NZ Politics

Election year!

I stumbled across a 2020 OIA request to NZ Treasury where someone asked:

what analysis Treasury has done on the KiwiSaver First Home scheme affecting house prices, and how much taxpayer money gets transferred into the housing stock

Treasury released a few internal docs and they basically say that increasing caps would lead to higher house prices and that subsidies for renters/buyers tend to be captured by landlords/sellers instead of improving affordability long-term.

The advice was apparently ignored.

Quite relevant for this year.

The advice from the AG, Judith Collins, on the new Age Verification Bill gives it a big thumbs up and includes a scenario where it would be OK to restrict access to adult websites, even though the bill is targeted at social media, and none of the debate has mentioned adult websites.

Get ready to upload your ID to sketchy adult websites?

The government is cutting transport subsidies for elderly and disabled people for elderly and disabled people from 75 percent to 65 percent.

The Total Mobility scheme provides discounted taxis and public transport fares for those with long-term impairments.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Disability Minister Louise Upston said when the previous Labour government boosted the scheme from a 50 percent subsidy in 2022, it did not account for increased demand.

The number of registered users had increased from 108,000 to 120,000 between 2022 and 2024/25, and the number of trips increased from 1.8 million in 2018 to 3 million in 2024/25.

"This is yet another fiscal cliff left to us that we are having to correct and fix. Today, the government is announcing decisions to stabilise the Total Mobility scheme so that the disability community is supported in a financially sustainable way, by all funding partners."

While other Auckland areas saw turnout drop, voting numbers in Papatoetoe increased by more than 7 percent. All four seats went to first-time candidates from the Papatoetoe Ōtara Action Team. The result was inconsistent with historic voting patterns. None of the previous local board members of the Papatoetoe subdivision were re-elected.

Sketchy! Who are these guys?? https://www.facebook.com/papatoetoeotaraactionteam/

The government's plan for Parliament's final full week of the year moved 12 different proposed laws through 32 stages of approval.

Included in the plan is fixing an error made by tired government MPs during the previous long week of urgency, when they voted for an opposition amendment and, even when prompted, failed to notice the error.

Watching this week's endless debating it appeared on Thursday that another more egregious error had occurred. It seemed that a minister had forgotten to include key aspects within an amendment bill, and so ask a select committee to add them back in.

However, it was no mistake. Paul Goldsmith had purposefully omitted some disallowed measures from the Crimes Amendment Bill, in order that they could be added back in as an addendum by the Justice Select Committee, in order to dodge the usual rules about what is allowed.

In the United States, vast bills sometimes include so many random provisions that those voting on them are seldom aware of all the aspects they are approving.

Our Parliament's Standing Orders say that "a bill must relate to one subject area only". Bills here cannot include disconnected policy ambitions or amend multiple pieces of current legislation (Acts) unless they fall within the rules for Omnibus Bills.

The Crimes Amendment Bill contained a ragtag collection of amendments to the Crimes Act. However the minister also wanted to include amendments to the Summary Offences Act. That is not possible unless all the amendments to both bills achieve a single policy objective - they do not. Or unless permission has been given by Parliament's cross-party Business Committee.

Parliament is sovereign. It makes its own rules. It can also give itself permission to break them, via a simple majority vote in the House. It is this ability that Goldsmith took advantage of when he moved "that the Justice Committee's powers be extended under Standing Order 298(1) to consider the amendments set out in Amendment Paper 436 in my name, and, if it sees fit, to recommend amendments accordingly, despite Standing Order 264(2)".

Of course, governments always have a majority and so can always win such votes, regardless of an opposition's protests.

Allowing a committee to add in unrelated provisions to a bill is not common. Certainly not as a dodge. It may be entirely novel. It seems like a potentially dangerous manoeuvre that could lead New Zealand towards the shambolic American style of pick 'n' mix legislation.

Loads of info on environment.govt.nz

About the planning system

The Government has announced it will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with a planning system designed to make it easier to build houses and infrastructure, let farmers and growers get on with doing what they do best, and boost New Zealand’s primary sector, while protecting the environment.

The new planning system is based on a blueprint developed by the Expert Advisory Group on Resource Management Reform.

Read the EAG’s blueprint report.

A major change is the shift to two separate bills that separate land-use planning and natural resource management

Read more about the resource management reforms.

The two new Bills

The Planning Bill is focused on enabling development and regulating how land is used.

See more about the Planning Bill.

