Radio NZ reports:

Tens of thousands in donors’ funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying expenses, wages and bills for people closely associated with the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.

The foundation, which has bankrolled NZ First using secret donations from rich business people, spent more than $130,000 on a company run by Brian Henry – the personal lawyer and close friend of Peters.

So $130,000 is paid to a company run by Winston’s lawyer – Brian Henry. The same Brian Henry who is a trustee of the Foundation.

Jamie Henry, Brian Henry’s daughter, received $64,500 in wages and expenses, which included seven identical amounts, totalling $3010, referenced as “rent”. All those costs were paid by the foundation.

An amazing coincidence.

Peters’ partner Jan Trotman also received a payment from the foundation, according to records seen by RNZ.

On July 29 last year, the foundation paid Trotman $3450. The transaction is recorded as “Reimburse-Flt” in what appears to be a reimbursing payment for a flight.

RNZ asked Trotman why the foundation would pay for her air travel but she declined to comment.

She does not appear to have any official role with New Zealand First but has been involved in a business venture with Brian Henry and his son David.

Very strange as she is also eligible for free airfare as an MP’s spouse – unless the travel is for business.

Trotman is a director of New Zealand Future Forest Products (NZFFP), which applied unsuccessfully for a $15 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF).

Brian Henry was also a director of NZFFP at the time of the PGF application but Company Office records show he resigned that position on February 19 this year.

Definitely nothing at all to see here.

The SFO will decide whether or not they think any laws have been broken. The other issue is why does NZ First have such a structure where non elected officials control the money from donations, the campaign spending and even the party’s database?

Stuff reports:

Māori and Pacifica waiting for elective surgery have been placed at the top of wait lists in the Wellington region.

Speaking at a Capital and Coast District Health Board meeting today, medical officer John Tait said the Ministry of Health bands people accepted for specialist treatment in a priority ranking.

People are given a score on their level of need and ability to benefit from treatment compared to other people.

“We’ve moved Māori and Pacifica to the top of the band,” he told the meeting.

This is a huge deal.

At present your eligibility for surgery is based on a score that takes into account your individual circumstances. How severe your condition is, how effective surgery might be, your age etc.

CCDHB has said that instead of relying on the actual clinical need, they will prioritise Maori and Pacifika which of course means European patients get demoted – even if they have a greater clinical need. They get punished for their skin colour basically.

The Government has introduced the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill.

Much of the bill is laudable and worthwhile. But one aspect is repugnant and should be resisted at all costs. It is this part:

The Bill facilitates the establishment of a government-backed (either mandatory or voluntary) web filter if one is desired in the future. It provides the Government with explicit statutory authority to explore and implement such mechanisms through regulations, following consultation.

There is already a voluntary web filter for content such as child pornography. It is used by ISPs covering the vast majority of NZ Internet users including 2 Degrees, Spark and Vodafone.

So there is no need to have a law change for a voluntary filter. The law change is for a compulsory filter.

And if the Government manages to introduce a compulsory filter, I can guarantee it won’t stop at objectionable material.

Over a dozen agencies will queue up demanding it be expanded so they also get the power to block websites. Crown Law will want to block overseas newspapers that break NZ suppression laws. MBIE will want to block any sites Hollywood studios complain about. The Police will want to block websites. The Ministry of Health will want to block websites.

Once you have a compulsory Government filter, it only gets bigger. This bill should be resisted strongly and I hope the Greens live up the work done by Nandor Tanczos and Gareth Hughes who have always been on the side of Internet freedom, and oppose this bill.

Stuff reports:

The ACT Party is calling for a Royal Commission into the Government’s Covid-19 response.

Leader David Seymour said a Commission should look at the rules set by the Government, if they were appropriately balanced and if the Government acted in accordance with the rule of law.

He said it could also consider looking at whether New Zealand’s borders should have been closed earlier; examine the pandemic plan and PPE issues and if the Government had adequate testing to provide data for decision-making.

“There is recent precedent. The Royal Commission into the Canterbury earthquakes was established in April 2011, two months after the February earthquake. The Royal Commission into the Christchurch terrorist attacks was set up the month after the attacks,” he said.

It is unthinkable that there would not be a Royal Commission into our response to Covid-19. It dwarfs all these other events.

“A Royal Commission into the Covid-19 response should report back prior to April 2021.”

He wanted to see an independent Royal Commission investigate the response before next year’s flu season.

“Covid-19 may return next year and we can’t afford to shut down the economy again. Being unprepared for the first major pandemic in 100 years may be understandable, but repeating our mistakes if it comes back next year is totally unacceptable.”

