One News reports:

A small business owner in Nelson is worried the rise in wages will mean they have to raise prices and possibly let staff go.

“It’ll always go back onto the consumer, so our prices will have to go up, so if we have clients we have clients, if we don’t we don’t,” cleaning company owner Sarah Stewart told 1 NEWS.

The Herald reports:

Reid added that the era of 2 per cent a year wage offers was over and employers would need to be looking at annual increases of about 8 per cent to stay at or ahead of minimum wage rises.

And if employers don’t agree they’ll be forced into national awards!

Newshub reports:

The Green Party may have secured a number of ministerial roles in the new Parliament with Labour and NZ First, but they’re struggling to pay their campaign bills.

It was a heated election campaign, which saw polling numbers rise and plummet over the course of the months, and co-leader Metiria Turei resign in the wake of revealing she had previously defrauded Work and Income NZ.

And while it had a good result in the end, securing eight seats, it came at a high cost.

Party leader James Shaw confirmed the financial struggles in an email sent to all Green Party members, saying despite fundraising, they’re still trying to pay off campaign bills and ongoing administration cots.

“We have already trimmed any excess expenses and with fewer MPs to pay tithes into the Party coffers, we are experiencing a significant shortfall,” he said.

“If each person receiving this email donates $100 we would be in the clear.

Given time it will be the country that can’t pay its bills, not just the Green Party.

Assuming the Greens have at least 10,000 people on their e-mail list, it looks like their debts are quite large.

Stuff reports:

National leader and outgoing Prime Minister Bill English has announced he will stay on as leader through the next election.

English was re-elected unopposed as leader by his caucus on Tuesday.

He committed to staying on as the opposition leader – a position he has held before – for at least the next three years.

This is excellent news for National. Labour’s biggest vulnerability will be on economic management and there is no one else in National who can match the credibility English has in this area.

An executive of 31 is the largest ever in the history of New Zealand.

Almost every Government MP who didn’t enter Parliament at this election has ended up in the Executive.

Four of the six existing Green MPs are in the Executive and the other two are Whips.

I’m not going to comment on all 31 Ministers and PUSes but will cover some of them.

Grant Robertson, Finance, Sports: Grant’s performance will be key to the Government. If he can’t keep spending under control, then Labour will have real problems. He is lucky the economy is so strong at the moment so 2018 Budget should be fine, but 2019 may be harder.

Phil Twyford, Housing, Transport: If Twyford keeps his pledge to get rid of the Auckland urban boundary, he’ll be thanked by everyone.

Chris Hipkins, Education, State Services, Leader of the House: A good move to have Hipkins responsible for the entire education portfolio, rather than have Tertiary separate. Having him Minister of State Services may be challenging as he is a former political advisor.

Andrew Little, Justice, Courts, SIS/GCSB, Treaty Negotiations, Pike River: Huge workload. Should be a sound Minister in these areas. Will strike problems though if he proceeds with policy to make people accused of rape prove they are innocent.

David Clark, Health: Will be a test of him. Cost pressures are every increasing and more money does not always mean better services.

David Parker, Attorney-General, Economic Development, Environment, Trade: Should be a strong performer

Clare Curran, Broadcasting, Communications, Digital: Curran often picks fights with media, so having her in Broadcasting could prove dangerous. But a good background for the new digital portfolio.

Ouch. The High Court has ruled:

• The Court found Eminem Esque was a copy of Lose Yourself for three reasons.
• The Court found the National Party committed three restricted acts amounting to copyright infringement.
• The Court found Eight Mile Style is entitled to damages on a “user principle” basis in the sum of NZ$600,000, with interest, from 28 June 2014.
• Although copyright infringement did occur, the National Party’s actions were taken after receiving professional, commercial and media advice and were not reckless or contumelious of the rights of the copyright owner. No additional damages are awarded.

National will now seek to recover these damages from their advisers and/or the studio they purchased Eminem Esque from. That will be a further court battle.