The Natural Environment Bill is focused on managing the impacts from the use of natural resources and protecting the natural environment from harm.

See more about the Natural Environment Bill.

Key features

Key features of the new system include:

• Fewer effects managed
  • Many currently considered effects will be removed from scope, including internal site matters, retail distribution effects, visual amenity, competition impacts and the financial viability of a project.
• Fewer consents
  • Fewer activity categories, with low-impact activities no longer requiring consent.
• More proportionate conditions
  • all consent conditions must be necessary and proportionate, reducing red tape.
• Fewer plans
  • More than 100 existing plans will be reduced to 17 regional combined plans that bring together spatial, land use and natural environment planning in one place, making it easier for New Zealanders to know what they can do with their property.
• Spatial planning
  • 30-year regional spatial plans to identify growth areas, infrastructure corridors and areas requiring protection.
• Faster plan-making:
  • plan development time will fall from an average of 6 to 7 years to around 2 years for a regional combined plan.
• Standardised zones
  • a major reduction from 1,175 bespoke zones to a nationally consistent set decided by central government.
• National standards:
  • a comprehensive suite of national standards for common activities to reduce costs and speed up consenting.
• Regulatory relief
  • when imposing significant restrictions, such as heritage protections and significant natural areas, councils must provide practical relief mechanisms.
• Clearer consultation requirements
  • clarity about who must be consulted and when, including iwi.
• Faster conflict resolution
  • a new Planning Tribunal to resolve straightforward disputes quickly and at low cost.
• Clear environmental limits
  • clear limits to support community decision making, improve efficient resource use and reduce unnecessary application costs.
• Better, more consistent enforcement
  • centralised oversight to ensure consistent and effective enforcement across the country.

National policy direction

National policy direction under the new system will be finalised within nine months of the bills becoming law. Mandatory national standards will be delivered in stages and aligned with council plan-making needs.

A former Labour Prime Minister says Parliament is passing too many laws without proper scrutiny.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer told Nine to Noon the government was increasingly pushing through legislation under urgency, which allowed it to skip stages such as public consultation and select committees.

But Leader of the House Chris Bishop said just nine Bills have been passed in that way, and there were good reasons for all of them.

Palmer said the normal checks and balances were stripped out when laws were made at pace.

"Urgency has become the default mechanism for dealing with Parliamentary legislation and the standing orders are not followed and you also have extended sittings - and both of those mean the Government's agenda is completely at the will of the Government," he said.

Palmer said the Fast-Track Approvals Act 2024 - and its amendment - was a classic example of a trend that "ministers know best" and was "ministerial dictatorship".

"It was criticised by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment then, Simon Upton, the amendment bill puts the process that was enacted in 2024 on steroids.

"It gets faster and faster. It will be a fast-track to environmental degradation, [more] than it already is."

Bishop was approached for further comment.

The legislation, which passed under urgency at the end of last year, is back before Parliament with an amendment that the government intended to push through by the end of 2025.

It said the amendment to the Act would increase competition in the supermarket sector.

Despite being open for just over 10 days, it received 2158 submissions, with about 95 percent opposed.

Palmer said legislative checks and balances - which he already considered lacking - were further reduced when legislation was made at pace.

"What is the hurry? Legislation is law-making. You want to get it right. You have to analyse it, you have to do proper research, you don't bang it through because a minister has an idea.

"It needs to be properly drafted by Parliamentary council. We have had a degradation of our legislative system in New Zealand in recent years."

Bishop said the government had a big legislative agenda and limited hours in ordinary house time to get it done.

Regarding the use of urgency, he said: "I am reluctant to use urgency to avoid select committees outside of the standard Budget urgency process, and it is only done so when there are good reasons."

not neseserily just this artical but over the past few months I have noticed RNZ with a number of articles along the lines of "10 steps to change party leadership" with their target firmly on Luxon.

Not that i disagree with thier assesment. The dude is little more than an empty suit. It is funny that RNZ is trying to manufacture it, although maybe its a case of "where there is smoke there is fire"

It would be election suicide though. One of Nationals big cards are that they are not the Greens party or Te Pati Maori. Rolling Luxon would send a signal that only Labour is solid. Then again if they already think this election is a loss then rolling Luxon now is a great idea.

427 students

$153 million

To be fair, that's $153m over 4 years and the student numbers will probably increase. Let's pretend there were 1000 students, so that's 153,000,000 / 4 / 1000 = $38k per student per year.

