Stuff reports:

NZ First leader Winston Peters says that ACT leader David Seymour wouldn’t “last 10 seconds” if the pair exchanged blows, after Seymour said Peters would soon need help to get dressed.

The pair traded insults on Monday morning, after Peters announced a campaign to limit immigration to 15,000 of the “most highly skilled people who will add value to our economy” per year.

Seymour, in a press statement, said Peters’ campaign immigration promise was “tragic”.

“Peters himself will soon be retired and will require a care worker to help him get dressed and go for a walk. He’ll discover that such facilities can’t function without migrant workers,” Seymour said.

“As a local electorate MP, I have helped care facilities deal with byzantine immigration laws to get people into the country and keep services going. This is the reality of business in New Zealand.

“Nowhere else in the world does an economy of five million people say, ‘You can’t hire anyone outside out the border.’ It would be like Victoria sealing itself off from the rest of Australia. NZ First’s policy is like permanent Covid-19 isolation for the labour market.”

Peters, who recently took medical leave to recover from a keyhole surgery, took issue with the comments about him possibly nearing retirement, and said: “As for your nasty comments about my physical – I reckon you’d last 10 seconds in the ring with me.”

“There’d be three hits – you hitting me, me hitting you, and the ambulance hitting 100.

“Thank your lucky stars I’m not into physical violence.”

Seymour poked Peters on Twitter, and Peters fell for it with an angry response guaranteeing lots of publicity for what Seymour said.

Peters is the Deputy PM, and he got played by Seymour.

NewstalkZB reports:

NZ First leader Winston Peters has been ordered by the High Court to pay nearly $320,000 in costs after his failed court action over details of his superannuation payments being leaked.

In a judgment by Justice Geoffrey Venning last Friday, and obtained by the Herald today, costs of nearly $320,000 were awarded against the Deputy Prime Minister. …

The new judgment orders Peters to pay Bennett and Tolley $101,897.26 – while a total of $215,921.11 was to be paid to the remaining defendants.

That money doesn’t go to Bennett or Tolley. The Government covered their court costs as former Ministers, so all $320,000 will go to the taxpayer.

Winston really got off lightly. I understand total costs for the Crown was around $1 million.

I can almost guarantee that Winston will now announce he is appealing, or doing a private prosecution or some such. These will either fail or never eventuate, but it will allow him to dodge whether or not he has paid the $320,000.

Of course Winston also still owes the taxpayer $165,000 back from 2005, so in total he owes $485,000. People should ask him at public meetings when he will be paying it all back.

This is a huge loss. Andrew is a great guy and was a future front bencher. I don’t know what the mistakes are he refers to, but just hope he looks after himself.

Apart from the personal loss, obviously not tidy for National to have another last minute retirement.

Seen on Wilton Road this morning.

Must just be random vandals, of course.

Newshub reports:

A prominent entrepreneur is frustrated that an alternative to the troubled COVID-19 tracing app is stuck in limbo with officials.

Since March, Trade Me founder Sam Morgan has been working as part of a team to test the ability of ‘CovidCard’.

CovidCard is a low energy bluetooth device the size of a credit card, that is designed to be worn on a lanyard around the neck when in areas such as public transport, workplaces, bars, restaurants, gyms, hospitals, large gatherings and events.

It detects and records close contacts using bluetooth and stores this data securely on a person’s card for 21 days.

No contact data is automatically stored in the cloud or elsewhere and it does not track user location as the card does not contain GPS capability.

Sounds ideal.

Morgan said apps overseas – which were even better than the COVID-19 Tracer app – had failed miserably.

“So the solution isn’t on a phone and in our consultation with iwi and Pasifika and so forth, they made it really clear to us that if you’re going to give [them] an app don’t expect all of [their] people to be able to use this and that is a fundamental equity issue,” he said.

“It is really important we can reach every New Zealander and no app is going to do that.”

Sam Morgan has been consistently ahead of the Government on this stuff. He pushed them into lockdown, when they were resistant, and he is right on the app also.

