The fill list will be available later today at DPMC. Top honours are:

GNZM
John Philip Key
For services to the State

The Herald editorial:

It is not often crime can be truly said to be of the Government’s own making, but that can be said of robberies of shops stocking cigarettes.

Rising tax on tobacco to discourage smoking has reached a level at which cigarettes have become, according to the Association of Convenience Stores, “like stocking gold”.

Hardly a week passes in which a dairy is not attacked for little more than cash and cigarettes.

The heists are happening in daylight and frequently shop owners are being battered in the attempt to save their stock. Its wholesale cost is high with the excise included and the retail margin is low.

The robberies are suspected to be feeding a black market that is on-selling the cigarettes to less scrupulous shop owners at less than the wholesale, tax-inclusive price.

This is what is liable to happen when markets are seriously distorted no matter how worthy the purpose of the regulation or taxation.

The excise tax increases have indeed been for a worthy purpose. But the law of unintended consequences is happening big time, and has fueled a crime wave.

To say so is not to condone the criminal response but those who promote regulations and taxation as solutions to a social problem should always keep in mind the risk that they could create new problems, possibly worse than the problem they are trying to cure.

Smoking is a danger to health but so is armed robbery.

Yep and people choose to smoke. No one chooses to be robbed.

No doubt annual tax increases have played a part in reducing the number of smokers though the habit remains rife in Maori and Pacific communities.

The Maori Party has pressed hardest for the tax hikes by the present Government and it is unlikely to let up.

The tax is set to rise by 10 per cent a year for next three years, bringing the price of a pack to $30 by 2020.

It is time to ask whether this is really wise? If smoking has declined to the point that a hard core of smokers has continued despite the rising price, what reason is there to suppose further rises will deter them.

Each increase might merely divert more of their limited income from their family’s needs. We may have reached the point at which taxation is doing more harm than good.

Tax increases have been an effective tool in the past. But yes the smaller the pool of remaining smokers, and the less impact the tax increases have – and the greater the unintended consequences.

Stuff reports:

The Wellington region looks set to get a new indoor arena that could seat up to 12,000 people.

The Wellington Regional Strategy Committee, which includes the region’s mayors, agreed on Tuesday to advance plans to build the arena.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester, who chairs the committee, said the plans were for an 8000 to 12,000 seated arena, but it would more likely be about 10,000 and would be modelled on the Spark Arena (previously Vector) in Auckland.

Wellington City Council has been working on the idea for the past 18 months and has budgeted $60 million in its Long-Term Plan for the project, but other councils in the region may be asked to pay a levy, as they continue to do for the Westpac Stadium.

$60 million? Sure it would be nice to have a bigger indoor venue, but I can think of a lot of other things you could spend $60 million on – or not spend it and keep rates down.

Possible sites for the new arena could be near Westpac Stadium, the railway station, the waterfront, or the central city entertainment precinct, Lester said.

The waterfront would be my pick.

Other sites around the region would also be considered, and it would replace 5600-capacity TSB Arena.

Wellington concert promoter Phil Sprey, who has long been advocating for a covered venue bigger than the TSB Arena but smaller than Westpac Stadium, said the announcement was good news.

Big international acts were increasingly playing multiple nights in smaller arenas, rather than braving unpredictable weather and the logistical challenges of filling a stadium, he said.

He urged planners to build a 15,000-seat arena to future-proof the venue. “Then you could see all the major artists that have been playing Vector Arena.”

He believed the best site would have been on the waterfront, where the logs are kept, but given recent earthquake issues, he suggested Petone as an alternative.

It would be accessible to people north of Wellington, and new link roads would make it easier for people to travel there.

I really doubt it would get the same patronage in Petone.

John Armstrong writes:

Strong words from a very insightful commentator.

LBC reports:

“A van came from London Bridge itself, went between the traffic light system and rammed it towards the steps. It knocked loads of people down.

“Then three men got out with long blades, 12 inches long and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random. I saw a young girl stabbed in the chest.

“I said to the guy in my cab I was going to try to hit him, I was going to ram him. I turned around and tried, but he side-stepped me.

“Then there were two police officers running towards him with their batons drawn, they didn’t know what was happening.

“There was a guy with a really long blade stabbing randomly people.

“I told people to turn around and run away. It sickened me to the pit of my stomach. An absolute animal.”

