The Govt’s journey: it is shaping a “landmark” energy strategy and has passed a “milestone” with one-stop transport ticketing

Buzz from the Beehive 

Hard on the heels of Stats NZ telling us about greenhouse gas emissions rising 1.7 per cent in the March quarter, largely driven by  electricity, gas, water, and waste services, the Government has published the terms of reference for its New Zealand Energy Strategy.

Correction:  it’s the Government’s “landmark” New Zealand Energy Strategy, setting out “the ambitions and next steps for transitioning the energy system to a high performing, low emissions future”, as Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods described it.

Her press statement can be found on the Beehive website, along with news that her colleagues have been …

Shakespeare uncancelled: Govt’s creative solution to arts funding embarrassment is to dip into the education budget

Buzz from the Beehive

We can only conjecture on what Shakespeare would name the political drama that has resulted in him being dismissed by Creative New Zealand as irrelevant for public funding in a decolonising Aotearoa but to retain the support of the Prime Minister and her Minister of Education.

All’s well that ends well, perhaps (although some tidying up remains to be done).

Or comedy of errors. Or Labour’s love lost- but then regained.

The news of Shakespeare regaining this love can  be found in a press statement from Education Minister Chris Hipkins, posted on the Beehive website today along with news that our eager-to-please ministers are…

* Winding down their extraordinary COVID-19 powers

The Government is winding down the extraordinary powers used to fight COVID-19 through the emergency phase of the response while retaining a small number of baseline measures to contain the spread of the virus.

Mahuta pumps millions into the Cooks while colleagues attend Pacific defence meeting in Tonga and protect Niue’s language

Buzz from the Beehive

There has been a strong Pacific thrust to the weekend news from the Beehive, with ministerial press statements referring to investments, policies and meetings involving the  Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has been dishing out and/or reaffirming the investments of millions  of dollars during her visit to the Cook Islands as well as signing a new Statement of Partnership between New Zealand and the Cooks.

She confirmed a $7.5 million New Zealand government contribution to upgrade solar farms in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands, part of the 2022-2025 international climate commitment.

 “It will see renewable energy grids upgraded, support for maintenance, and provide financial stability for technology and electricity supplies” Mahuta said.

Mahuta’s climate change speech and statements help us keep tabs on government spending in the Pacific

Buzz from the Beehive

Weather reports have dominated the news media, as heavy rain, flooding and high winds devastated regions like Nelson/Tasman and Northland. But just one flood-focused press statement had flowed from the Beehive, when we checked this morning, since our previous Buzz was posted.

Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty announced an initial government contribution of $200,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Nelson/Tasman.

All other statements – and a speech – were related to Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s travels to Niue and Tonga and were focused on issues affecting our Pacific neighbours, especially climate change.

They usefully allow us to keep tabs on the sums of money the Ardern government is committing to its relationship with Pacific island countries.

Most notably, in Tonga, Mahuta launched New Zealand’s International Climate Finance Strategy and (among other sums) mentioned a $1.3 billion investment  She explained how this “can be a positive force multiplier, bringing other major players into the region”.

Mahuta harked back to the shockwave from the 15 January eruption of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai  “which travelled at astonishing speeds to Japan, to Peru, to Tūtūkaka in the north of Aotearoa, and even to the edges of space, affecting our shared atmosphere and climate.”

She said nothing was more challenging to the region’s security than climate change, before mapping out some new details of New Zealand’s approach to climate resilience.

An accompanying press statement, in the names of Mahuta and Climate Change Minister James Shaw, said a new strategy to drive investment in climate action in the Pacific and globally outlines how decisions will be made for spending the record $1.3 billion commitment for mitigation and adaptation.

The Aotearoa New Zealand International Climate Finance Strategy, Tuia te Waka a Kiwa, sets out the approach to deliver the scaled-up climate finance commitment made last year.

The Strategy has four key goals: to enhance resilience and adaptation; promote quicker action on mitigation; improve information to allow evidence-based decisions; and leverage our investments to make greater impact.

Nanaia Mahuta also announced a new investment of $8 million from the climate finance commitment into Tonga’s Climate Change Fund. Tonga established the Fund to receive and direct investments towards mitigation and adaptation projects.

The statement recalls previous climate finance initiatives in the Pacific from the 2022-25 commitment include:

• $15 million announced by the Prime Minister during a visit to Samoa, to support the delivery of Samoa’s climate change priorities. This will help build Samoa’s resilience to the impacts of climate change and its transition to a low emissions economy.

• $10 million announced by the Prime Minister during a visit to Fiji, for crop resilience and food security in the face of extreme weather events.

• $500,000 to Niue announced by the Foreign Minister during this week’s visit, to complete the design and planning of renewable energy projects. Niue has a target of 80% renewable electricity generation.

Another statement recorded that Mahuta had wrapped up her first official visit to Niue, reaffirming New Zealand’s commitment to work together to strengthen resilience in the region and support climate action.

During the visit Mahuta met Niue Premier Dalton Tagelagi and Cabinet, and was the first outside speaker to address a special session of the Niue Legislative Assembly, the Fale Fono II.

She and Premier Tagelagi discussed New Zealand’s climate finance contributions, and how to enable Niue to meet its climate change priorities, and confirmed a further $500,000 investment from the 2022-2025 international climate finance commitment to complete design and planning for Niue’s renewable energy projects.

This builds on $5 million for solar generation from a previous climate package, announced by the Prime Minister in 2018. Niue has a target of 80% renewable generation, Nanaia Mahuta said.

A statement, designed for Tongan consumption, said New Zealand will partner with Tonga (“to further support resilience and recovery from natural disasters”) with a deployment of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel for engineering rebuilding projects.