The Executive has 31 members – the largest ever in New Zealand’s history. Everyone gets a job!

The Cabinet

1. Jacinda Ardern, PM, Arts, Security & Intelligence, Child Poverty Reduction
2. Winston Peters, Deputy PM, Foreign, SOEs, Racing
3. Kelvin Davis, Crown/Maori Relations, Corrections, Tourism
4. Grant Robertson, Finance, Sports
5. Phil Twyford, Housing, Transport
6. Megan Woods, Energy, Christchurch, Research, EQC
7. Chris Hipkins, Education, State Services, Leader of the House
8. Andrew Little, Justice, Courts, SIS/GCSB, Treaty Negotiations, Pike River
9. Carmel Sepuloni, Social Development, Disability Issues
10. David Clark, Health
11. David Parker, Attorney-General, Economic Development, Environment, Trade
12. Nanaia Mahuta, Maori Development, Local Government
13. Stuart Nash, Police, Fisheries, Revenue, Small Business
14. Iain Lees-Galloway, Workplace Safety, Immigration, ACC
15. Jenny Salesa, Building, Ethnic
16. Damian O’Connor, Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety, Rural
17. Clare Curran, Broadcasting, Communications, Digital
18. Ron Mark, Defence, Veterans
19. Tracey Martin, Children, Internal Affairs, Seniors
20. Shane Jones, Forestry, Infrastructure, Regional Economic Development
    Outside Cabinet
21. Kris Faafoi, Civil Defence
22. Peeni Henare, Voluntary Sector, Whanua Ora, Youth
23. Willie Jackson, Employment
24. Aupito William Sio, Pacific
25. Meka Whaitiri, Customs
26. James Shaw, Climate Change, Statistics
27. Julie-Anne Genter, Women
28. Eugenie Sage, Conservation, Land Information
    Under-Secretaries
29. Michael Wood, PUS for Ethnic Communities
30. Fletcher Tabuteau, PUS for Foreign Affairs and Regional Development
31. Jan Logie, PUS for Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues

My normal analysis of the election results is finally done, and embedded below. 45 pages of tables showing how each party did in each electorate, with comparisons to last time.

2017 Final Election Results by David Farrar on Scribd

The full agreement is here. Most reviews are ignored as meaningless. Main items are:

• Introduce a Zero Carbon Act and establish an independent Climate Commission. These are actually meaningless virtue signals. What matters is the actual policies to reduce emissions. It is easy to set a target.
• National Land Transport Fund spending will be reprioritised to increase the investment in rail infrastructure in cities and regions, and cycling and walking. So decisions will not be based on the best return.
• Auckland’s East-West motorway link will not proceed as currently proposed.
• Work will begin on light rail from the city to the airport in Auckland.
• Stimulate up to $1 billion of new investment in low carbon industries by 2020, kick-started by a Government-backed Green Investment Fund of $100 million.
• Budget provision will be made for significantly increasing the Department of Conservation’s funding.
• Improve water quality and prioritise achieving healthy rivers, lakes and aquifers with stronger regulatory instruments, funding for freshwater enhancement and winding down Government support for irrigation.
• Overhaul the welfare system, ensure access to entitlements, remove excessive sanctions and review Working For Families. Basically this means legalise welfare fraud by having no meaningful sanctions.
• Budget provision will be made to substantially increase the number of homes insulated.
• A Rent to Own scheme or similar progressive ownership models will be developed as part of Labour’s Kiwibuild programme.
• Ensure everyone has access to timely and high quality mental health services, including free counselling for those under 25 years.
• Have a referendum on legalising the personal use of cannabis at, or by, the 2020 general election. A referendum I’ll be glad to support.

