Brooke van Velden writes:
“Workplaces that rely on part-time workers are particularly vulnerable to unexpected staffing shortages. To explore this issue further, the exposure draft set for consultation will include a proposed approach to pro-rating sick leave, to better reflect how much an employee works,” says Ms van Velden.
This is just common sense. Someone who works one day a week shouldn’t get the same sick leave entitlement as someone who works five days a week.
For example, the exposure draft will now include a change in how annual leave is provided, moving from an entitlement system to an accrual system.
“Shifting to an accrual system for annual leave entitlements is just common sense. While workers might not notice any change in their entitlements, from a payroll perspective this should make a huge difference. An accrual system should help avoid the complex calculations that regularly stump payroll software and should therefore reduce compliance costs for employers.
An accrual system is exactly the right way to do this. The current law requires calculations so difficult that no payroll system in NZ can actually calculate it correctly.
I presume the accrual system will be something along the lines of you get 8% of your earnings for a fortnight accrued to your annual leave account, and that can be used for future leave. Nice and simple.
This is incredibly depressing. The problems with UNRWA have been documented over at least a decade. Their schools promote hatred. Around 10% of their staff are Hamas. Numerous staff have taken part in terrorism. The so called independent inquiry was commissioned by UNRWA and was done by someone who was a former board member and champion of them.
HDPA writes:
A big inquiry needs to be called into the allegations about the Māori Party misusing private data.
This can’t be left to a series of government departments to conduct small investigations into themselves.
I agree. As it is those very same agencies who made the decision to contract the organisations involved, the incentives are not good.
TPM has called for everything to be referred to the Police, but that is not the answer as what is alleged here doesn’t just involve potential crimes, but is far wider.
The possible options are:
The Government has now announced a PSC inquiry. This is good, but not sufficient. The Privacy Commissioner really needs to also do an inquiry, as only they can look into whether there is unauthorised data sharing between all the various entities in the Tamihere empire.
The Post reports:
For [Robyn] Malcolm, yesterday’s stand “wasn’t all about the environment” – a phrase she assures supporters isn’t one she would use often – it was as much about protecting democracy.
“There’s a reason [consents] take time, it’s because it’s important and the hoops need to be jumped, and all the people who are involved to need to be consulted. The other way leads to fascism, and that’s terrifying to me,” she said.
The hysteria is amusing – speeding up consents is fascism.
Yet when Labour did the same thing in 2021, it was not fascism.
It took eight years for a wind farm in Wellington to be consented. That is just crazy.
But here we have an so called environmentalist arguing that it is more important to have hoops to be jumped, that consenting renewable energy projects.
I discovered through an article in The Post, that Family First has rated major NZ businesses on how woke they are.
Their ratings are:
Extreme Woke
Woke
Woke Lite
Not Woke
Seems to me the list can be useful to everyone – those who want to only shop at woke stores, and those who don’t want to! It may even help sales.
Personally I care about reliability, price and service far more. For example my speaking terms of engagement forbid customers from booking me to fly Jetstar. I’ll take woke Air NZ that arrives on time anyday!
I also bank with BNZ. Their mortgage offset facility has saved me tens of thousands of dollars, so sorry SBS Bank but not swapping.
Stuff reports:
The Electoral Commission has referred New Plymouth MP David MacLeod to the police over his failure to report $178,394 of candidate donations.
The National MP’s original candidate return for the 2023 General Election was filed on February 13, 2024.
The total donations disclosed were $29,268 from seven separate donors.
On May 20, the Commission received an amended return, with the total donations disclosed in the amended return coming to $207,662 from 24 separate donors.
MacLeod said the error came about because he didn’t know he was meant to have filed his 2022 donations, thinking the returns only needed to include 2023 donations.
The MP said he had “never, ever” tried to hide donations and was “extremely disappointed” in himself for making the error.
It is no surprise this has been referred to the Police. In fact I would have been stunned if they had not.
I also expect that the Police will lay charges, as the return was clearly significantly incorrect.
However, unless there is evidence to contradict the statement that it was a genuine interpretation error, I would not expect the charges to be a corrupt practice (which requires intent), but merely an illegal practice.
Jehan Casinader writes:
“Men have it so easy,” we often hear. “What do they have to complain about?”
As it turns out, quite a bit. Kiwi men are three times more likely than women to die by suicide. We’re 20% more likely to die from heart disease. We’re twice as likely to be injured at work. Each year, 4000 men get prostate cancer, and around 700 die from it – similar to breast cancer.
It’s a bit risky to even mention these stats. When I posted them on LinkedIn, some were outraged that I’d compared health outcomes for men and women.
