The Herald reports:

A highly regarded politician who died 18 months ago was a paedophile, his distraught widow has claimed.

Anihera Zhou Black said her husband – regional councillor and Māori Party candidate Awanui Black – had preyed upon children throughout his adult life. …

Sobbing back tears and occasionally wailing in grief, she said: “I have an announcement to make on behalf of my kids and I and perhaps it will shock a lot of you and perhaps it will help some of you find some comfort.”

It was, she said, “something that needs to be done”.

The video spread like wildfire and had been viewed 30,000 times in the handful of hours since being posted this afternoon.

“Those good deeds Awa did for individuals will live on in the memory of their lifetimes. 
However the pain and suffering he caused others may live on for generations to come if things are left unsaid.”

Anihera Zhou Black said her former husband had come across as a larger-than-life leader with a booming voice but was actually “a shrivelled up cowering soulless shadow of a man”.

The couple met aged 15 and married aged 18 before spending 26 years married.

Throughout that time, she said he lived a double life that – she believed – stemmed from sexual abuse he had suffered as a boy.

“In turn it created the same behaviour in Awa. Awa became a paedophile and over the years, honing his skills, waiting for that perfect moment he had preordained to steal the innocence of others.

“I wondered why Awa invited so many young people through our home over the years and I thought it was to be a good aunty and uncle. I know differently now.

“He became a predator, a recruiter, a teacher, a pimp, a ringleader of one of the many child-adult sex rings here in his beloved Tauranga Moana and he took that shit nationwide with all his contacts in every stream of life.

“They would recruit the innocent…. share them around like a box of beer, consume every last drop and discarding the empty vessels into the gutter, soulless, cold and broken.

“I am so extremely sorry and devastated. You are all my babies now and I will do what I can to navigate through your healing process.

Anihera Zhou Black said those who were victims had “permission to speak your truth”.

There’s something about this which makes me just hesitate. It may all be exactly as his widow has described (and kudos to her, if so). But I note three things at this stage:

1. No details of how she discovered this have been given. There is nothing substantive such as “I discovered photos”
2. At this stage no victim has come forward
3. The reference to “many child-adult sex rings” in Tauranga seems over the top.

I have no knowledge of the people involved, or if it is true. But all I would say is that there isn’t enough yet for people to conclude what the truth is.

Paul Embery writes:

As a socialist and trade unionist, I despair of the modern Left and its propensity to do everything in its power to alienate the very people for whom it purports to speak. So wrong is its stance on so many social and moral questions, that you wonder whether it even wants the votes of traditional left-wing voters anymore. Perhaps it would be happier as a self-indulgent protest lobby, its ranks of middle-class, city-dwelling, bohemian types smoking their weed and listening to Bob Dylan tracks.

There is a definite divide between the old working class and urban liberals.

These people preach peace and harmony, while reciting the mantra of ‘Live and let live’ and speaking of the need for ‘tolerance’, ‘diversity’ and ‘respect’ – all the usual buzzwords. Except that in practice they do the precise opposite of these things, openly frowning upon the lifestyle choices of working-class folk, while displaying a sneering intolerance towards their opinions and demanding rigid conformity of political thought.

Hence why Trump won some blue collar states.

For example, try discussing with these people – the self-appointed guardians of enlightened society – the idea that immigration levels are too high and should be reduced. You’re a xenophobe. Try saying that kids are better served being raised by two parents, one of each sex. You’re a homophobic bigot. Don’t believe someone with the anatomy of a man can suddenly become a woman just because he says he is? Transphobe.

Transphobia is my favourite.

Believe multiculturalism, the active promotion of separation and difference, has been a monumental failure? Racist. (A bizarre one this, since one can of course be a committed multiracialist while disavowing multiculturalism.)

A key point. Race and culture is not the same thing. They can be linked but it can be quite appropriate to consider certain cultural practices in a negative light (such as a 41 year old man marrying an 11 year old girl).