It is no longer safe to go to a concert, no longer safe to walk along London Bridge. Such sad acts of cowardice where children and innocent adults get slaughtered.

Today

• US beat NZ and UK
• NZ lost to US
• UK beat Japan and lost to US
• Japan lost to UK
• Sweden beat France
• France lost to Sweden

Overall results

• US won 8 lost 2
• NZ won 8 lost 2
• Sweden won 5 lost 5
• UK won 4 lost 6
• Japan won 3 lost 7
• France won 2 lost 6

Points

1. US 9
2. NZ 8
3. UK 6
4. Sweden 5
5. Japan 3
6. France 2

So what this means is:

1. France is knocked out of the competition
2. NZ get to pick who they race in the challenger semi-finals
3. In the America’s Cup, Oracle’s opponent will start at -1

The Daily Mail reports:

Kathy Griffin accused President Donald Trump and his family of launching a campaign to destroy her life in response to the image she posted earlier this week in which she appeared to be holding the commander-in-chief’s severed head. 

The comedian broke down in tears as she detailed the torrent of abuse she has been receiving online, and the constant death threats which she described as detailed and specific.

She stated however that she will not back down from this fight, saying: ‘I am not afraid of Donald Trump. He is a bully.’ 

Later in the interview Griffin said that her career was likely over now as a result of this incident, and that President Trump had ‘broke’ her, moments after she declared: ‘There’s a bunch of old white guys trying to silence me!’

Griffin, 56, declared at one point that this would not be happening to her if she was a ‘white man.’ 

What an idiot.

If a white man had got up and done a “skit” showing President Obama’s decapitated head, they would be in a far worse world of pain

Her lawyer Lisa Bloom also suggested during the press conference that despite reports, Barron was likely not that upset after seeing the image of Griffin with the decapitated head by stating the child was ‘allegedly’ traumatized.

Yeah I’m sure an 11 year old doesn’t mind seeing a parody of his father being decapitated. He should just harden up.

The Herald reports:

Teenage ISIS fighters are said to be shooting people dead for failing to quote the Koran in a besieged Philippines city.

As 50,000 people fled the city of Marawi in the south of the country, some reported the terror they had left behind.

Terrified residents reported young jihadis taking orders from commanders in their early 20s to force people to recite verses of the Islamic scripture, but when they failed, they would be shot dead to a chorus of laughter.

Barbaric and awful. And some people still try to claim that this is not about religion, but Western foreign policy, poverty etc etc.

Radio NZ reports:

All universities in New Zealand and Australia are rolling out the system, called My eQuals, which allows graduates to share digital copies of their qualifications with prospective employers.

Australian universities-owned company Australian Higher Education Services is managing the service. Chief executive Andrew Trnacek said overseas studies indicated about a third of job and course applications included inflated or fake information about qualifications.

He said faking a qualification through the My eQuals system was not possible.

“We’re using the latest in encryption technology and that’s constantly being reviewed and updated so it’s not really possible for somebody to issue a fake document through the node,” he said.

Dr Trnacek said the other big motivation for introducing the system was to reduce the time and effort involved in providing and verifying graduates’ qualifications.

“It often has to get verified by a justice of the peace or similar notary, or the institution or the employer might actually pay another party to verify that degree, or contact the issuing university directly.

“So it’s long, it’s cumbersome, it’s expensive, it’s manual.”

This looks to be a very good move.

As I understand it, the graduates can allow potential employers to verify they have got the degrees they plan. But if the graduates wishes, they can also share what papers they say, and even what grades they got.

It also should prove useful for students transferring between universities.

Today

• Japan lost to NZ and Sweden
• NZ beat Japan and France
• Sweden beat US and Japan
• US lost to Sweden
• France lost to NZ

Overall results

• NZ won 8 lost 1
• US won 6 lost 2
• Sweden won 4 lost 5
• UK won 3 lost 5
• Japan won 3 lost 6
• France won 2 lost 7

Points

1. NZ 8
2. US 7
3. UK 5
4. Sweden 4
5. Japan 3
6. France 2

It is significant that NZ is now ahead of Oracle on the points table for two reasons.

If we remain top of the points table (or top after Oracle) than in the semi-final we get to pick our opponent.

But more importantly if we win the qualifiers and make the America’s Cup final, then we start with a one point advantage against Oracle (or they start at -1).

