The Herald reports:

The Green Party has lost its third senior staff member in as many months after chief of staff Andrew Campbell announced his resignation, saying it was time for “fresh legs” to take over his role after two elections.

Mr Campbell has held critical back-room roles in the party for the past five and a half years, first as chief press secretary and then as chief of staff after James Shaw took over the leadership from Russel Norman after the 2014 election.

It follows the resignations of chief press secretary Leah Haines for family reasons, and former communications director David Cormack who left after just six months in the role to set up a public relations company.

This will be a loss to the Greens. Andrew is very respected can capable. His move into Chief of Staff was seen as a good one.

Mr Campbell denied the string of resignations was due to discontent in the Green camp. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had. I love politics, I love elections but you get to a point where you need to take a break from it. That’s it in a nutshell.”

He did not yet have another job lined up but had made it clear to the Green Party after the 2014 election that he intended to leave, partly because he felt it was time for ‘fresh legs’ to take on the role after seeing the party through two elections.

Regardless of how you spin it, it’s not a good look to have your Chief of Staff resign less than a year after he takes up the role.

I don’t think it is due to internal discontent, more a realisation that the chance of the Greens getting into Government is pretty bleak. Even if there is a Labour-led Government, they’ll need Peters and he’d veto the Greens being Ministers.

The Justice and Electoral Committee has made some recommendations arising from their inquiry into the 2014 general election. Overall it is barely tepid with no significant changes recommended despite massive problems in the area of enforcement (The Police simply don’t enforce electoral laws, and no one else is able to).

Here’s their major recommendations:

• Having more advance voting places available over 12 days
• Enabling voters of Maori descent to change between general and maori rolls every three years instead of every five as present. This is a bad recommendation as boundaries are done every five years and running the Maori option out of sync with the boundaries review means you may get some gerrymandered seats with very low or very high electoral populations. If however they also review boundaries every three years, then it is okay.
• Considering providing clarification or exemptions to the restrictions on broadcasting election programmes to address satirical, humorous, and creative programmes. (this is good)
• Prohibiting campaigning and the display of campaign material within, and in the immediate vicinity of, advance voting places. (this is good)

Overall it is more about what they didn’t recommend, such as finally sacking the Police as the electoral law enforcement agency after their incompetence or unwillingness to enforce electoral law in the 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014 elections.

Roy Morgan’s monthly poll is out and blogged here.

Quite different to Colmar Brunton. CB has National up while RM has National down.

Both CM and RM have Labour down, and well under 30%.

CM has NZ First down 1% while RM has NZ First up 3.5%.

The Guardian reports:

Austria is braced for political turmoil with fears that the landslide victory for a rightwing populist and gun-carrying candidate in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote could trigger snap elections.

Norbert Hofer, of the rightwing Freedom party (FPÖ), defied pollsters’ predictions to beat the Green party’s Alexander Van der Bellen into second place, gaining 36% of the vote. The two candidates will go head to head in a run-off ballot on 22 May.

The Green candidate got 20% and an independent 19%. The candidates of the two main parties got just 11% each, reflecting huge discontent in Austria.

But many commentators say the crisis of the political establishment in Austria has much to do with the fact that the two centrist parties have governed the country in a “grand coalition” for the past 10 years.

This almost always happens when there is a grand coalition.

Victoria Crone has announced:

Auckland Mayoral Candidate Vic Crone has announced her first set of policies, fiscally responsible commitments she says are fundamental basics of building a world class city.

The policies were jointly developed with Auckland Future and the announcement includes lifting council performance in four key areas: keeping residential rates low, cutting waste, reducing staff costs and controlling debt – essentials that council needs to get right.

“Last year ratepayers faced a 9.9 per cent average rates increase, for some it was a shocking 15 per cent. As Mayor I will cap average residential rates increases at 2 per cent per annum for the next three years,” says Ms Crone.

So Victoria Crone and Auckland Future are pledging a maximum rates increase of 2% annually for the next three years.

Having rates go up massively end endlessly is a political choice. Len Brown and the current Council chose to increase rates by 9.9%.

