Abortion regulation – in New Zealand and the USA – belongs in their democratically elected legislatures

 

Guest column by Nicholas Kerr 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s comments about the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion inadvertently help explain why the court was right to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue to the states.  She noted that New Zealand “recently legislated to decriminalise abortion and treat it as a health rather than criminal issue.”

The passage of that legislation was only the latest in a long and incremental series of policy changes on the subject that have taken place over the past century. 

While many policy issues in New Zealand have divided the country, the divisions have tended to be short-lived as each side had their voices heard and the debates concluded.

As I think back to my days growing up in New Zealand during the 1980s and ‘90s, I recall many controversial public policy debates, but abortion isn’t one of them.

Bold ambitions – Govt aspires to rid us of bashers and the Security Council veto while building a “great” workplace for women

 

Buzz from the Beehive

The Government has declared or reiterated three bold ambitions, one of them (the elimination of family violence) probably unachievable.

Whether progress is being made towards the achievement of another (ensuring New Zealand is “a great place for women to work”) raises measurement issues. No matter what is accomplished, there are bound to be demands for more to be done – and what is “a great place” for women to work?

A third bold ambition – which looks like another mission impossible – was declared in a speech headed PM’s comments to NATO session. 

Jacinda Ardern said Russia’s use of its UN Security Council position to block consideration of its invasion of Ukraine is morally bankrupt “and demonstrates why we must continue to seek reform of the UN”.

Transport plan (with an affordability proviso) is announced for the capital – but don’t look too hard for the details

The  Ardern  government  has  done  it  again, announcing a  grandiose plan to reform Wellington’s  transport system. The plan  includes a long-overdue  duplicate Mt Victoria tunnel, a rearrangement  of  the road around the  Basin Reserve and a  light  rail operation from the  city  centre to the  south coast, all in  the  Let’s Get Wellington Moving project  at  an original  cost of $6.4bn, now put  at $7.4bn.

Fanciful?  It  is,  if  you  are looking  for  a  business case on (for example) the  light rail project.

The announcement included  this  proviso:

“If the light rail option was too expensive it would explore using buses instead”

So  why announce  it?

Could  it be  a fanfare in   the  wake of the declaration  earlier in the week that Labour MP Paul Eagle has  thrown his  hat in the  ring   to be  Mayor of  Wellington?

PM condemns disinformation and upholds democracy in speech in Madrid – now let’s see what happens back in NZ

Buzz from the Beehive

Legislation to tighten things, legislation to relax things and a speech which reminds us of threats to our democracy – from the PM, we are delighted to note – feature in the latest posts on the Beehive website.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark has had a busy day, announcing two lots of legislation.

• Legislation that bans major supermarkets from blocking their competitors’ access to land to set up new stores, to pave the way for greater competition in the sector, is the first in a suite of measures after a Commerce Commission investigation found competition in the retail grocery sector is not working.  The Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Bill amends the Commerce Act 1986, banning restrictive covenants on land, and exclusive covenants on leases. It also makes existing covenants unenforceable and enhances the Commission’s information-gathering powers.
• The Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill, which has passed its third reading, will establish a new financial conduct scheme that ensures financial institutions put customers before profits.  This follows reviews by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Financial Markets Authority which found banks and insurers in New Zealand lack focus on good customer outcomes, and have insufficient systems and controls to identify, manage and remedy conduct issues. The FMA will work with financial institutions to ensure they are prepared for the new regime, and licensing applications are expected to open in mid-2023. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will develop supporting regulations. The regime is expected to come fully into force in early 2025.

Yes, the speed limit (on one stretch of our roads) has been lifted but Wood must do much more to rate with Bob Semple

Buzz from the Beehive

Transport  Minister Michael  Wood   has been  busy  beating   his drum  over  the  move  to lift  the  speed  limit on the Waikato Expressway to  110km/h, between Hampton Downs and Tamahere.

He  points  out that the Waikato Expressway is a key transport route for the Waikato region, connecting Auckland to the agricultural and business centres of the central North Island.  The features making it safer for travelling at higher speeds include having at least two lanes in each direction, a central median barrier, and no significant curves.

His press statement was among those to flow from the Beehive since Point of Order’s previous Buzz, including news of further support for Ukraine:

• $4.5 million to provide Ukraine with additional non-lethal equipment and supplies such as medical kit for the Ukrainian Army
• Deployments extended for New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) intelligence, logistics and liaison officers in the UK, Germany, and Belgium
• Secondment of a senior New Zealand military officer to support International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations, and additional funding to the ICC, including the Trust Fund for Victims.

Where’s there’s a swill there’s a way in – or how to deal with rejection, expose bias and secure $17,000 for book reviews

Newsroom has alerted the Point of Order Trough Monitor to happenings involving a trough from which the swill – according to an aggrieved applicant – has not been impartially distributed.

