If you have quarter of an hour to spare, I would recommend reading the speeches in Parliament marking the death of New Zealand’s 35th Prime Minister. I’ve extracted a few quotes below.

Christoper Luxon

I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Jim well personally, but since becoming Prime Minister, I received a few quiet phone calls from him. They were short, sincere, and thoughtful. He offered encouragement, perspective, and advice—advice that I took seriously. I also remember campaigning with him in a bar in Waikanae and him still holding court in a room full of people, sharp as ever, fully engaged, loving politics, and very much enjoying himself. He’d just turned 87.

In closing, I want to use Jim’s own words, written just a few weeks ago after the death of his friend Tā Tumu Te Heuheu. He said, “He was, in simple terms, a very good person who was interested in helping others. Farewell, old friend, and may God welcome you home.” Those words now speak for Jim himself. Thank you.

Chris Hipkins

He would refer to me as young Chris even once I’d become Prime Minister, and he had a knack for offering his insights and wisdom without ever coming across as patronising or condescending. He did seem genuinely interested, not just in my political career, which he clearly had been following, but in the political careers of emerging politicians across the House. I think perhaps it’s a wisdom that you get after you leave this place, that recognition that Governments come and Governments go, but the good interests of the country do rest with whomever the Government happens to be at any given time. He remained a mentor and a friend to anyone in this House who sought out his guidance.

He sacked Winston Peters from his Cabinet and then formed New Zealand’s first MMP coalition with Winston Peters as his Deputy Prime Minister, a Government that transpired to be remarkably stable, much to the frustration of the then Labour Party Opposition. 

Winston Peters

It’s often said that Jim Bolger was the last Prime Minister without a university degree. Well, for our sakes, we must hope that that is not true for the future. Jim learned his craft on the farm and in the town halls, and he applied it to the highest elected office in this country. In his earliest years in Parliament, he earned the title “The Woolshed Orator.” Jim Bolger was a man of good character, strong morals, and family values; he called for a decent society in 1990, and he did so for good cause. He was, in his own words, “a red-blooded Irishman by descent, but a very practical Kiwi by practice.”

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

Mr Bolger knowingly expanded political capital for the nation’s progress and to address historical injustices. His disposition is described by many who we also spoke to as magnificent, as inclusive, and as, indeed, a proud Irishman—earning him the nickname “Spud”. For us, Mr Bolger is regarded as the greatest Prime Minister since Michael Savage. He had a legacy that affected the whole country. He heard and saw te iwi Māori.

Gerry Brownlee

I first met Jim Bolger in 1987, and through the subsequent years, saw him at many party functions and was a great admirer of his. He came to a campaign function for me in 1996. Perhaps demonstrating the sort of gentle Irish charm that he had and the warmth that he exerted, when meeting my mother, who was only 5 foot 3 and a very, very petite woman, he looked at her and said, “How on earth did you end up with a brute like that?”

A great speech where Casey Costello calls out the nonsense from Benjamin Doyle that Parliament is hostile if you’re not a “cis straight white man”.

Casey of course is not white or a man. Neither are either of the Green Party co-leaders. Now was Georgina Beyer who had an uneventful parliamentary career. Doyle blames his failings on his demographics rather than his judgment.

Incidentally only 44 of the 122 MPs elected at the last election were cis straight white men.

The crown accounts for last financial year are an improvement on the previous year (inherited from Chippie and Grant). Key metrics are:

• Deficit dropped from $8.4b to $4.4b
• Spending as a % of GDP dropped from 42.9% to 42.1%
• Core crown expenses down from 33.1% to 32.5%

Still a long way to go to get back to surplus and spending under 30% of GDP (a level which Labour and Greens in 2017 agreed was a cap). But finally it is heading the right way.

It is heartening to see Winston Peters, David Seymour and Todd Stephenson lash the Broadcasting Standards Authority for their secret decision to expand their regime to the Internet. Winston may have been using hyperbole in comparing them to the Stasi, but they deserve odium for what they are attempting to do. Their conduct is so bad faith and outrageous that I believe the Government should sack the entire board.

Let’s deal with their secret decision in two parts – the substance and process. Both are damning.

Their claim that you can read the Broadcasting Act requirement that a broadcasting receiving apparatus is any Internet capable device rather than a television or radio is preposterous. One reason broadcasters have been treated differently is they were granted (paid for) a chuck of the telecommunications spectrum for their exclusive use. When you apply for a chuck of the spectrum, you agree to the conditions of using it for broadcast. This is not the case for people who simply produce video and audio over the Internet.

