remains confident the 2026 Commonwealth Games will go ahead despite there being no host city following a dramatic termination of Victoria’s bid on Tuesday.

NZOC chief executive Nicki Nicol says there is still time for a replacement host to be found but confirmed it will not be New Zealand, despite the NZOC revealing an interest in hosting the 2034 Games with the support of the Government, back in April.

In a shock announcement, that blindsided both the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the NZOC, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told a press conference on Tuesday that the cost of his state’s bid had ballooned out from A$2.6 billion to at least A$6b (NZ$6.5b) and it would be withdrawing its bid.

Nicol said the NZOC was incredibly disappointed by Victoria’s decision.

We should never ever bid to host the Commonwealth or Olympic Games. They always cost billions.

Victoria knew this when they won the Games. It is bad faith to renege on a hosting. No one will ever trust them again.

Frankly they should stop the tradition of having cities bid to host the games. It would be far better to say develop six cities (one per continent) that has the facilities to host world class games, and just rotate them through those six cities.

The Registrar of Pecuniary Interests has published his report into Michael Wood’s inaccurate disclosures, and the findings are quite savage, with a recommendation he be referred to the Privileges Committee. The report finds:

• Even after the scandal broke, he took 27 days to correct his pecuniary interest declarations
• Wood claims he simply forgot both the AIAL shares and Contact shares in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 returns.
• It seems he also owned a second lot of AIAL shares through the J M Fairey Trust
• Wood never sought any advice when completing his initial return or any subsequent return, unlike most MPs
• Wood confessed he had never even read Appendix B of Standing Orders which sets the rules for the register (note he is a former chief whip and deputy leader of the house)
• Wood also admitted he had never read the explanatory notes, which give examples and guidance
• Wood claims that despite the 16 interactions with the Cabinet Office over his shareholding in AIAL, it never occurred to him to update the previous returns with the Registrar
• Wood claims he never noticed the dividend payments from AIAL and Contact as they just went straight into his bank account
• Wood claimed that while he was a Trustee of the J M Fairey Trust, he was not engaged with it, and left things to his lawyer
• The Registrar notes Wood appears not to be aware of the duties of Trustees under the Trusts Act 2019, and trustees can’t delegate their powers
• Wood lied to the media when on 8 June he said he had corrected his declarations – he did not do so for several further weeks
• The shares held in a trust should also have been disclosed

No surprise he has been referred to the Privileges Committee for contempt, as he clearly was contemptuous of thinking the rules applied to him.

Stuff reports:

The key promise in the Green Party policy was to have a new system where the Crown would help Māori buy stolen land back from the private market, by establishing a new fund and through a law allowing Māori or the Crown “first right of refusal” when whenua raupatu was listed for sale. 

This would punish hundreds of thousands of families for something that happened almost 200 years ago by people they are not even related to.

When you sell a property, you get the best price for it because multiple people can make offers on it. It is this competitive market that gives you a value.

What the Green Party policy will do is that if a claim is made against your house and land, then the value of that land will shrink immediately. Your $1.5 million section will suddenly be worth say $1.2 million. You’re $300,000 poorer overnight because you can no longer sell your house to the highest bidder.

Such a terrible terrible idea.

Stuff reports:

Notorious murderer Phillip Smith​ has spent more than a year keeping his latest round of offending – fraud of more than $66,000 – out of the public eye based on his own notoriety. …

Now he has pleaded guilty to applying for a government-run Covid-19 scheme designed to help small businesses and filing false income tax returns. …

Between October 2019 and March 2020 he incorporated five companies with the shareholders and directors being friends of associates or third parties not otherwise known to him. Smith asked for a cash flow loan of $11,800, to be used for core operating costs only, and the applications were approved. 

Then 17 false GST returns were filed, claiming $48,237 and $26,643 paid into his account and the rest to friends and associates.

How is this possible?

Do they give Smith Internet access so he can register companies and claim wage subsidies?

Does he do it via proxies? If som why are they not charged?

I’ve been following the Dickason trial where she is charged with murdering her three daughters. I don’t want to comment on the specifics of this case, as it is before a jury but I wanted to share my reaction to when the news of their deaths was first reported.

When I heard they had been killed by their mother, my instinctive reaction was to almost feel sorry for her, and just conclude she must be mad, not bad. I was thinking “Oh the poor woman, she’ll have to live with this for the rest of her life”.

