Duncan Bridgeman at NBR writes:

Audrey Young writes:

It was perhaps perversely fitting then that he failed to alert Ardern in advance of filing legal proceedings on Monday to sue the Government, senior public servants and former ministers.

It’s unforgivable. But Ardern will forgive him because she forgives him everything. The absence of any explanation or contrition from Peters makes her look inconsequential.

He has all the power.

Patrick Gower writes:

Kelvin Davis is a “wounded man walking” who better watch out, says Newshub national correspondent Patrick Gower.

The Corrections Minister on Wednesday announced plans for a new prison, but appeared to be unaware how many of its inmates would be double-bunked.

Corrections boss Ray Smith interjected after Mr Davis froze, confirming Newshub’s suggestion it would be around half.

“I get nervous before interviews,” was Mr Davis’ explanation, when asked about it on The AM Show.

Mr Gower, who was Newshub’s political editor for several years, told The AM Show he’d never seen anything like it.

“Only in New Zealand would a deputy leader of a governing party come on after a major policy announcement in his or her portfolio and say, ‘You know me – I get nervous and I forget things.’ I’ve never seen that before.”

You might expect that from a new backbencher or even a very junior Minister. But Davis is the most senior Labour Minister after the PM.

Let’s look at the list of recent Deputy Leaders of the major governing party, and see if we can imagine any other being nervous before interviews:

• 2017 – Paula Bennett
• 2009 – 2016 Bill English
• 2000 – 2008 Michael Cullen
• 1998 – 1999 Wyatt Creech
• 1991 – 1996 Don McKinnon
• 1989 – 1990 Helen Clark
• 1985 – 1988 Geoffrey Palmer
• 1984 Jim McLay

Quite the contrast.

He said Mr Davis is “battling and he’s lost his confidence”.

“Kelvin is not a dead man walking, but he’s a wounded man walking. The media are after him, the Opposition are after him, probably people in his own party want the deputy leader job at the very least – they won’t want the Corrections job.”

Surely Labour should put Kelvin out of his misery and make Grant Robertson the official deputy leader. It is obvious he is the deputy in all but name anyway.

The Daily Wire reports:

Workers complaining because McDonald’s would not raise their wages might want to start looking for other jobs sooner rather than later: CEO Steve Easterbrook has announced that by 2020, every McDonald’s in the U.S. will be stocked with self-order kiosks.

1,000 stores will get the new kiosks every quarter for the next two years; they already exist in around 3,500 of the roughly 14,000 domestic outlets. Half of the McDonald’s in the United States will feature the kiosks by the end of this year

The higher minimum wages are set, the more incentive there is to replace humans with technology. This is arguably quite good for the overall economy. But it’s very tough on those minimum wage workers who end up unemployed.

Stuff reports:

Environmentalists have taken their fight to protect the Kermadecs to Parliament, delivering tiny drops of water from the remote island chain to MPs.

Representatives from WWF, Forest and Bird, Pew and Ngati Kuri braved lashing rain and squalls to take their bid for a massive marine sanctuary to Parliament’s forecourt. 

They delivered 120 lapel pins – each containing a drop of salt water taken from a depth of 2km around the islands. MPs from National, the Greens and Labour picked up their vial, but NZ First snubbed the event.

Winston Peters’ party is the stumbling block in talks to get a deal on the reserve.

There’s over 110 votes for the sanctuary in the Parliament, but Labour agreed Winston could veto it on behalf of the fishing industry.

Sue Bradford writes:

The Green parliamentary wing seem to be clueless about the mortal danger they face following news this week that their own minister, Eugenie Sage, has signed off on the sale and expansion of a water bottling plant at Otakiri Springs.

Not just any water bottling plant but a Chinese owned one!!

It’s one of the most common political truisms that small parties in government get eaten by their larger partners. Surely the Green caucus focus from day one of government formation should have been on honing their political and strategic strategy and capacity so that the sort of situation which happened this week would never arise.

It is not nine days since the Greens became part of government. It is nine months.