This year Aucklanders should check out all candidates for Council and the Mayor, and ask if they have made a pledge on rates increases. If they won’t make a pledge, then don’t vote for them unless you want more further massive rates increases.

Vic Crone’s leadership will deliver at least $500 million in savings with a focus on reducing back-office waste, efficient procurement, cutting duplication and imposing a Mayor-led Line-Item Review programme.

As a start, Crone will reduce staff costs by 5-10 per cent over the next three years and cap staff numbers at current levels, saving up to $80 million.

“It’s concerning that every year for the last three years council has exceeded its staff cost budget line by over $50 million. I will put a stop to this trend while protecting frontline staff, core services and key capital investments.”

This can be done. If anything, one could be even more ambitious with reducing staff costs.

The Press reports:

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel says she will “not walk away from the city”.

Dalziel confirmed on Monday afternoon that she would seek a second term as Christchurch’s mayor in October’s local body election.  

She had been overwhelmed by positive feedback from the public in recent weeks, which helped make her decision, she said.

“The challenge of bringing about the change that we have managed to achieve in the last two-and-a-half years hasn’t come without its cost, but I am prepared to continue to serve the city for another three years if that’s what the city chooses.”

This is no real surprise. Very few people stand for Mayor and only do one term.

What will be interesting is if there is any challenger. It is quite possible there won’t be.

NBR reports:

As someone in the pro-Uber, pro-disruptive technology, I was hoping the government would side with Uber but I’m surprised at just how emphatically Mr Bridges has backed the newcomer.

Last night, the transport minister said he would take the “lightest touch” possible as the new rules were finalised.

“I’ve always thought that in politics you’re on the side of the angels if what you’re doing is good for consumers, and ultimately this will be,” he said.

“What I want to see is a regime that allows for new technological innovations but is safe. Some change is required but we’re open to where that goes.”

A very welcome focus on what is best for consumers, not what is best for industry.

More broadly, some fear quality will drop under his laissez-faire proposals. But at least Uber drivers have the incentive that they are constantly being rated by passengers. And, in contrast, we’ve all had rubbish taxi drivers at times who have poorly maintained cars and/or an inability to work a simple GPS. Often the difference is nothing, given the number of taxi drivers who do double duty, whipping off their magnetic taxi badging when they get an Uber hail.

The New Zealand government’s approach is a happy contrast to some countries, like France, which are trying to ban or crack down on Uber; or Australia, were insanely complicated and expensive arrangements are being established (in South Australia, the state government is paying 1137 taxi drivers $A30,000 each as compensation for a law making ride-sharing apps like Uber legal. The $34 million move is being funded by a $A1 tariff on taxi fares that will, of course, make Uber seem even more attractive. Western Australia is introducing annual fees for Uber drivers. New South Wales is introducing a stonking $A250 million taxi industry compensation package, with a $A1 a ride special tariff for five years).

So well done, Mr Bridges.

A very good outcome from Bridges and Foss.

Stuff reports:

The future of New Zealand’s oldest purpose-built police station is in the hands of Wellingtonians.

A local couple are the proud new owners of the heritage Mt Cook police barracks in Buckle St. …

The Buckle St, category A heritage listed commercial premises, was built in 1894 by prisoners. It was home to The Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery until the completion of Te Papa in the late 1990s.

The building, at the base of the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, is currently tenanted to several small companies on short-term leases.

Bayleys Wellington salesman James Higgie, who is marketing the building for sale by tender, said the new owners, from Wellington, had no immediate plans for the building.

As I blogged previously, this building would be ideal for the Police Museum – the oldest police station in NZ, and right in the middle of the Pukeahu heritage area. A memorial to fallen police officers would fit the nature of the area perfectly.

The current Police Museum (at the Police College) gets around 7,500 visitors a year (from last published stats). Move it to Buckle Street as a tenant, and I reckon you’d get at least ten times as many visitors.

The Herald reports:

In a dramatic shift in position, John Key is threatening to apply a land tax to foreign-based house buyers if there is evidence they are pushing up New Zealand house prices – and it could apply to Kiwis abroad.

I think a land tax on all land owners is a good idea economically. However only if other taxes are reduced so that NZers are not taxed more overall.