Crisis thinking was very different from honest reflection on what could have done better and he called for “open, honest debate”.

He believed the Commission would need international guidance because too many players were invested in the Government’s response.

I think April 2021 may be too ambitious. But I do think the RC should look at responses around the world and see how our response could be improved.

  

Hard to read the sentencing notes of Ashley Winter and Kerry Te Amo for the murder of 17 year old Dimetrius Pairama without tearing up.

They didn’t even know her, but ran into her on the streets. They lured her to a property and (for reasons even the Judge doesn’t know) did the following:

• Punched her face
• Kicked her stomach
• Stripped her naked
• Taped her to a chair
• Gagged her
• Cut and shaved her head
• Tortured her by using an aerosol can and lighter on her breasts and genital area
• Poured milk powder and bleach over her head and eyes
• Punched and kicked her further
• Then when they worked out how much trouble they would be in for their actions decided to kill her
• Gave her a choice of stabbing or hanging and hung her
• Stuffed her body in plastic rubbish bags and a drum

The poor girl was beaten and tortured and then knew she was going to be killed. And all because these psychopaths were bored.

Neither defendent has shown any real remorse.

Ms Winter was on her second strike. Her first was attempted rape of a woman in 2014. Despite this she didn’t get life without parole as it was deemed manifestly unjust.

It seems there is almost nothing you can do that will get you life without parole. Not even being an attempted rapist and a barbaric killer.

Marilyn Waring writes:

Louisa Wall is an exceptionally strong local representative. Louisa doesn’t just make speeches, she makes things happen. Look at the examples: tackling period poverty, showers for the homeless and their access to primary health care, working with local churches for hospitality cafes, sight screening and glasses for children in Manurewa, introducing KidsCan to their first high school partnership, in Manurewa. She has a very good grasp of how the system works, how to access information and assistance for those who seek her help, and she responds quickly.

Louisa has been a distinguished Chair of the Health Select Committee. She has demonstrated significant leadership in the cross-party Women Parliamentarians group, and in teams working on marriage equality, abortion, female genital mutilation, mental health and addictions, wellbeing, and end of life legislation, a quality New Zealanders want to see more of in their elected representatives.

More achievements than some Ministers!

Stuff reports:

Waitomo’s six district councillors have filed a complaint against their mayor, alleging he breached the council’s code of conduct. …

On Tuesday, the council will meet to hear public submissions on its annual plan and rates increase.

It’s a key meeting because Robertson had been keenly pursuing avenues to reduce the district’s $40m debt ever since he was voted in as mayor in 2019.

He is a former National MP and former mayor for Papakura but now lives in Piopio.

In 2012 he was appointed to lead a group of commissioners to sort out governance issues at Kaipara District Council, and he was using that experience to change governance and policies at Waitomo.

He had been using online and print media to push his views around debt reduction and the arrival of Covid-19 provided put more pressure on all councils to look at reducing rate increases.

He promoted the idea of a “rates freeze” to keep the council’s rates collection at the same level as the previous year.

It’s possible some councillors disagreed with this approach and disagreed with Robertson’s outspoken commentary of the matter.

So the Mayor is campaigning for a rates freeze, and the six muppets on the Council with him have lodged a formal complaint against him for doing so.

How pathetic. They should be made to pay the cost of investogating their complaint.

And ratepayers should sack the six of them.

Stuff reports:

Treasury’s forecast for employment are unrealistically optimistic and would require bosses to hire 189,000 jobs in short order to get back to pre-crises levels of employment, economists say.

Evidence from the last financial crisis shows it actually takes many years to get unemployment back to pre-crisis levels — and the financial crisis was a much smaller shock than the one now facing the economy.

Infometrics economist Brad Olsen says the forecasts are wildly optimistic and don’t take into account vast structural changes going on in the economy, such as the end of international tourism. …

Olsen said during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) it took 14 quarters for employment numbers to fall back to pre-crisis levels. Treasury thinks unemployment rates can fall back to rough pre-crisis levels in just eight quarters, despite the Covid-19 shock being far more severe.

During the GFC, about 60,000 needed to be created to get the unemployment rate down. This time around, Treasury expects roughly 189,000 jobs to be found in a much shorter space of time.

Put like this, it seems very unlikely.

Stuff reports:

A nurse who was convicted of manslaughter after she fatally pushed her husband has had her nursing registration suspended for six months.

In a hearing in front of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in Dunedin, the tribunal considered whether the woman’s conviction reflected badly on her fitness to practice as a nurse.

The woman, who has interim name suppression, will have to undergo six monthly tests to monitor her alcohol consumption over three years, register any employment with the Nursing Council and give employers a copy of the decision.