There can be no doubt the BSA is acting in bad faith in declaring The Platform is a broadcaster, because if they truly believed that they would have not waited until a complaint to make this determination. The Broadcasting Act says all broadcasters must:

• broadcast at least one notice per day for each day of broadcasting about the BSA procedure
• provide an annual return of revenue by 31 July to the BSA and pay an annual levy

Did the BSA ever ask The Platform to provide an annual return? Did they ever write to them when they first set up and say “We think you are a broadcaster, so please make sure you inform people of the BSA complaints process”?

No they did not.

They claim in an RNZ story:

The Authority’s chief executive Stacey Wood told RNZ it decided in 2019 that it also regulated online broadcasts.

“This position has been public and published since 2019.

If this is the case, why did they never ask any online broadcasters to file returns? Why did they never e-mail Bomber Bradbury and demand he informs his podcast viewers of the BSA complaints process, and that he must file an annual return to them?

So the substance of their decision is ridiculous, but their process is what is truly damning.

If they really think the law supports them having jurisdiction over anyone who produces video or audio content over the Internet, they should publish a discussion paper listing the pros and cons. The discussion paper could then become a white paper. Affected parties should be able to submit on it. They should give notice of when their interpretation would take effect, so people know when they have to start filling in annual returns and that they are now subject to the BSA. They would do a major information campaign.

Instead of doing all this, they made a secret in principle decision that The Platform comes under their juridisction. By doing so they would then set a precedent that would be binding on every producer of video and audio content in NZ, and it would have all happened behind closed doors.

There can be no confidence in the Broadcasting Standards Authority for their secret power grab. The board should go, or the whole organisation should go.

The Herald reports:

Labour MP Willie Jackson believes a split within Te Pāti Māori is “inevitable” if internal conflicts aren’t addressed shortly, but he says it’s too early to discount any future collaboration with Labour.

Again of the 67 polls since the election, 0 show Labour can govern without them. So they will never rule them out.

We don’t get any joy in watching them killing each other off,” he said on Wednesday.

Unlike Willie, I am getting immense joy from it. I’m hoping the two rebel MPs leave TPM, and then TPM try to waka jump them, forcing by-elections.

Jim Bolger has died, aged 90. Hs was National’s third longest serving leader, and a massive political figure whose tenure was hugely impactful on New Zealand.

I knew him reasonably well. He was party leader for almost all my ten years in the Young Nationals. I debated at party conferences in front of him. I often worked at Premier House when functions were held there. I started in the Beehive when he was Prime Minister, working in Ministerial Services. I also started my polling career organising volunteers to poll marginal seats for him. I even had a crush on one of his daughters when I was young!

More important than his politics, is he was a very decent man, and a very devoted family man. His relationship with Joan (the nicest woman you could ever meet) was amazing, and they were married for 62 years. His nine children and countless grandchildren and great-grandchildren formed an amazing family.

Jim lost in 1987, but won three elections in a row in 1990, 1993 and 1996. We saw a period of great economic growth, lots of reforms, and also the start of writing some wrongs through the Treaty settlement process. Doug Graham did the negotiations but Bolger lent him weight as PM to making them happen, despite resistance from many.

He took a big interest in the party. I recall debating the nuclear ships ban on the floor of one conference (I argued against repealing it against my friend Shane who argued for repealing it) and you could see Jim was following the debate and nodding to points made.

Young Nationals had a slightly strained relationship with Jim at times. Shane Frith accidentally announcing the election date didn’t help. I also recall one conference when our semi-libertarian pamphlet called “six steps to freedom” (legalise euthanasia, cannabis, voluntary student membership etc) was banned from the conference bag, so we snuck in early and stuck one on every chair, and the remainder on Jim’s seat the top table. A later chair (Simon Bridges) so annoyed Jim, he turned up to the Young Nats AGM for the first time in a decade to lobby against Simon. To be fair Simon had just published a very amusing yet defamatory newsletter about the Coalition Government in 1997.

He had a great PM’s Office, and I worked with them in my role with Ministerial Services for around 18 months. After he lost the leadership to Jenny Shipley he gave an amazing speech to the party’s national council about what he thought the future direction of NZ should be, and I recall thinking it was a pity so many politicians give their best speeches as they leave office.