The evidence on foreign buyers could be just two weeks away.

A land tax to dampen demand by foreign-based buyers would be a complete flip in the Government’s insistence that overseas speculation has not been a problem in the heated property market, and a switch from its focus on increasing supply.

The Prime Minister told the Herald any land tax could also apply to Kiwis abroad with property in New Zealand after an exemption period of perhaps three years away.

But such an exemption could potentially contravene New Zealand tax treaties with other countries.

If it did, the tax would apply at the same time to all foreign-based buyers who are tax residents elsewhere, including Kiwis abroad.

“Subject to our capacity to do so, New Zealanders living abroad would be exempt but you could do it for a period of three years at which point if they retained the property, they might have to start paying [the tax].”

Quite a novel approach – actually gather evidence to see how big a problem there is, and then decide based on the evidence.

“Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don’t give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution.”

– Ben Shapiro

The quote of the week is brought to you by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. To support the Union’s campaign for lower taxes and less government waste, click here.

The Guardian reports:

Dutch politicians have voted through a motion calling on the country to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars starting in 2025.

The motion has only passed through the lower house of the Netherlands’ parliament, and would need to pass through the Dutch senate to become legally binding. But its success in a majority vote puts the earliest date yet on just when a major country might begin phasing out polluting transportation.

Bans are ridiculous and stupid. It is denying people choice. Prices should reflect external costs (hence a price on greenhouse gas emissions) but having politicians decide what sort of vehicles are allowable is doomed to failure.

NBR reports:

The Treasury has confirmed it is to go ahead with a lock-up for journalists for the budget on May 26, despite the Reserve Bank’s decision to end the briefings.

In a note sent to media organisations, Treasury chief executive Gabriel Makhlouf said he had weighed up whether to end the practice. “On balance, I have decided that an embargoed briefing for Budget 2016 will be held as planned. However, I will continue to review both the overall status of future Budget briefings and the ability of organisations to attend, in light of the adherence to lock-up conditions.”

This means there was a serious chance that Treasury could have canned the lockups.

It is unfortunate that Mediaworks has not been punished in anyway for their breach of the Reserve Bank lockup. As I said, they should at least pay the cost of the investigation.

Where kiwis spend their free time

This summary enraged two men in Auckland. So much so that they set up easylifestyle.co.nz to encourage NZers  to work to their strengths – with less housework like laundry and ironing and more charitable giving.

Let’s look through some of the interesting insights:

When I see this graph I think:

• We spend too much time on mass media
• We waste a large proportion of our life on housework
• We don’t spend enough time on religion, reflection and charity
• And the majority of people in this country don’t spend time with children.

Averages can be very misleading. But, they can also be a useful guide. All in all we are pretty even. This must have been widely different to 100 years ago. But, it is still fair to say that females are doing a bit more at home like ironing & laundry and men are still doing more paid work.

Overall there is little difference between males and females. Females spend a little more time at home with others while males spend more time out of home (probably at work). And we both spend around 54% of our lives with family.

Of little surprise though the more we earn the more we neglect our family. We go to work and work too much. On top of this we feel like we should socialise with work mates more. Then we rush home and do household chores and finally try and have some quality time with the partner and kids.

Education has little impact on our family time. PHDs or scraping through with Cs … either way family is family and it’s a big part of our life.

This is interesting. Work little or a lot to not be alone. However, if you work a part time job you are destined to join introverts anonymous.

Compared to Auckland University Pyschology survey

I tried asking Dr. Chris Sibley the Lead researcher for the NZAVS Department of Psychology at Auckland Uni for permission to publish this. But, I couldn’t get in touch. So given google made it public I’ll share it.

• New Zealanders worked on average 24-25 hours per week. They did, on average between 10-11 hours of housework and cooking per week, and spent roughly 13-14 hours looking after children. New Zealanders commuted an average of 5 hours per week
• In terms of leisure time, New Zealanders spent an average of 11 hours watching television, films and videos, between 1-2 hours playing computer games, and between 4-5 hours exercising.
• New Zealanders, on average also spent between 1-2 hours per week performing charitable activities.

In summary what will you change?

