Radio NZ report:

Sources have told RNZ the Crown is considering loaning money to the council so it can purchase the land from Fletcher Residential, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fletcher Building.

Fletcher is seeking $40 million for the property – more than double the $19m it paid in 2014.

RNZ understands the government is keen to get the controversial land dispute wrapped up by the new year to avoid it overshadowing the annual pilgrimage to Rātana and Waitangi.

If the Crown is lending the money, then effectively it is the Crown paying, ie taxpayers.

And the result would seem to be that the 480 homes planned for there won’t be built which means the Government will have stopped twice as many homes with this decision that it has managed to build with Kiwibuild. They’ll be at a net -210 or so.

The Herald reports:

Barely half of New Zealand adults know that it takes 365 days for the Earth to go around the sun.

Fewer than half can name the seven continents, or work out how far a car travels at a constant speed in a given time.

Only 32 per cent know that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840.

The results, from a poll of 1000 New Zealanders aged 18 and over for the NZ Initiative, has exposed what the business think tank calls “serious gaps in public knowledge”.

It blames New Zealand’s flexible curriculum which allows each school to design its own local curriculum, and calls for a more structured education system to ensure that all New Zealanders acquire “a core of knowledge”.

The NZ Initiative report is here. Curia did the polling for it and I was stunned at how many people didn’t know such basic facts.

You can test yourself on the Herald website.

A summary of results is below.

I got too busy to do a submission to the main review of Standing Orders. But I see the Greens did one, so I’ll comment on some of their proposals:

• Reform of question time: Support having a PM’s question time and also more issue of the day debates. Also support more questions to be allocated to the Opposition
• Support having Chairs of Select Committees determined proportional to party size in the House.
• Support having a threshold for petitions to automatically require a Government response
• Do not support secret election of Speaker. Democracy must be open.
• Do not support automatic introduction of members’ bills just because they have majority support as would flood members’ days. However could support if threshold was say a 2/3 supermajority
• Do not support Parliament having to ratify treaties in advance. Is impractical and mean we would rarely negotiate a treaty
• No problems with location of MPs trusts being disclosed
• Agree being present at a Cabinet Committee should count as present in Parliament
• Totally against proposal to ban lobbyists from having parliamentary swipe cards. We should make MPs and Parliament more accessible, not less. My view is that anyone who is not a security risk and has a legitimate reason to regularly visit MPs should be able to get a swipe card.
• Quite like the suggestion to replace the bells summoning Parliament with bird calls.

Let’s have a careful look at N.Z. Future Forest Products Limited. It was established on 27 March 2019.

It is a company 100% owned by Kinleith Continuation LP. That is a limited partnership where all we know is the public partner is David Henry, son of NZ First lawyer Brian Henry. It is normal for an LP to be set up to hide detail of foreign investors.

The address of both NZFFP and Kinleith is a flat owned by Brian Henry.

It has four directors. The three initial directors are Brian Henry, David Henry and Michael Rann (based in UK). A 4th director appointed on 27 August 2019 is Jan Trotman, partner of Winston Peters.

Within days of being formed it applied for $15 million from the provincial slush fund for a feasibility study for a new engineered timber operation in Gisborne. Yes $15 million for a study! Luckily Labour Ministers turned it down a few days ago.

They also applied for $95 million from the Billion trees fund to buy farmland to convert to commercial forestry.

Yes a possibly foreign owned company run by NZ First people tried to get over $100 million out of taxpayers so it could buy up NZ owned farmland and convert it to forestry land.

No wonder Winston called a journalist a psycho for daring to ask him questions about it. Because there is clearly nothing at all to see here.

It isn’t just about the unsuccessful attempt to get $110 million from taxpayers. NZ First has been responsible for policy changes exempting forestry companies from overseas investment restrictions on land. So even without the grant applications, we have the potential for people intimately involved with NZ First to benefit from NZ First policy.

And we don’t know who the actual owners are. They have a corporate structure which hides the foreign investors.