I blogged some of these disparities in 2018, and in health alone they were:
Yet there is no strategy aimed at reducing these disparities.
Yes, “male privilege” is real – but it doesn’t prevent men from experiencing pain. In fact, New Zealand’s tough brand of masculinity is exactly what stops guys from asking for help. Some would rather battle on until they’re on death’s door before going to the doctor.
There are definitely areas in which men are privileged or advantaged. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the areas in which they are not, and in fact are disadvantaged.
Both of the last two Labour Governments have basically done the same thing to the economy.
Cullen left NZ in recession when he left office (and it started before the GFC) and Robertson did the same also.
Cullen and Robertson massively increased the tax take through six and nine years of fiscal drag, where cumulative inflation pushed average tax rates up, and never provided relief against the annual tax increase.
Cullen and Robertson both increased government spending as a share of the economy. From 30.4% to 33.6% for Cullen and from 27.3% to what will be around 34% for Robertson.
Cullen left a structural deficit with projections of a decade of deficits before one would get back into surplus, and stop increasing debt.
Robertson left a structural deficit with projections (2024 Budget) that under Labour’s settings the country would run deficits until 2031 (and they started in 2021) so again a decade of deficits before surplus and reducing debt.
History really does repeat itself.
The Herald reports:
Thousands of people are expected to protest against the Fast-track Approvals Billand other Government policies in Auckland on Saturday, with other demonstrations planned across the country.
Saturday afternoon’s March For Nature in Tāmaki Makaurau will see protesters march from Aotea Square down Queen St.
The organisers said they were expecting thousands of people to turn out for the protest against the fast-track legislation and what they called the coalition’s “general war on nature”.
Here’s the interesting thing. The FTAB is based on a law passed by Labour during Covid-19. That law set up almost the same process, except rather than have three Ministers involved there was just one – David Parker. Around 17 projects were consented by this process, and I doubt anyone can name one?
Of course it is only bad when a CR Government does it.
There are some differences. The bill as proposed as three Ministers as final decision makers rather than the Expert Panel. But that aspect is up for consideration by the select committee.
Oh dear only 12 people turning up to hear a post-budget speech by the Leader of the Opposition, and even worse it is in his own electorate.
Have gone through the annual accounts of the Te Whãnau O Waipareira Trust Group (consists of two trusts and six companies). Here’s some key extracts:
| Income | Surplus | Net Assets | Av senior salary | |
| 2020 | $56m | $5m | $49m | $200k |
| 2021 | $57m | $7m | $57m | $260k |
| 2022 | $73m | $12m | $69m | $290k |
| 2023 | $72m | $16m | $84m | $511k |
So from 2020 to 2023 income increased 29%. However the surplus increased 220%. The net assets grew by 71% and the average salary to top charitable executives increased 155%.
What is remarkable is that they are running a $16 million surplus/profit on turnover of $72 million. That’s a level of profitability many commercial businesses would love to achieve, let alone a charity.
Now good on them for being so profitable, so they can use their surplus to help more charitable causes. But it does make you wonder if the Government is getting value for money for its contracts, considering the huge level of surplus achieved.
Newshub reports:
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement the regulator had decided to drop its legal action against X.
“Most Australians accept this kind of graphic material should not be on broadcast television, which begs an obvious question of why it should be allowed to be distributed freely and accessible online 24/7 to anyone, including children,” Grant said.
She said a major concern was the ease by which children were able to access the violent content on X.
So she justifies trying to impose a global ban on the documentary footage of the attack on the basis it was so easy for children to access it.
X had blocked Australian users from viewing the posts but refused to remove them globally on the grounds that one country’s rules should not control the internet.
But the regulator argued that geo-blocking Australians, the solution X offered, was ineffective because several users used virtual private networks that disguised their locations.
So the ease by which kids could access the content was that they had to:
Yes that really justifies a global ban.
For those who are interested in public law, a very interesting paper by Dean Knight summarising the various court cases over the Covid-19 response. It details in which areas the Government won judicial reviews, and in which areas they lost. The TLDR version is:
Hopefully we will not go through another pandemic anytime soon.
The latest polling summary projects that the Conservatives could lose 310 of their 376 seats, leaving them just 66. Labour would win 485 and the Lib Dems 59.
Most polls were before Nigel Farage announced he will resume the Reform Party leadership and the D Day disaster. Unclear how much impact this may have, but if it does it is likely to impact the Conservatives with vote splitting in marginal seats.
If the polls do not improve, this will be their worst outcome in almost 200 years – since they were formed in 1834.
