Stay-at-home ministers are missing out on giving the personal touch to NZ’s foreign relationships

The reluctance of senior ministers from the PM downwards to travel too far – with the noteworthy exception of trade minister Damien O’Connor – is impacting NZ’s standing overseas.

True, James Shaw and his sizeable entourage are attending this week’s COP26 climate change-fest in Glasgow.  PM Jacinda Ardern wanted to attend COP26, we understand, but APEC is in the way and she will address the leaders’ meeting on November 11.

Why the reluctance to travel when every other country’s ministers are aloft and away?

Good question.  Even Joe Biden, who is loathe to travel offshore because of Covid-19 considerations for the 78-year-old US President, will be pitching his stall at Glasgow.

Some put the reluctance down to the strong domestic focus by the PM’s office under chief of staff Raj Nahna, who is widely seen as a Labour apparatchik from Auckland.  The communications team is headed by Andrew Campbell, who joined from the Greens.

They guard the gate closely and Grant Robertson is about the only minister with easy access.

Nothing from Nanaia on NZ’s envoy in Turkey (if she’s still there) but you can read about an APEC meeting and vaccination rules

Latest from the Beehive

Covid-related issues and health have dominated the news from the Beehive over the weekend but Point of Order is keen to highlight developments in the foreign-policy domain.

First, we have noted a press statement from Grant Robertson after he chaired an APEC meeting (a virtual meeting, of course). More of this later.

Second, we can’t find  a statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta on developments in Turkey where our Ambassador (according to the news media) has been declared persona non grata.    

Maybe the Minister is busy with Three Waters stuff – or maybe reports of our Ambassador  being one of several envoys declared persona non  grata are the mischievous products of anti-Turkish propaganda.   

If our Ambassador is given a diplomatic eviction notice  – of course – we wonder what arrangements will be made by officials who run our Managed Isolation and Quarantine system.  Will she have to wait until she wins one of those lottery spots?

Vaccinating the underclass

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Brian Easton – writing for Pundit – says if we want to minimise the impact of the Covid virus, we are going to have to think about social class.  

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New Zealanders do not easily talk about social class: that there are groups in the community who connect together, live different lives and have standards of living very different from the average – who are different from, but still a part of, us. We may recognise such groups exist, but we generally avoid using the notion or incorporate it into our social thinking. (A bit like Victorians being chary of talking about sex.)

Once we would say that New Zealand was a ‘classless society’ or, more cautiously, that we were the least class-bound society in the world. We may have been but the data suggests this is no longer true if it ever was. Often all we meant was to compare ourselves with the English but they are hardly a useful benchmark in the whole world.

We have a curious dialogue which implicitly equates Māori with the lower classes, drawing attention to their low incomes, their poverty, their unemployment, their poor health, housing and life prospects and their high incarceration rates. All true on average, but demeaning to many Māori, who have good jobs, decent incomes, reasonable health, their own homes and high social status and who are proud of their culture. It is true there are proportionally fewer of them than for Pakeha, but it is also true that there are many more Pakeha in total who are low in the socioeconomic rankings.

We might just be focusing on the wrong supply chains

Around the globe, markets are adjusting.  Inflation is looking less and less transitory: the Bank of England’s chief economist reckons that UK inflation will top 5%.

It’s all very painful.

Check out what is missing from climate reporting law – but Govt has ensured the Treaty plays a part in trade deal with UK

Latest from the Beehive

Press statements and ministerial speeches were flowing into Point of Order’s email in-tray faster than the government’s publicists could post them on the Beehive website this morning. 

The outpouring included news that the parts of Waikato in Alert Level 3 will remain at that alert level till Wednesday.  

More significantly, the PM addressed the nation in Churchillian terms:

 Today I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders to share a plan that will help us stay safe from COVID-19 into the future.

 A future where we want to continue to protect people’s lives, but also to live our lives – as safely as possible.

This speech was accompanied by other ministerial speeches and announcements dealing with something the PM described as 

 “… the new framework we will use to help us minimise the impact of COVID, and protect ourselves”.

It included an economic support package (especially for supporting Auckland businesses) and a plan (with more money) to accelerate Māori vaccination rates.

Inevitably this did not satisfy the government’s political opponents.

The PM has a chat with Boris and then delivers good news – about a trade deal with UK – to take our minds off Covid

Latest from the Beehive

New Zealand’s trade  negotiators  have  scored  a  coup  in   a  new  free trade  deal  with  the  UK.

Their success gave the PM something to cheer about today, taking our minds off Covid-19 and all its grim impacts on  the way we live.

She declared:

I am delighted to announce today that following a conversation with Prime Minister Johnson last night, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have Agreed in Principle a historic high-quality, comprehensive and inclusive free trade agreement.