It wasn’t always thus. In fact, the extent to which those who comprise the modern Left understand so little of the traditions of socialist politics is remarkable. They fail to realise that their dogmatic authoritarianism is, in fact, inimical to the best traditions of the labour movement, which understood from its early days that open discussion and debate around competing views and ideas was fundamental to building democracy and unity throughout its ranks.

Debate should be welcomed.

In the end, these zealots threaten the freedom of all of us. And that’s why they must be faced down remorselessly. To hell with their dictatorial assaults on free speech, with their echo chambers, safe spaces and phoney outrage. No more the craven apologies for having expressed a genuinely-held view. Make your case, stand your ground and be prepared to take the brickbats. If people are offended, tough. It’s time to hit back against the group-thinkers and no-platformers.

The modern Left, with its hectoring, screeching intolerance, must be confronted. It doesn’t speak for me, nor for millions of fellow working-class people. And it never will.

Paul Embery is a trade union official and firefighter in London.

Radio NZ reported:

Two Auckland charter schools should not be allowed to join the state system because they are little different to other schools in their area, the Educational Institute says.

In a submission to the Education Ministry, the primary teachers’ union said it strongly opposed the Villa Education Trust’s application to turn its schools in South Auckland and west Auckland into designated character schools.

The schools are among 11 that would shut at the end of the year unless the government allowed them to join the state system.

What a nasty vindictive move.

NZEI doesn’t like the principal of those schools, Alwyn Poole. So they are trying to get them closed down. This is despite the fact that kids at those schools are achieving way way better than in their previous schools.

The Point of Order blog observes:

Now the messages out of Wellington are mixed, confusing. And they are compounding the aura of dismay spreading through the electorate.

Even the feel-good factor supposed to follow the start of the Families Package looks frozen on the ground, as the regressive impact of the regional fuel tax hits low-income working families in Auckland hard.

Instead of a collegial coalition, individual ministers are acting as loose cannon. Kelvin Davis manages to put a foot in his mouth every time he opens it, Phil Twyford sounds like an old-time preacher, David Parker has fumbled as Minister of Everything, and even Grant Robertson – who says he talks to business “every day, every week” – doesn’t appear to understand the pressures on employers.

There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan or strategy. Each Minister seems to be a silo. Almost every day there is another stuff up story.

Instead of radical “transformative” policies, the coalition has produced a handful of contradictory measures: a $1bn regional development “pot” at the same time as signalling the end of oil exploration and development, a pillar of the Taranaki regional economy.

Other examples include the winter electricity payment, which will cost taxpayers about $1.8bn over the next four years. This goes to everyone over the age of 65, from struggling working-class widows to billionaires.

Labour are spending ten times as much on middle class welfare as they are on actually helping poor struggling families.

A PR machine at the top of its game couldn’t make anything out of the inchoate thrashing within the Beehive. Only with a clear, practical and progressive narrative can the government re-establish its forward momentum.

Ardern, returning from maternity leave at the end of the month, will not find it easy to get her coalition back on message.

Their problem isn’t PR. It is a lack of leadership and direction.

The Media Council has upheld a complaint against Stuff. The background:

Stuff ran an article on June 11, 2018 headlined “Scout leader who molested nine-year-old boy jailed for five years”

A follow up article published the following day was headlined “Paedo’s unhealthy Scout fetish: ‘Creep’ was ‘an oversized little boy’.”

The same articles were published in the Waikato Times on both days under shorter headlines “Scout leader molested boy” and “Paedo’s ‘unhealthy’ Scout fetish”.

But here is the thing. He wasn’t a Scout leader. He had been thrown out in 2015, before his offending.

After he was thrown out he set up his own youth group (which should have been a huge warning to people), but it wasn’t a scout group.

The Council found:

Nimmo could have accurately, and just as readily, been described as a youth leader. It would have been as compelling without tainting the Scouts, an organisation which has a brand which it has a right to protect. It did, after all, dismiss Nimmo before the offending took place and should not bear an unwarranted taint for his subsequent crimes.

