Govt delivers more goodies and a Treaty apology – but the big news is that it has pulled the plug on Three Waters entrenchment clause

Buzz from the Beehive

The government hadn’t finished a beneficent day or so of handouts, when we filed our previous Buzz from the Beehive on Friday.

Lots of goodies had been up for grabs during that day, but geography, ethnicity and occupations largely determined who would benefit.

The same considerations loomed large in two subsequent announcements – 

Funding boost for kaupapa Māori response to homelessness

Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness) Marama Davidson has announced a significant funding boost today for kaupapa Māori approaches that support whānau into housing.

And…

10 new whare for Ngāi Tāmanuhiri kaumātua and whānau in Te Muriwai

Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare joined Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and the wider Toitū Tairāwhiti collective, at the opening of 10 new homes built for kaumātua and whānau in Muriwai today.

 But handouts for a favoured few (fair to say) accounted for just two of the latest bunch of press statements from the Beehive.

Tributes are paid after the death of Queen Elizabeth by Catholic bishops, a Republican, and by NZ’s political party leaders (but not yet by all of them)

Buzz from the Beehive

The death of Queen Elizabeth II and the flow of tributes from party leaders inevitably has dominated the political news this morning.

The critical constitutional consequence of the Queen’s death at the age of 96 is that New Zealand has a new head of state, King Charles III.

This was noted by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in a statement headed  PM mourns death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The statement concluded:

The new King becomes New Zealand’s new Head of State immediately on the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

New Zealand’s representation at Her Majesty’s funeral service will be confirmed “shortly”.

Flags will fly at half-mast.

Further information about mourning observances will be available on the Governor-General’s website, at www.gg.govt.nz.

The Prime Minister expressed New Zealanders’ deep sadness at the Queen’s passing, describing Her Majesty as a monarch with an unwavering sense of duty.

Proposals for constitutional change are aired – and the prospects of NZ remaining a democracy look bleak

Donations of further Pfizer vaccines to Tonga and Samoa, a commendation for the people of the West Coast and their response to the severe weather of recent days, and congratulations for snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott on winning the gold medal in the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final at the Winter Olympics in Beijing were the subjects of Beehive announcements over the weekend.

The PM posted her Treaty of Waitangi speech in which she promoted the “Treaty partnership”, which (because of increasing co-governance) portends constitutional change and the diminution of our democratic arrangements.  In a separate statement she paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the start of her Platinum Jubilee year, and on behalf of New Zealanders thanked her for 70 years of service.

Maori Party co-leaders more provocatively demanded the Queen be dumped as our Head of State.  

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer called for the removal of the British royal family as head of state and the dismantling of the country’s democratic governance arrangements to

“… move Aotearoa to a Te Tiriti o Waitangi based nation”.

The dangers of putting media on the government’s payroll

Accusations by Stuff journalist Andrea Vance that the Prime Minister leads an unusually secretive government don’t tell the whole story about its desire to control information, says Graham Adams.

He has taken a closer look at the guidelines for the new $55 million journalism fund in an article for the Democracy Project. 

He writes:

Despite widespread cynicism about the Government’s ability to fulfil its promises — whether it is KiwiBuild, light rail along Dominion Rd, or planting a billion trees —  journalist Andrea Vance still found enough fresh outrage last week to launch a blistering attack over a pledge Jacinda Ardern made in 2017 to lead “a more open and democratic society” that would “strengthen transparency around official information”.

In fact, Ardern’s lack of transparency was on show very early in her prime ministership. Shortly after the 2017 election, she refused to release notes from the coalition negotiations between Labour and NZ First — leading one journalist to opine:

“A month seems early for a new government to dash hopes of a fresh start yet Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s team seems determined to break the speed record when it comes to disregard for public transparency.”

From Vance’s standpoint as a journalist, little seems to have improved since then.

The damning conclusion she arrived at after citing delays in responses to Official Information Act requests and ministers’ refusals to be interviewed was:

“At every level, the government manipulates the flow of information.”

It’s not difficult to find other instances of the Government denying access to important information in addition to those Vance mentioned — not least its record of obfuscation over significant details of its Covid-19 management and vaccination programme.

Examples of the kind Vance offered of the government hiding or distorting important information are the most obvious form of political censorship. There is, however, another form of political censorship which can be even more insidious — that is, attempting to impose narratives which suit the government’s purposes and thereby crowd out competing views.

Taumarunui looks more alluring, now the housing shortage has been tackled – but don’t fall ill there

Latest from the Beehive

Cabinet’s preoccupation with the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community – we suppose – explains why there has been a lack of pronouncements from the Beehive over the past day or two.

We found only three new posts on the Beehive website since we last reported.  The  Deputy PM released two of them.

The other announced government help to deal with the housing shortage in Taumarunui.

Taumarunui?  A housing shortage?

We went looking for media reports to give us an idea of the extent of it.

True, our googling was somewhat cursory.  But we learned only that a Taumarunui landlord in September last year had been ordered to pay almost $6000 to tenants from two separate tenancies after evicting them both when they complained about mould and a woman was being evicted from her Taumarunui home in January after illegally renting out the garage to a man who allegedly had frequent visits from gang members.

More to the point of the wellbeing of the good people of Taumarunui,  we learned that getting medical treatment might be more challenging than finding a home.

A retired doctor said people in Taumarunui were waiting three or four weeks to see a GP. 

Let’s think about democracy (and the defence of it) as our leaders make their Anzac Day speeches

The PM called for a commitment to peace in an Anzac Day speech at the Auckland Domain this morning, addressing the thousands who turned up.

Anzac Day reminds us of sacrifice, loss, the service of others and the need for all of us to continually honour those who served to through our acts of remembrance and our defence of peace, she said.

“But it also reminds us of a singular truth through the ages, through wars past and present – it reminds us of our shared humanity, something we have been reminded of again in the wake of the 15th of March.”

That was a reference to the 50 Muslims who were killed when a gunman opened fire inside two mosques in Christchurch that day.