But I know that if I read about a father killing his three children, my instinctive reaction would be a deep deep despising of the man, and I would be concluding he is evil. I would want him strapped to Ixion’s flaming wheel as punishment.

Now sadly it is more common for a father to kill his children as some sort of revenge against an estranged partner, so that may be a logical factor as to why I instinctively react that way. But it is still strange that I have such deeply different instinctive responses to a parent who kills their child, based on the gender of the parent.

The latest One News poll has Chris Hipkins down 2% to 24% Preferred PM and Chris Luxon up 1% to 20%.

Here is how the PM and Opposition Leaders have fared in Preferred PM ratings in the One News poll in July of election year.

Opposition Leaders

1. 2008 John Key 38%
2. 1984 David Lange 28%
3. 1999 Helen Clark 22%
4. 2023 Chris Luxon 20%
5. 2005 Don Brash 20%
6. 2020 Judith Collins 20%
7. 2002 Bill English 17%
8. 1987 Jim Bolger 14%
9. 1993 Mike Moore 14%
10. 1990 Jim Bolger 12%
11. 2011 Phil Goff 9%
12. 2014 David Cunliffe 8%
13. 2017 Andrew Little 6%
14. 1996 Helen Clark 7%

So Chris Luxon’s rating is just 2% off what Helen Clark had in 1999 and his score of 20% is the 4th= highest of 14 Opposition Leaders in a July of election year.

And how about PMs:

1. 2011 John Key 54%
2. 2020 Jacinda Ardern 54%
3. 2002 Helen Clark 50%
4. 2014 John Key 48%
5. 2005 Helen Clark 40%
6. 1987 David Lange 35%
7. 2008 Helen Clark 31%
8. 2017 Bill English 28%
9. 1996 Jim Bolger 27%
10. 1999 Jenny Shipley 25%
11. 1984 Robert Muldoon 24%
12. 2023 Chris Hipkins 22%
13. 1990 Geoffrey Palmer 15%
14. 1993 Jim Bolger 10% 

So in July of election year Christopher Luxon is the 4th= highest polling opposition leader and Chris Hipkins is the now the 3rd lowest polling Prime Minister.

The Australian reports:

The referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament has suffered a collapse in support among women voters and in the regions as the referendum heads toward defeat, with just 41 per cent of voters now saying they will vote yes.

For the first time, women are now more likely than men to vote no, a central change to core support based on gender.

The No vote in the regions has also blown out to 62 per cent, confirming a widening demographic split between city and bush.

Newspoll have been doing regular polling on the referendum and the trend is stark.

• Feb: +19%
• Mar: +15%
• Apr: +14%
• May: +3%
• Jun: -4%
• Jul: -7%

If it were not for New Zealand, I believe the referendum would pass easily. On the face of it, the question appears laudable and benign:

To alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

Who could be against a voice for indigenous Australians?

But many Australians will have seen what is happening in New Zealand. In 1998, one regional council was given permission to have a Maori ward. Today in 2023, a Government advisory board has recommended that every local authority must have unelected Councillors appointed by Iwi and Hapu. One already does, and the Government tried to undermine equality of suffrage in Rotorua.

It is not unreasonable for Australians to suspect the Voice would eventually end up with powers where the Government must act on their advice unless say a majority in both Houses of Parliament votes to over-ride it. Not immediately but we’ve seen in NZ how fast the pace of change can be.

Incidentally there are a greater proportion of Australian MPs who are indigenous than there are in the population. 11 out of 227 MPs are indigenous or 4.8%, compared to 3.2% of the population.

In an ideal world, a party shouldn’t need to have a policy to get potholes fixed, but as Labour diverts so much transport funding to cycleways and light rail fantasies, it has become necessary.

National has announced the following:

• halve the pothole response rate from two days to 24 hours
• $500 million boost over three years for state highway and local road repairs.
• transfer funding from the road to zero propaganda campaign and the lowering speed limits campaign
• a requirement for NZTA to undertake renewal and rehabilitation work on at least 2% of the roading network each year, more than double the current rate

Just having a Government that doesn’t hate motorists will be a good start.

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has announced Labour’s 2023 election slogan is ‘In it for you’.

My first response was that the slogan sounds like something an amorous (yes that word is probably redundant) 18 year old boy says.

It is probably the best slogan for Labour. They can’t have one that mentions success, delivery, improvement etc. All they can really do is go for empathy, and have a slogan that is basically “We’re trying”.