The full agreement is here. For the most part all the reviews are not covered here as they may lead to nothing. So what are the big items:

• $1 billion regional development fund
• 100 million trees a year to be planted
• A feasibility study for moving Ports of Auckland. This means it won’t happen.
• Re-establish the NZ Forestry Service
• Reform the Reserve Bank Act – likely to mean higher inflation
• Increase minimum wage to $20 by April 2021. Is currently $15.75 so this is $4.25 over four years or around $1.20 cents a year. Has currently been going up 50 cents a year so this will have an impact on jobs.
• Re-establish the Mental Health Commission.
• Annual Free Health Check for Seniors including an eye check as part of the SuperGold Card.
• Progressively increase the age for free breast screening to 74.
• Pilot counsellors in primary schools.
• Restore funding for Computers in Homes.
• Establish a Housing Commission
• Strive towards adding 1800 new Police officers over three years
• Increase Community Law Centre funding.
• Establish a Criminal Cases Review Commission. This is a rare good policy.
• National Superannuation eligibility to remain at 65.
• If the Climate Commission determines that agriculture is to be included in the ETS, then upon entry, the free allocation to agriculture will be 95%.
• Increase support for National Science Challenges, including for piloting alternatives to 1080 and countering myrtle rust and kauri dieback.
• No resource rentals for water in this term of Parliament
• Introduce a royalty on exports of bottled water
• Work with Māori and other quota holders to resolve outstanding issues in the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill in a way that is satisfactory to both Labour and New Zealand First.  This means the sanctuary is dead unless corporate fisheries owners get paid money. That would set a precedent for all future marine reserves.
• Independent review of the integrity of electoral processes and enrolments. I doubt the review will be at all independent. They will have an outcome in mind. Be very scared.
• Introduce and pass a ‘Waka Jumping’ Bill. This law allows party leaders to expel MPs from Parliament who disagree with them. Awful.
• Allow a conscience vote for MPs on New Zealand First’s Supplementary Order Paper to the End of Life Choice Bill, which provides for a referendum.  Weird, as it is a conscience vote anyway.
• Support New Zealand First’s Racing policy. NZ First donors once again get a win!
• Work towards a Free Trade Agreement with the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union and initiate Closer Commonwealth Economic Relations. Double weird. Against an FTA with the US and against an FTA with China but Winston wants an FTA with Russia and Belarus!

I’ll analyse the policy agreements tomorrow. But for now look at all the pretty baubles NZ First got with just 7% of the vote. They have:

1. Deputy Prime Minister
2. Foreign Affairs
3. Defence
4. Infrastructure
5. Regional Economic Development
6. SOEs
7. Children
8. Internal Affairs
9. Seniors
10. Veterans’ Affairs
11. Forestry
12. Racing
13. Associate Finance
14. Associate Education

14 portfolios for 7% is a lot. The combination of regional development, infrastructure and SOEs is a huge influence economically and they have both major external portfolios (except trade which they’re against except with Russia).

Labour really were desperate to get them on board if they agreed to give up all those portfolios.

Richard Harman writes at Politik:

On September 26, three days after the election, the National party’s pollster, David Farrar, on his Kiwblog said: “Twenty-two of the best 23 seats for NZ First are National held seats.

“This will also make it very interesting for them if they decide to support a Labour-led Government.

“I’m not sure all those provincial and rural voters that voted NZ First will be keen on the inevitable political correctness and anti-agriculture policies that will eventuate from such a Government.

“I’d say there would be a huge backlash.

“This is why I’m quite keen to have Winston go with Labour and Greens.

“ It will be sad for the country, but good for National in the long term as they’d ride a wave of discontent in 2020 and only need to pick up two more seats to govern. “

These comments from Farrar were frequently quoted by National Party sources spoken to by POLITIK over the past few weeks as a reason for the negotiators not to do a deal with NZ First.

I don’t actually think a blog post from me had any influence on the negotiations. But in case they did, Jacinda is welcome to send me a bottle of Pinot Noir as thanks!

More seriously I am glad that National didn’t abandon all its policies just to get a deal with Winston. NZ First got only 7% of the vote but wanted massive changes to economic policies that would have damaged New Zealand. Good on National for holding firm and standing up for the 45% of New Zealanders who did vote for them.

Stuff reports:

Vandals have damaged machinery on at least three Canterbury dairy farms.

