The Herald reports:

Former broadcaster Shane Taurima has been selected as the Maori Party’s candidate in Tamaki Makaurau.

Taurima is an advisor in Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell’s office and was selected as candidate by the local electorate committee and party members over the weekend.

His candidacy is yet to be confirmed by the Maori Party’s National Council and Taurima would not comment until that happened.

The Maori Party had been in talks with Willie Jackson to stand in the seat, but Jackson then decided to stand for Labour instead, saying it was partly because he did not believe he had support from Flavell.

Taurima had hoped to stand for Labour in the electorate in 2014, but blotted his copybook after he was found to have used TVNZ resources for Labour Party purposes, including hosting meetings on TVNZ property.

So Taurima has defected from Labour to the Maori Party and Willie Jackson from the Maori Party to Labour.

Henare won the seat with a majority of 1462 votes over Maori Party candidate Rangi McLean. The Mana Party candidate Kereama Pene got 2624 votes in that election.

Taurima will be hoping the electorate deal between the Maori Party and Mana Party will help him win the seat back.

It could be a very close race. Henare seems to be one of the more useful Labour MPs so he may hold on.

The headline:

Retail workers say opening on Easter Sunday robs them of a break

Really, considering the law explicitly says no employee can be forced to work. So I was interested to read the story to see if it stacked up.

Some shop workers are upset that changes to the Easter trading laws this year mean many of them will lose one of their few guaranteed days off in the year.

Actually no one can be forced to work, but again is there an example?

Yvonne and Allan Pope in Motueka are both in retail and struggle to get a full weekend together.

Yvonne’s work includes Sunday, and Allan works a full week. He used to work half of Saturdays too “but I’m 69”.

While they now have Saturdays together, they have always looked forward to the compulsory break that Easter Sunday gave them.

“It was one of those days you could rely on,” Allan Pope said. 

The Popes’ day off is safe this year after the Tasman district rejected Easter Sunday trading, although nearby Marlborough has voted to allow it.

So this bullshit story is based on a couple who don’t have to work Easter Sunday and in fact can’t work Easter Sunday if they even wanted to, as they live in an area which has not allowed for Easter Sunday trading.

Another nail in the coffin of journalism.

Some extracts from David Cunliffe’s valedictory speech:

I was fortunate to cut my teeth in the Beehive with Sir Michael Cullen, surely one of New Zealand’s greatest finance Ministers, and under the leadership of Helen Clark. I always thought to work with one of them would have been lucky; to work with a team of two was extraordinary. But it did not take me long to work out that the real job of an Associate Minister is photocopying, which is shorthand for “anything else that senior Ministers either do not have the time or the inclination to do”.

Heh, about right. The worst associate job is associate immigration where you have to decide on all the appeals.

When, after the 2005 election, Helen Clark asked me to take on the ICT portfolio, we started a broad-based stocktake review immediately, and after 6 months of research, it was a compelling business case for pro-competitive regulation. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, we placed high security around all of the paperwork, but that did not stop a Beehive messenger slipping a copy of the Cabinet committee papers to someone from Telecom at a cycle club meeting. The resulting protest from Telecom was, however, too late; Cabinet had already approved the far-reaching package that unbundled and operationally separated Telecom and overhauled the regulator. Taking legal advice, we released the package that very day, and despite the short-term impact on share prices generated by the loss of monopoly rents, as predicted, investment in the sector doubled, retail prices fell, and broadband rollout took off. The current Government has continued that work, and good on it. New Zealanders are now amongst one of the best served telecommunications markets in the world, and Kiwis really did get faster, cheaper broadband.

I thought Cunliffe was an excellent Communications and IT Minister and the operational separation of Telecom was a vitally important reform.

This side of the House makes no apology for fighting inequality, investing in people and smarts, and celebrating all that is good in this beautiful, diverse, and innovative country, and much of that, thank goodness, we all share. That was the message I hoped would resonate with many New Zealanders during my short time as Leader of the Opposition, including some of the missing million who could not be bothered to turn out to vote at all because they could not see the point any more. I could write a book about the 2014 election campaign, but I do not think anyone would believe it, or possibly read it. But, in any case, that campaign was one of the most bizarre the country has ever seen. We had Kim Dotcom, Donghua Liu, and Dirty Politics coming out of our ears, but what the Labour Party did not have enough of was time: time to heal our old wounds, time to raise the money, and time to build the systems to get our message through.