Hefty parliamentary resources are provided to all parties to employ staff who can help the caucus deal strategically and well with situations like the one that arose this week.  I’m sure there are members within the party structures who would be happy to assist as well.

As things stand, it feels as though the caucus and those around them do not think ahead about the consequences of some of their decisions, water bottling only being the latest of a string of stuff-ups (think waka jumping and giving National some of their parliamentary questions).

The Greens now have three Ministerial office so a load of taxpayer funded resources. But despite this, they seem to be unable to plan ahead.

Once again, it appears the real agenda here is a sodden acceptance that being a safe pair of hands for Labour is all that counts, and that those pesky members and voters are something to worry about in maybe a couple of years’ time.

Getting Labour into Government seems to be the main aim of the Greens, rather than achieving their own policies.

Up until a few months ago you could only eat at Bellamys, in the Beehive, if you were an MP, a staffer, or a guest of an MP.

In case you thought you were missing out on something special, you were not. The food there was okay, but nothing exciting. The buffet was like something at Valentines.

But Bellamys has been taken over by Logan Brown, and now open for members of the public.

The Dom Post has a food review and the summary is:

For enjoy Bellamys food you certainly ought. Apart from the novelty of dining in the Beehive and using the old Bellamy’s silver cutlery, the best reason to come is that Logan Brown now has the catering contract.

Head chef Josh Ross, an alumnus of Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand (but never a student of mine), aims to showcase the best of New Zealand’s produce – appropriately, in view of the many foreign dignitaries entertained here.

A fillet of pearly, creamy gurnard, brought down “green” (that is, un-gutted) from Gisborne, was laid over a delicious saffron broth, laced with kelp oil and fennel and garnished with samphire and ice plant, freshly foraged from Evans Bay. To the side were succulent goujons of smoked eel, sadly the last we will see from the Moko company, which is being forced to close due to the decimation of our wild eel populations.

The Environment Minister would probably have needed to check that sustainably harvested tussock was used to smoke the celeriac that accompanied my free-range pork belly, but I certainly loved it. Atop a slice of quince was a crunchy sprinkling of various puffed grains.

As his Crispy Lamb Breast, Macadamia Puree, Fermented Carrot & Wild Mint Oil was laid before him, John aptly described it as a work of art. For my part, I was also very pleased with my Beetroot-cured King Salmon, Compressed Cucumber, Buttermilk and Shiso (yes, genuine fresh shiso leaf).

Maitre ‘d Leann Burtenshaw provided kindly service – and two superb wine matches: an Amisfield Dry Riesling and a Mountford Chardonnay.

Sounds great. I’ve been once since the change and the difference in food quality is immense.

Bellamys by Logan Brown

The Beehive, Parliament Buildings
Ph: (04) 817 9678
Open for lunch and dinner, Tues-Fri
Price range of mains: $31-$58
Cost: $139 for two (excluding wine)

Food: ★★★★★ 
Service: ★★★★★ 
Drinks list: ★★★★½ 
Ambience: ★★★

Stuff reports:

It is understood the Let’s Get Wellington Moving working group – an initiative led by the New Zealand Transport Agency in partnership with the Wellington city and regional councils – is leaning towards the most radical of four options proposed last year.

That option, which could cost up to $2.3 billion, includes moving SH1 traffic off Vivian St into a tunnel; widening the Terrace and Mt Victoria tunnels and Ruahine St; separating local and highway traffic at the Basin Reserve;

and adding a fourth southbound lane to the urban motorway between Aotea Quay and Ngauranga.

Widening the two tunnels is essential as is sorting out the Basin. We need four lanes from basically the Airport to far out of Wellington.

The scenario also proposed to replace two of the six traffic lanes on the waterfront quays with cycle lanes, establish cycle lanes on a two-way Vivian St, and give more priority to pedestrians along Willis St, Victoria St, Cuba St and Vivian St.

That sounds reasonable. Cycling in Wellington is damn dangerous and don’t really need six lanes on the quays.

A mass transit public transport system was recommended from Wellington Railway Station to Wellington Regional Hospital and the airport, via the suburb of Kilbirnie.

