Newshub reports:

National leader Judith Collins has been forced to rule out working with New Zealand First again after former leader Simon Bridges put it back on the table. 

After ruling out working with New Zealand First when he was National leader, Bridges reopened the prospect during a foreign affairs debate in Wellington on Thursday night. 

Bridges, sitting between New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabutaeu and ACT leader David Seymour, said, “Can I just make the peace between my two Cabinet colleagues in the next Government?”

It was a joke,

Tabuteau noted National’s change in position, “Oh, you will do a deal?”

“Oh, no, no sorry,” Bridges replied, bumping his head with his palm. 

Bridges said he’d be making a “quick call” to Collins to let her know what he said. But he didn’t make that call – Newshub told Collins on Friday. 

She laughed when asked if working with New Zealand First is back on the table.

“I think Fletcher’s probably signing up for the National Party, I think that’s what Simon’s meaning,” she said. “I think Simon was pulling your leg… we’re allowed to have jokes in the National Party.”

Collins confirmed, “There is no wish at all to deal with New Zealand First.”

What is significant is there are no more caucus meetings between now and the election. It was caucus that decided to rule out any potential post-election deal with NZ First. While it was always minisculely unlikely to be changed, it now can’t be.

This means that a vote for NZ First is a vote for Labour and the Greens to be in Government again.

To make it simple, here’s how it works:

• Vote National: National-led Government
• Vote ACT: National-led Government
• Vote Labour: Labour-led Government
• Vote Greens: Labour-led Government
• Vote NZ First: Labour-led Government

This graph is fascinating in looking at Biden’s poll gap compared to Clinton’s in 2016.

Clinton in 2016 started off well ahead of Trump but actually fell behind him for a brief period. She rebounded at the convention to a 7% lead but then declined to a 2% lead, rebounded to 7% and then in the final days dropped to a 4% lead in the polls (she won popular vote by 2%).

Biden’s lead has moved around a bit but been between 7% and 10%. The good news for Trump is that Clinton was also once 7% ahead, but Biden’s lead is far less volatile.

The conventions this year will have less impact as they are virtual. Probably fewer campaign rallies also. So the debates are likely to be the events that could most change things.

The Government promised 1,800 additional Police Officers in its first term. Well two months out from the election they are going to fall short by around one third.

Now I guess you can say falling short by one third is better than falling short by 95% as they have done in other areas, but it is still a huge miss.

As at 30 June 2020 there were 1,260 additional police officers compared to 30 September 2017. And 880 of those 1,260 extra were actually funded by National in the 2017 Budget so in fact they’ve only added on 380 beyond what was already planned, compared to their promise of 920 (on top of the 880) so either way they have fallen way short.

They know this of course, whis is why they started blatantly lying this year and pretending their promise was for new recruits rather than for increasing the overall numbers of officers.

Richard Harman at Politik reports:

There are concerns within New Zealand First that the Serious Fraud Office could derail the party’s election campaign.

The SFO investigation is a symptom, not a cause of problems.

In April the SFO’s Director, Julie Read, said the office was on track to complete its investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation and confirm whether any charges would be laid before election day. But Parliament rose yesterday and Writ Day, which is the formal regulatory start to the election campaign,  is only nine days away on August 16. Obviously were the office to announce any charges, even from now, would leave NZ First without a chance to defend itself but with a heavy smear hanging over it for the duration of the campaign. An SFO spokesperson has confirmed to POLITIK that Read’s April statement stands; that the office expects to make the announcements before the election.

The problem for NZ First is that from what I know of the facts (and they may be incomplete) laws have been broken – the only thing unsure is which laws. If the NZF Foundation is seen as part of NZ First then disclosure laws have been broken and if the NZF Foundation is not seen as part of NZ First then different disclosure laws have been broken.

Asked if he was contemplating trying to take any action against the Serious Fraud office, he said: “Let me just tell you, I’m contemplating going out there and doing extraordinarily well in this campaign.” His refusal to confirm or deny the possibility that he might take action lends weight to suggestions tons in Auckland legal circles that that that is precisely what NZ First might do; that they could injunct the Serious Fraud Office to prevent them from laying any charges before election day.