It was a bizarre election. Hopefully 2017 will be a more policy focused election.

I wish David well with his life after politics.

An interesting 12 questions with Bill English. Some extracts:

Your wife Mary’s father is Samoan and her mother is Italian. What have you learned from them?

They’re a remarkable example of the promise of coming to New Zealand being realised. They raised 13 children on one income and own their own home. They had a very strong focus on their kids getting educated and maintaining their health which is a challenge in a large family on a low income.

Wow, that is an amazing achievement.

You grew up in a family of 12 kids on a farm in Dipton. What was your childhood like?

A mixture of discipline, hard work and adventure. We were expected to contribute to the farm and the household to the maximum of our ability at whatever age. When I was 10 I was sent out to plough our paddock on the tractor with very little instruction. At age 12 I cooked breakfast for 20 people when the shearers came up for breakfast.

Good life skills.

What have you learned about leadership that you didn’t know back in 2002?

When people put you into a leadership position, they expect you to exercise your judgment when it really matters. I’ve tended to take a consultative and collective approach but looking back I should have followed my intuition a bit more and not relied so much on advice.

Yep, follow your instincts.

What role does your Catholic faith play in your political life?

My faith is a significant part of who I am so it can’t help but affect my personal decision-making. It’s part of your conscience. I go to church most Sundays. I like sitting down the back as just another congregation member. You hear ideas around humility, forgiveness and mercy which are not part of the general political round. I find it very balancing.

Nicely said.

Stuff reports:

Labour is promising to build 400 new houses in Lower Hutt during its first term in Government, if elected in September.

Labour Leader Andrew Little announced the plan on Wednesday, while standing on one of the dozens of vacant Housing New Zealand sections that litter Lower Hutt.

Having so much unused Housing NZ land was unacceptable, and Labour would act quickly to start building on it, he said.

The vacant Housing NZ land should be built on. But Labour’s numbers are as credible as well all their other numbers.

This Stuff article notes that there is 17,000 square metres of vacant HNZ land in Hutt City. That is 1.7 hectares.

To build 400 homes on that space would mean an average of 42 square metres per property!!

If you check how many homes used to be on these vacant sites, I think it was around 50.

And Labour claim that these homes will be up to three bedrooms!

It simply is not possible.

Within an hour of each other, there was new news in the two big defamation trials of the last year.

The judge in Williams vs Craig has found the amount of damages awarded by the jury was excessive. This is not entirely surprising as it was 50% larger than the previous NZ record – and that award was for what the court labelled the worst defamation in the history of the Commonwealth.

What this means is either the Judge will set the amount of damages (if both parties agree) or there will be a new trial – but only to establish the amount of damages, not on the issue of liability.

In Hagaman vs Little, Mrs Hagaman announced that they will proceed with a new trial on the charges that jury could not agree on. This will be unwelcome to Andrew Little of course. And if Mr Hagaman does die before the next trial, then not a great way to avoid court.

The sensible thing in both cases would be to avoid new trials.

Rob Hosking at NBR reports:

A high-flying former foreign policy adviser and an ambassador is tipped to be named as Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s new chief of staff. 

Taha MacPherson has previously served as New Zealand’s ambassador to Israel and was, in more recent times, foreign policy adviser to then prime minister John Key.

Mr MacPherson worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the same time Mr Goff served as Trade Minister during Helen Clark’s Labour-led government. 

But he has connections, strong ones, across the political spectrum, and his selection for the role is an indication of Mr Goff’s view there is a strong need to keep the channels open no matter which party is in power in Wellington. 

A smart move. MacPherson is highly respected and a good negotiator.

Barry Soper writes:

If you ever wanted any proof of how bloody minded Andrew Little is, you should have no doubt with the events that played out in the Wellington High Court over the past week. …

All of this could easily have been avoided by Andrew Little if had the good grace to make it clear where his target was. And of course that’s why we have parliamentary privilege where dodgy claims can be made, and have frequently been made by politicians with impunity, which doesn’t necessarily make them right, but at least avoids this sort of litigation.