Ms L had been convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 11 months home detention. …

“A conviction for manslaughter is one of the most serious criminal offences and constitutes a significant departure from the standards reasonably expected of a registered nurse.”

She had 18 prior convictions, all but one of which occurred during their relationship.

So she has a drinking problem, she killed her husband while pissed and she had a total of 9 convictions and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal thinks she is fine to carry on as a nurse after a six month stand down!

And they suppress her name so we have no idea if the nurse treating us is a convicted killer!

  

Stuff reports:

The Government is promising to pay workers who lose their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis more than double the unemployment benefit, in a newly announced $1.2 billion scheme.

The weekly “income relief” payments, set at $490 a week for full-time workers and $250 a week for part-time workers, will be given to workers instead of the unemployment benefit, if they lost their job due to Covid-19 after March 1. …

The untaxed payments are more than double that of the jobseeker benefit for a single person aged over 25-years, which are currently set at $250, after tax. 

The scheme is expected to cost $1.2b, but will save the Government $635 million in paying unemployment benefits, meaning an additional cost of $570m. The money will come from the Government’s Covid-19 response fund. 

The payment will be available to people who lost their job after March 1, and will be available until November. After 12-weeks, any unemployed workers will have to take the jobseeker benefit. 

It seems bizarre that someone made redundant on 28 February gets $250 a week and on 1 March or later gets double that.

But what this is about is preventing an backlash before the election. So they give an extra $600 million for 12 weeks to keep those made redundant happier.

The Greens and others will no doubt demand that everyone on the unemployment benefit be paid $500 a week.

Todd Muller has appointed his Shadow Cabinet. The front bench are:

1. Todd Muller
2. Nikki Kaye, Education, Sport
3. Amy Adams, Covid-19 Recovery
4. Judith Collins, Economic Development, Shadow Attorney-General
5. Paul Goldsmith, Finance
6. Gerry Brownlee, Foreign Affairs, Shadow House Leader
7. Michael Woodhouse, Health
8. Louise Upston, Social Development

So three out of the top four are female, and I dare anyone to say they’re not there on merit. I remind people the Government’s Top 8 includes Winston, Kelvin and Phil Twyford.

Great to see Amy Adams unretire. She was a great Minister for Communications and then Social Investment.

The big movers in terms of rankings are:

• Nicola Willis up from 45th to 14th
• Shane Reti from 28th to 17th
• Andrew Bayly from 32nd to 19th
• Lawrence Yule from 43rd to 30th

All well deserved promotions.

Stuff reports:

Stuff Ltd chief executive Sinead Boucher has bought the company from its Australian owners Nine Entertainment, ending months of speculation about a potential takeover.

The management buyout led by Boucher is understood to have been planned and executed very quickly, with the chief executive buying the company for a direct price of $1, and returning the company to New Zealand ownership. The sale is expected to be completed by May 31.

Boucher has signalled plans to develop an ownership model that would give staff a shareholding stake in the business.

That’s a great outcome and far better than NZME buying Stuff.

Having the CE and staff own the media company is a great model. It helps align interests.

Boucher started her career as a journalist for The Press, initially as a branch office reporter in North Canterbury, before shifting to London and working for the Financial Times and Reuters. As Stuff’s first digital editor, she was instrumental in growing the website into New Zealand’s largest digital brand. In 2012 she was awarded the Wolfson Fellowship, New Zealand journalism’s top individual prize.

After four years as executive editor, she was appointed Stuff chief executive in August 2017, succeeding Simon Tong.

I know Sinead a bit. Many years ago she had me come in and talk to staff on digital issues and opportunities. She has always been one of those in the industry who got the impact of the Internet early on, and I thought her appointment as CEO was a smart one. And even better now that she is owner also.

This sale doesn’t mean Stuff will be immune from job losses, but it does set itself up well to continue. With a $1 purchase price the focus will be on sustainability, not dividends, which is what is needed for now.

Todd Niall writes:

Auckland Council pulls in nearly $5 billion in revenue a year, so does it matter where $1000 of it goes?

In politics, to quote an old cliché, it’s not the money, it’s the principle. And this is about $1000 spent by Mayor Phil Goff’s office in the past year to boost the audience of his social media posts.

As the council beavers away behind closed doors on the most difficult budget in its decade of being, behaviour with ratepayers’ money takes on a new meaning.

I agree. One should lead by example with belt tightening.

Here, though, is the test that should be applied to the $1000 spent by the mayor’s office over the past year on boosting his social media posts – especially in these fiscally-challenged times.