Well they could try to injunct the SFO. That would be most interesting.

Stuff reports:

A Christchurch councillor in trouble for his involvement in digging an unauthorised trench to sort a long-running flooding problem left a “please explain” meeting after 15 minutes.

James Daniels said when he realised how serious Christchurch City Council staff were taking the issue, he decided he needed a lawyer.

Staff were recording the meeting and talking about infringement and enforcement notices and possibly a prosecution, he said.

Daniels and fellow councillor Phil Mauger took vigilante action to resolve flooding on Pages Rd in the city’s east. Mauger commandeered a digger from his company, Maugers Contracting, and had a 70-metre-long trench dug on red zone land between Anzac Drive and Bexley Rd. The work fixed the flooding overnight, they said.

The council turned up a few days later and plugged the trench, stopping it from working.

Residents have complained about the flooding for 10 years. Water covers the Pages Rd footpath and forces pedestrians onto the busy road for weeks after it rains.

The pair said they had tried official channels to get the work done, but kept hitting brick walls. …

The pair have received an outpouring of support from their community.

If the Council prosecutes them, I’d say that would guarantee they are the highest polling candidates next election.

Labour promised 100,000 Kiwibuild houses in 10 years. They explicitly promised 6,000 would be done by 30 June 2020. They have managed 452, or 7.5% of their promise.

So they have under-delivered by 92.5%.

The scary thing is this isn’t even their worst failure!

Also one third of the Kiwibuild homes don’t even have a buyer for them. Only the Government could come up with a building programme in a time of housing shortage that can’t find buyers for a third of their homes!

National $4 billion transport package for Wellington and the Hutt is a superb mixture of needed investment in both roads and public transport. They have pledged funding for:

• A 2nd Mt Vic tunnel to commence construction by 2023 ($700m)
• A rapid transit (bus or tram) service between the airport, hospital and railway station ($2.2b)
• A 2nd Terrace tunnel ($400m) to start by 2029
• Underground SH1 through Te Aro ($1.1b)
• Petone to Grenada Link Road ($900m)
• Wellington Metro Rail Upgrade ($300m)
• Hutt Valley to Wellington walking and cycleway ($130m)

Also welcome news to ratepayers is that all the SH1 improvements will be fully funded by central Government, not ratepayers. This restores the usual formula that NZTA funds national roads and ratepayers funds local roads.

I also like National’s proposal to set up a dedicated transport agency for Wellington. The current split of duties between the local Councils, Regional Council and NZTA is not optimal.

CNN reports:

As Lebanon’s investigation into the devastating blast in Beirut continues, officials have pointed to a possible cause: A massive shipment of agricultural fertilizer that authorities say was stored in the port of Beirut without safety precautions for years — despite warnings by local officials.Documents newly reviewed by CNN reveal that a shipment of 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut on a Russian-owned vessel in 2013. The ship, named the MV Rhosus, was destined for Mozambique — but stopped in Beirut due to financial difficulties that also created unrest with the ship’s Russian and Ukrainian crew.Once it arrived, the ship never left Beirut’s port, according Lebanon’s Director of Customs, Badri Daher, despite repeated warnings by him and others that the cargo was the equivalent of “a floating bomb.”

And sadly it turned into a bomb, with a blast felt 200 kms away. It was an entirely preventable disaster. That much explosive should have been secured away, not left for years at the port next to a shopping mall.

Those responsible should be prosecuted.

Iain Lees-Galloway in his valedictory said:

And finally—colleagues, hold on—our universal superannuation entitlement is unsustainable. People just live longer. It’s true, though, that abandoning universality or just increasing the age of entitlement are both likely to hit the people who need the most support the hardest. So here’s a thought. A means-tested entitlement from age 60 and a universal entitlement from age 70. 

A pity it took his valedictory for him to tell the truth about Superannuation. The age of 65 is clearly unsustainable and should move to 70.

Stuff reports:

A judge has admitted he is taking a risk in not sending a man with a history of reckless driving and driving at police back to jail for the same offence.

