Buzz from the Beehive: Little is bound for Geneva while Nash is gunning for illegal timber traders

It wasn’t exactly the calm we expected before the tsunami of Budget initiatives that will be posted this afternoon along with documents that will record fiscal and economic forecasts and detailed estimates of appropriations.

Three announcements were made ahead of the Budget speech.

Partly there was an echo of yesterday’s news.

There was a travel announcement – while Export and Trade Growth Minister Damien O’Connor is headed for Thailand, Health Minister  Andrew Little will represent New Zealand at the first in-person World Health Assembly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland.

And there was an announcement of an assault on crime. – whereas Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta was chuffed about legislation she believes “will help prevent serious criminal offending at sea”, Forestry Minister Stuart Nash has introduced legislation to reflect the government’s commitment to trade only in legally harvested timber.