Stuff reports:

The man who sued Speaker Trevor Mallard over a “rape” comment has an ongoing employment case against Parliamentary Service, it has been revealed.

Having had the Speaker settle a defamation case for wrongly calling him a rapist will only help his employment case. So overall costs to the taxpayer could end up well over $400,000 – maybe even higher.

Mallard said he almost immediately regretted describing the series of sexual assault complaints in a review of parliamentary culture as “rape” – but he did not apologise for the matter sooner as it soon became an employment issue and then a legal case.

It seems to be an immediate apology the next day would have been better than an 18 month process costing taxpayers $330,000.

Barry Soper writes:

Truth is more likely that he withdrew his rape claim now because if he did it last year chances are he wouldn’t have survived a no-confidence vote in his Speakership. New Zealand First wouldn’t have supported him.

Next year he’ll survive a vote with Labour’s majority and with mother of kindness, well-being and transparency Jacinda Ardern saying he simply made a mistake and he’s the man for the job. The man he maligned is out of a job and if now suffering ill health.

No kindness for the poor former staffer whose life has been pretty much destroyed.

The Herald editorial says Mallard should go:

The entire saga also injures the so-called MeToo movement, a rallying of support for genuine victims of sexual abuse and sexual harassment where people publicise allegations of sex crimes committed by powerful and/or prominent men. Any false rape claim undermines the real hurt and pursuit of justice in genuine cases. One from such high office, only more so.

Mallard’s situation will be an ongoing distraction and impediment to the second term of Government for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. For a Government needing sharp focus on recovery from a pandemic and a stated desire for transformation, continuing in this role must surely be untenable.

And HDPA writes:

But what makes this worse, if that’s even possible, is that Mallard did not admit there was more money due when he was asked about it.

In my opinion, he misled the public with his answer.

He was asked by Chris Bishop if there was “any further money to be paid”, and Mallard answered “there is no further money to be paid”.

But then, just over a minute later, the chief executive of Parliamentary Services, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, admits “there is still a claim against the Parliamentary Service”.

Michael Woodhouse asks: “Is the committee now hearing that $330,000 is not necessarily the end of the matter in terms of cost to the taxpayer?”

Gonzalez-Montero answers, “Yes.”

She concludes:

We can now add to his list of transgressions: attempting to mislead the public.

He will continue to be problem for Labour, because now that the opposition and taxpayers know there is more of our money to be spent, we will be asking about it next year.

So, as much as he’s tried to kill off this story before Christmas, it now almost certainly will drag into the next year unless he does the dignified thing and leaves the job.

I would be amazed if Mallard loses the confidence of Ardern over this. They have an incredibly strong personal relationship, and I can’t imagine a scenario in which she withdraws support.

Eric Crampton writes:

Canada’s carbon tax is set to rise from its current CAD$30 per tonne (NZD$33) to $170 per tonne by 2030.

A credible price on carbon is the strongest commitment a country can make in reducing carbon emissions. 

If you set the price of carbon correctly, then you almost don’t need any other policies. Governments like to announce lots of stuff that often does nothing or even makes thing worse. The price of carbon in the ETS is more powerful than anything else.

But few in New Zealand would believe it possible to more than quintuple prices in our Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) without political costs high enough to break the system.

Big increases in petrol, in electricity etc are not popular.

Because of how Canada’s federal system works, the federal government simply imposing a tax on some provinces, but not others, would not work out very well.

The federal government solved the problem in a rather ingenious way. It takes all of the carbon tax revenue raised from a province, puts it into a pot, and then gives it back to people in that province.

Provinces that produce more carbon emissions will pay more in carbon taxes. Households in those provinces then get a higher rebate payment back from the federal government. In Ontario, the first adult in a household receives an annual payment of $224. The second adult receives $112, and each child receives $56. The amount of the payment varies from province to province and will increase as the carbon tax rises.