Little’s second monetary offer to the Hagamans will be a drop in the legal fee bucket that he’s now confronting, money he said he would have raised by taking a mortgage over his house.

At least now he’ll get some understanding of what it’s like to be a first-home buyer. He could though go for costs from the substantial Hagaman pot but that’d require more legal time and money.

The whole saga does Little no credit, an apology sooner rather than later would have saved a lot of heartache.

Yep, while he didn’t end up with damages in court, he will have significant costs.

Stuff reports:

Adding employment to the Reserve Bank’s targets may be no more than a “cosmetic” change, economists warn.

On Monday Labour formally proposed adding a “commitment to full employment” to the Reserve Bank’s role of controlling inflation.

While the change is meaningless, it is still significant that Labour are pushing it.

ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie said even under Labour’s proposals, the changes may have little practical difference in decision making.

“It’s obvious there’s going to be some changes, but I think where we’re headed there’s going to be some cosmetic surgery, and not much more than that,” Bagrie said.

When it comes to monetary policy, the Reserve Bank has one tool, the OCR, and one target, inflation.

Bagrie said giving the central bank a target of full employment was not uncommon around the world, but was impossible to execute.

“When you’ve got one instrument, you can target one thing. We can talk about giving them a dual mandate, but when push comes to shove, the inflation target will end up dominating.

“It is mathematically impossible to target two variables with one instrument.” 

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said the experience across the Tasman, where the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has employment and inflation targets, was that employment tended to be overlooked.

“It’s pretty clear from the way they [the RBA] behave that what they’re focused on is inflation outcomes.”

There were times in the economic cycle when controlling inflation may send interest rates in the opposite direction to the aim of maintaining full employment.

“You end up having your stated aims opposing each other.”

People used to think that you couldn’t have low inflation and low unemployment. The history of the last 30 years is of course you can. Increasing inflation does not create more jobs in the long term – at best it has a short-term impact. So adding full employment to the target means little, as the Bank will still aim to keep inflation low.

Basically it is just a feel good self pleasuring device for politicians, to add full employment to the goals. It will be as successful as when they told TVNZ to be both a commercial broadcaster and a public service broadcaster – it failed at both.

Liam Hehir writes:

A 2014 Massey University study, for example, showed that 22 percent of New Zealand journalists considered themselves Centrists. Just 16 percent said they were on the Right and fully 62 percent said they were on the Left.

The study was published in ejournalist.com.au.

So around three times as many journalists identify as centre-left than centre-right.

52% of the population voted for a centre-right party, yet only 16% of journalists consider themselves centre-right.

This is no surprise of course. But it is useful to remember as world views do impact reporting. It is not conscious bias, but it still results in the media being unbalanced.

Great to see such a strong response from the SSC into the private business dealings of two former CERA employees. Commissioner Peter Hughes said:

Mr Heron’s investigation found serious and sustained breaches of the applicable standards for which an employment process would follow if Mr Gallagher and Mr Nikoloff were still employed by CERA.

Mr Gallagher and Mr Nikoloff were found to have been using a private company (PIML) to attempt to participate in a business deal for personal gain, relating to the same property (273 Manchester St) and with the same parties they were engaging with in their public capacity as CERA employees. They did not disclose their personal interest to parties involved in the potential transaction or to their employer.

This created a clear conflict of interest which they were aware of and should have disclosed to CERA, however they did not do so.

“I consider their actions to be serious misconduct that is unacceptable in the New Zealand Public Service,” Mr Hughes said.

“If these two individuals were still employed by CERA I believe there would be strong grounds for terminating their employment,” he said.

“I am unable to direct State sector employers when making employment decisions, however based on what I have seen in Mr Heron’s report, if it were up to me I would not employ these individuals,” Mr Hughes said.

And then the big kicker:

“I also decided to refer the results of the investigation to the Serious Fraud Office to consider whether any of the activity is of a potentially criminal nature that requires further investigation,” said Mr Hughes.