The Ministry of Health has published the latest data from the NZ Health Survey. Once again good news in that overall rates are declining, but it also shows a more targeted approach is needed.

The overall smoking rate (current smokers) is down to 14.2%, Down 0.7% from a year ago and has dropped by almost a third over the last 12 years.

The youth rate has increased slightly from 3.6% to 3.8% but this is still a decrease of three quarters from 2006. That is a major victory.

The big challenge now is the Maori and Pasifika rates. Both went up this year and the Maori rate has only dropped by one fifth over 12 years and the Pasifika rate by one tenth. This suggests a very different and targeted approach is needed, not just putting up taxes.

This shows how the major party of Government is polling in the One News Colmar Brunton poll at the same calendar dates nine years apart,

As you can see the Clark and Ardern Governments polls fairly closed for the first year and a half but by October of the mid year Clark’s was at 47% and rising and Ardern at 40% and dropping.

By comparison the Key Government polled over 50% for the first half of the term, dropped to high 40s for a few months and then back up to just under 55%.

The Opposition polling is also interesting. The Shipley/English opposition did well in their first year (Labour’s winter of discontent) and went from low 30s to low to mid 40s. They then dropped back to 35% but later rallied back to almost 40% towards end of the middle year.

The Bridges Opposition has stayed over 40%. It was fairly constant the first year, dropped to 40% in the first half of the middle year and has risen steadily since then to high 40s.

The Goff Opposition stated in the high 20s, and steadily climbed over the next 18 months to 35% but then started to drop back to low 30s.

Newshub reports:

Green Party MP Gareth Hughes is retiring from Parliament to spend more time with his family.

The 38-year-old is the party’s longest-serving MP, but says his kids – aged nine and 12 – are missing out on having a dad around.

“If I do another term, my eldest will be 16 and he won’t really want to hang out with me anyway,” Hughes told Stuff, adding that he’s been frustrated with the Government’s lack of progress on key issues.

I wish Gareth well. I worked with him on a few issues back when he was Comms/IT Spokesperson for The Greens and he was great to work with. Understood the sector, and had a great principled stance on most Internet issues.

Of course in most other areas, I disagree with him strongly.

Gareth’s retirement makes it even worse though for his female colleagues. The Green’s nutty gender quotas are going to screw over the female MPs in their caucus, even though they were designed to help women.

Here’s the 2017 Green Party List, minus those not standing in 2020:

1. James Shaw (M)
2. Marama Davidson (F)
3. Julie Anne Genter (F)
4. Eugenie Sage (F)
5. Jan Logie (F)
6. Golriz Ghahraman (F)
7. Mojo Mathers (F)
8. Barry Coates(M)
9. John Hart (M)
10. Denise Roche (F)
11. Hayley Holt (F)
12. Teall Crossen (F)

It’s female dominated because they had two male candidates pull out at the last moment.

So they now only have one bloke (James) in their top seven. And they on average are polling to get 7 to 8 MPs. Now if they didn’t have their stupid gender quota they could say we want to keep Eugenie, Jan, Golriz and Julie Anne in the top seven as they are doing well as Ministers or MPs. But they can’t.

At a minimum two or three blokes need to be promoted above these women, which means instead of say Jan Logie you’ll get Barry Coates.

So it is going to be ironic to see the Greens force out of Parliament some of their high performing female MPs, simply because they’re not male. What a blow for equality.

Stuff reports:

Almost half a million dollars in political donations appear to have been hidden inside a secret slush fund controlled by a coterie of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ trusted advisers.

The secretive New Zealand First Foundation collected donations from wealthy donors and used the money to finance election campaigns, pay for an MP’s legal advice, advertising, fund a $5000 day at the Wellington races and even pay an IRD bill.

A New Zealand First spokesperson said on Monday the foundation had been in existence across several election cycles. “There has never been any suggestion that it is anything other than lawful,” she said.

Records uncovered in a Stuff investigation show a complex web that appears to be designed to hide donations to the NZ First Party via The New Zealand First Foundation.