Light rail has not been proposed as part of the recommended option, leaving the option of a rapid bus route in the mix.

Any proposal for light rail in Wellington would indicate out of touch with reality. The last time it was costed the BCR was a miniscule 0.05. Not 0.5, but 0.05.

A brutal column by Duncan Garner. Some extracts:

I mean Golriz the Green was even hailing a 500-bed prison as a stunning success, a fresh approach to rehabilitation, until someone pointed out the truth. The double bunks she railed against were still there, and now in every second cell. Reality over principle is called cost.

They’d rather double bunk prisoners have that enough cells. And they call it a win.

It’s taken them three minutes to look as shabby, arrogant and as broken-down as a third-term government suffering rampant hubris and pleading to be put out of its misery. 

What is becoming apparent is the inability or unwillingness of the Prime Minister to discipline Ministers. John Key dispatched several Ministers when they erred, but it seems there is no limit to what you can do in this Cabinet. Look at just the last few months:

• A Health Minister who bribes a DHB Chair with the promise of future appointments if he stops speaking to the media
• A Communications Minister who caused the resignation of a top Radio NZ manager by improperly meeting her outside established channels
• A Foreign Minister with a pro-Russian foreign policy
• An unnamed NZ First Minister who sends in backbench MPs to threaten opposition MPs that projects won’t get funded if they stay involved with them
• A Regional Development Minister who routinely calls on board chairs to resign
• An Acting PM (Davis) who is unable to answer questions in the House, or in select committee, or in interviews
• A Defence Minister who uses the Air Force as a taxi service

Could Jacinda Ardern be a former prime minister at age 40? Perhaps. Maybe that’s unfair. Maybe not.

Lots of UN jobs out there, if so.

The oil and gas industry is on death row, no debate, no consultation, no future, just the rotten smell of decay when Ardern slipped on the destroy button – otherwise known as her climate change moment. An astonishing instance, making history by closing an entire industry without a debate around the Cabinet table.

The most arrogant move of all.

Andrew Little was finally doing himself justice until he publicly fell for one of the old dog’s tricks, believing Winston would support a headline that read “Soft on crime works, violent offenders to rehabilitate in the safety of your street”.

My question is why did Ardern even wait for Peters to hit the kill switch when, as PM, she had every right to pull the plug on dumb ideas. That she didn’t shows a worrying reluctance to play the ruthless card that Helen Clark wielded like a stick hovering over errant but scared and shaking ministers on an almost daily basis.

Both Clark and Key could be ruthless with their Ministers. But with Ardern there seems to be no fear of consequences.

Then there’s Willie, and someone called Carmel, and Stu’s 1800 cops that is really 1000. Oh dear, prime minister, rest up, use your pregnant pause wisely, take care and use your newly found parenting skills on your return to running your Government.

In the meantime, Grant’s directing play, but Winston’s in charge.

It might actually run smoother with Grant in charge, than Ardern.

Ardern has very impressive communication skills, but you need more than that to be PM. You need to actually manage what can be a very challenging team of Ministers.

Key was very good at this. He had regular performance appraisals with his Ministers. Every three months or so they would have one on one meetings to discuss the political and policy goals they were aiming for, and receive counsel from him on how they were going.

Radio NZ reports:

The White Ferns teenager Amelia Kerr has made the highest score in a women’s one day international cricket match, scoring 232 not out in the third and final match between New Zealand and Ireland in Dublin.

The 17-year-old Wellingtonian batted the entire innings as New Zealand scored 440 for three batting first.

Kerr’s innings included 31 fours and two sixes in a 145 ball innings.

Getting 232 not out in an international match is an incredible feat for anyone. Doing it as a 17 year old is just amazing. A huge talent.

The Herald reports:

Co-leader Marama Davidson said Sage had been constrained by the Overseas Investment Act in making the decision.

“The minister was constrained by a flawed Act which says we are unable to take environmental and Treaty decisions into account. This decision does not sit with Green kaupapa and longstanding Green Party position,” Davidson said.

Davidson is quite wrong in blaming the decision on the Act, saying you are unable to take environmental decisions into account.