Could the mayor look 11 average residential ratepayers in the eye and tell them that the extra they will pay this year, if a 3.5 per cent rate rise goes through, will be used to boost his own social media reach?

Political promotion should be on the “nice-to-have” list should the council find itself comfortably back in the black one day.

If you save a thousand here or there it starts to add up!

Act have announced an initial 49 candidates. Of course most will not get elected but on current polls it is very possible ACT would get between two and four MPs.

Their list ranking is at the end of June.

  

Hamish Price writes:

I first met Muller at a National Party conference in 1993. He had just completed a stint as President of the Waikato Students Union, and had joined Jim Bolger’s office as an adviser.

Muller was an imposing figure. He stood head and shoulders above most, but would lean in and hold your gaze and speak softly, and listen and engage respectfully even with lowly young trouble-makers.  He had an avuncular authority that defied his 25 years. I would not describe it so crudely as charisma, but his ability to make every person he met feel important, made him a person of unmistakable presence.

Muller was always at Bolger’s side, and invariably mistaken for the PM’s bodyguard.

Heh and in Dunedin he acted as one. Off memory (may be fallible) Sue Bradford burst into the church service Bolger was at, and Todd tackled her in the aisle and evicted her. Made him even more popular.

Over the years many those who have known Muller and recognised his leadership material came to write him off.  He had bottled his chance to succeed early, they said. He didn’t have the hunger, they said.  He had missed his opportunity, they said. When given the chance again, he wouldn’t have the mongrel, they said.

I was one of them, and I was wrong.  As events have shown this week, Muller has all those things.  The opportunity, a global pandemic that has thrown the New Zealand economy into a spiralling may-day call, has consumed the National Party leadership.  And it is the unique set of circumstances that has gifted it to Muller.

Muller has a unique set of attributes.  He exudes reassurance at a time when the country is in crisis. He has an optimism and confidence in New Zealand at a time when the public needs hope for the future. Conservative by nature, but not thumpingly so, he has an eye for pragmatism and results.

Todd Muller is no Jacinda Ardern.  He does not have her communication polish.  But before she was elected leader of the Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern was no Jacinda Ardern.

This election is now game-on.  And anyone who writes Muller off now risks making the same mistake that too many of us have over the last five years.

The fact the left are trying to create a controversy over the fact he has US political memorabilia in his office suggests they are keen to try and spike him.

The Washington Post reports:

Several California defense attorneys said Friday that they would attempt to overturn criminal convictions that relied upon testimony from Tara Reade, the former Senate aide who accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, because she may have provided false information under oath.

During testimony in Monterey County court cases in which she was called as an expert on domestic violence, Reade said that she had received a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University, had never taken the bar exam after graduating from law school and had been a legislative assistant in Biden’s office. Those claims have since been documented as false or been called into doubt in stories published since she made her accusation against Biden.

Doesn’t mean she is lying about Biden, but a history of lying definitely harms her credibility.

The review of the cases, which was first reported by the Monterey County Weekly, came as the attorney who had been representing Reade in her claim against Biden said Friday that his firm decided to no longer work with her as a client.

Douglas Wigdor had represented several other plaintiffs during the #MeToo era, including victims who said they were harassed by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and film producer Harvey Weinstein.

“Our firm no longer represents Tara Reade,” Wigdor said in a statement Friday morning.

That appears to be significant.

  

The Herald reports:

National’s new leader Todd Muller says if he leads his party to victory this election, he would be the Minister of Small Business as well as the Prime Minister.

He said this would help reinforce the fact that a Government he led would be about helping those people on the ground floor of the economy.

“Those small businesses need an advocate in Wellington and I’ll be their man,” he told the Nation this morning.

This is a smart decision. PMs if they choose a portfolio often choose one they see as critical to NZ’s future. Key chose tourism. Ardern chose Arts and Child Poverty Reduction and Muller, if elected, has said he will choose Small Business.

It is a sign to voters that a Muller Government’s focus would be on rebuilding the economy and small businesses.