After Parliament there was no quiet retirement. He was an excellent Ambassador to the US and stayed active well into his late 80s. He lived in Waikanae for the last few years, and was active in community affairs there, often trouble shooting for the local council.

As I said he was a very decent man, and much loved by his family. My thoughts are with them.

1. On funding for the education of children with challenges in egalitarian NZ

Privileged to be published in The Post (online and in-print) yesterday with an article buildng on data I posted on Kiwiblog last week.

The current government has barely challenged few of the underlying issues for education … especially how we address development through pregnancy and the first 5 years of life – that are the absolute foundation to human development and education.

At the high school end of the school system we have curriculum and qualifications being challenged but the Minister, in a cabinet paper, noting that for marginalised young people things may get worse.

In The Post piece I point out that we provide a minimal level of funding for schools/students who face the most challenges … then … as a society, wonder why nothing changes and that we have a huge portion of NEETS and the biggest gaps in the OECD for achievers and non-achievers.

On Linkedin Kiwiblog reader John Gill propopses:

“Lifting Flaxmere’s educational achievement should be a special project for the Minister.

The first two steps should be (a) putting in the best principal that money can buy, and (b)improving the staffing ratio of teaching staff by 25% for five years.

Give it all the attention it needs and see if that makes a measurable difference.

If it is successful, we then know what to do elsewhere.

Based on your analysis of high needs secondary schools that outperform expectations, it should be easy to find suitable principals.”

2. A plug for a Kiwiblig reader.

I have a few peices of limited edition Weta Workship art. To look after, and display them, I get an avid Kiwiblog reader, Blayne Newton, to make fantatsic display cases. Great for items you want to display and preserve.

His web-site is: https://www.acryfab.co.nz/

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has made a secret in principle decision that they have authority over any entity or person that produces audio or video content over the Internet. This is an outrageous power grab that would allow them to censor not just The Platform (which they are claiming jurisdiction over), but anyone who does video or audio content – that is podcasters, YouTubers, live streamers etc.

The Broadcasting Act defines a broadcaster as someone who broadcasts a programme and the defintion of broadcasting is:

means any transmission of programmes, whether or not encrypted, by radio waves or other means of telecommunication for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus

In their secret provisional decision they declare that “other means of telecommunication” means through the Internet and “for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus” means any Internet capable device.

The BSA has powers to fine or even order removal of content they deem in breach of their standards – so this secret decision would introduce a massive censorship regime to the NZ Internet.

If the BSA wants to expand their powers, they should ask Parliament to change the law. As it happens Parliament and Governments have considered this issue in the past, and decided not to change the law to regulate transmissions over the Internet. So the BSA is taking the power for itself.

For many years I have actually advocated that we don’t need two media regulators – the Media Council (print, online, industry appointed) and the BSA (broadcast, powers to censor and fine, Govt appointed). Once upon a time broadcast media was much more powerful than other media, but no longer.

But this is now urgent. The BSA has gone power crazy. A secret decision to expand their powers is repugnant to anyone who believes in transparent law making. So I call upon the Government to introduce a law to abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, and the Media Council can pick up their role. As an industry body the Media Council would never attempt such an outrageous secret power grab.

The letter from the BSA is below. I am ignoring their Not For Publication stamp on it, because frankly they have no power to keep secret their attempt to massively expand their reach so they can censor the Internet.

I hope the Free Speech Union launches a major campaign to stop this secret attempt to censor the Internet.

I urge readers to e-mail Paul Goldsmith asking him to abolish or at least rein in the BSA.

There is traditionally very little polling data on how people perceive Mayors are doing. So after the 2022 local body elections, Curia asked in the monthly Taxpayers’ Union poll of 1,000 New Zealanders which TLA they lived in, and how they rated the job of their local Mayor. In any one month you only get an average of 20 or so responses per TLA, but over three years it builds up so we could at least 100 responses for 52 of the Mayors. The data is here.

I looked at how their net approval rating correlated to election outcomes. Sometimes you can get re-elected with a poor rating, if voters think the alternatives are not better. And a popular Mayor can be beaten by an even more popular challenger.

• Of the 22 Mayors with a net approval of +12% or higher, we saw 15 re-elected, 3 retirements and 4 defeated.
• Of the 20 Mayors with a net approval of 0% or lower, we saw only 6 re-elected, 6 retired and and 8 defeated.

So, unsurprisingly, the better voters think a Mayor is doing, the more likely they are to get re-elected.