S17(2) of the Act details factors for assessing any application. They include:

• whether there are or will be adequate mechanisms in place for protecting or enhancing existing areas of significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna
• conditions as to pest control, fencing, fire control, erosion control, or riparian planting
• covenants over the land
• protecting or enhancing existing areas of significant habitats of trout, salmon, wildlife protected under section 3 of the Wildlife Act 1953, and game as defined in sections 2(1) of that Act
• providing, protecting, or improving walking access to those habitats by the public or any section of the public
• conditions for conservation
• agreement to support the entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero of any historic place, historic area, wahi tapu, or wahi tapu area under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014

So blaming the decision by Sage on the Act is a cop out.

Newsroom reports:

Winston Peters’ new court action over his seven year superannuation overpayment is actually claiming a total of $1.8 million from bureaucrats and former ministers – damages that ultimately may have to be paid by the taxpayer if he is successful.

This is beyond outrageous. Peters was receiving superannuation payments in excess of his entitlement. It is still not known how this occurred as Peters refuses to give a privacy waiver so we can learn details such as whether he received annual confirmation letters of his living status.

Peters is receiving almost $400,000 a year (total package) as Deputy PM, and claiming his NZ Super of $16,000 a year. And on top of that he wants $1.8 million from taxpayers because his over-payments were made public.

I remind people of course NZ First still owes the taxpayers $158,000 from the parliamentary spending ruled illegal by the Auditor-General in 2005.

Peters is about to become Acting Prime Minister yet one of his listed targets is Attorney General David Parker who sits with him in the cabinet room. 

The Attorney General is placed in a horrible position. He has to decide whether to not just defend the lawsuit, but if Peters drops the suit (or loses it), whether to pursue Peters for the costs to the Crown (and taxpayers).

Taxpayers may end up spending well over $100,000 defending public servants from the Peters lawsuit. Will Parker agree to seek full costs from Peters if he loses?

Worth reading the comments on Mark’s post. A lot of very upset people. I wonder if the Prime Minister would agree that being grabbed and groped by a prisoner against your will is low level and not that serious.

Just because an indecent assault is not a violent rape, that doesn’t mean it is low level.

In light of half the Auckland Council doing an open letter complaining about Phil Goff’s leadership, there have been two stories trying to explain why this happened.

The first is by Simon Wilson of the NZ Herald and the second by Tim Murphy in Newsroom.

I found it interesting how different they were. There was a small amount in common – that the withholding of the stadium report was the final straw.

The Newsroom story covered the following:

• Enough of the sidelining, political manipulating, off-hand chairing of the big meetings and secrecy
• Enough of the blindsiding of councillors with policies made public via favoured journalists
• Enough of the favouritism of flunkies on the council who will never vote against Phil’s wishes
• The Auckland Council is notorious for its secrecy
• The council has been shown publicly to have deliberately subverted the Official Information Act in at least two instances
• Goff was implicated in those delays
• Calling out the high-handed reign of Goff.

So the Newsroom report makes very clear there are huge issues of culture and secrecy and Goff playing favourites.

Now the Herald report:

•  It’s true they have a right to know what’s going on, but it’s also true that Goff has a duty of care with confidential information
• Some are on the firm left of the political spectrum, others on the firm right. Some have a political outlook very close to Goff’s, but they just don’t seem to like him. A few of them are ambitious politicians.
• Mike Lee … seems almost consumed by personal antagonism to Goff.
• Wayne Walker and John Watson are … on a short fuse with Goff as well.
• Sharon Stewart consistently opposes the mayor from the right.
• Stewart has claimed she feels “bullied” by Goff but her example – that she was lobbied to vote for the regional fuel tax – is odd. Both Labour and National lobbied hard on that issue, and why not? It’s politics.
• Two more rightist councillors, Greg Sayers and Daniel Newman, appear to have political and personal motives. They oppose Goff’s policies and both seem keen to position themselves as an opposition leader-in-waiting.
• Fletcher is not big on teamwork.
•  Fa’anānā Efeso Collins. He’s one of six members of the Labour Party on council, but he has drifted away from Goff and routinely votes against him now. That’s odd. Collins may want to become the leading next-generation leftist voice on council, or one day head to Parliament, but to do either he will need to find a way to work with his Labour colleagues.
• Whatever the explanation, the council has a toxic culture problem and it’s the mayor’s job to be the adult in the room. He has to fix it.