• What are the things you want more of in your life? What’s stopping you?
• If you don’t have enough family time, reduce your work hours (whether homework or paid work). If you want someone else to do your laundry and ironing in Auckland head to http://easylifestyle.co.nz/
• If you want an easy way of boosting your charity time easy lifestyle is a social business that supports clean drinking water for Africa and poverty alleviation in New Zealand with every order.

Check out the stats: StatsNZ

Author – Daniel Howell

Founder of easylifestyle.co.nz a social entrepreneur who believes in people over profit. He is passionate about seeing kiwis work in their strengths and make the world a better place for everyone around them.

Stuff reports:

Wellington’s trolley buses are set to jump their wires and could soon head anywhere in the country.

The iconic buses have been thrown a lifeline with their owner, NZ Bus, signing a $43 million deal that will see “a significant number” of its 1100 buses in Auckland and Wellington converted to electric.

The capital’s 60 trolley buses were set to be removed from service in mid-2017 when NZ Bus’ current contract with Greater Wellington Regional Council expires, but this deal means they will live on.

NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames refused to say exactly how many buses would be refitted with electric drivetrains in the deal with American firm Wrightspeed, but said it would be significant number.

Great -a decision made by the company, with no (apparent) subsidies.

The Wrightspeed motors will be fitted into existing buses and will operate mostly on rechargeable electric batteries, topped up by a small conventionally-powered motor if needed on the road.

As battery technology improves, the top ups will no longer be needed and the buses will travel entirely on electric power, Fulljames said.

As battery technology improves, this is what will really impact take up.

New Zealander Ian Wright co-founded Tesla then founded his own company Wrightspeed in the US.

Nice to see a NZer do well globally.

Stuff reports:

Blink and you won’t miss it – eyesight tests could be dropped from driver’s licence renewals under proposals that aim to push licensing online.

The Ministry of Transport has proposed a one-off vision test for drivers when they first apply. For renewals, people would simply have to declare they can see properly.

Eyesight testing for licence renewals has been controversial. The majority of people who fail the tests are later told by their optometrists that their vision is fine for driving.

Studies done for the ministry have found there are few safety benefits from frequent eye tests, and a discussion paper said the changes could save up to $13.7 million over the next two decades, mainly through cutting time spent travelling to licensing agents.

The studies found people who failed vision tests and were forced to wear glasses were no safer on the roads than before they failed. People with undiagnosed eyesight problems were at no more risk of crashing.

“The studies, which suggest there is no discernible road safety benefit from the current frequency of vision testing, are one input into the decision-making process,” ministry communications team leader Lesley Reidy said.

Most people with bad vision know it, and get glasses. You certainly can be unaware your eyesight has deteriorated, but it has to be pretty bad for it to affect your driving. As they say, the research is that the vision tests do not improve road safety.

However, optometrist Jack Crawford questioned those studies, and said vision safety should not be sacrificed for a more convenient system, “especially when the science behind it isn’t that strong”.

Hmmn, who makes money from vision tests?

THE PROPOSED CHANGE

* The proposal would require people renewing their licences to declare they are not aware their vision has deteriorated since their last renewal, or that any deterioration is being managed by glasses or contact lenses.

* This would not apply for commercial licences, and people over 75 who would still need vision checks through the medical fitness process.

Keeping them for over 75s is sensible.

28,927 New Zealanders have died while serving overseas in our Armed Forces. We do not forget them.

Those killed by conflict are:

• WWI 16,697
• WWII 11,874
• South Africa 228
• Korea 41
• Vietnam 37
• Malaya 26
• Afghanistan 14
• East Timor 5
• Thailand 2
• Rhodesia 1
• Falklands 1
• Kuwait 1

Stuff reports:

Q: How safe are e-cigarettes and how effective are they for people trying to quit smoking?

A: Oliver Knight-West, a research fellow at the National Institute for Health Innovation, University of Auckland, says:

There is established evidence that e-cigarettes are much safer than tobacco smoking. It also tells us that current e-cigarettes are exposing vapers – e-cigarette smokers – to even fewer toxins compared to earlier products which are no longer available to buy, and that the levels of toxins are generally lower than the upper limits deemed safe for human exposure.