This is a brilliant idea. Don’t use the ETS to make money for the Government. Use it to soften the increased costs for households.

And it also makes higher carbon prices politically possible. Most households will wind up receiving more back in carbon rebates than they will pay in carbon taxes. By 2030, the average family of four in Alberta will be receiving a carbon rebate amounting to about $3200 per year.

It will reward you for moving to lower carbon usage.

Every year, the government sells emissions credits into the ETS. So far, there has been no serious discussion about what should be done with the revenues collected at those ETS auctions. Why not create a carbon dividend?

Every quarter, the government could tally up all the revenue it raised by selling credits into the emissions trading scheme. It could take the raised funds, divide them up, and send each of us a carbon dividend payment.

I suspect Labour could never bring themselves to actually giving money back to all households, but there is an opportunity for National here to adopt a policy that would be good for the environment and good for households.

The Government has released the Briefings to Incoming Ministers or BIMs. Key takeaways are:

• MBIE says no more grants to tourism businesses (agree)
• Treasury says house prices will continue to rise (no surprise Sherlock)
• Treasury says Govt’s books not sustainable due to rocketing public service costs (borrow and hope)
• DPMC says child poverty rates will increase (Who’s the Minister?)
• Ministry of Transport says govt policies will not significantly reduce transport emissions
• 91% of state houses do not meet the Government’s own compulsory healthy home standards
• DIA says we need to spend more money on Premier House
• MBIE wants the borders to open to allow in highly skilled migrants
• MSD expects 280,000 on the dole by Jan 2022
• MSD says some of those on the public housing waitlist will never receive a public house

Over 1,500 people have voted in the 2019 Kiwiblog Awards. The winners are:

• National MP of the year – Judith Collins wins with 31% followed by Simon Bridges on 28%, Shane Reti 22% and Chris Bishop 20%
• Labour MP of the Year – Grant Robertson wins this year on 53% followed by Jacinda Ardern on 38% and Trevor Mallard on 9%
• Minor Party MP of the Year – A two horse race and David Seymour gets his usual landslide majority of 90% with Chloe Swarbrick on 10%
• MP of the Year is also a big win for favourite David Seymour on 84% and Jacinda Ardern 16%.

Congratulations to the winners, and the runners up.

Newshub reports:

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has called out the New Zealand Government for its “so-called” climate emergency declaration earlier this month.

In a tweet on Sunday (local time), the 17-year-old linked to a Newsroom opinion piece, arguing the Government’s declaration is merely virtue signalling unless it’s backed by immediate action to reduce the country’s carbon emissions.

“‘In other words, the Government has just committed to reducing less than 1 percent of the country’s emissions by 2025’,” Thunberg tweeted, quoting an excerpt from the article.

On this issue, it is Greta in the right.

The Government has to date failed on almost every measure with reducing emissions. The renewable electricity share has dropped. They have managed only 0.9% of public sector cars to go electric. They are projecting an extra 15,000 kT of greenhouse gases and their carbon neutral public sector pledge is merely a repeat of the same promise they made in 2007/

The 538 members of the Electoral College met in their 50 state capitals and DC today and voted for their pledged candidates. There were no faithless electors. Joe Biden won 57% of the Electoral college vote and Donald Trump 43%.

The only remaining step now is for Congress to certify and count the votes. The electoral votes certified by each Governor can only be rejected by Congress if both the House and the Senate agree. So this would mean 50 out of 50 to 52 Republican Senators would have to sustain an objection as well as at least six Democratic members of the House (and every House Republican).

Voting is now open for the 2020 Kiwiblog Awards.