“It’s a huge risk, and I have to acknowledge that,” Judge Tony Greig said as he spared Dillan Mclellan in the New Plymouth District Court on Wednesday.

Mclellan was being sentenced for a reckless driving incident involving a police pursuit. It took place after his release from jail for the same offending committed in 2018.

“Somebody could have died in Mr Mclellan’s last set of offending, somebody could have died in this set of offending, and if he offends again somebody could die next time.”

However, Judge Greig said it was time to take a chance on the 22-year-old.

The Judge says Mclellan could well end up killing someone, yet gives him a get out of jail free card.

Stuff reports:

The National Party will “fast track” the construction of a second Mount Victoria tunnel if elected in September, Stuff understands.

Today, the party’s transport spokesman Chris Bishop will announce the party will build the tunnel, with central government funding the entire $700 million sum of its construction.

Under National, construction would begin by the end of its first term in Government in 2023, should it win the election in September.

A clear choice for Wellingtonians.

Stuff reports:

Calls for increased taxes on the wealthiest New Zealanders have been backed by the country’s largest union, the Public Service Association.

Tax Justice Aotearoa, formed in 2018, wants a new tax rate of 50 per cent on every dollar of personal income over $150,000 a year, and an annual levy of 2 per cent on net wealth over $2 million, excluding debt.

This is basically a return to Muldoonism when the top tax rate was 66%. Back then there was no GST. If you have a top tax rate of 50%, a GST of 15% and excise taxes and rates, well over two thirds of every dollar you earn at the top rate will go to the Government.

This is what we’ll get with a Labour/Green Government. Labour wants to hike the top tax rate and Greens want to tax your savings and house.

Stuff reports:

The Government’s Provincial Growth Fund has been savaged by the Auditor-General for a lack of transparency, lacklustre conflict management and operating a “fund within a fund”.

That is polite speak for calling it a slush fund.

Stuff reports:

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is keen to see the Christchurch mosque shooter serve his sentence in Australia.

If the shooter is deported to Australia, he will be a free man. There is no provision for him to serve time in an Australian prison for crimes done in New Zealand.

So when Winston says deport him, that actually means free him.

Documents released in recent days show that the shooter is costing the corrections system almost $5000 a day, 14 times more than it costs to house an average prisoner.

An insane amount of money. But the solution is not to set him free. The solution is to not give him platinum plated security.

Newshub reports:

The Minister of Health has reiterated that more people need to be tested for COVID-19. 

However, there’s concern one high-risk group is being overlooked – airport bus drivers ferrying the thousands of returnees to isolation hotels. 

It’s the old COVID-19 battle cry – test, test, test. 

“We want to see higher rates of daily testing,” said Chris Hipkins.

For obvious reasons, the initial focus has been here at our borders – but what about testing of bus drivers? They’re transporting potential COVID-positive travellers every day, sometimes for hours, to managed isolation hotels.

“They will be covered by the staff at the border testing, so that includes everyone working in that chain,” the Minister of Health said.

But a source at the border has told Newshub bus drivers are not being regularly tested. …

The Ministry of Health responded, saying Auckland DHB had so far tested 1089 border workers – including “some” bus drivers. It didn’t know how many.

Overseas returnees get tested around day three and day 12, but the testing regime for those working in the isolation hotels – like guards and hotel staff – is much less rigorous. 

It’s more of an aspirational target.  

Is our covid free status due to good luck or good management? Perhaps a bit of both.

TVNZ has announced four debates:

1. Collins and Ardern Tue 25 August
2. Young Voters Debate Wed 2 Sep
3. NZ First, Greens and ACT Wed 9 Sep
4. Collins and Ardern Thu 17 Sep

DNYUZ reports:

Senator Tammy Duckworth, like the man she might serve as vice president, prizes loyalty in her ranks and occasional mischief in her workplace.

So when a top communications aide prepared to defect last year to the presidential campaign of Pete Buttigieg, Ms. Duckworth recognized an opportunity. She recorded a faux media interview trashing Mr. Buttigieg for hiring her staff away, recruiting an intern to pose as a journalist on the tape. The file was sent to the departing aide, Sean Savett, who called the Buttigieg team in a panic.