Now considering the Prime Minister and the Greens were so vocal on a totally legal donation from a NZ company to National, I am sure they are going to hit the wall and condemn a secret donations slush fund run on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister.

This is of course not the first time New Zealand First has been dishonest about donations.

In 2008 we learnt about the Spencer Trust. This seems almost identical to the NZ First Foundation. Donors gave money to it, and it paid bills on behalf of NZ First and/or passed money on. NZ First broke the law with false donation returns in 2005, 2006 and 2007 despite receiving $234,000 from the Spencer Trust. The Spencer Trust also donated money to Peters personally, to cover his legal bills. He made a false pecuniary interests declaration.

Then in 2008 we also had the Owen Glenn donation of $100,000 to Peters. Peters lied dozens of times about this donation, and was found to have lied by the Privileges Committee.

So this is the third time NZ First have been exposed. First the Spencer Trust then Owen Glenn and now the NZ First Foundation. Is there any limit to what they will do to hide the source of their donations?

Here’s a summary I did in 2008:

1. NZ First filed false donation returns in 2005, 2007 and probably 2006
2. Winston Peters filed false pecuniary interest returns in 2006 and 2007
3. NZ First is now known to get major funding from big business interests, something they had gone to massive lengths to conceal
4. NZ First is known to use a secret trust – of the sort they have decried so often
5. Winston was found to have lied over not knowing about the Owen Glenn donation
6. Winston has personally benefited by $140,000 from private donors
7. Winston has been proven to have lied dozens on times on everything from Owen Glenn, to the Spencer Trust, to what the Trust does, to not soliciting money, to not flying on a helicopter
8. Documents from his former staffer, Ross Meurant, suggest that NZ First sold policy for cash or at the least allowed corporate donors to greatly influence their policy, and proposed a strategy for NZ First that it becomes a party of narrow sectional corporate interest that will fund it – a strategy that appears to have been implemented and is in total contrast to the public brand they portray

Of course the Electoral Commission must now investigate these revelations.

Stuff reports:

The Labour Party presidency is officially a three horse race.

Labour’s Māori senior vice president Tane Phillips, Habitat for Humanity chief executive Claire Szabó and West Coast-Tasman electorate committee nominee, Lorna Crane, are vying for the party’s top job. It will be decided at its annual conference in Whanganui, early next month.

Phillips and Szabó are understood to be the front runners.

Crane has no chance.

Szabo has actually managed to build more houses than Phil Twyford, so that should count as a plus.

If Labour want a President who can fundraise, Szabo seems the logical choice. Phillips is a longtime Labour activist but I can’t imagine a union leader doing very well in convincing businesses to donate to Labour.

Szabo also has a solid background as a manager, having been chief executive of two organisations. So she seems by far the best choice for Labour.

Duncan Garner writes:

So now Winston Peters and his Government want to move the Ports of Auckland to Whangārei.

Such a small little thing to do that will barely cause much disruption at all. Said no-one ever.

Does anyone have any idea how ginormous this pie-in-the-sky promise really is?

Why? When? Where does the cargo go in the meantime? Has it been done before anywhere in a sane Western nation?

Details, Duncan, mere details.

I applaud ambition usually, but this Government doesn’t appear to have a master plan at all. It has a series of massive work plans and ideas whose time may never come.

Of course it will never happen. It is just to con people into thinking it will happen.

Peters has spoken publicly about the port report like it’s a done deal, and the money will come shortly. But how can this happen so easily if the same Government couldn’t build a few houses for the middle class? Taking the build out of KiwiBuild since election night 2017. 

They gave up on Kiwibuild after making just 0.3% of their target, so do we think they could actually move a Port?

Anyway, the prime minister would hardly say boo about sinking the ports of Auckland into northern waters for fear of saying the wrong thing.