The Mayor with the lowest net approval who got re-elected is Gary Petley (-28%) from South Waikato.

The Mayor with the highest net approval who got defeated is Adrienne Wilcox (30%) from Matamata-Piako.

The latest FTE public service numbers shows a decline in the quarter of 583. This comes after two quarters of small growth, so it is pleasing to see the reduction was not a one off, but is ongoing.

The FTE level of 62,654 is 3,045 below the peak of 65,699 in Dec 23. That is a 4.6% reduction which is not nothing. However the PSA’s media fed campaign has convinced NZers it was far more – around 25%

This shows the change over time.

Equally pleasing is the huge drop off in spending on contractors and consultants. This has dropped from $2.16 billion two years ago to $1.25b last year, which is a huge 42% reduction. That is $1 billion a year freed up for frontline services.

The Herald reports:

Asked about the prospect of working with Te Pāti Māori following the allegations, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said: “at the moment it is not clear how many Māori parties there are at the moment.”

“It seems there are a number of different segments to the Māori Party and it is unclear whether they actually form a cohesive whole at this point.”

So Hipkins is saying they’re a party that is splintering into factions, but hey he’ll still do deals with them all, so long as it gets him back into power.

If this was Life of Brian, Hipkins would be announcing that he is open to a coalition with the People’s Front of Judea, the Judean People’s Front, the Judean People’s Popular Front, the Campaign for a Free Galilee, and the Popular Front of Judea!

Stuff reports:

The Green Party’s been the loudest political voice for Palestine over the last two years. …

But on the peace plan announced last week, the Green Party’s been relatively quiet. There was no press release from them welcoming it on the day it was announced, nor any of the days since – not even when the hostages were released.

Doesn’t that tell you so much. They’ll cosplay solidarity but when actual progress is made, they go silent.

Asked if they were welcoming Trump’s “epic peace plan”, co-leader Marama Davidson was not pleased with the question’s phrasing.

“Excuse me, a US president who could have stopped tens of thousands more killing at least a year ago,” she asked. “A US president who has been funding, aiding, and abetting a genocide for a long time?”

The level of derangement is high with this one. Trump wasn’t President a year ago – Biden was. Greens seem incapable of embarrassment, but they should be.

As for the talk about a possible Nobel Peace Prize for Trump because of the deal, Davidson was emphatic.

“The real peace prize, if any, deserves to the people on the streets around the world every single week asking for the genocide to stop,” she said.

Doesn’t this sum the Greens up beautifully. Those who just mouth a slogan should get the peace prize. Those who actually negotiated the peace should not.

The Science Media Centre has expert reaction to the changes announced by the Government around earthquake building standards. Some extracts:

• “This review of the earthquake prone building system presents a good step forward” – senior lecturer, emergency management
• “The new law introduces a much simpler system to try to identify “the worst of the worst.” It is a compromise that considers economic factors, and uncertainty” – professor of civil engineering
• “The changes to the Earthquake-Prone Building system are a welcome improvement” – senior lecturer in civil engineering
• “The changes now planned in New Zealand move us closer to the international practices” – associate professor of property
• “The new earthquake prone building system significantly advances building resilience by encouraging owners to invest in their properties.” – senior lecturer in built environment engineering
• “The recently reviewed system addresses the challenges of the original framework and appears to be a significant improvement” – associate professor in structural and earthquake engineering
• “the new measures of assessment for EPB make a lot of sense in how they are structured” – professor of future environments

This might be the only announcement ever made by the government that has so many academics agreeing with it!

The e-mail sent out by the TPM leadership alleges the following:

1. Toitū Te Tiriti was set up by Te Pāti Māori  to build support for TPM. It was not independent.
2. Mr. Kapa-Kingi assaulted two security personnel in Parliament in 2024 and was trespassed for it
3. He had a contract with his mother for $120,000 a year, which was terminated for serious misconduct. He then became a contractor through a company to get around this.
4. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was dumped as Whip to free her up to campaign for Te Tai Tokelau (yeah right!)
5. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi allegedly met with Te Tai Tokerau Iwi Leaders wanting their support to topple the Leadership
6. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was on track to overspend her budget by $133,000

The War of the Rōhi is just warming up!

The latest health targets data shows that progress ie being made, after the abysmal performance of the health system under Labour.

National got 90% of patients starting cancer treatment within 31 days. It dropped to 83.5% but has increased by 3% in the last year.