A good decision.

Jenna Lynch writes:

KiwiBuild promised to deliver 100,000 affordable houses to help first-home buyers realise the Kiwi dream.

It promised to help average Kiwis into their first home.

But the income test is anything but average. The income caps are so high they may as well not exist.

A solo buyer can earn up to $120,000 a year. A couple can earn up to $180,000.

Well over twice the median income.

But in effect there is no real income cap. Only the top 8 percent won’t be able to buy these homes.

It’s a free-for-all.

It is no surprise that 6,000 people registered in the first day. Well it is as surprising as when student unions started handing out free cash and food to students and they reported increased uptake every year.

Basically it is going to be like winning Lotto, except you don’t have to pay to get a ticket and other taxpayers cover the prize.

Further there’ll be no asset checks for those buying a first home meaning so long as your income is below the caps, you could have millions locked away in assets other than housing and still be eligible to get the keys to a KiwiBuild house.

Anyone with a decent trust lawyer will be below the income threshold.

Smart young investors will see this policy for what it is – an opportunity for them to get their foot on the property ladder, exploit a government system and put them one step ahead of their peers.

There’s already more than 6000 registrations of interest. The Government is only building 1000 houses in the first year of KiwiBuild. Just 30 are under construction.

So when you look at all those factors what chance does the average New Zealander actually have at realising the Kiwi dream?

The reality is the odds are stacked against them.

Yep.

Stuff reports:

Up to a dozen kids have used a popular neighbourhood tree house in their games of “war”.

But now a larger battle is unfolding as the property owners take on the Dunedin City Council (DCC), which has ordered its removal.

“I really, really don’t want to remove it,” homeowner Janice Norman-Oke, of Mosgiel, said.

The hut was built by her father, Trevor Norman, for his grandsons, Logan, Devon and Ethan.

What a great idea.

The tree house, which met the definition of a building according to the inspectors, “does not comply so must be removed”.

Eventually you’ll need resource consent to tie a tyre to a tree as a swing.

“It is a tree house, it shouldn’t have to meet all of the specific building codes.

Kids climb trees, with or without a tree house. That can be dangerous also. Maybe the Council should decide which trees are safe for kids to climb also.

I’ve been looking through the list of columnists that the Herald has, and it is remarkable how skewed it is.

I am excluding those who are NZME staff such as Simon Wilson (left) and Mike Hosking (right). This is looking at people who don’t work for NZME but have been offered a regular column that discuss politics. The Editor makes a deliberate decision that we need them to have a regular column.

The sole right columnist is Matthew Hooton, a very recent addition.

On the left we have:

1. Brian Rudman
2. Rachel Stewart
3. John Tamihere
4. Jarrod Gilbert
5. David Cormack
6. Bryan Gould
7. Lizzie Marvelly
8. Bryce Edwards

So media is meant to be about holding the powerful to account, but actually the Herald is full of people who are ideologically very supportive of the Government. An 8:1 ratio is why trust in media is so low.

Now in no way am I saying any of those eight columnists shouldn’t be in the Herald. What I’m saying is the Herald is failing in having a diversity of views within its columnists. They have basically no one (bar Hooton) who is not a supporter of the Government. It’s like Fox and Friends!

The Herald reports:

Women made up nearly half of state sector board and committee membership last year but Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter says that’s not high enough.

The Government today released the latest Gender Stocktake of State Sector Boards and Committees which shows a record high level of participation by women.

As at the end of 2017, women made up 45.7 per cent of state sector boards and committees.

But Genter said the figure should be higher.

The 46% all happened under National. And I think it is silly to try and aim for exact demographic representation. If you did that, you’d be complaining we have too many Maori MPs in Parliament. It is desirable to broadly reflect the community, but the difference between 46% and 50% is pretty minimal.

“This Government is committed to increasing women in leadership across all boards in New Zealand and we are leading by example,” she said today.

“We will ensure half of all directors on state sector boards and committees are women by 2021.”