She hadn’t seen the report, but an hour later Winston was word for word all about it. So why was he all over it and the country’s most high-profile Auckland MP, who happens to be the PM, didn’t know anything. Is it deliberate and, if so, let’s drag her deep and demand answers.

Again mere details.

The Des Moines Register reports:

Pete Buttigieg has rocketed to the top of the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll in the latest reshuffling of the top tier of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa’s likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president. For the first time in the Register’s Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.

Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, led the September Iowa Poll, when 22% said she was their first choice. In this poll, her support slips to 16%. Former Vice President Biden, who led the Register’s first three Iowa Polls of the 2020 caucus cycle, has continued to slide, falling 5 percentage points to 15%. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, also garners 15% — a 4 percentage point rise.

So the placings are:

1. Pete Buttigieg 25% (+16%)
2. Elizabeth Warren 16% (-6%)
3. Joe Biden 15% (-5%)
4. Bernie Sanders 15% (+4%)
5. Amy Klobuchar 6% (+3%)

This poll is done by Ann Selzer who is widely regarded as the best pollster in Iowa. She was the only one to predict Obama beating Clinton in 2008. It’s still just a snapshot of the race today, but the surge in support is significant.

The winner of Iowa caucus doesn’t always get the nomination. Iowa is a very white state and not representative. But it is influential as the first contest of the primaries.

On the Democratic side, the winner of Iowa has won the nomination every election since 1992.

So Mayor Pete may soon join Biden and Warren as a front runner.

Stuff reports:

A battle to help a young entrepreneur banned from driving his ride-on lawnmower to jobs has gone to Parliament.

Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean has offered support to 14-year-old Johnny O’Neill after reading of his plight on Stuff.

Johnny, who started his own garden maintenance business in 2017, was warned by police not to ride his 780cc mower, which travelled about 5kmh, to jobs in Cromwell in Central Otago after a member of the public complained. The ban forced him to hire a driver, in addition to the two staff he already employs to help service his 293 clients.

293 clients at 14 years of age. Top man.

And the Police should tell the busy body who complained to naff off. I have a ride on mower. They can’t go more than a few km/hr and it is absolutely safe for a 14 year old to rive one – safer than a scooter in fact.

There was a provision in the Land Transport Act for low-powered vehicles, like mobility scooters, to be used without registration or a driver’s licence, but their maximum power output must not exceed 300W, she said.

“The issue here seems to be the size of Johnny’s mower engine, despite him not driving his mower faster than 5-10kmh.”

Dean has requested a change to the definition to include mowers with a speed of less than 10kmh.

Sounds like a good change.

Stuff reports:

Forestry Minister Shane Jones will not back down from comments describing farmers protesting on Parliament as “rednecks”.

As NZ First is trying to win votes in rural NZ, this is just great stuff. Keep it up Shane.

I understand Labour have just agreed this week to do a deal with NZ First in Northland, to maximise the chance Jones can win the seat, which means Willow-Jean Prime will either not stand, or campaign for the party vote only.

But that won’t help Jones enough, if he keeps attacking farmers and calling them rednecks.

Simon Wilson has a power list of the top 25 in Auckland. Obviously very subjective, but here’s a few of his ratings:

• 1 Jacinda Ardern
• 2 Phil Goff
• 5 Desley Simpson
• 6 Sean Topham
• 7 Phil Twyford
• 8 Paula Bennett
• 10 Chloe Swarbrick
• 11 Matt Lowrie
• 12 Matthew Hooton
• 20 Winston Peters

A former YN Chair in his 20s more powerful than Labour’s Minister of Transport? Definitely more effective.

In terms of convincing people to vote for National, perhaps a tie between Topham and Twyford 🙂

Audrey Young writes:

Education Minister Chris Hipkins received an unusual request last week.

It was from National’s education spokeswoman, Nikki Kaye, asking a favour.

Kaye had booked the rose garden café in Wellington’s botanical gardens for the launch of her important education policy document this week and got word that it was on the same day that Hipkins was planning his own big press conference on Tomorrow’s Schools.