The contest for National MP of the Year is between

• Chris Bishop for getting the highest personal vote of any MP, relative to their party and for his work in transport and infrastructure
• Simon Bridges for keeping National in the mid 40s pre-Covid and for his social media game since losing the leadership
• Judith Collins for accepting the hospital pass and providing much needed strong leadership for the party
• Shane Reti for his competence and credibility in health, and now as deputy leader

The contest for Labour MP of the Year is between

• Jacinda Ardern for leading Labour to their best result since 1946
• Trevor Mallard for changes making Parliament run better
• Grant Robertson for steady economic stewardship through Covid-19

Note there were also nominations for Siouxsie Wiles, Ashley Bloomfield and Covid-19 🙂

The contest for Minor Party MP of the Year is between:

• David Seymour for leading ACT to their best ever election result and restoring ACT’s brand
• Chlöe Swarbrick for winning Auckland Central and almost single handedly winning the cannabis referendum despite the total lack of leadership from Labour

Finally for overall 2019 MP of the Year, it is between:

• Jacinda Ardern for her historic election victory and leadership during Covid-19
• David Seymour for his election victory and constructive criticism of the Covid-19 response

You can vote in the embedded survey below, or at this link.

As I expected, Sir Bob Jones has responded to the disgraceful and false smear against him by Green MP Ricardo Menendez March in his normal forthright style. The blog is titled:

A horrible Green Party little turd

He first addresses the false claim:

He protested at the simplicity of his film projection job involving pushing a start button and (again, I’m not making this up) being criticised by politicians for calling it a low-skilled job, despite just acknowledging that reality.

Then he moved on to fresh fields which is why people drew my attention to this abomination of a self-centred world class wanker’s maiden speech, saying,

             “I clearly remember seeing clips of Winston Peters and Bob Jones scapegoating immigrants for the housing crisis, for unemployment and for inequality in general. We were also blamed for bringing low-skilled, low wage labour that didn’t contribute to the economy- or so they claimed.”

So here’s a message to this little turd. First, you clearly remember no such thing. The only time I’ve had a TV exchange on immigration with Winston was brief.

Winston: “Walking down Queen Street is like being in Hong Kong”. Me: “Yes. Isn’t it wonderful. All those beautiful Asian girls”

Heh. So there was no TV clip of Sir Bob scapegoating immigrants. It’s something he invented.

After this was pointed out to Menendez March, he refused to back down:

So, waking to how utterly wrong he’s been in maligning me, how did Menendez March respond? An Apology! You must be kidding.

Instead he dug his hole even deeper responding with spectacular illiteracy, “the Bob Jones of the world see us as economic units, so yeah nah”.

It’s unbelievable this garbage is in Parliament with his snout in the taxpayer’s pocket. Now if I’m known for anything it’s my advocacy for the humanities.

For four decades I’ve ridiculed B Coms and Commerce degrees (success in business is basically common sense and energy, something alien to the fluttering Menendez March who from his utterances oozes a sense of entitlement).

I’ve forked out millions for history and philosophy students’ scholarships.

I think the real crime is that Sir Bob is wealthy. To a Marxist this is an obscenity. So he chose his maiden speech to smear him.

Stuff reports:

A law change that requires schools to be routinely warned if sex offenders move in to the neighbourhood would amount to “disproportionately severe treatment” of offenders, Ministry of Justice lawyers say.

National MP Matt Doocey, whose private bill seeks to make the changes, described the advice as “outrageous”, placing the rights of child-sex offenders above principals and parents’ right to know.

He said the suggestions that notifying schools would be disproportionately severe to offenders was similarly outrageous as there were many cases where schools were already notified, and his bill would only make notification routine.

The advice seems ridicolous.

If the bill required posters to be placed around the neighbourhood warning people, then I would agree it would be unfair.

But merely notifying schools that a paedophile has moved in down the road is the least we should do to keep kids safe.

A guest post by Simon Lusk:

The Alliance Group publicly released their annual results showing an impressive $1.8B of revenue, up from last year’s $1.7B. Despite appearing not meeting the criteria of the wage subsidy of turnover falling by 30% or projected 30% they are refusing to pay back the remaining amount they have retained.

Alliance were an essential service through lockdown, and while they may have incurred some additional costs, it appears they do not meet the criteria required to retain any of the wage subsidy.