Stuff reports:

Judith Collins is keen to see Kiwis returning home to New Zealand charged $3000 for their managed self-isolation or quarantine, Stuffunderstands.

The National Party will announce the policy on Sunday to charge all New Zealanders entering the country the fee – around three quarters of the total cost – should the party be elected in September.

The policy wouldn’t apply until October 3, giving Kiwis who didn’t want to pay the fee the chance to rush home.

National does not see any serious legal hurdles in creating such a scheme, and would pass a law to enact the policy if necessary, it’s understood.

There’s pros and cons to this.

The argument against is that NZ citizens have an right to return home to their country. Charging them a fee, undermines that right.

The argument for is that those returning home are generally wealthy and well off, and why should low income families in NZ pay for quarantine costs of returning ex pats.

Anyway Labour has announced they will do much the same, so looks like it will happen.

I graphed the daily data showing the cumulative death rate per million from Covid-19 for the OECD countries with the highest death rates. The US isn’t the worst country, but it may end up there.

As you can see the European countries got hit first and still have a higher death rate. But many of them now have relatively few additional deaths. The US though is still having significant increases. Here’s the increase in the death rate (deaths per million capita) in the last month:

1. Belgium 1.1%
2. Italy 1.7%
3. France 2.0%
4. Spain 4.7%
5. UK 7.3%
6. Sweden 11.5%
7. US 18.3%

The US Government/s seems incapable of putting effective measures in place. If they can’t do so, then within six months or so they may have the highest death rate.

The Herald reports:

A complaint has been laid with police after Labour volunteers were spotted taking down New Conservative election hoardings in Auckland.

But Labour says it was a misunderstanding and a signs coordinator has apologised.

A New Conservative supporter posted on Facebook saying they’d seen two ripped signs on a fence while passing Great North Rd.

“I pulled over thought to take a photo but shockingly it was gone and on the ground into pieces already. A couple was replacing them with their Labour Party signs”, Frans Van Schie posted.

Of course it was a misunderstanding. I mean, they just tripped up and accidentally tore the signs down.

Newshub reports:

Northland locals are desperate for a four lane expressway connecting Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga which The National Party on Friday promised to build if elected. …

In the congested, wet, and windy roads of the north, traffic can be backed up for kilometres upon kilometres. 

“It’s shit,” one Kaitaia resident told Newshub. “It’s absolutely shit.”

Cue The National Party. New leader Judith Collins announced its new transport package on Friday – planning to build a four-lane expressway starting in Whangarei, shooting down through Auckland and Hamilton, and ending in Tauranga.

The windy Kaimai ranges would be replaced by a tunnel, so too the Brynderwyns north of Auckland

“And, yes, for those tunnels, you will pay a small toll for a car, or a more sizable one for a commercial vehicle,” Collins said.

In return, it would create jobs and bring more people and goods into the area.

Locals say the most important part for the north is that it’s safer. The area makes up for just three per cent of the country’s population but for 12 percent of the roading  fatalities. 

Locals believe the expressway would save lives and the winterless north’s economy.

The expressway is hugely popular in Northland, and for good reason when you look at the road toll there and the congestion.

Shane Jones has delivered some art toilets and a lot of rhetoric over the port. Labour are against the expressway so NZ First will never be able to deliver it – only National can.

Moderators have been deleting lots of comments trying to spread rumours about some MPs personal lives and/or their families.

We have been just deleting them, but the new policy is an instant suspension for those who try to post such a comment. And this includes trying to be a smart arse and use code.

HDPA writes:

f you’re about to be hit with a rates increase, wherever you are in the country, I think you have good reason to be really grumpy with your local council.

Raising rates in this current economic climate is unbelievable.

The most recent example of this is Auckland Council, yesterday voting to increase rates by 3.5%. In doing that, they’ve ignored their own ratepayers: two thirds of submitters asked them not to raise rates by that much.

The Council has all the excuses in the world for why rates have to go up.

But actually, it doesn’t have to be like this. We don’t have to, and shouldn’t, accept an increase as if there is no other option.

Let me tell you about Horowhenua District Council.