A guest post by KrazyKiwi:

It would be fair to say the number of leading doctors, epidemiologists and social scientists questioning the societal impact of the lockdown is starting to increase. At the same time there is an emerging appetite for the media to give these voices room to compete with what has to-date been a predominantly government-led narrative. Being something of a data junkie, I have approached the topic of accessing the lockdown harm by looking at raw mortality data. Most countries publish this material regularly, the best of which do so weekly. New Zealand does not publish on this frequency, so I have been analysing the UK’s Office of National Statistics weekly mortality records. These are published on a Tuesday night NZT, covering the current year’s weeks ending 10 days prior. So not real-time, but close. This year’s data includes analysis of deaths that ‘involve Covid19’. In the UK ‘involve’ can mean anything from a 60-year year old, diagnosed with Covid19 and with co-morbidities dying in hospital, through to someone passing away in a rest home with a local GP suspecting Covid19, and without any testing designating it as such on the death certificate. It is usual to consider the excess mortalities rate (‘EMR’) for this analysis, ie the deaths above some multi-year average. The ONS uses a five year average which includes a particularly lethal 2018-19 flu season. Even so, the UKs EMR currently exceeds the 5-year average by a wide margin. For example, in Week-17 the 5-year average number of mortalities is 10,457. In 2020 Week-17 21,997 people died giving us an EMR of 11,540. What is surprising however is that removal the loosely attributed and possibly overstated Covid19 deaths reveal a statistically significant excess of UK residents now dying without the virus playing any role in their passing. Week-17 saw 8,237 deaths attributed to Covid19, meaning that there were 3,303 excess deaths not attributable to the virus. So far this year there have been 13,245 excess, non-Covid19 deaths representing around 25% of the overall EMR. What could be causing this? Empty hospital beds are a clue, as are the number of people dying at home because they have been asked to delay seeking treatment, or they are unwilling to ‘risk’ going to hospital on account of Covid19. Social isolation coupled with anxiety resulting from job losses, business failures and loss of retirement savings have a well-documented impact on suicide statistics. Economic downturns impact the quality and availability of healthcare thereby increasing mortality. These factors will persist in contributing to untimely deaths long after Covid19 has become a stable diet of documentaries and of epidemiology case-studies. New Zealand and the UK have different population densities, different volumes of international visitors, dissimilar use of crowded public transport, different air quality and seasons. These factors will have been a significant in our rather different Covid19 death rates. But the environmental benefits we enjoy in terms of limiting Covid19s spread are of no help limiting the societal and economic consequences of the lockdown. Indeed, the New Zealand lockdown is expected to cause proportionally more economic damage than the UK, with the IMF observing:

New International Monetary Fund projections show the depth of pain New Zealand’s economy will feel due to the coronavirus, forecasting a contraction on 7.2 per cent this year. ::: The IMF believes New Zealand will see the biggest fall outside of Europe, except for Venezuela, an economy already in freefall.

On that basis we should expect an EMR profile similar to, or possibly worse than what is occurring in the UK. New Zealand’s population is 7.2% of that of the UK and where the UK is currently experiencing 3303 excess, non-Covid19 deaths each week, New Zealand can proportionally expect to be experiencing 237 excess, non-Covid19 deaths each week. This is simplistic analysis, and there are factors that could suppress or exacerbate this number, but one thing is clear: the number of non-Covid19 deaths in New Zealand will be many orders of magnitude greater than the number who will die of the disease. At a political level we have seen this government late to apply a brute-force lockdown, then extending it so as appear ‘strong’. This ill-founded strategy will without doubt be killing New Zealanders. A Royal Commission of Enquiry is desperately needed to assess the basis on which critical decisions were made, and to recommend how to prevent another government-led tragedy being visited upon current and future generations.

Stuff reports:

Air New Zealand staff are “absolutely devastated” by news the airline will cut more than 1300 jobs across all routes it operates, a union says. …

One E tū cabin crew member, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were “absolutely devastated.”

“Having seen first-hand the work done by our union members, and still having this result, is crushing. Air New Zealand values its staff less than its profit and shareholders, which so sad to see unfold.” 

What part of of a 90% revenue drop can’t they understand?

Its insane to be complaining about Air NZ valuing its profit and shareholders more.

There is no profit. Even with these staff cuts Air NZ is making a loss in the hundreds of millions.

Shareholders have had the value of their shares drop by 67% or so – from $3 to just over $1. Also they will not be getting any dividends for probably years to come.

Air NZ has burnt through most or all of its cash reserves. It will be literally unable to pay its bills if it doesn’t reduce the number of staff it has. Even the Govt loan of $900 million only gets you so far.

Air NZ spent $2.4 billion in the last six months of 2019. Their six monthly revenue is now probably $300 million so they run out of money in weeks, not months unless they cut staff numbers.

Apart from the fiscal issues, it is also an insanity to have the union insist staff be kept on as employees when there is literally no work for them. There are no international flights and domestic flights are minimal.

Don’t get me wrong. It is devastating for so many great Air NZ employees who are losing their jobs. But to blame Air New Zealand for making decisions that keep it solvent is stupid. Air New Zealand would actually go bankrupt if it doesn’t reduce costs to match revenue.