Politics and the economy
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break.
After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty will soon fall behind Poland or even – get your atlas ready – Slovenia. So dire is the situation we are told that even a reversal of Brexit may not be enough to save a once-proud nation.
There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the South Island, with several smaller islands such as the Chathams thrown in for good measure.
Citizens had been paying the salaries of 20 Ministers before Jacinda Ardern quit as Prime Minister last week. Until the new Cabinet is named (later today by all accounts), this has been trimmed to 19 Ministers, but then there are four Labour Party ministers outside Cabinet and two support ministers from the Green Party.
You may well ask: and what have they been doing? Continue reading “Minister of Education (who might be replaced later today) left it to his ministry to apologise for ill-managed Auckland edict”
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back in the game, surging ahead of National.
The poll results for 1News and Newshub were remarkably similar. But to comprehend their message it’s still best to average them out. Here’s the average party vote results:
• Labour: 38 (up 5.5)
• National: 37 (down 2.5)
• Act: 10 (No change)
• Greens: 7.5 (down 1.5)
• Te Pāti Māori: 1.4 (down 0.5)
• NZ First: 2.1 (down 1.5)
And here’s the average preferred PM results:
• Hipkins 21.3
• Luxon 20.4 Continue reading “Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The gamechanger PM and polls”
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another.
The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony.
The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony.
The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says:
Appointment of Ministers
Her Excellency the Governor-General has been pleased to appoint:
The Right Honourable Christopher John Hipkins to the Offices of Prime Minister and Minister for National Security and Intelligence;
The Honourable Carmel Jean Sepuloni to the Office of Deputy Prime Minister;
which took effect on Wednesday 25 January 2023.
Dated at Wellington this 25th day of January 2023.
By Command:
RACHEL HAYWARD, Clerk of the Executive Council
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region.
Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was to emphasise the impact of what the company said had been “the wettest first half-year ever”. Mercury operates the chain of hydro-electricity stations on the Waikato river.
More prosaically, the company said hydro generation in the second quarter of this financial year was 38% higher than in the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Continue reading “Mercury Energy’s hydro power generation has been boosted by a wet half-year”
Yes, there’s life – and the hint of ministerial hum – in the Beehive.
The latest announcement on the Beehive website deals with flood relief for Auckland:
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland.
Twelve press releases have been posted on the Beehive website since January 1. That’s about one every two and a half days.
The latest statement – from Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty – was the fifth of those statements to deal with flood relief and emergency assistance. Continue reading “Flooding flushes out more evidence of life in the Beehive”
Dr Brian Easton writes:
It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through.
I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some of the headline items – in alphabetical order. (The identified ministers are those who were responsible at Christmas.)
Co-governance is being taken out of the active political policy process – ‘kicked down the road’ – until after the election. But it won’t go away.
Everyone has different understandings of what ‘co-governance’ means. It appears to be giving Māori a privileged role in the government of the country, which seems to undermine some central tenets of liberal democracy. Continue reading “Brian Easton: Christmas briefing papers — what was the PM reading in the runup to Election Year?”
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet.
O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done as minister, but he is now in his 65th year and the heavy load he has carried as minister would have exhausted any but the fittest.
Hipkins could be under pressure from climate change lobby groups to put a new minister into the Agriculture role to enforce tougher policies on reducing methane emissions from livestock which make up nearly 40% of NZ’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading “Farm leaders are watching whether O’Connor keeps Agriculture as the climate lobby presses for methane action”
Nothing to report, folks.
Other than Willie Jackson’s tribute on Wednesday to Titewhai Harawira, ministers of the Crown have posted nothing on the Beehive website over the past 24 hours.
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office.
Yet there have been dozens of columns and articles, both domestically and internationally, blaming toxic public criticism for Ardern choosing to step down.
Rising toxicity and polarisation
Although some of the claims about Ardern being hounded from office by “deplorables” are questionable, they reflect the reality of rising toxicity and ugliness in New Zealand politics in recent years. And in terms of the hate that has been directed at Ardern, a substantial proportion of this is clearly gendered. Continue reading “Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Time for a sober discussion about toxicity and personality in politics”
Point of Order 