The Newsroom report is headed Writer wins ‘bias’ complaint and says a writer’s complaint against Creative New Zealand funding has been upheld.

This should give cause for  a thorough examination of the trough’s  administration, because Creative NZ seems to have acknowledged there was a bias in the way some oinkers were favoured and others nudged to the back of he queue.

Furthermore, Newsroom draws attention to state funding bypassing the people who create books in favour of organisations that talk about the people who create books.

But Creative NZ should already be the subject of a thorough examination by a government which claims to be careful with its fiscal management after the Taxpayers’ Union (not for the first time) early this month exposed bizarre handouts of public money in a report  headed You Funded A Ballet Called ‘The Sl*Tcracker’

This showed taxpayers are forking out for sex worker exhibitions, ‘dismantling e-waste for fun’, pictionary, queer and trans drawing classes, interpretive dance, music courses for womxn and femmes, a ballet called ‘The Sl*tcracker’, and a literal clown show.

Oops – our well-being is likely to be bruised as NZ slips down international rankings and we slump on economic performance

For long  enough   New Zealanders  have liked  to  think  they  enjoyed  one of the highest living  standards in the  world. More recently those  familiar  with what  is  happening in those  countries  which are  leading the  world have  understood  NZ has  been  slipping  down  the  ladder.

Under  a  Labour-led  government,  the  slide  has  accelerated. Now   as  inflation  surges,  and  recession is looming on the  horizon, new  questions are   being  asked    about  the  economic  stewardship   of  the Ardern  government.

Has  too much  been  left  to  the  Finance  Minister  Grant  Robertson?  How   has  he  done   in  his   fiscal management?. Why  is  inflation  burning  so  fiercely? What  has  happened  with  his  concept  of  “well-being”?

One  of NZ’s  most experienced  economists, Bryce  Wilkinson, has  drawn attention to  the  latest  rankings of 63 of the world’s leading countries by the Swiss Institute for Management and Development (IMD).

Back in 2017, New Zealand ranked #16 – ahead of Australia at #21.

Five years later, New Zealand has fallen to #31, while Australia is ranked #19.

Kiri warms towards tougher party funding restrictions (perhaps encouraged by the Nats warning of the “chilling effect”)

Buzz from the Beehive

The National Party’s strong objection to plans to overhaul New Zealand’s political donations regime, expressed in submissions on the Government’s proposed sweeping changes to electoral law, were reported in a Stuff report last week.

The changes would include lowering the threshold for political parties to disclose donors from $15,000 to $1500 and require political parties to make public their annual financial statements .

This would have a “chilling effect” on democracy, the Nats contended.

The Ardern government isn’t too fussed about protecting the country’s democratic electoral arrangements nowadays, of course, as has become glaringly obvious over the past year or so (see here, here and here for evidence)

And hey – if the Nats (a) are bleating about an electoral-reform proposal being disagreeable and (b) are warning about its chilling effect on democracy…

Well, let’s get on with it.

And sure enough, Justice Minister Kiri Allan today announced changes to our electoral laws that will require the disclosure of:

• donor identities for any party donations over $5,000;
• the number and total value of party donations under $1,500 not made anonymously;
• the proportion of total party donations that are in-kind (non-monetary) donations; and
• loans to candidates from unregistered lenders. 

Academics announce new Centre of Indigenous Science – and now (it seems) they will find out what they should be teaching

Any notion that “the science is settled” is (or should be) anathema to good scientists.

There is always more to learn

“… because the scientific method never provides absolute conclusions. It’s always possible that the next observation will contradict the current consensus.”

 But in this country the fundamental matter of defining science and determining what should be taught to science studies in our universities has become more unsettling than unsettled.

“Indigenous knowledge” has become “indigenous science”, overriding the conventional view that science is colour blind and culturally neutral – that science is science is science.

And the heads of our most highly esteemed academic institutions do not resist the push to have “indigenous science” incorporated within their science faculties rather than – let’s say – Māori Studies or anthropological departments.

And so last week the Otago Daily Times reported:  

Culture Minister coy about Film Commission appointments – but she must decide on Dame Kerry’s role as leading lady

No appointments or reappointments to the board of the New Zealand Film Commission have been announced by Carmel Sepuloni, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, and declared in ministerial press statements since early 2019.  Yet the appointments of two board members she announced then (when she was Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage) should have expired on 30 March last year.

Meanwhile the commission has become embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy which has resulted in its governance procedures being subjected to an independent review and its chief executive being on “special leave”.

Its website says the commission is governed by an eight-member board appointed by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.

Members represent the film industry and the wider business and arts community. The Board meets every two months to set policy and budgets, monitor progress and consider applications for feature film financing.