Soon, Mr. Savett was summoned to the Illinois senator’s office, where she fumed theatrically, stalling as other staff members filed in quietly for the reveal: It was all a ruse. Ms. Duckworth handed him a parting gift — a Smirnoff Ice, the centerpiece of a viral drinking game known as “icing” — and gave a final senatorial directive:

“Get down on one knee and chug.”

A US Senator who will take the time to prank a departing staff member. I like it.

Ms. Duckworth has forged a political identity around trauma and personal resilience, her status as a wounded warrior shadowing every inch of her professional arc since her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down outside Baghdad in 2004.

She lost her legs in service to the US.

They were about 10 minutes from their destination when an explosion scorched through the right side of the cockpit, where Ms. Duckworth sat:

A rocket-propelled grenade. A fireball blast at her lower body.

She does not remember feeling pain immediately. She does remember the black smoke — and an aircraft suddenly impervious to her prompts. By this point, Ms. Duckworth learned later, she had no feet.

Mr. Milberg was able to land on a plot of open woods. Ms. Duckworth, on the cusp of losing consciousness, has retained a snapshot from the haze of her rescue: a cluster of tall grass poking through the base of the Black Hawk. She wondered how it had gotten there.

Ms. Duckworth awoke over a week later at Walter Reed. Her legs were gone.

Duckworth is of course one of those Biden might select as VP. She is more moderate than some of the other contenders.

The Herald reports:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is warning voters not to expect any large-scale Labour policies this election, as her party’s priority is the Covid-19 recovery.

Ardern, who is the Labour leader, was also critical of her opponents’ plans for government debt, saying what National has proposed means tough austerity measures for the next generation.

Speaking to RNZ this morning, Ardern said voters should not expect a “large-scale range of policies” from Labour this election.

First of all borrowing $100 billion or so instead of $200 billion is not austerity.

The bigger issue is that Labour wants to coast to victory on Covid-19, so that it has a blank cheque for the next term if they win. Policies are not just about saying what you will do, but what you won’t.

So a policy free Labour party could do massive increases to personal and business tax rates to fund their spending.

A guest post by a reader:

This week the Labour / Greens and NZ First Government intends to rush through legislation under urgency to further smash landlords and by extension hurt good tenants.  This legislation will further disenfranchise those people in our society who have worked hard scrimped and saved  to buy a rental or two to support them in their retirement.  Bad tenants can destroy the determined endeavours of hard working New Zealanders to build over years a financial stability. 

This is terrible legislation and will have a detrimental effect all involved in the rental markets especially those who the Government seeks to help. Screening of tenants will be so severe that people with the tiniest risk of breaching will simply not be considered for housing at all.

The vast majority of Tribunal rulings go in favour of the landlord, and they have no help or hope in ever getting their money owed back. IRD does not help nor does MSD currently it is literally impossible to enforce the rulings in favour of the ones owed the money. The fines are ridiculously high and the tribunals flip over backwards to let the offenders get away with as much as possible, it is not an even playing field as it is.

The key parts of the legislation that Labour the Greens and NZ First are trying to get over the line are detailed below.

Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill will be considered in Parliament under urgency this week.

1. Section 55A would allow two weeks of unpaid rent every 90 days. This breaches every tenancy agreement which requires rent to be paid as agreed.
2. Section 36 would permit two separate instances of anti-social behaviour every 90 days. This also breaches every tenancy agreement which forbids anti-social behaviour.
3. Section 32, which would end contractual terminations by owners, means that the only ways for owners to end tenancies are to renovate, move into, or sell the property.
4. When considering termination for a serious breach, Tenancy Tribunal adjudicators would be legally obliged to put the personal circumstances of a tenant above the rights of the owner and neighbours, and above fairness and acceptable behaviour.
5. Schedule 2 would impose massive fines that are far from fair and reasonable. Seventy three of the 87 proposed penalties target owners

Perhaps the Prime Minister can explain why it is being rushed through under urgency. The Government knows that it can’t stand scrutiny so Government MPs want to ensure that it is not read or debated.