The Herald reports:

The law requires women to name the father to apply for child support or face sanctions of up to $28 a week per child off their benefit.

Logie said about 15,000 women had their benefits docked for refusing to do so.

“Is it appropriate to deprive women of essential income when the reasons people don’t name a father are personal, private and, frankly, none of the state’s business?”

Beneficiary groups have called for the clause to be dropped altogether.

If you don’t want money from the state, then no need to tell the state who the father is.

But if you do want money from the state, well taxpayers have an expectation that the father will contribute to the child’s needs, rather than be 100% funded by taxpayers. It is called parental responsibility. Why should fathers leave others to pay the bills?

Without any sanction for not naming the father, then tens of thousands of fathers escape responsibility.

Also it is quite common that the father will pay the mother not to name him, so that again taxpayers are left paying much more than they should, as the father ends up paying less than he would under the law.

Now of course there should be exemptions for cases such as rape, and it is horrible that WINZ stuffed up this case so badly. But that is no reason to change the policy so that tens of thousands of fathers can escape any responsibility for their children.

Stuff reports:

A controversial ‘bed tax’ will go ahead, with Auckland Council’s Governing Body voting 10-7 in favour of the proposal on Thursday afternoon.

The targeted accommodation rate will see hotels and motels charged extra to partially offset the cost of staging major events in the city.

The accommodation sector gets only 9% of the benefits of tourism, yet they are the only sector that gets this extra rate. Totally unfair and discriminatory.

At a minimum they should be given power of appointment to the board of ATEED so they can them determine what their money is spent on.

It will see nightly room rates bumped up between $3-$6 for hotels and $1-$3 for motels.

No it won’t.  It is a massive increase in their rates, not a room or bed tax. Some places will put rates up, but others may not as they will lose business if they do. Hotels and motels face competition with Air BNB and the like.

Stuff reports:

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble on a snap election was under question after the latest opinion polls showed her Conservative Party’s lead was dwindling just a week before voting begins.

Failure to win the June 8 election with a large majority would weaken May just as formal Brexit talks are due to begin while the loss of her majority in parliament would pitch British politics into turmoil.

On Thursday (Friday NZ Time), in the strongest signal yet that the election is much closer than previously thought, May’s lead has collapsed from 24 points since she surprised both rivals and financial markets on April 18 by calling the election.

Their bungled Budget has hurt them badly. There is a real possibility now of a hung Parliament which would mean a very weak Government negotiating with the EU increasing the chance of leaving with no deal.

Today

• Japan beat France and lost to US
• France lost to Japan and UK
• NZ beat UK
• UK lost to NZ and beat France
• US beat Japan

Overall results

• US won 6 lost 1
• NZ won 6 lost 1
• Japan won 3 lost 4
• UK won 3 lost 5
• Sweden won 2 lost 5
• France won 2 lost 6

Points

1. US 7
2. NZ 6
3. UK 5
4. Japan 3
5. Sweden 2
6. France 2

The Washington Post reports:

President Trump announced Thursday afternoon that he is withdrawing the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, a move that honors a campaign promise but risks rupturing global alliances and disappointing both environmentalists and corporate titans.

But Trump said he would seek to negotiate a new climate deal that is, in his view, “fair” to America’s interests.

“In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers,” Trump said.

“We’re getting out,” he added, “but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. If we can, that’s great. If we can’t, that’s fine.”

Trump promised to pull out of TPP and the Paris agreement, and he has done both. All those who cheered him on for pulling out of TPP are probably less happy on this one.

I think he shouldn’t have pulled out of either.

The first is that the whole system of international agreements will fall down if everytime a country has a change of Government, they simply withdraw. It is incredibly hard to negotiate an agreement in the first place, and if there is little chance they will endure, then why bother.

Businesses want certainty about domestic and global rules.

In terms of what the other signatories to Paris now do, I think they should take their lead from the TPP countries – just carry on without the US. The US is going through an isolationist phrase, so let it. I doubt it will last for long, as when his protectionist policies start to hit consumers there will be a big backlash.

Vernon Small writes:

Labour leader Andrew Little’s iPad-assisted first speech was a tame and lame affair, which wound up before its allotted time.