Dougal King said someone had drilled holes in 30 irrigator tyres at his Hororata farm, about 60 kilometres west of Christchurch, on Friday night.

“We went out on Saturday morning to move them and they wouldn’t move.”

It had put three of his six centre-pivot irrigators out of action until they could be repaired, he said. …

Derek Crombie, chief executive of the Central Plains Water irrigation scheme, said he knew of one other Hororata farm and a Leeston farm that had milk emptied out of their vats over the weekend.

“It’s pretty mindless vandalism, really.”

He said contractors would check Central Plains Water’s own infrastructure for damage after the weekend, but there was “nothing obvious”.

A police spokeswoman said there had been a report of a burglary at a farm on Harmans Rd, Leeston, on Friday night or Saturday morning.

“The complainants report that the offender has opened the external tap to a milk vat and allowed 50,000 litres of milk to drain out.”

Could this be an organised campaign? When politicians wrongfully blame poor water quality on farming and irrigation (the worst quality is in fact in urban areas), then you encourage anti-farmer sentiment that leads to this.

Stuff reports:

As the road toll jumps, calls are mounting for a review of the punishment handed to motorists who break the driver cellphone ban. 

The number of people caught using cellphones while driving now outnumbers those caught drink-driving, with 27,681 people flouting the cellphone law in the 12 months to June, compared with 24,858 caught drink-driving.

But the Ministry of Transport says it has no plans to increase the penalty, which stands at an $80 fine and 20 demerit points.

Wellington City Council transport strategy and operations portfolio leader Chris Calvi-Freeman wants the penalties to be doubled, in line with what happened in the UK earlier this year.

“I have a personal feeling that the road toll increase is being significantly affected by the use of cellphones,” Calvi-Freeman said.

A City Councillor has a feeling. Well absolutely we should decide road safety policy on feelings.

Stuff reports:

But it is understood Peters did not ask either party for a referendum to abolish the Maori seats – previously a NZ First bottom line.

Sources have told Stuff that that could anger some of Peters’ backers, who had shifted their financial support to NZ First because of his hardline position.

Poor Hobson’s Choice. They raised so much money and spent it endorsing Winston, and of course his bottom line became a distant memory. They knew this of course. They knew Winston rarely keeps his word, but they still endorsed him.

The deal will also cut property sales to foreigners – another policy National balked at, warning it would send an unfortunate message to our neighbours and be in breach of trade agreements.

Immigration was also crucial to NZ First’s position – National rejected whole sale cuts. concerned about a labour shortage.

National also held the line over Reserve Bank Act changes it worried would threaten the economy.

So National wasn’t willing to sacrifice the economy in order to get Winston on board. Good. National could have won the negotiations if they were as willing as Labour to give Mr 7% more harmful policies, but they weren’t.

Piers Akerman writes in the Daily Telegraph:

Don’t let political correctness stop you from laughing at the latest Kiwi joke — New Zealand’s new Labour government.

And surely it cannot be misogynist to question the skills of the new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the 37-year-old neophyte who now joins the ranks of other weird gen Xers, French President Emanuel Macron, 39, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 45, as a populist novice leader. …

Ardern however, a former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, who worked in the office of former NZ Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark and former UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, (she might have joined Bernie Sanders’ team in the US and Jeremy Corbyn’s UK effort if she had had the time) had no such scruples. She has happily gone along with the ratbag Left-wing radicals to grab power.

With a Labor-Green-Peters coalition holding office across the “Dutch” (as Kiwis call the Tasman Sea), we can expect to see a number of not-so surprising developments.

First, the NZ currency will probably continue the drop in value which began with the uncertainty about government on Friday.

Second, Australia will gain from an influx of savvy Kiwis who will demonstrate that they are not as flightless as their avian namesakes and flock to Australia while it still offers greater economic freedoms.

It will be very interesting to see how the migration rates change between NZ and Australia.