So the Herald story goes through the nine Councillors and basically undermines them all directly or indirectly. Almost no examination of the culture issues complained about (except the report catalyst). Basically the Herald story implies:

• Casey is the only honest critic
• Lee, Walker and Watson just don’t like Goff
• Stewart needs to harden up
• Sayers and Newman have political motives
• Fletcher is not a team player
• Collins is also not a team player
• Goff is the adult in the room

So you have the unprecedented step of half the Council complaining about the Mayor’s leadership style, and the Herald article manages to avoid any criticism of Goff at all, but snidely undermines all but one of his critics.

Radio NZ reports:

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has swung in behind his MP Shane Jones, joining him in savaging Fonterra and its chairperson.

Mr Jones – who is Regional Development Minister – yesterday attacked the dairy giant, saying it needed to be restructured and its chair should “catch the next cab out of town”.

Mr Peters defended the comments and said “heads should roll” at Fonterra.

“It goes to the top and the buck stops there,” he said.

“I can’t believe somebody responsible would be in the job still.”

In March, the dairy cooperative announced its first ever loss, of $348 million for the six months to September.

“A massive hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars loss needs an explanation … there needs to be some accountability,” Mr Peters said.

At Parliament, Mr Jones told reporters he stood by his criticisms which he said he made in his personal capacity.

It’s ridiculous to claim Peters and Jones are speaking in a personal capacity. If they were, no one would care what they think of Fonterra or report it. They’re not farmers or shareholders.

If Jacinda Ardern came out and said that the Governor of the Reserve Bank is incompetent and should be sacked, would anyone think she was speaking purely in a personal capacity. Of course not.

And to make it beyond doubt Jones made the comments on the way out of the Debating Chamber, and referred to the Government now being scared to take on Fonterra.

For Ardern to claim he was not speaking as a Minister is farcical. It just shows she is unable to exert any control over her Government.

Speaking at Fieldays in Hamilton, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern endeavoured to distance the government from Mr Jones’ comments.

“Ministers share personal opinions all of the time, but what I’m making clear here is was he said is not government policy … end of story.”

Ms Ardern said she would not be disciplining Mr Jones as he made clear his comments were his own opinion.

So can any Minister now call on any board chair to be sacked and it is nothing to do with the Government?

It is a form of nasty bullying. The companies involved can’t respond as they would to other critics, because they are Ministers who can make life difficult for them.

The people whose opinion counts about Fonterra are actual farmers. If they think Fonterra is doing badly they can vote against Directors.

This can also be seen as a form of protection racket. Some industries and companies donate generously to NZ First. I bet you Shane never comes out demanding their chairs be sacked. Allowing Jones and Peters to behave like this, is incentivisng companies to donate to NZ First as a form of insurance against these attacks.

Stuff reports:

Changes to international students post-study work rights could cost the economy $100 million a year, an economist says. 

ANZ economist Miles Workman said the “small” loss would result if fewer students came here to study, causing education providers’ profits to drop and reduced consumer spending.

If a $100 million is a small loss, I’d hate to see a big one.

Hamish Rutherford writes:

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern relocated to Auckland on Monday, in preparation for giving birth, circumstances combined to mark the occasion with two extraordinary Peters power plays.

First, he humiliated Andrew Little by refusing to support penal reform, after the justice minister had foolishly announced in advance that a paper was going before the Cabinet.

Little has pointed to cryptic remarks by Peters, seemingly justifying Little’s confidence that NZ First would support repealing the so-called “three strikes” legislation.

Given that Peters is famously hard to pin down on anything, if that really is all Little was basing his confidence in NZ First’

And Little has now made it far harder for himself to get any other reforms done.

But NZ First’s refusal to support Little’s penal reform pales in comparison to what would emerge on Monday evening.