Ouch.

Well done to Fairfax for bringing this issue to public attention.

A guest post by ACT Leader David Seymour:

This week, I voted against National’s much-vaunted reforms to the Resource Management Act. For several years now, ACT has supported fundamentally reforming, and even completely replacing, the Act. Its 900 pages of red tape are the single biggest barrier to homebuilding and housing affordability.

However, ACT was unable to support the tinkering produced by National’s politically disastrous deal with the Maori Party. As has now been widely publicised, the new reforms actually add bureaucracy in the form of undemocratic new iwi participation arrangements.

Stephen Franks has already explained how the new Mana Whakahono a Rohe provisions breach the principle of ‘one law for all’. So in this column I’ll instead try to explain how the Government reached such a miserable outcome in the first place.

Nick Smith claims he couldn’t get agreement from ACT and United Future to pass effective RMA reform. In reality, we have offered him multiple opportunities to pass strong reforms without iwi concessions, but he declined at every turn.

Here’s how it happened: after the 2014 election, National, with ACT’s support, had the numbers to pass Resource Management Act reform with a 61-60 majority. Nick Smith voiced a commitment to reform, which ACT welcomed, with the caveat that we could not support co-governance arrangements pushed by the Maori Party.

However, instead of pushing ahead with RMA reform after the election as ACT had urged, Nick Smith dragged the chain until Winston Peters won the seat of Northland in 2015. This ended the National-ACT majority and meant Nick Smith had to choose between working with both ACT and United Future, or with the Maori Party’s two MPs.

That’s when Nick Smith made the disastrous decision to rush into the Maori Party’s arms, thinking it would be too hard to get ACT and United Future on the same page. He failed to envisage the concessions the Maori Party would demand, dragging out negotiations and adulterating the once positive proposals.

Meanwhile, I continued to meet with Peter Dunne until we agreed on an alternative set of reforms. Crucially, our proposals excluded the pernicious iwi participation arrangements. We formally offered our support for these reforms to the Government a year ago, but Nick Smith couldn’t bear to be seen changing course.

Maori Party-National negotiations seemed to stall until this year when the full extent of the Maori Party’s demands became clear. That’s when Peter Dunne and I hosted a press conference restating our offer to Nick Smith, offering him a way out of his embarrassing Maori Party fling.

That very afternoon, Nick Smith doubled-down on his allegiance to the Maori Party and confirmed his deal would go ahead.

National Party members are up in arms over how their party has been compromised. They’re letting their representatives know they’re angry, and good on them.

Winston Peters’ flamboyant comments on iwi issues have earned him airtime, but he has merely been shouting from the side-lines. ACT, however, last week actually introduced four separate amendments to improve the legislation. Our reforms would have scrapped iwi provisions, cut red tape, enshrined property rights, and prevented ministerial overreach, but all were voted down by National and the Maori Party.

This is the 18th Amendment to the RMA since it was passed in 1991, and if anything it is getting worse. It is a dog.

This is the problem New Zealand faces when a dominant party, even a right-leaning party, belatedly responds to a problem (in this case a housing shortage) that has built up for nine years. Principles are thrown out the window. Being seen to be doing something becomes the vital consideration, not the need to pass legislation that actually gets homes built. The result is a breach of democratic values, disaster for prospective homeowners, and a dark cloud hanging over National’s election prospects.

The upshot of this sad saga is actually a lesson in MMP politics. Most issues are decided by a single vote, and a small change in coalition arrangements can have a huge outcome in policy.

If ACT had just one extra MP, we could have nipped National’s deal with the Maori Party in the bud. Only ACT has been consistent on both fundamental RMA reform and opposing co-governance deals. A stronger ACT is needed now more than ever before to get National back on track.

The newsletter summary is:

There were three political voting polls in March – a One News Colmar Brunton, a Newshub Reid Research and a Roy Morgan.

The average of the public polls sees National 16% ahead of Labour in March, down 3% from February.

 The current seat projection is centre-right 58 seats, centre-left 52 which would see NZ First hold the balance of power.