Stuff reports:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been removed as a World Health Organisation (WHO) goodwill ambassador following outrage among donors and rights groups at his appointment.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who made the appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday, said in a statement he had listened to those expressing concerns.

“Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for NCDs in Africa. As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment,” Tedros said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

It says a lot about the judgement of the WHO DG that he ever made the appointment in the first place.

With Mugabe on hand, Tedros announced his appointment at a conference in Uruguay this week on non-communicable diseases.

Tedros, a former Ethiopian official who became WHO’s first African director-general this year, said at the time Mugabe could use the role “to influence his peers in his region” on the issue. He described Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies.” A WHO spokeswoman confirmed the comments to The Associated Press.

Let’s look at how Zimbabwe has done from 1990 to 2012 on health.

• Child mortality rate from 7.4% to 9.0%
• Infant mortality rate from 5.0% to 5.6%
• Life expectancy dropped from 59.2 to 58.1 years

And this is when most countries are seeing huge improvements.

The southern African nation once was known as the region’s prosperous breadbasket. But in 2008, the charity Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting failures in Zimbabwe’s health system, saying Mugabe’s policies had led to a man-made crisis.

“The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population’s access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care,” the group concluded. Mugabe’s policies led directly to “the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers.”

So sad.

Claire Trevett writes:

One of the National Party’s moves in Opposition could be to lodge a members’ bill for the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary – which, if drawn, could see it pass into law if the Green Party also backed it or even abstained.

The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary has been one of the issues in negotiations between Labour, NZ First and the Greens after National put it on ice to try to resolve objections and a legal challenge by Te Ohu Kaimoana, the Maori Fisheries Commission.

National now has a chance to drive a wedge in the Opposition and if NZ First stymies progress on the sanctuary, there is already talk within National about putting in a members’ bill which, if drawn, could result in the sanctuary passing into law without Labour if the Greens support it.

This is a no brainer for National. A members’ bill will expose how much of a hold NZ First and its corporate interests have on Labour, and also force the Greens to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

The Herald reports:

Counties Manukau Health has dropped plans for a Ronald McDonald House for families of Middlemore Hospital patients after its public health specialists reportedly opposed links with the fast food giant.

Yes it is far more important to stigmatise McDonalds than support families with kids with cancer!!!

This shows how twisted and loathing some of those in the public health field have got. They hate so much what they see as big corporates that they put this ahead of everything else.

Food and nutrition writer and Herald on Sunday columnist Niki Bezzant said: “I have seen how the Ronald McDonald House at Auckland Hospital works and it’s a pretty amazing place and there’s really no hint of the influence of fast food there except that [McDonald’s] put up the money to pay for [the facility].

“I don’t think it’s intended to promote fast food to people who have got kids in hospital.”

It’s not. I have friends who have had kids with cancer and the Ronald McDonald Houses have made a massive difference to their ability to be close to their children and support them through truly wretched times.

In a statement the DHB said its executive had considered the approach from Ronald McDonald “very carefully, as proposals of this nature can be very divisive with staff and public alike”.

“On balance, we decided to take the advice of our public health team of doctors and to respectfully decline taking discussions further. We sincerely thank Ronald McDonald House Charity for their offer.”

This really makes my blood boil. It is beyond appalling. They put the welfare of kids with cancer second.

Bezzant said Ronald McDonald House provided a place for parents to go during a really stressful time. “It makes life pretty tough for parents from out of the area or from a long way away who have got kids in hospital because there is nothing for them in the hospitals, they have to sleep on the floor in the rooms and things like that.”

The first Kiwi Ronald McDonald House opened in Wellington in 1991 and the charity now operates two Ronald McDonald Houses in Auckland and one each in Wellington and Christchurch. It has other rooms and services across the country, too. “Last year alone we supported over 3700 families and provided over 41,000 nights of accommodation,” Howett said.

It is a truly wonderful service in the places that have it. But I guess Counties Manukau thinks it is more important that the name Ronald McDonald is hidden from children than it is to support the families of children with cancer.