Tame and lame – I like it. And I can’t recall a previous occasion where the Leader of the Opposition has been unable to speak for 20 minutes in what is meant to be leading the response to the Budget.

In an interview with Susie Ferguson on Radio NZ – that he consistently seems to fluff – he got down into the weeds

He really is hopeless on Morning Report more often than not.

By that morning’s media stand-up in Parliament he was tighter on message, but then he threw the party’s tax strategy into doubt by failing to rule out other tax increases.

A few weeks ago Little sincerely promised no tax increases under Labour. Now he may be reneging on it.

Barry Soper writes:

As a first anniversary gift, the Greens breached their Memorandum of Understanding on Budget Day by voting with the Government it has pledged to replace.

Labour leader Andrew Little told media he only knew the Greens were crossing sides when they started voting.

The MoU commits both parties to treat each other with integrity and openness, with a no surprises policy which means they give each other prior notice and the details of any major announcements and speeches.

Not telling your MOU partner that you are voting for the centre-piece of the Government’s Budget seems a rather big thing to overlook.

Imagine if there is a Labour, Greens and NZ First Government – wonderful chaos.

The deal with Labour is the Greens’ biggest mistake.

They may think their association could attract some Labour votes for them – but if that’s their thinking, they misunderstand the tribal nature of that party’s followers.

If they were free agents they could easily have hooked up with National, which given their Budget vote, they don’t loathe as much as Labour does.

By saying they will only back a Labour Government, they have given all the power to Peters. And in return he will try and lock them out if he can.

I was reading an article about how our job growth is so strong, and it got me interested in how does it compare to previous years.

Each bar shows the change in the number of people in employment in New Zealand over the calendar year, seasonally adjusted. So basically how many jobs were created or lost.

Since recovering from the Global Financial Crisis, the job growth has been pretty incredible. In the last four years we have had two years with 60,000 job growth and last year there were almost 110,000 net new jobs created.

This is why we can afford tax cuts, can afford record extra spending in health and education, can afford to spend more on infrastructure.  The more people in employment, the more tax gets paid and more spending by families. We are fortunate to be one of the very few countries in the world with a record like this. Most are not even back into surplus.

Stuff reports:

The Government has a key opportunity to change how tobacco is supplied and sold. Limiting the number and type of retailers permitted to sell tobacco, such as by establishing specialist R18 retail outlets as the only stores able to sell tobacco, would reduce opportunities for crime.

Removing tobacco from all current outlets would create a level-playing field and thus address an important concern retailers in our research studies have voiced. Store owners’ fears that customers would go elsewhere to purchase tobacco, and other more profitable products they might buy at the same time, would no longer apply. Only specialist stores would sell tobacco, and that would be their only product range.

In this scenario, specialist store owners who sold tobacco could invest in enhanced security to minimise the risk of theft; store owners no longer selling tobacco would enjoy increased safety and reduced crime.

This proposal from academics shows the ivory towers some of them live in.

Who the hell would invest their capital in setting up a store that was only allowed to sell one product, and would be the biggest armed robbery target in town?

And considering that smoking prevalance is dropping (which is good), again who would invest in a retail store that can only sell one product?

This proposal would fuel the black market even more. It would turn tobacco into a drug mainly supplied on the black market, and would be a boon for criminals and gangs.

Stuff reports:

House price growth has dropped below 10 per cent a year for the first time in two years.

QV’s latest data shows that property values nationwide increased 9.7 per cent in the year to May, to an average $634,018.

In Auckland, values were up 9.3 per cent year-on-year, the slowest rate of growth since November 2014. They moved just 0.1 per cent over the quarter.

That’s good news.

“Sales volumes are lower than they were this time last year particularly in Auckland and its possible market activity may now remain more subdued until after the election,” she said.

QV Auckland Homevalue manager James Steele said record prices were still being achieved for well-positioned and well-maintained properties but, for other properties, sellers sometimes had to settle for a lower price than they might have achieved last year.

“We are also seeing vendors who are willing to withdraw their properties from the market if they do not achieve the price offer they are wanting,” he said.
 
“Entry-level homes in South Auckland suburbs such as Mangere, Papakura and Manurewa where you can still find a property for under $650,000 are being sold mostly to first-home buyers with investors no longer very active in this part of the market.”

Hopefully it is a combination of both the demand and supply side measures implemented in the last couple of years taking bite.