Govt highlights benefits for Tauranga in funding deal – but (in smaller type) beneficiaries learn they must repay the debt

Buzz from the Beehive

Geography, ethnicity and your occupation will determine the extent to which you might benefit from the latest hamper of goodies to be distributed by the Beehive.

But be warned. Being a beneficiary may result in levies being imposed.

Roughly interpreting the latest announcements, the beneficiaries are (or appear to be)- 

• Tauranga people (but there’s a taxing sting in the tail); 
• Homeless families in Tauranga’s suburbs (but not many and they must be Maori);   
• Rural people living in just some parts of the country and engaged in the right work;
• A few favoured food and fibre producers;
• An even more select group – some Maori businesses in the primary sector;  
• People needing mental health services (but they must live in the Gisborne area).

The press statements don’t put it quite that  way, of course: 

O’Connor goes to Paris (will they make a movie of it?) while his colleagues spend millions back home and crimp liquor sales

Buzz from the Beehive

Damien O’Connor has been busy with international duties. At the weekend he met with Aussie ministerial counterparts in Queenstown to discuss the advancement of trans-Tasman cooperation under the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement before packing his bags to head for Paris where he will co-chair an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ministerial meeting.

The Beehive website has recorded the thrust of his weekend talks on the bilateral relationship between New Zealand and Australia and his plans to fly to Paris along with posts which tell us how he and his colleagues have been earning their keep.

The website tells us they have been (or, in his case, will be) …

• Travelling to Paris to co-chair some OECD huffing and puffing about agriculture

 The latest post on the website when we checked in mid-afternoon tells us Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor will travel to Paris tomorrow to co-chair the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Committee on Agriculture Ministerial meeting on 3-4 November.

No, we aren’t part of the nuclear submarine pact, but CER keeps us in a relationship with our cobbers in OZ

Reassuring news about this country’s relationship with Australia emerged from the office of Trade Minister Damien O’Connor yesterday after his virtual meeting with his Aussie counterpart.

It was reassuring because of the concerns raised in some quarters after this country (where we pride ourselves on shunning nuclear power) was left out of the new defence pact embracing Australia, the US and UK that will deliver a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to the Pacific.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responded to news of that alliance by letting the Aussies know their nuclear submarines would not be permitted in New Zealand waters, in accordance with this country’s long-held anti-nuclear stance and laws.

Whatever might happen in terms of New Zealand’s military relationships with Australia, the US and the UK,  the joint statement on the economic relationship shows the trans-Tasman trade ministers are still talking to each other.

And their statement reiterated that CER, which they described as one of the most comprehensive trade agreements in the world, underpins the integration of the New Zealand and Australian economies. 

The Single Economic Market: do the governments in Canberra and Wellington really want to advance the agenda?

Although the governments in Canberra and Wellington declare they are both committed to advancing the Single Economic Market (SEM) agenda, building on the success of the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Agreement, the recent meeting of the respective trade ministers in Auckland didn’t produce much more than an array of platitudes, and certainly left business lobbies on both sides of the Tasman yawning.