These guys are actually decreasing rates this year, by 1.83%. …

The fact is, Auckland’s rates are going up because the council can’t be bothered taking the pain like Horowhenua’s leaders are prepared to. 

Yep 18 of the 21 Auckland Councillors made the choice to increase rates by 3.5% during a recession in which many business and family incomes have plumeted.

Stuff reports:

The Government keeps urging New Zealanders to use the NZ Covid Tracer app but Kiwis aren’t responding.

Now, one public health expert says it should probably be abandoned.

Figures from the Ministry of Health show QR codes on posters in businesses and other places frequented by the public have been scanned a total of about 1.43 million times in the nearly two months the app has been available. That’s an average of only around 25,000 a day.

So less than 1% of people using it daily.

But professor Nick Wilson from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago said 10,000 users a day would be just 0.2 per cent of the population.

“That’s just microscopic. It’s just not working,” Wilson said. “It should probably be abandoned.”

For an app to be more effective than manual contact tracing, uptake by the population would need to be much higher than 50 per cent.

So pretty much useless.

One was a Bluetooth-enabled smart card that everyone carried around, along the lines of a system being developed in Singapore.

According to the Singapore government, the “tokens” it started to hand out in late June exchange Bluetooth signals with other nearby tokens, or with an app it launched in March.

When a token user is identified with Covid-19, the data on their token can be used to identify other token users who have been in close contact with the infected person.

A much better system. No manual checking in.

Judith Collins has announced a massive $31 billion infrastructure package. Key details are:

• Everything Labour has pledged except their “ghost trains” and Skypath 2
• Four lane expressways to connect up Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga
• Rail to Auckland Airport
• A goal of 30 minutes for Aucklanders to get to work and no more than an hour to cross the city
• A 2nd harbour crossing to commence construction in 2028, for both road and rail
• $14 billion of further announcements for the lower NI and SI to come
• Repeal the Auckland Fuel Tax
• No increases to fuel tax or road user charges in first term
• Open to revenue neutral congestion pricing
• Build a NorthWest Rapid Bus Corridor and between Onehunga and CBD
• Build a third and fourth main line for Auckland Rail

A stunningly bold and visionary package. Just imagine four lane express ways between the four major cities of Upper North Island.

The difference between two and four lanes is massive. On a two lane road all traffic moves at the pace of the slowest vehicle on it. On a four land road, traffic can and often will travel at the designated limit.

Henry Cooke writes:

“I accept there will be politicking this year. I accept we have an election. But if I’m being brutally honest, my mind hasn’t been focused on that to date.”

“I absolutely accept that there is an election this year – and there is no avoiding that – but at the moment it’s taking up a bare minimum of my attention.” …

It’s also quite an odd way of putting it. Ardern doesn’t have the choice to “accept” whether there is an election this year. Elections are the means by which the Government has legitimacy and power; not minor inconveniences on the path to Covid-19 recovery.

Exactly.

Thus far Labour has released a single election policy, which deals with afforestation of farmland and seems mostly engineered to give Kieran McAnulty a good shot in Wairarapa. When you ask about other policy areas, MPs either say “maybe soon” or point to wider government policy on an issue. But the Government is not the Labour Party, it is a set of compromises between Labour and two parties with wildly different views. Kiwis can’t vote for “the Government” – much like they can’t vote for Ardern herself. They can vote for a party, and they deserve a coherent set of values and promises to make that decision on.

Labour are hoping they can get away with as little policy as possible, because then they get a blank cheque for their second term, and we’ll see massive tax increases to pay for it all.

Auckland Councillor for Rodney Greg Sayers released:

Today the Auckland Council voted to support Mayor Phil Goff’s 3.5% general rates increase.

Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers was one of three Councillors who voted against the increase.

He said increasing taxes such as rates in a recession makes a recession deeper and that was the wrong thing to be doing.

The other two Councillors who voted against the 3.5% general rates increase were Cr Christine Fletcher and Cr John Watson.