The Herald reports:
A recidivist offender who shot a small-time Auckland drug dealer while robbing him of his stash and recent gaming machine jackpot had been on electronically monitored post-prison release conditions at the time of the murder – but had cut off his tracking device.
That factor of Benjamin “Dekoy” Mcintosh’s murder in June 2022 was highlighted for the first time last week as prosecutors sought a lengthy non-parole period for Ethan Dane Dodds, who returned to the High Court at Auckland for sentencing.
Justice Graham Lang agreed that Section 104 of the Sentencing Act – calling for a non-parole period of at least 17 years in some of the most egregious murder cases, including ones that took place in the course of a robbery – had been met. But he also ultimately agreed with Dodds’ lawyer that imposing such a sentence would be “manifestly unjust” because the killing, while reckless, had not been planned or intended.
The 25-year-old was instead ordered to serve a life sentence with a minimum period of 12 years before he can begin to apply for parole.
So possibly out after 12 years. What is his background:
He noted a long list of prior convictions resulting in him having spent the majority of his life so far either in state care or prison. He has rarely spent more than three months at a time outside criminal justice facilities since the age of 11.
Now he is 25 so for 14 years he has constantly offended. But he just gets a series of short sentences so he gets out again and again and again, with the near inevitable killing that follows.
If there was a good three strikes regime, then the cycle of continual release and offending would be broken. He might still offend when out, but there would be far fewer victims.
Piers Seed writes about the current definition of taonga:
According to the Waitangi Tribunal the definition of taonga is:
“Treasures’: ‘taonga’. As submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the Māori language have made clear, ‘taonga’ refers to all dimensions of a tribal group’s estate, material and non-material – heirlooms and wahi tapu (sacred places), ancestral lore and whakapapa (genealogies), etc”.
(https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/translation-of-te-reo-maori-text/)
Stripped of the Tribunal’s carefully curated mystical framing this definition can be loosely translated in layman’s terms as:
“anything and everything in the world, physical, theoretical, spiritual, metaphorical, known or yet to be discovered”.
If you can see it, it is taonga. If you can think of it, it is also taonga. If you can’t think of it, it is still taonga. Taonga, then, is clearly one hyper-powerful word, seemingly the one word to rule them all.
This might be a slight exaggeration but as it has been argued it includes the telecommunications spectrum, maybe not by much.
And was this what was intended:
“The current definition [of taonga] differs from the historical definition, noted by Hongi Hika as “property procured by the spear” [one could understand this as war booty or defended property] and is now interpreted to mean a wide range of tangible and intangible possessions, especially items of historical cultural significance.”
So this is part of the entire challenge of “honouring” the Treaty. Interpretations today can be radically different to what they were when it was signed.
So the question is who should decide what is the correct interpretation? The Waitangi Tribunal? The Courts? Parliament?
I think it has to be Parliament.
The Press reports:
Christchurch rapists Danny and Roberto Jaz will not be deported when their jail terms end.
The Australian brothers were last year found guilty of rape, drugging, drink spiking, stupefying and filming women in their teens and early 20s.
More than 20 women were sexually assaulted at the men’s family businesses – Mama Hooch and Venuiti.
Roberto Jaz was sentenced to 17 years in prison, while his older brother was given six months less – with a minimum non-parole period of eight years – and victims had been hoping they would be deported to Australia.
But Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said it cannot remove them because of how long they have lived in this country.
“Neither Danny nor Roberto Jaz are liable for deportation as residence class visa holders due to the length of time they have lived in New Zealand,” said its immigration resolutions manager Margaret Cantlon.
We are suckers with our current policy or law.
We should deport all the serious criminals we can. The only ones we should not be able to deport are those who:
The Herald reports:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologised for leaving D-Day commemorations in France early to return to the election campaign trail – a decision slammed as disgraceful by his political rivals.
Sunak, who is fighting to keep his job in Britain’s July 4 election, said “on reflection” the decision was a mistake.
Sunak was not alongside leaders including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the major memorial event at Omaha Beach in Normandy on Thursday. Former prime minister David Cameron, who is now foreign minister, represented Britain.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, the current favourite to win the election, attended and was pictured meeting Zelenskyy and other leaders.
This is one of the issues with cut through. It looks like politics before country. I’m not sure if the Conservatives can drop even lower in the polls, but we will soon find out.
The article is here and as it is behind their paywall … some parts below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/charter-schools-return-state-education-is-a-vast-failed-experiment-its-time-for-the-system-to-change-alwyn-poole/HHA2PAFEOJC5PBAP3FTVVFSUPM/
OPINION
In 2024 the state education sector in New Zealand is a vast and failed experiment.