We show the current New Zealand poll averages for party vote, country direction and preferred PM compared to three months ago, a year ago, three years ago and nine years ago. This allows easy comparisons between terms and Governments.

In the United States Trump’s net approval has dropped 11% in March. His failure to get a health care bill introduced saw his healthcare rating drop 18%.

 In the UK Theresa May has a net approval of +13% compared to 41% for Jeremy Corbyn.

In Australia Labour remain well ahead of the Coalition.

In Canada the Conservatives have now closed the gap with the Liberals to 5%, compared to 14% a year ago.

We also carry details of polls on superannuation, Labour leadership, housing, immigration, and the normal business and consumer confidence polls.

This newsletter is normally only available by e-mail.  If you would like to receive future issues, please go to http://curia.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e9168e04adbaaaf75e062779e&id=8507431512 to subscribe yourself.

The Herald reports:

Education Minister Hekia Parata sees merit in shifting teacher training to a post-graduate level – saying teaching has one of the lowest barriers to entry of any profession.

The change is opposed by the secondary school teachers’ union, the PPTA, who fear it could worsen teacher supply issues

But Labour’s education spokesman, Chris Hipkins, says it warrants further investigation, and could help ensure all teachers have the required literacy and numeracy skills.

“I definitely see merit in having teaching as a post-graduate qualification,” Hipkins said.

In a significant move, the Education Council is moving towards a position that all people wanting to become teachers – in early childhood, primary and secondary – should be required to have a bachelor-level degree, as well as a post-graduate level qualification in teaching.

This seems worthwhile to me. Finland has an excellent education system, and part of that is because their teachers are highly qualified and valued. It would inevitably mean paying teachers more, but that is fine if it is lifting the standard of teaching in the profession.

Stuff reports:

The Reserve Bank governor’s power over interest rate decisions will be reviewed, after years of denials by the National government that this issue needed to be considered.

Former State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie has been appointed by Treasury to investigate both the Reserve Bank’s process for determining movements in the official cash rate (OCR), and whether the bank should be in charge of the legislation it operates under.

The review was requested by Finance Minister Steven Joyce. …

While Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler insists the decision over whether to raise or lower the OCR is made by committee, that process is voluntarily.

Almost uniquely for central banks anywhere, Wheeler and his predecessors have the sole power over interest rates, which critics warn gives unrivalled power to an unelected official.

RB Governor is a very powerful position. But his job is to adjust the OCR so that (underlying) inflation stays within the target range. The Government sets the target range.

There is a case for having the decision made by a committee, than the Governor alone. A group decision may be more sound than an individual decision. However you would get a reduction in accountability. The Government can hold the Governor responsible for allowing inflation to get too high. A committee can’t really have the same degree of accountability. There is a danger that a committee would be softer on inflation as no one would be at risk of losing their jobs if inflation does creep up.

The Herald reports:

You’ll never earn as much as you do in your 40s, data provided to the Herald by Statistics New Zealand reveals.

Those aged between 40 and 44 earn the most throughout their career, recorded at $1325 per week, but that average dips – by a few dollars – for those slightly older, aged between 45 and 49, at $1323 per week.

The average earnings by age group is:

• Teens $356
• 20s $831
• 30s $1,194
• 40s $1,324
• 50s $1,218
• 60s $941

This is pretty expected. But worth remembering this when people insist that a 16 year old first time worker must be paid 75% of the average wage – you are comparing 16 year olds to those with 25 years experience.

Graeme Edgeler tweets:

Jury unanimous that Little did not defame Mrs Hagaman. Agree he defamed Mr H. at least once. But no agreement on whether he has a defence.

In respect of other causes of action, jury deadlocked. So no order of damages as yet. Could be a new trial.

Retrial limited to questions jury couldn’t agree. Still possibility of settlement, esp. as Mrs H lost, and will be liable for some costs.

This is basically a win for Little. I doubt it will go to a new trial considering the health of Mr Hagaman.

Cameron Slater blogs:

You may recall that I had Colin Craig’s vexatious copyright claim over his dopey poem struck out. …

The judge awarded a fraction of costs, according to the schedule. Colin Craig then asked the judge to revisit the costs award as he thought they were too high, despite being a fraction of the actual costs. …

Colin Craig’s application to reduce around $5,000 in costs awards further has just ended up costing him $32,593.27 in my case and a further $27,938.75 for Jordan Williams.