For the rest of the school system, the govt spends ~$10k per student per year, see page 10, point 1.2. So Charter schools still cost nearly 4x as much and they don't even work.

Associate health minister Casey Costello has labelled New Zealand's recent plummet in global tobacco control as "ridiculous" and "ludicrous".

It comes after the country plummeted from second in the world in 2023 to 53rd in the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index.

The main factors damaging New Zealand's standing are the repeal of the smokefree generation laws, the tax break benefiting tobacco giant Philip Morris and the movement of staff between politics and the lobbying industry.

SmokeFree 2025?

New Zealand's smoking rate has been dipping throughout the last decade, but has somewhat stagnated the last three years and is sitting at 6.8 percent, just above the 5 percent target.

In 2024, the government scrapped laws which would have slashed tobacco retailers from 6000 to 600, removed 95 percent of the nicotine from cigarettes and banned sales of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009.

The prevalence of daily vaping had increased slightly from 11.1 percent last year to 11.7 percent this year.

This is probably the best idea I've heard in a while. The money is going to go into the KiwiSaver account anyway, if we put it in there 20 years earlier, it will accrue and compound interest from much earlier on.

Here is a direct link to their 2-page info brochure.

The new plan from the government seems to double down on the old ways of attempting to suppress drugs in our communities and ignores the health-led approach from NZ Drug Foundation's recent evidence-based report.

RNZ recently did a story about the report: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/575403/decriminalising-drug-use-best-way-to-combat-rising-addiction-report-finds

I haven't been following the ins and out of all this but John Tamahere has a history of manipulative horrible bullshit so I'm inclined to believe Kapa-Kingi on this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tamihere#Other_political_controversies_while_in_office

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tamihere#Radio_career_and_the_%22Roast_Busters%22_controversy

I'd bet money on Tamahere having a lot of dark triad stuff going on.

Government ministers have confirmed they are considering measures to move homeless people out of Auckland's city centre - but the exact details remain unclear.

Asked for more details, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he had been tasked with ensuring police had the tools they needed to tackle public disorder.

"It's blindingly obvious to everybody that the CBD, particularly of Auckland, but a lot of places, have been characterised by disorder and real concern around public safety," Goldsmith said. "We're open to some new suggestions in that area."

Asked specifically whether he would consider a ban on rough sleeping, Goldsmith said: "We're working our way through those issues... when we've got something to announce, we'll announce that."

Archive link: Green MP Tamatha Paul on living with lupus and arthritis while serving in Parliament

Pretty inspiring that she’s achieved so much despite her chronic health conditions. It’s also refreshing to see honesty about needing to properly rest to avoid burnout. Too often we see gung-ho statements from people about pushing through and remaining busy.

More than 100 police officers are under investigation after 30,000 alcohol breath tests were "falsely or erroneously recorded", RNZ can reveal.

"From the audit which covered over 4.6 million breath tests performed between 1 July 2024 and 17 August 2025, the initial analysis suggested there were tests conducted that were simulated without the involvement of a driver.

The audit indicated that some staff had recorded breath screening tests that hadn't occurred.

Johnson said that despite this, Police's obligation to deliver 3.3 million tests for NZTA and Ministry of Transport had been met and was not compromised.

to be enforced by way of biometric scanning and ID tokens

Do we really want to do a biometric scan to access websites in New Zealand?

Labour has launched its first key election policy this term, announcing a fund which would invest in New Zealand infrastructure and businesses only.

The party is calling it the first step in its plan to "back New Zealand's potential", create "secure, well-paid jobs across the country", lift productivity and ensure wealth is made and remains in the country.

A document launched alongside the new policy outlined three principles to underpin the Future Fund and the party's "wider approach":

• Wealth creation with purpose - directing investment to solving real problems: affordable healthcare, warm homes, higher productivity, and a zero-carbon economy.
• Partnership - working alongside business, unions and communities to shape and create new markets, providing clarity, direction and confidence to invest for the long term.
• Investing in ourselves - mobilising New Zealand's own savings, skills and innovation to create jobs and opportunity here at home, and investing proactively to nurture new technological and industrial strengths.

In his speech to the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, he called on doctors to call off their strike and put patients before politics.

This is the rapist demanding that the child he is raping stop struggling.

In case you miss the analogy Simeon Brown is the rapist in this analogy. He is raping the health system and they are struggling to throw him off of them.