Wow. They aim to increase the numbers by basically 1% a year. This is less than National over the last three years which went from 41.7% to 45.7%, or 1.3% a year.

This Government is saying they want to achieve 4.3% over four years or 1.1% a year.

Stuff reports:

Former prime minister Helen Clark has called on the board of law firm Russell McVeagh to resign in the wake of the sexual assaults and misconduct against women interns.

If what happened is sufficiently serious to require the RM board to resign, surely then Clark should also be calling on the entire Labour Party Council to resign over the summer camp allegations.

What happened there has actually resulted in prosecution. Nothing was done for victims until they went to the media, and minors were assaulted in an environment where unlimited alcohol was available to them.

So why is Clark not calling for the Labour Party Council to also resign?

Richard Rudman writes at Politik:

The Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, Iain Lees-Galloway, says the aim is to design a collective bargaining system to lift wages and productivity. A fair pay agreement between workers and employers would set minimum terms and conditions for all workers in the industry or occupation covered by the agreement.

Dust off your copies of awards made by the Arbitration Court from the late 1800s through to the 1970s — because they set minimum terms and conditions for all workers in an industry or occupation, nationally or regionally or, in some cases, for a single enterprise.

Indeed this is effectively a return to national awards.

But there was one key difference which makes this an unlikely recipe for the future.

The state-sponsored system of collective bargaining and arbitration relied on what was commonly known as compulsory unionism.

As a result, for example, every typist and filing clerk in the country — in the private sector anyway — had to be a member of the clerical workers’ union and had the minimum terms and conditions of her or his employment set by the national clerical workers’ award.

This is even worse. You may choose not to join the union, but the union may get to negotiate on your behalf the terms and conditions for the entire industry you work in. And them I suspect you’ll end up being forced to pay them for the privilege.

The notion that all employers of workers in a particular industry or occupation would willingly agree to be parties to a single agreement, or that all those workers would voluntarily have their pay and conditions set in collective bargaining, flies in the face of trends in the world of work.

Labour claims to be focused on the future of work, but their policies are about trying to return to the past.

David Bennett catches the Government out in a lie:

In a striking admission Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has confirmed the Government was not bound by any public-private partnership contract despite comments from his senior colleagues indicating it was, National’s Corrections spokesperson David Bennett says.

“When asked specifically about a contract for a PPP between the Department of Corrections and private sector consortium, Mr Davis admitted there had been none.

“This is completely contrary to answers given by the Finance Minister and Associate Finance Minister where they claimed that a contract had been signed under National.

“David Clark said, when asked why a PPP was now being used to fund Waikeria Prison, that ‘They [the National Government] signed the contract and it cost $34 million’.

“Grant Robertson subsequently doubled down when asked what date the contract was signed by saying a ‘PPP contract for Waikeria Prison was in place and that breaking it would’ve cost significant sums of money to this Government’.

“Both statements are false. No contract was signed by the former Government and certainly nothing costing $34 million.

“Why Ministers would so confidently announce they were bound by a contract that doesn’t exist beggars belief, but isn’t entirely surprising from this incompetent Government.

PPPs are often very sensible. Nothing wrong with doing the prison as a PPP. But Labour has spent so long campaigning against them, that they had to invent a fictitious contract as the reasons for using one.

At the rate they’re going, Donald Trump will be taking lessons from them.

The Herald reports:

An Auckland group is threatening to “confront” and “blockade” two controversial far-right and anti-Islam speakers if they are allowed entry to New Zealand.

Canadian Lauren Southern, described as a “far-right political activist, internet personality, and journalist”, is coming to Auckland in August for a show with countryman Stefan Molyneux, a podcaster and YouTube personality and self-published author.

Southern was banned from entering the UK this year after distributing “racist material”.

Molyneux is known for speaking about politics, race and anarcho-capitalism, and has come under fire for controversial comments on Islam, feminism and immigration.

Oh no they say controversial things. We must ban them!