Alliance may have legitimate grounds for refusing to return the wage subsidy. They may not have legitimate reasons. What is not in any doubt, however, is they are treating returning the wage subsidy as a negotiation. That is why I want their decisions tested by an independent referee in the form of a judge in New Zealand’s court system.

There is also an issue of fairness that appears to have been missed by Alliance, commentators & government ministers. If a poor brown beneficiary in south Auckland had claimed a few thousand dollars more than they were entitled from social welfare they would be pursued & punished. Our law is supposed to treat all equally. Alliance directors appear to think they can retain large amounts of corporate welfare and not face consequences, unlike the poor brown beneficiary in South Auckland.

This is why I have sought to extend my action to all Alliance directors. They are well paid, well educated and wealthy. They likely do not approve of the beneficiary struggling to make ends meet ripping off the benefit system. They should not be surprised that someone wants them treated the same way as the benefit fraudster. New Zealand is an egalitarian society where we pride ourselves on all being treated equally. That’s why I want to see the Alliance directors in court justifying their decision to keep corporate welfare. Let the judge decide and let the directors face up to defend themselves as the poor brown beneficiary would have to. 

There have been a few articles on the diminishing capacity of Senator Dianne Feinstein who is aged 87 and will be 91 when her term expires.

This got me interested in how many senators are over 60, 70, 80 etc.

Here’s the current breakdown:

• 80s: Seven
• 70s: 24
• 60s: 38
• 50s: 19
• 40s: 12

So around a third are aged over 70 and around two thirds over 60.

Term limits would solve the problem. A maximum of three six year terms should be enough to make a decent contribution.

The year is almost over, so it is time for nominations for the annual Kiwiblog Awards. The nomination categories are:

• 2020 Minor Party MP of the Year
• 2020 National MP of the Year
• 2020 Labour MP of the Year
• 2020 MP of the Year

Make your nominations in the comments (free free to say why) and then I’ll start a vote based on the most popular nominations.

The winners in 2019 were:

• National MP of the year – Chris Bishop
• Labour MP of the Year – Kris Faafoi
• Minor Party MP of the Year – David Seymour 
• MP of the Year – David Seymour

Was very saddened to read that Michael Tull died last week. Michael was one of the funniest and nicest people around.

I met Michael at Otago University, as we were both involved in student politics. Michael was successful, while I was not. He was a larger than life presence even back then.

Michael was on the exec for three years, edited Critic, the orientation mag and the capping mag, plus had the most popular show on Radio One. Last year OUSA made him a life member.

Michael had a sense of humour that was unparalleled. Not only did he edit the official capping mag, but frustrated with what jokes he couldn’t publish in there, he also edited the anonymous unofficial capping mag that was a sensational hit for several years.

This was in the late 1980s and even the official capping mag of that period would today find you before half a dozen disciplinary bodies for its off colour jokes. But the unofficial capping mag was exponentially worse. The jokes in there were so appalling (yet hilarious) that the Gore District Council banned it three years in a row. This was especially ironic as the Gore District Council were unaware that it was actually printed in Gore.

Michael was also a superb and entertaining debater.

I didn’t see much of Michael in the early 1990s. Off memory he was a professional comedy writer for some TV shows.

But in the late 1990s I was delighted when he popped up in Wellington as a press gallery reporter for IRN and even happier when he got hired by Jenny Shipley to work for National in opposition with me. Michael quickly became Chief Press Secretary and he was a popular figure with MPs, journalists and staff.

Working with Michael was great fun. I can’t believe the shit we got away with. I recall after a National MP gave birth, Michael edited the photo of her with her baby to make the baby look like me, and sent it to most of the staff and caucus.

There were regular “flame wars” between around eight or ten of the staff who were good friends, and the level of insults between us could reach heights or depths that would have sent anyone from the HR department into cardiac arrest.