My God, that is an impressive own goal. You appeal against costs of $5,000 and you end up with costs of over $60,000.

Judge Sharp spares few words in relation to the claim. They include:

• a proceeding involving a deception on the Court
• the processes of the Court had not been fairly or honestly used
• being employed for an ulterior and improper purpose
• proceeding to be manifestly groundless and without foundation
• plaintiff acted vexatiously in continuing this proceeding
• plaintiff acted improperly in defending the summary judgment and strike out applications
• he had been put on notice about the implications of losing
• the process was not fairly or honestly brought, it was manifestly groundless and without foundation
• Mr Craig conducted the proceeding in such a way as to require a good many, otherwise, unnecessary attendances and memoranda to the Court from the defendants

It is hard to conceive of more damning words that a Judge could use. Also hard to think of a worse outcome than appealing against $5,000 costs and ending up escalating it to $60,000.

The Herald reports:

Te Kiri Gold producer Vernon Coxhead said his creation changes the molecular structure of the immune system so the water can penetrate to the bone, then to the cancer cells.

Yeah, no it doesn’t change the molecular structure of the immune system.

Analysis of the results by Dr Nick Kim, from Massey University’s school of public health, concluded the sample tested contained 220 times the amount of free chlorine found in drinking water.

Drinking the maximum recommended daily dose — 600ml — for the full eight-week programme would see consumers digest half a kilo of salt, which could be harmful to kidneys, heart and blood pressure.

Kim says the sample contained the same free chlorine content as a 3 per cent solution of household bleach.

Salt and bleach – the miracle cancer cure.

A list of instructions that comes with postal orders says the water starts killing cancer cells immediately and patients will “feel better” for the first days.

Surely such advertising is illegal?

The Ministry of Health says any product making therapeutic claims is regulated under the Medicines Act 1981.

The act says any medicine must undergo a rigorous assessment and gain approval for use before it can be generally supplied and advertised in New Zealand. It says Te Kiri Gold has not been through a clinical trial or submitted an application for one.

Cancer Society medical director Dr Chris Jackson says because Te Kiri Gold is not licensed the society would not recommend it.

“Any organisation selling a medical treatment that claims to cure cancer, before they have been through clinical trials to … prove safety and effectiveness, is misleading and potentially dangerous.”

Consumer New Zealand says all companies have a legal obligation to ensure their products are safe. Companies that mislead consumers about a product’s benefits face fines of up to $600,000 under the Fair Trading Act.

As they should.

The full eight-week programme costs about $1600.

$1,700 for water, salt and chlorine!

Coxhead says he agonised about having to charge but can’t afford to give it away.

Asked whether it’s ethical and moral to potentially be giving false hope to the sick and vulnerable, he says: “There is no such thing as false hope. You either have hope or you have none.”

That says a lot. He does not care that the hope is false. He is making money from desperate people who are hoping for a miracle cure.

It is possible his “water” does kill some cancer cells. If you drank acid it would also kill some cancer cells. That doesn’t make it a cure.

If he thinks it has any validity, he’d arrange a scientific trial of it.

The SMH reports:

One of Australia’s best-known satirists, John Clarke, has died at the age of 68. 

An ABC spokesman has confirmed John Clarke passed away Sunday while hiking in the Grampians National Park in Victoria. He died from natural causes. ​

The New Zealand-born comedian and writer regularly appeared on Australian television from the late 1970s onwards, starring in everything from Kath and Kim to The Lano and Woodly Show.

Along with Bryan Dawe, he wrote and performed satirical interviews on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair and later the ABC’s 7.30 program, mocking everyone from Paul Keating to George Bush.

We remember John Clarke as Fred Dagg, who was an iconic NZ figure. But he was also a great satirist in Australia. My favourite clip is the one below of Clarke and Dawe on quantitative easing.

In memory of a great New Zealander and a great Australian. Rest in Peace and thanks for the many laughs. We are sadder for your passing.