Peters, still smarting over the alleged leaking of his superannuation overpayment in 2017, was taking legal action against State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes and another top public servant.

Forget that Peters is also suing two former National ministers (although that too is an unnecessary distraction for the Government).

Hughes is effectively the head of the public sector. The soon-to-be-acting prime minister taking this action is effectively the Government suing itself.

With taxpayers footing the bill.

The good news is that, according to descriptions from those who have worked alongside him, Hughes is the absolute last person in the public sector you would want to mess with. Peters may live to regret including him.

What Peters may regret is that presumably MSD in its defence will include details about the over-payments such as whether the form Peters signed stated he was single and whether or not he got annual letters asking him to confirm the (incorrect) single status. It may be that it was all a typo error caused by an MSD staffer, and Peters is blameless. But we don’t know as he won’t do a privacy release. However by suing the MSD CE, they presumably are entitled to use that information in their defence.

Ardern, who learned of the legal action just hours before the rest of us, has attempted to describe the action as a “private matter”, an absurd attempt by the prime minister to avoid the obvious: she is not in control of her deputy.

The Acting Prime Minister suing the top public servant is not a private matter.

Newshub reports:

Newshub has obtained a voicemail and emails which suggest the Health Minister tried to gag senior staff talking publicly about the state of embattled Middlemore Hospital.

In one case he even appeared to promise a board member, who he’d sacked, another job if they shut up.

“I notice more and more getting reported that is really not helping at all, and I’m hopeful that there won’t be much more commentary,” Health Minister David Clark said in a voicemail to District Health Board chair Rabin Rabindran.

“My fear is that if you and I keep commenting, the story keeps ticking along. I’d rather not have distraction about who said what when.” …

The voicemail was left on April 18th, two weeks after he sacked Mr Rabindran. In the same voicemail, Mr Clark offered him a new job.

“I would consider you for further appointments because I think that sends a message.”

So David Clark joins Clare Curran in Ministers who try to silence Board Chairs. But in Clark’s case he almost bribes him with an implied promise of future appointments if he shuts up.

Stuff reports:

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is facing intense backlash from members threatening to quit over a decision made by one of her ministers to allow a Chinese water bottler to expand.

Davidson has said she “doesn’t like” the decision after the co-leader of the Young Greens Max Tweedie wrote on an internal Facebook page that that he was “extremely disappointed” in the decision.

Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage, one of three Green ministers, announced the decision on Tuesday which allows in principle a Chinese water bottling giant to purchase land in order to expand their existing Otakiri Springs water bottling plant near Whakatane.

Welcome to the reality of Government. The Greens railed against both bottled water and foreign investment in opposition. Then in Government one of their Ministers approves the expansion of a Chinese water bottling operation.

So we have a co-leader attacking the decision of one of their own Ministers. More Mickey Mouse behaviour.

The Herald reports:

Police Minister Stuart Nash has admitted he didn’t read official advice on options for phasing in 1800 new police officers over five years.

“I didn’t read any paper that said phasing in over five years. For me, phasing in over five years was just not an option I was prepared to consider,” Nash told a parliamentary committee today.

The Government says it will deliver 1800 new officers over three years. There are concerns that will put more pressure on the prison system.

Nash was quizzed on the advice from police by National’s Chris Bishop.

“I don’t read papers like that because there is a coalition promise that I will work to deliver. Any paper, any suggestion, that we are not going to meet our coalition deal of 1800 police over three years, certainly one that suggests its going to take five years, I’m just not even interested in seeing,” Nash said.

“You are kidding? Are you seriously saying to the committee that you received a paper about phasing options for the coalition commitment that you are talking about and you didn’t read it?” Bishop asked.

“Not even interested,” Nash responded.

A Minister says he isn’t even interested in reading a paper that provides alternative options.

Nash said he “absolutely believed” that more police would reduce crime and the number of people in prison.

No, no, no,. Having more Police should indeed reduce crime, but that doesn’t mean fewer people in prison. It means the Police catch more criminals and put them in prison, which means they can’t keep committing crimes.