With the re-introduction of the charter school model in NZ the habitual opponents – the teacher unions and the Labour Party – have taken only a two-point strategy in their opposition.
The first is that charter schools are a failed experiment with little evidence of success. The second is; if the $38.25 million a year for charter schools was spent on state schools then all of their ills would be solved.
These people take the NZ public, the media and large parts of the education sector for fools.
…
In term 4 of 2023 only 50 per cent of students attended school regularly and for Māori and Pasifika this number was 39 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
NZ Institute of Economic Research research finds that a significant portion of new primary school teachers have failed NCEA Level 1 English, maths and science. The results across the levels and all demographic situations for NCEA are in consistent decline.
NZ’s international results not only show an actual decline, and one relative to other countries …
If we take our highest broad school qualification – University Entrance (UE) – the top 30 high schools in NZ have an average of 87 per cent of their students achieving UE.
For the bottom 30 schools the average is 2.7 per cent. The high profile “Super 8″ single-sex boys’ schools have a range of 50 per cent down to 14 per cent – but they are good at rugby.
In terms of ethnicity, the most recent UE for leavers statistics in NZ had Asian students at 62 per cent, European at 42 per cent, Pasifika at 21 per cent and Māori at 18 per cent. If that is not shocking to you it shows how accustomed we have become to that level of failure.
…
Our current state education system can genuinely be labelled a “failed experiment” on a massive scale – and especially for Māori, Pasifika, students from lower-income families and those locked into choiceless geographical locations.
There is significant evidence of international success for schools that are allowed to operate as charter schools …
The state-of-the-art Stanford University Credo study in the USA (2023) concluded that … charters have drastically improved, producing better reading and math scores than traditional public schools.
… There is considerable success with charter schooling. It is in no way a failed experiment – as opposed to current state schooling in NZ – and from a system, school, student/family basis many are thankful for the model.
In NZ we have 2177 state schools and 333 state-integrated schools. The teacher unions are asserting that the money to be spent on charters could provide 700 teacher aides and cure all problems.
…
Firstly – the $38.25m per year is 0.3 of a teacher aide per school and, secondly, each teacher aide would only be paid $54,000 per annum according to the generous teacher unions.
…
Charter schools may not be the “silver bullet” but they could well carry the Lone Rangers that have them in their arsenal.
Alwyn Poole
Innovative Education Consultants
www.innovativeeducation.co.nz
alwynpoole.substack.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alwyn-poole-16b02151/
You wrote to me an undated letter which I received today, and you asked me to donate funds to the university for scholarships and other things. But a short time ago you announced that you were spending 1.3 million dollars changing the name of the university to have a new (changed) Mãori name. Really? 1.3 million? Can you give me a cost break down on that? Which individuals and which organisations do re-branding work that costs 1.3 million?
How many additional doctors would $1.3 million train? Teachers?
Donors don’t donate for rebrands!
I work in a medical practice where more than 60% of my patients are Mãori. Many of them cannot afford to buy groceries and many others are homeless and sleep in the streets of Auckland. I am additionally responsible for chairing a group of doctors and nurses at Starship Hospital that is focussed on just one disease, Acute Rheumatic Fever, which affects only Pacifica and Mãori. I work very hard to make a difference for these patients but not because of their race. If I was given an additional 1.3 million dollars, I would not spend a cent of it on a branding exercise.
Who would?
You spout a particular oppressor-victim version of “history” without seeming to understand that you will create an attitude of victimhood in some of your students, and a sense of guilt and responsibility among another group of students. Neither group chose their ancestors. Imagine for a moment the effects of your university’s teachings about colonisation on the relationships within my mixed-race family. Imagine for an additional moment what the relationship between my father and the Mãori battalion would have been if your victim-
oppressor attitudes had been successfully inculcated in New Zealand society before WWII.
I am at a time in my life and stage in my career and businesses when I am well off financially. Any thought I might have had about donating to the University of Otago has been scuppered by your pronouncements and decisions over the last several years. It fills me with sadness to see the neo-Marxist race-focussed direction my alma mater is being led in. I loved the University of Otago that I graduated from, and it pains me greatly to see what you are doing to it. There are plenty of places you could spend $1.3million that would make a lot of difference to the lives of the most disadvantaged Mäori in New Zealand, but re-branding the university is not one of
them. Please delete my name permanently from all your mailing lists; I do not wish to be reminded
again of your profligate waste of precious educational money on race-based virtue-signalling.
I understand other donors have shared similiar sentiments.
A total of 35 rapists in the last three years got home detention. This is what happens when your policy isn’t to reduce crime, but to reduce the number of people in prison.