I’m joined today by the Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Hon Damien O’Connor, who is currently isolating after having just returned from Europe. His tireless work with his UK counterparts has been key in securing this agreement.

Fonterra led the country’s exporters in  cheering the  outcome, with CEO  Miles Hurrell applauding  it as “a fantastic result for New Zealand”.

Damien O’Connor said  it was  crucial  the deal achieved “comprehensive and commercially meaningful access” for NZ exporters and businesses, and especially to those sectors that are the backbone of NZ’s economy such as  dairy and meat producers.

Under the  agreement announced today, tariffs on 97% of goods will go  once a final agreement is settled, with all tariffs removed within 15 years.

That’s expected to save exporters $37.8m a year.

We won’t think too badly about the deficit in the govt’s books (perhaps) if we are reminded how much worse it might have been

Finance  Minister  Grant   Robertson  is  not  averse    to  talking  up  how  well  the  NZ   economy  is  performing.  In  fact  he  positively  revels  in  it.

And,  of  course,  the  inference  to be drawn by anyone  who  listens  to  his  rhetoric  is that  we have  a  superbly  talented  Minister   to  guide  the  good  ship New  Zealand through  the rough  seas  of  the  pandemic.

This  week  in Parliament,  responding  to  a  patsy  from one  of  his  fans,  he focussed  on  the Crown accounts,  saying  they were  in better  shape  than  expected.

“For the year to June 2021, the Crown accounts show the operating balance before gains and losses—the OBEGAL—was at a deficit of $4.6bn. This was $10.6bn better than had been forecast in the Budget in May.

“Net core Crown debt stood at 30% of GDP, $11.6bn less than forecast and well below the average for advanced economies, of 90%. In addition, the cost of servicing that debt remains very low by historic standards”.

Maori Health Authority must engage with “relevant” groups under new Bill – but guess who gets to define “relevant”?

As we expected when we last reported news from the Beehive, Health Minister Andrew Little has introduced his health reform bill to Parliament to abolish the country’s district health boards and centralise the provision of health services.  Most notably, the Bill segregates the country’s health services by establishing a Māori Health Authority and formalising the role of iwi-Māori partnerships.

Compared with the existing legislation, moreover, it significantly expands on the place of the Treaty of Waitangi in health legislation.

There is plenty to digest in the Bill – the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill –  and your Point of Order team has not thoroughly examined it. But we were fascinated by some of the accountability provisions for the new Māori Health Authority.

This authority must

… have systems in place for the purpose of engaging with Māori in relation to their aspirations and needs for the health system; enabling the responses from that engagement to inform the performance of its functions; and

 “engage with relevant Māori organisations” when—

• • jointly developing the New Zealand Health Plan with Health New Zealand; and
  • advising on the GPS and any health strategy; and 
  • preparing its statement of intent and statement of performance expectations.

A GPS is a Government Policy Statement.

But what is a “relevant” Māori organisation?

The Nats come up with a Covid plan – and the Greens come up with nonsense to rebut it

Latest from the Beehive

One of two new announcements, when we checked the Beehive website around noon, changes the managed isolation system for health workers.  The other is a progress report on the government’s aim to make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally and control who has access to that information.

Since then Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced that NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams will proceed, including in areas where Alert Level 3 has been in place.

But the press statement that grabbed our attention came from the Green Party, posted on the Scoop website and headed National’s Irresponsible COVID Plan Will Cost Lives

This is arrant nonsense, of course, because – and here, we confess to getting into the dodgy business of future-gazing – it won’t cost lives.

We confidently say this after counting the number of votes National commands in our House of Representatives.

Global dairy prices rise, hurrah – but so did the Kiwi dollar, and farm costs are climbing, too

At    first  blush,  there  might have been  some  cheering   in  the  cowsheds  at results  from the  latest Fonterra Global Dairy Trade  auction, with  prices up by  an  average 2.2%.  But the ebullience would have  become  more subdued as  the  reality  sank in  that the  rise in the  NZ   dollar  against the  greenback  meant the price slipped  by  0.5%  in  local  currency  terms. Moreover,  with  costs rising  on  the  farm,  maybe  there  wasn’t  anything  to  cheer  about.

Perhaps   the  only  ray  of  light  has been  Fonterra’s  decision to  offer  smaller  amounts  of  WMP on the  auction  platform  because of  strong  contract demand   in  conjunction with the  expectation  this  season  of  flat  milk supply.

And  the    auction   showed demand is highest for food-service commodities, with butter up 4.7%, cheese up 2.9%, and SMP up 2.5%.

Still,  the average price for WMP  in  lifting 1.5% to an average US$3803 (NZ$5305) a tonne is now 25% higher than at the same time last year.