Incidentially the “racist” material Southern distributed was pamhphlets saying Allah is a gay God. Certainly offensive, but how is that racist?

Auckland Peace Action has called on Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway to deny the pair entry to New Zealand.

Member Valerie Morse said the speakers were coming to New Zealand to “empower local racists and to encourage racist violence”.

“They come to recruit people to their fascist ideology.

So says the peace activist who used to run around the Urewaeras with guns practicing for the revolution.

“It is imperative that this type of racism is given no room to be promoted and encouraged in Aotearoa.

“If they come here, we will confront them on the streets. If they come, we will blockade entry to their speaking venue.”

We have decided what speech is allowable and will use force to impose our views on the rest of New Zealand.

Anyway all the publicity from their wailing will probably be a big boost for ticket sales.

Newshub reports:

The Government’s dole for apprenticeships scheme could start rolling out this year, with proper implementation in 2019.

Newshub can reveal details of the scheme after an embarrassing Government blunder.

The Government blacks out sections it wants to keep under wraps in documents it releases. A simple cut and paste into a Word document revealed to Newshub the figures it wanted to keep restricted in a Cabinet paper released on Wednesday.

This isn’t the first time they have done this.

Labour policy from the election estimated the cost of the policy to be $13.2 million per year. The Cabinet paper shows it is likely to be about four times that – anywhere between $51m and $63m a year.

This is why we should have independent costings of party’s policies. You can’t trust them to do it themselves as they almost always under-estimate the cost.

Chris Bishop released:

Police Minister Stuart Nash has today admitted he abolished two important Police targets focused on keeping New Zealanders safe, without taking the decision to Cabinet, National’s Police spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“Mr Nash confirmed in Parliament today that he unilaterally abolished the targets of 98 per cent of burglaries being attended within 48 hours and 95 per cent of New Zealanders to live within 25km of a 24/7 police station by June 2022.

“This continues a worrying trend of Ministers making decisions on the fly and not bothering to take important issues to Cabinet – like Health Minister David Clark on the abolition of national health targets or Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on her oil and gas exploration ban.

Another Minister who wishes to be judged by how much he spends, not actually by what he achieves.

I wouldn’t object if they replaced National’s targets with some of their own. But as far as I can tell their only target in law and order is to catch and release.

“Mr Nash’s abolition of police targets is at odds with comments by Police Commissioner Mike Bush who, in relation to the nine Police performance targets set by the previous Government, said ‘they’re the right targets for the Police. They are the things we should be aiming at … they’re the things that we, as an executive, think are the right performance outcomes for the New Zealand Police on behalf of the public we serve’.

Having clear targets is good for public agencies. It gives them a direction to aim for, and gives the public a measure of how they are doing.

A (now former) IRD staffer sent me a document detailing how bad things are now at IRD. The term omnishambles was used. The summary is below:

• Major issues with validation processes

I worked in a call centre capacity and  this was a very sore point.  Part of the process at one point asks customers for their star sign. This is absolutely  100%  true. I had flagged this over and over and over with team leaders management etc.  I put this on the internal blog  a number of times and nothing being done. This was still in place when I left and probably still happening now.  Asking customers  for star signs is wrong on so many levels and should not be a validation question at all

This is not the only issue with validation  process and it is set up poorly with loopholes and  is extremely awkward and painful for staff who are asking the questions and customers who just want to get on with getting their issue sorted.

• Lack of Coherence and accountability to get things done

-Huge wait times to get back to customers on simple written  queries or follow ups that need to happen.

-Customers unable to email documents through

-Chain of command process to ensure something gets done is extremely haphazard

-Good ideas from customer service agents not getting actioned or changed or listened to no formal process to move a good idea or change forward.

-Multiple different answers on complex issues that come up from senior technical advising staff

-Lack of first call resolution approach and being  which would avoid customer having to call again

-Removal of choice in how we correspond to customers in terms of what we will send out to them physically. IE  E ALERT notifications means we can’t send out post even if customer requests it.