He promised a “positive, forward-looking campaign that’s focused on cutting inflation, bringing down the cost of living, keeping people and communities safe and investing in education, health and housing”.

Let’s take these in turn:

1. Food inflation is at a 40 year high and overall inflation has been above the 3% target set in law for the last eight quarters
2. Violent offending is up 42% since 2017
3. There are 64,000 more students not attending school regularly, than in 2017
4. The proportion of ED patients not seen within six hours has tripled from 7% to over 21%
5. The Priority A waiting list for social housing has increased 449% since Sep 2017

I look forward to Labour campaigning on these magnificent achievements.

Act have released their 2023 list. The top 20 are:

1. David Seymour – Epsom (nc)
2. Brooke van Velden – Tāmaki (nc)
3. Nicole McKee – Rongotai (nc)
4. Todd Stephenson – Southland (new)
5. Andrew Hoggard – Rangitikei (new)
6. Karen Chhour – Upper Harbour (+1)
7. Mark Cameron – Northland (+1)
8. Simon Court – Te Atatū (-3)
9. Parmjeet Parmar – Pakuranga (new)
10. Laura Trask – Banks Peninsula (new)
11. Cameron Luxton – Bay of Plenty (+4)
12. Antonia Modkova – Panmure-Ōtāhuhu (new)
13. Ash Parmar – Hamilton East (new)
14. Toni Severin – Christchurch East (-5)
15. Ben Harvey – Selwyn (new)
16. Rob Douglas – Tukituki (new)
17. Chris Baillie – Nelson (-13)
18. Christine Young – Tauranga (new)
19. Zane Cozens – Taupō (new)
20. Leo Foley – Northcote (new)

This is quite a brutal list ranking for incumbents. Two MPs were not ranked highly enough to accept the list places offered. Two others were demoted to outside the top 10, where they may get back in, but are not guaranteed.

But that is not all. Normally you would see people who just missed out last time, get potentially winnable places. But of those ranked No 11 – 20 in 2020, just one (Cameron Luxton) has been given a top 20 ranking.

If they get the same seats as last time, four MPs will be candidates who didn’t stand in 2020. And if they get 20 MPs, 11 of them will be new ACT candidates.

They have obviously prioritised the party’s greater needs, over loyalty. All parties have that balancing act to a degree, but rarely have I seen it this stark.

ACT don’t do quotas (rightfully) but they have taken care to have a diverse list. It is relatively youthful. In their top 18, there are eight women and 10 men. By ethnicity there appears to be three Maori NZers, two Indian NZers, one Chinese NZer and 12 European NZers.

If there is a change of Government, and they do a coalition with National, then the top five or six MPs would have a reasonable chance of being Ministers. The four existing MPs have struck me as very capable and the two newcomers of Hoggard and Stephenson are the same. Hoggard is a former Federated Farmers President and I know Todd Stephenson from when we worked in Parliament together.

So overall it looks like a pretty strong team for a future centre-right Government.

Stuff reports:

In a statement released by Hipkins on Friday afternoon, he said “Kiri has had a rough time lately”.

Also in the statement, Allan apologised to “anyone who has found my behaviour towards them unacceptable”. 

“I will also offer that apology personally to anyone who wants to talk to me individually.”

“I want to create a working environment where we set high expectations and work hard to achieve them. But I’ll be working extra hard to make sure those around me know and see how much I appreciate them and value the work they do.”

Allan would receive “extra coaching… to create the positive working environment both of us are committed to”, Hipkins said.

This is the response they should have had three weeks ago. An acknowledgement that things were not right, and some contrition.

Instead they made what was a small issue into a big issue by denying there was a problem. They kept hiding behind the red herring of their being no formal complaints and outright denied there had been any shouting.

NewstalkZB reports:

Questions are being raised over Te Whatu Ora’s honesty regarding health targets. 

Te Whatu Ora says they’re treating 90 percent of cancer patients on time in the southern district, but letters sent out warn of delays.

These letters claim the patients should expect to wait 12 weeks for their first appointment, 8 weeks over the national target.

Cancer care advocate Melissa Vining says DHB management has confirmed Te Whatu Ora is only treating 70 percent of these patients on time. 

Again this is very concerning. Accurate data is one of the most basic functions of Government.

If this keeps up, maybe we will need to have a more independent agency such as Stats NZ publish health data.