The immunisation rate was close to 95%. It dropped to 74% and is now at 82%.

ED were seeing over 90% of patients within six hours. It dropped to just over 70%. Still a long way to go, but now at 74%.

Seeing a specialist within four months was close to 100%. It dropped to 61.5% and has yet to increase.

A small improvement here.

The Herald reports:

Te Pāti Māori has emailed its members a series of documents making serious allegations against one of their own MPs and her son.

The email, sent to members shortly before 10pm, said documentation had been prepared “in direct response” to recent claims made by Eru Kapa-Kingi, son of MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.

I can’t recall a political party operating like this before. To send documents to every single party member, detailing alleged wrong-doing by one of their MPs.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told the Herald she had learned of the parliamentary report on Friday and the party’s national council, which featured members of each electorate, had met on Sunday and agreed the documents would be shared with the wider membership.

This is not credible. There is no way a parliamentary co-leader would not have been aware of a parliamentary report about a former staffer.

I remind people that all 75 polls since the last election have shown that the only way Labour could form a government is with the support of Te Pati Maori. Looks like it would be very stable, eh.

The Herald reported:

The Reserve Bank has today published an update on its progress in responding to recommendations from its review of monetary policy over the 2017 to 2022 period.

It has also released new work reviewing the MPC’s response to above-target inflation from 2021 to 2024.

“In hindsight, an earlier or more aggressive tightening might have reduced inflation sooner,” Reserve Bank chief economist Paul Conway said.

“But this would have been difficult given the data available at the time and could have conflicted with the MPC’s mandate back then, which included maintaining maximum sustainable employment.”

This is quite telling. The Reserve Bank Chief Economist says that if it were not for Labour’s law change, the Reserve Bank could have acted faster in reducing inflation. So Labour both caused the inflation, and also stopped the Reserve Bank from getting it under control earlier.

The joy of getting a loved one back alive. So emotional.

An interesting analysis by Manning Clifford of the former occupations of politicians in different countries.

• China – the last three presidents have been engineers and for a while all nine politburo members were engineers
• US – 50% of Congress have a law degree, as did half of all recent US Presidents. Every democratic presidential and VP candidate for 36 years had a law degree
• Australia – 40% of MPs were formerly political staffers as were 5 out of 7 recent PMs

This might help explain why China has done so well!

Radio NZ reports:

The open letter sent last week asked the government to exclude the alcohol industry from early stages of policy making and restrict its input to the public consultation process, on the same footing as the general public.

Health Coalition Aotearoa, which was among the signatories, said reducing alcohol harm required lowering consumption.

That was “an outcome directly at odds with the alcohol industry’s core business of maximising sales”, the organisation said.

But the industry hit back at what it said was anti-democratic behaviour.

“We believe that banning any group from engaging on a matter that may impact them goes against the idea of a democratic society, where a range of views are taken into account,” Alcohol Beverages Council deputy chair Dylan Firth said.

The alcohol industry talked with officials on issues affecting its operations, employees and consumers, he said.

Health Coalition Aotearoa also met with officials and ministers, as did other groups who signed the open letter, such as the Council of Trade Unions, Firth added.

“Are they saying that some groups should, and others shouldn’t, be able to engage and they get to decide who those groups are?”

They are saying exactly that. They are demanding that the government exclude companies from consultation, so that they are the only ones who can talk to government. They are basically calling for the government to be authoritarian, and exclude those affected by regulations from being able to talk to government about them.

One example of this new approach was the $7.25m in alcohol levy funds for programmes to combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, he said.

But Fitzsimons said reducing alcohol harm reduction staff from 15 to 10 amounted to a “massive cut”.

“We’ve had specialist expertise for alcohol harm reduction in Māori communities and Pasifika communities that have been lost. Decimating this workforce is the wrong thing to do.

“You cannot solve alcohol-related harm by defunding the very people who work to prevent it.”

LOL. Of course you can. Fitzsimons is demanding that money be spent on more bureaucrats rather than on an actual programme to to combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Success is not how many staff you employ (well it is for the PSA), it is what they achieve.

At my Patreon, I have done a table showing the 71 mayoral election results, and what the rates increases for each council was (both last year, and last three years).

Of the councils with the ten highest rates increases, only one Mayor was re-elected. This is a good thing. It shows the power of ratepayers who get sick of being ATMs. Hopefully it will also act as an incentive for the new Mayors and Councils to restrain non-core spending.