Of course we cannot be certain that e-cigarettes are completely safe and that long-term vaping is risk-free, but we can be confident that if any negative health effects are detected, they will be very small compared to the proven dangers of tobacco smoking.

Public Health England estimated they are 95% safer than tobacco. So that is not 100% safe, but still exponentially safer.

While we desperately need these studies too, it is puzzling that the current regulatory framework around e-cigarettes in New Zealand does not take heed of the data we already have and allow the legal sale of e-cigarettes with nicotine.

At the moment, highly toxic tobacco is given preferential treatment as a way for people to use nicotine.

With the right framework, e-cigarettes with nicotine could be just the breakthrough to help hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders become smoke-free and live healthier, longer lives.

It is pretty insane the more dangerous product can be sold in any retail outlet while the far safer product is illegal to sell!

Trans-Tasman reports:

Finance Minister Bill English touched a raw nerve when he spoke of a cohort of individuals who are “pretty damned hopeless.” He was pilloried by the Opposition, and other commentators were quick to condemn the Govt for its failure to lift these unemployed out of their hopelessness. It’s an issue which divides NZ. Evidence came in the flood of emails to English’s office supporting what he said, more in a day than he had received all year.

That’s a lot of e-mails.

The Herald reports:

The legal fight over Google’s effort to create a digital library of millions of book is finally over.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge from authors who had argued that the tech giant’s project was “brazen violation of copyright law” — effectively ending the decade-long legal battle in Google’s favor.

Without the Supreme Court taking up the case, a federal appeals court ruling from October, which found the book scanning program fell under the umbrella of fair use, will stand.

Back in 2004, Google started scanning millions of books from major research libraries — creating a vast database from the digitized copies known as Google Books. Users can search Google Books for quotes or keywords, and it will display paragraphs or pages of context for the results from within the books.

The Authors Guild started complaining about the project in 2005, arguing that Google Books had undermined writers by putting their work online for free.

Good to see the decision this is fair use stand. Google was not making the books available for free. They were allowing very small extracts of the books to be found and quoted. This is exactly what fair use is about.

Rodney Hide writes:

Labour Leader Andrew Little this week got the political blunderbuss out and blew off both feet and then his arms. He never grazed his target.

In my view, his was a disgraceful display of nastiness and political incompetence not expected of a rookie opposition MP and gobsmackingly awful for a would-be Prime Minister.

I refer, of course, to what Little would have you believe was Niue-gate.

It was a spectacular own goal.

The trustees of the resort are New Zealand High Commissioner to Niue Ross Ardern (Labour MP Jacinda Ardern’s father); MFat Deputy Secretary Jonathan Kings and former NZ High Commissioner to Niue (and Wellington Mayor and National MP) Mark Blumsky. The trustees appoint the board of directors of Matavai Niue Limited (MNL), responsible for the resort’s operation. They are Ian Fitzgerald (chair), Bill Wilkinson, Toke Talagi (Premier of Niue) and John Ingram.

That’s a distinguished list.

Yet according to Little all part of a deal that stinks to high heaven. I didn’t realise the Premier of Niue is one of those Little has effectively accused of corruption.

In 2013 Auckland firm Horwath HTL did an independent review for the board and, among other things, recommended the appointment of a hotel management company.

The following year, on behalf of the board, Horwath ran an Expressions of Interest and Request for Proposals process that culminated in the consideration of two proposals with the recommendation of Scenic Hotels. The board agreed.

The transaction was not just arm’s length, several oceans of separation lay between the political donation and the management contract. There is no evidence of impropriety. The process would appear a model of probity.

Meanwhile, Little has besmirched a successful and highly regarded business couple, a New Zealand business success story, senior government officials, his own MP’s dad, and the Premier of Niue.

National sails on untouched. Little is on camera weaving and dodging the obvious questions and backpedalling on his original concerns.

Politics can be nasty. It’s often incompetent. Somehow Little has managed to plumb new depths.

If Little or his staff had done their homework, he could have handled it very differently – still calling for the AG to investigate, but avoiding smearing those involved by declaring it stinks to high heaven.