She asked if he could change days to avoid a clash – and he obliged.

He did his on Tuesday and she did hers on Wednesday.

Sensible not to clash, but many wouldn’t have been sensible.

It tells us, first, that there is an awful lot going on in the education policy space in both the Opposition and the Government and, second, that the two leading politicians have an excellent working relationship even if it is not always evident in the House.

There is more collaboration than combat to the relationship.

One can agree to disagree, even strongly, but still have a good working relationship.

The collaboration between Hipkins and Kaye has not meant there is no opposition to policies.

Kaye and National leader Simon Bridges criticized the initial review into Tomorrow’s Schools which transferred many of powers to regional bureaucracies as an attempt to take control of schools from parents and put principals on short-term contracts.

It was also characterised by Bridges as a restructuring that would lower educational outcomes in higher performing schools rather than lifting the poorer performing schools.

It struck a nerve.

Hipkins was not ideologically wedded to the hubs and made the taskforce consult on their proposals – which is how they have changed to more a politically and publicly acceptable version of regional hubs.

Labour would have lost the election if they had proceeded with their hubs proposal.

Stuff reports:

Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and early Trump booster, has been convicted of lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional probe and witness tampering, just two days after House Democrats separately began public impeachment hearings.

So those convicted of crimes to date are:

• Trump’s Campaign Chair
• Trump’s Deputy Campaign Chair
• Trump’s National Security Advisor
• Trump’s personal lawyer
• Trump’s friend and advisor (Stone)
• A junior campaign advisor

And I’d bet money that Trump’s current lawyer (Rudy) is going to be charged within a month.

Someone joked on Twitter that if Trump was serious with his calls for Hillary Clinton to be locked up, he should have hired her!

Stuff reports:

A star of the New Zealand Music Awards, rapper Tom Scott, used his acceptance speech to deliver a strong message to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The musician, who won one of the biggest accolades of the night with the Album of the Year Award, told Ardern to visit Ihumātao.

Yawn. Musician has a political view.

For Scott this is very mild. Here’s him on John Key:

The singer behind the controversial Kill the PM song swore and joked about raping John Key’s son before walking out of a live radio interview.

Former Home Brew singer Tom Scott was yesterday on Kim Hill’s Playing Favourites segment of her Radio NZ show, where guests choose some of their favourite songs.

But things soured when Hill asked about the song Scott released with his band @peace during the election campaign, in which he sang about killing PM Key and having sex with his daughter, Stephanie.

Asked about the the lyrics, Scott said: “I mean obviously I regret what I said. I probably should have said I was going to rape his son.”

When asked if he had any regrets, he said: “I don’t regret what I said actually. Screw that.”

He also went on a tirade about Key, saying he “doesn’t like the guy one bit”.

Yes he did a song about killing John Key, raping his daughter and then in a follow says it should have been raping his son.

So Jacinda definitely got off lightly. Of course she is a big fan of Scott. In 2012 she tweeted:

This was in response to Scott’s speech at the music awards saying John Key is a c**t who should suck their dicks.

Scott also used to play at gigs doing fundraisers for Labour.

Stuff reports:

Paul Joseph Dally – the man who abducted, raped and murdered Karla Cardno – has been denied parole. 

In a decision released on Friday, the Parole Board ruled Dally, 58, will have to spend another 18 months behind bars before he can be assessed for release. 

However, the Board indicated that Dally has made “significant progress” and is inching towards freedom. 

I’d rather he inched towards a barbed wire fence.

All murders are terrible but Cardno’s was another level of bad.

The decision, released to Stuff on Friday, noted Dally had made “significant progress” while in Auckland Prison.

“He is a leading hand in the nursery,” the report noted. 

Oh well that makes up for it then.

The BBC reports:

Speaking to LBC, the Labour leader said Baghdadi’s removal was “a very good thing” but “if it’s possible to arrest somebody and put them on trial then that is what should have been done”.

In my experience it is difficult to arrest someone who has a suicide vest on and uses it.