“The mandate from the public was clear with over 64 percent of the submissions from Auckland residents wanting a 2.5 percent rates increase or less,” says Sayers.

“The majority of people said they wanted Auckland Council to cut-its-cloth to fit its income, especially at a time when households can least afford more taxes,” Sayers said during the debate.

Sayers gave alternative solutions to increasing rates which included central Government taking the City Rail Link debt off Auckland Council’s books, bringing payrates for Council staff paid over $100,000 back into line with the private sector, and implementing a Royal Commission recommendation to have an Independent Performance Auditor residing over Auckland Council providing independent assurances to the public that the Council was providing high-quality services in a cost effective way.

“It’s the financial hardship created on Auckland’s most vulnerable, the poorest, the supernatants, and those on fixed incomes that concern me the most,” said Sayers.

Aucklanders should be angry at the 18 Councillors who voted to sock them in the middle of a recession with a 3.5% rates increase – ignoring the vast majority of submissions against this.

Marc Daalder writes:

A politician takes over as head of one of the major parties of a small island nation, replacing a predecessor who had become increasingly unpopular, jeopardising the party’s chances at the upcoming election.

Then, as Prime Minister after the election, the politician surrounds themselves with climate activists and scientists and begins, in response to massive protests and a clear mandate from the electorate for action on reducing emissions, rolling out evidence-based climate policy.

That includes an ambitious plan to totally decarbonise transport, the banning of the import of fossil fuel vehicles by 2035, investment for electric vehicle charging statements, continuing the transition to renewable energy, requiring big companies to list their climate-related risk, requirements to upgrade the energy efficiency of commercially-rented buildings and millions of dollars to research reducing industrial emissions.

Although, at first glance, the above story seems reminiscent of Jacinda Ardern’s rise to power, the politician in question is actually Boris Johnson and the small island nation is the United Kingdom. The key difference is in that last sentence, where the politician actually implemented policies that would significantly reduce emissions.

Good to see this analysis. All Ardern has done is set up a committee to advise on future policies. She hasn’t actually made any significant policy changes. Once again it has been rhetoric over substance, like with light rail and Kiwibuild.

Jacinda promised the Government vehicle fleet would be emissions free by 2025. Less than 2% are electric after three years.

Talk is easy. Results are harder.

A couple of months ago some of the usual suspects said that the Police should be defunded and not armed etc because most of the people shot by the Police have been Maori or PI.

Of the 21 people killed by Police between 1990 and 2015, seven are European, nine Maori, three Pacific and two others. Now I personally didn’t thunk the Police are shooting people because they are Maori, but because they were posing a threat to Police or others.

It got me wondering about the other side of the equation. What is the breakdown by ethnicity of those who have killed or assaulted police officers. So I asked the Police and they have responded.

There have been eight (now nine) officers killed since 1990 and the ethnicity of the killers is three Maori, two Europeans, one Pacific and two unknowns. So at least half of those who have killed Police are Maori or Pacific – much the same ratio as those killed by Police.

Not enough data to reach much of a conclusion but the assault data is more robust as there has been a shockingly high 16,000 assaults on police officers since 2010.

The ethnicity breakdown of people assaulting police officers is:

• Maori 50% (17% of pop)
• European 39% (70% of pop)
• Pacific 9% (9% of pop)
• Asian 2% (15% of pop)

No doubt the usual suspects will somehow also blame the Police for being assaulted so often by Maori and Pacific offenders!

Judith Collins has announced her new lineup. Big changes are:

• Simon Bridges moves to No 4
• Shane Reti to No 5
• Todd McClay to No 6
• Chris Bishop to No 7
• Todd Muller in No 8

In terms of portfolios the big changes are:

• Nicola Willis gets Education
• Shane Reti gets Health
• Harete Hipango gets Shadow Attorney-General
• Simon Bridges gets Foreign Affairs and Justice
• Chris Bishop gets Shadow House Leader
• Todd Muller gets Trade
• Michael Woodhouse gets Regional Economic Development

The full list is here.

A nice mixture on the front bench of experienced Ministers and newer MPs who would make great Ministers.