• Systems and IT (this may have changed)

New role out START  stage one :

                -Not simple

-Huge volume of bugs

-not user friendly for frontline on the phone staff more designed for off the phone teams

-WORKAROUNDS being used in brand new system

-Lack of training and communication of using START some people know other’s don’t

-AHT has increased not decreased

-Address and details screen not easy to use and missing equivalent features other software would have Address look up etc

-Note system is very poor and frustration point for customers who have had a lengthy conversation previously and record is not there.

• Working for Families

The current administration process  of this is really, really , really  bad huge amounts of errors and stuff ups   the whole area causes great stress on many staff. A lot of money is being lost to inefficiency and system flaws  here,

I would recommend talking to  front line Working for Families frontline staff  who will all say the same thing.

• Lack of anonymous tip off line staff

I have had so many calls where someone wants to report evasion/fraud  etc  but has dropped off  while on hold  waiting over 5 min or longer hold time to get to a colleague in that area. I know for a fact there are not many people on these queues

This is not good enough as someone who wants to do the right thing often gets jittery on hold and will hang up while waiting.

Tip off and investigations needs a  significantly better approach and would reap huge rewards for tax payers by tackling the black economy.

I can’t believe IRD asks people their starsign to validate them. It both fails as a secure measure (one in twelve chance of random guessing to get it right) but also many people won’t know their star sign.

The stuff on making it hard for people to report fraud is concerning. There should be a dedicated line with full resourcing.

The Herald reports:

A man accused of indecent assaults at a Labour Party summer youth camp pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court this morning.

The 20-year-old was arrested last month and appeared for the first time in the Auckland District Court this morning.

He faces six counts of indecent assault against four complainants and pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

The accused was granted interim name suppression and bailed to appear in court again later this year.

The issue of the man’s name suppression will also be contested later this month.

The accused may have a decent case for name supression, at least under the verdict. If he is found not guilty, then naming him could be unjust. If he is found guilty, then I would expect him to be named.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal by Dotcom et al against their extradition. This is no surprise.

The District Court found the extradition request was valid. The High Court found the same, as has now the Court of Appeal. No doubt Dotcom will appeal to the Supreme Court but he will need leave (as he also needed for the Court of Appeal).

A summary of the issues is below:

Issue: is double criminality required in extradition between New Zealand and the United States?
Held: yes.  Legislative history, English and Canadian authority and principles of extradition law all suggest that the conduct with which a person is charged must be criminal under both United States and New Zealand law before they can be extradited.   Cullinane v United States of America [2003] 2 NZLR 1 (CA) is overruled.

Issue: was the High Court Judge correct in his findings on the extradition pathways available to the United States?
Held: yes, though for somewhat different reasons.  Section 131 of the Copyright Act 1994 could be relied on by the United States and did criminalise copyright infringement.  Accordingly, all of the pathways relied on by the United States were open.

Issue: was there sufficient evidence to make out a prima facie case of the conduct alleged against the appellants?
Held: yes.  The evidence clearly establishes a prima facie case.  The record of case relied on by the United States is admissible and sufficient; an extradition hearing is not a trial on the merits.

Issue: should leave be granted on the additional questions of law?
Held: no.  The misconduct the appellants allege against the United States, rejected by the High Court, does not warrant a further appeal.  The evidence the appellants sought to call, that the United States allegedly prevented, is an issue for trial. 

Issue: was judicial review correctly refused by the High Court?
Held: yes.  The judicial review almost entirely overlapped with the appeal, and arguably judicial review should not have been available to the appellants.  In any event it was correctly refused.

It is worth noting that this is not about whether Dotcom is guilty or not of the US charges. It is about whether there is enough substance to them, that he should face trial. When he is eventually extradited, he may win at trial. I’m not a Dotcom fan, but US copyright interests do sometimes get over zealous. Having said that, there is a difference between non commercial file sharing, and making millions by encouraging people to file share infringing content.