In this statement, Nanaia Mahuta and Defence Minister Peeni Henare announced Exercise Tropic Twilight will take place in Tonga in 2023. The 2022 exercise has just been completed in Niue.

Henare said:

“The tasks for the next deployment will be determined with Tonga, with the aim of providing practical assistance in an area where it is needed most. This work is a demonstration of New Zealand’s continued commitment to Tonga’s recovery and long-term resilience.”

He also said the New Zealand Defence Force is “committed to upholding the whanaungatanga between our two nations.”

We imagine this is an admirable thing for the Defence Force to be doing. Otherwise, the Minister would not have mentioned it.

Latest from the Beehive

Speech

19 AUGUST 2022

Launch of Aotearoa New Zealand’s International Climate Finance Strategy

Ancient Tonga Cultural Centre

Supporting climate action in the Pacific

A new strategy to drive investment in climate action in the Pacific and globally outlines how decisions will be made for spending the record $1.3 billion commitment for mitigation and adaptation.

Tonga to host next Tropic Twilight exercise

Aotearoa New Zealand will partner with Tonga to further support resilience and recovery from natural disasters, with a deployment of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel for engineering and rebuilding

 Storm relieGovernment provides support to flooded Nelson Tasman communities

The Government is making an initial contribution of $200,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Nelson/Tasman following prolonged heavy rain, flooding, and high winds this week.

Working together on resilience and climate action in Niue

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has wrapped up her first official visit to Niue, reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s commitment to work together to strengthen resilience in the region and support climate action.

GPs get a good dose of Little’s rhetoric – and a reassurance that there will be a better tomorrow

Buzz from the Beehive

Just as you we failed to find the word “democracy” in the PM’s speech to the Local Government New Zealand this week, so the word “crisis” was absent from the Health Minister’s speech to the General Practitioners conference today.

Andrew Little did acknowledge the enormous pressure that “present circumstances” are putting on GPs and their practices.

COVID-19 continues relentlessly with the predicted mid-winter surge upon us, he said, and every senior practitioner he speaks with tells him this winter flu season is the worst they’ve experienced.

“Elevated levels of absenteeism” are putting further pressure on health services, including GP practices, often on top of vacancies being carried by practices.

A disproportionate share of consultations is with elderly patients and patients with complex health needs which GPs tell Little is not accounted for in the funding they receive.

Govt gives each council another $350,000 (of our money) to get Three Waters flowing – and win their support for its coup

Buzz from the Beehive

Three Waters reforms – the subject of widespread disquiet around the country – was among the issues tackled by Ministers with new initiatives over the past 24 hours.

So too was the vexed issue of housing.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being pumped into both problems. Or should that be “challenges”?

Housing Minister Megan Woods announced that not-for-profit groups looking to develop new rental homes for households on lower incomes that stay affordable over the long-term can apply for the first tranche of funding available from the $350 million Affordable Housing Fund announced in Budget 2022.

The first $50 million of this fund is devoted to rental developments for lower-income people who cannot afford a market rent but can’t access public housing, she explained.

Film Commission’s leading lady becomes a leading bloke – but questions remain about some others in the cast

Latest from the Beehive

There is news for the farm sector, which is anxious to be spared from full exposure to the country’s emissions trading scheme, and the film industry, which is anxious to hold on to its heavy state subsidies and tax breaks, on the Beehive website today.

The news for the farm sector was that the Government has welcomed advice from the Climate Change Commission assessing readiness in the agricultural sector for an emissions pricing system.

A report from the commission considers the He Waka Eke Noa partnership proposal provided to Ministers at the end of May, which recommended the introduction of a farm-level levy system from 2025 with separate prices for short and long-lived gases.

Ministers are required to provide a public report on what an alternative pricing mechanism for agriculture could look like by the end of 2022.

The Climate Change Commission report is available here: Agricultural Progress Assessment » Climate Change Commission (climatecommission.govt.nz).

Programme to foster greater diversity in the state services (including intelligence work) gets under way

The spooks are becoming more diverse.

We say this not because we have blown their cover but because we were told so by the Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

The Minister was enthusing about the the newly established graduate programme for ethnic communities, which begins today and will span several public agencies.

New Zealand has 213 ethnicities and more than 160 languages are spoken here, she said.

Ethnic communities make up nearly 20 per cent of our population.

The Ethnic Communities Graduate Programme will provide a pathway into the Public Service for skilled graduates from ethnic communities while improving cultural competency across the Public Sector.

Twenty-three graduates will start work across 12 agencies,

“…  including the intelligence community, as part of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019, which highlighted the need for more diversity across the Public Service.”

Young Maori (but only in three regions) will benefit from a $5.4m training package while the PM opens the border (just a teeny bit)

Our Beehive Bulletin

The racially targeted spending of $5.4 million – or “positive discrimination”, if that’s what you prefer to call it – was announced today in a statement which mentioned the impact of Covid-19 as part of the rationale.

The money will help up to 150 Māori train and gain qualifications in Tairāwhiti-East Coast, Northland-Tai Tokerau and the Bay of Plenty.

The PM brought more Covid-19 news at the weekend, after coming under pressure from political opponents and some commentators to ease the economic damage done by measures to curb the pandemic and open the country to more visitors (in tune with appropriate safeguards, of course).

She has obliged – well, sort of – by announcing that passengers from Niue can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand on Wednesday 24 March NZT (Tuesday 23 March Niue time).

“Niue has no reported cases of COVID-19 and its stringent border controls mean we can be confident it is safe to commence quarantine-free travel to New Zealand from Niue,” Jacinda Ardern said.

Among other Beehive pronouncements –