After Parliament Michael went on to be a comms manager for Capital Coast Health, NZ Post, Ministry of Justice and more until his health declined in recent years. Michael was also a devoted father of four kids.

Michael has many many friends who will miss him, as well of course as his family. Go well Michael.

Stuff reports:

Professor James (Jim) Robert Flynn, an internationally renowned psychology and politics professor and free speech advocate, has died.

The University of Otago Emeritus professor died on Friday, aged 86.

He developed what is now known as the “Flynn effect” which to describes the sustained increase in IQ test scores in populations from one generation to the next.

His work led to national attention. He has been profiled by Scientific American, Newsweek and written about in the New York Times.

I studied at Otago University, where he was of course very well known. He stood for New Labour and the Alliance several times. A charming and intelligent man.

His academic work is regarded highly internationally. Ironically his final publication called In Defence of Free Speech: The University as Censor was itself censored by the publisher who reneged on publishing it due to concern about liability from hate speech laws.

Condolences to his family and friends.

The 538 members of the Electoral College will meet on Monday 14 December 2020, which will be Tuesday 15 December 2020.

They do not meet as one body. They will meet in the 50 state capitals and DC. The times they meet range from 10 am to 3 pm local times. So I’d expect most to be over by midday Tuesday NZDT.

There are 306 electors pledged to Biden and 232 pledged to Trump. It is not uncommon for there to be one or two faithless electors who may not vote for the candidate they are pledged to. In 32 states and DC the law requires an elector to vote for the candidate they are pledged to.

Each elector will write the name of their preferred President and VP on a piece of paper and each state will total up the votes and sign six certificates with the results.

The six copies go to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the US (2 copies), the state’s Secretary of State (2 copies) and the chief judge of the district court covering the state capital.

Then it is all over, bar the counting of the votes by Congress on 6 Jan.

The US has hit 300,000 Covid-19 deaths. Recall a certain person claiming early on only a handful will die.

And these are not deaths that would have occurred anyway, as some claim. The estimated excess deaths this year is 275,000 to 380,000 above normal.

Also while Covid-19 is far more dangerous to the elderly, they are not the only victims. Over 50,000 of those who died are aged under 65.

Barry Soper writes:

Trevor Mallard should resign from The Speaker’s job, I believe, before he faces a vote of no confidence when Parliament resumes sitting in February.

National’s lost confidence in him and Labour, the party that preaches wellbeing and kindness, surely will have no choice but to vote against his continuing in the role.

It’s been confirmed that the almost $334,000 in legal costs have been paid out by the taxpayer. Why? Well Mallard had the rules changed after he made his outrageous comment to protect him from having to pay the bill for something he should have known would go against him.

The tragedy in all of this is that the man he accused of a terrible crime, who spoke exclusively to me after the Mallard allegation last year, has suffered serious health issues since he was sent packing and it looks as though he will get nothing from the settlement.

The rule change is significant because it allows MPs to not just cover their own costs of a lawsuit, but also any settlement.

Jacinda Ardern, who is close to Mallard, has so far kept the issue at arm’s length.

She was asked in what other workplace in New Zealand would someone be able to falsely accuse a person of being a rapist and keep his job.

Ardern simply referred the questioner to the apologetic statement Mallard had made.

She may not be able to remove him from office, that’s Parliament’s job. But she at least should say whether the Speaker’s behaviour is acceptable to her.

I’d say the chances of Labour voting to remove Mallard as Speaker is somewhere between 0% and 0.000001%

Labour in the 2017 Coalition Agreement with NZ First promised to relocate government functions into the regions.

You often hear this from political parties – that too many public servants are in Wellington.

In 2018 and 2019 Labour went backwards. The proportion of public servants outside Wellington didn’t increase but fell – from 58.3% to 57.6% and then 56.4%.

The PSC has just released the 2020 data. And again all bad news for the promises. Another drop to 55.7%.

I’m sure this term though it will all turn around!