Unless Dotcom gets leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, a decision will soon have to be made by Justice Minister Andrew Little. The Court of Appeal said:

We direct that the District Court should now proceed without further
delay to complete its duties under s 26 of the Extradition Act in accordance with the determination.

Without further delay is direct.

Newshub reports:

Labour MP Tamati Coffey says Parliament should consider introducing a Minister responsible for rainbow issues.

It’s not up to Parliament. It is up to the Prime Minister. She can create new portfolios whenever she wants.

The SSC has released the 2017 version of Kiwis Count, which measures satisfaction with public services.

This survey started in 2007, so we can see how trust and satisfaction has changed over National’s term in Government (there was no 2008 survey).

• Trust of public service based on personal experiences up from 67% to 79%
• Trust of public service based on overall brand up from 29% to 47%
• Net trust (trust less distrust) of public service based on personal experiences up from +55% to +72%
• Net trust of public service based on overall brand up from +7% to 36%

So when Labour and unions go on about the public service, worth recalling that trust in it went up significantly under National.

How about satisfaction with public services ranging from schools to passports.

Well in 2012 (1st year asked) the overall service quality score was 68 and in 2017 it was 76.

So again when Labour say that National underfunded public services, the reality is that the public says overall public services got better. Which is one of the reasons National got re-elected.

I blogged in May on how MidCentral fought all the way to the High Court against an alcohol licence for Dannevirke New World. Their objection was on the angle of the shelves in the alcohol aisle.

Now only did they object to the local District Licensing Committee who dismissed their objection as nonsense. They appealed the decision to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority and then having lost there appealed again to the High Court. Utter madness.

Now after I blogged on the story, Carrick Graham filed an OIA with MidCentral Health asking for a copy of any briefings, reports or communications to the DHB Board, the DHB CEO or the DHB Leadership Team on the costs of the objection and appeals.

The OIA response is here: OIA – Carrick Graham Dannevirke Licensing.

It transpires:

1. There was no communication of any kind to the DHB Board around the costs of this legal action.
2. There was no communication of any kind to the DHB CEO around the costs of this legal action
3. There was no communication of any kind to the Executive Leadership Team around the costs of this legal action

It is staggering that not didn’t the Medical Officer of Health seek approval or costs from any of the above, he didn’t even bother informing them that he was going to spend what is probably hundreds of thousands of dollars taking a supermarket to court over the angle of its shelves.

The Medical Officer of Health for that DHB has a $6.5 million budget and it seems can spend it on whatever they want. Think how many more people could have had elective surgery if they hadn’t wasted it on litigation over the angle of supermarket shelves.

Axios reports:

Axios has obtained a leaked draft of a Trump administration bill — ordered by the president himself — that would declare America’s abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules. 

The draft legislation is stunning. The bill essentially provides Trump a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will, without congressional consent and international rules be damned.

The bill, titled the “United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act,” would give Trump unilateral power to ignore the two most basic principles of the WTO and negotiate one-on-one with any country:

1. The “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) principle that countries can’t set different tariff rates for different countries outside of free trade agreements;
2. “Bound tariff rates” — the tariff ceilings that each WTO country has already agreed to in previous negotiations.

“It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal,” said a source familiar with the bill.

The FART Act would be well named.

A rules based approach to trade has been one of the greatest global successes of the post WWII economy. Trump pulling out of the WTO would be hugely damaging.

Luckily there is no real chance Congress would pass such an Act. However Trump may ignore Congress and just use more fake national security grounds to impose tariffs at will.

It i no surprise that the tariffs are backfiring. Harley Davidson has already said they will have to move manufacturing from the US to overseas because of the retaliatory tariffs from the EU.

Trump’s tariffs may cause more US companies to become unprofitable. That is because he is imposing tariffs more on raw materials than consumer goods. The reason for that is hoping US consumers don’t notice an increase in stuff they buy.

But by imposing it on raw materials, it increases costs for US manufacturers. And hence, makes it more likely they will move manufacturing to a country where there is no tariff.