No, we are not a member of the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty – but we are on friendly terms with them

We reported yesterday on the speech – a short one of around 500 words – which the PM delivered to the 10th meeting of the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty.

She said the gathering provided an important opportunity to reiterate New Zealand’s unwavering commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons and she gave her audience a rundown on  our position.

But Point of Order could find no announcement that we had joined the group.  We were left to wonder if the PM was speaking as the representative of a member country or whether she had been invited among other guests who were attending.

We can now affirm that New Zealand is not a member.

Henare seems fixed on fighting Covid – we had to wait for Twyford for words of concern about Putin’s nuclear threat

As  Russian guns  bombard  Ukrainian cities and  the  world  watches in horror, New Zealanders, too, are recoiling at  Russia’s  aggression.  The  threat of  nuclear  weapons  being used compounds the shock of  war.  A devastating  human  cost is  being  borne by the  Ukrainian people.

So where  is  NZ’s  Minister of  Defence, Peeni Henare?  What does  he  think  of  the  invasion by  Russia  of  its  neighbour and its threat to use nuclear weapons?  And is he  checking   the  state  of  NZ’s  armed  forces, to be ready to do whatever must be done if Vladimir Putin sparks a wider war?

Henare spoke  in Parliament  yesterday  in the  general debate  (remotely) and  expressed his eagerly awaited thoughts.

He began by  endorsing the  words  of  Deputy  PM  Grant  Robertson  on what Wellingtonians have endured over the past weeks.  The occupation of the area around Parliament,  he thought, was

”… testament to the challenges that our people have faced in Wellington and in other parts of our country.  What we want, though, is for our country to go back to normal as quick as possible, and this Government’s focus is to make sure that where we can, we will secure our future off the great health decisions and the great health leadership that we have done to make sure our country comes through this particular pandemic”.

While we wait for Jones to further curry favours with our money, let’s check out this $40m investment in the Waikato’s wellbeing

We are sure we haven’t heard the last of Shane Jones and what remains of the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund from which he distributes big bucks to boost regional economies while hoping (we are sure) to be remembered fondly when people cast their votes.

But it wasn’t Jones who announced the Government is investing $40 million to develop an inland port at Ruakura.    This news was delivered by Urban Development and Transport Minister Phil Twyford and (doing good things with public money for her home patch) Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta.  No doubt both ministers will be hoping this largess is translated into votes, particularly the Maori vote.

The inland port – a project in which Tainui Group Holdings is deeply immersed – will become a freight super-hub and a future business, research and residential development for the Waikato.

This development has been in the works for years, but access to both road and rail was crucial and the project is dependent on completion of the Waikato Expressway.

A big step forward was taken in February this year when Tainui Group Holdings and Port of Tauranga announced a 50:50 joint venture to establish the port, which was set to open by late 2021 at the same time as the final section of the Waikato Expressway.

Oh, look – a trough for creative and cultural Kiwis (but ethnicity considerations might curb a rush of applications)

Latest from the Beehive – 

One of the less challenging jobs for a Minister of the Crown is dipping into a trough within his ministerial gift and hoping for favourable headlines by dishing out grants.

Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford – who has fallen short of counting Kiwbuild and Auckland light rail among his political triumphs – proved to be a dab hand at distributing money from the Creative and Cultural Events Incubator trough at the weekend.

Four Māori and Pasifika events will receive up to $100,000 each in funding.

The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, had the similarly unchallenging task of announcing the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific Language Weeks programme.

The government – or rather, taxpayers – will provide “resourcing support” to the Kiribati community in New Zealand to help them run their language week activities for the first time.

How “responsibility” is being redefined on Ardern’s watch – first at the top, and now at ministerial level

The Ardern  government, adding  a  fresh  policy  pile-up to  the heap  it  has  accumulated,  has been  busy re-defining   the  core   principle  of   ministerial  responsibility.

Health  Minister   David   Clark   has   joined   Transport  Minister  Phil  Twyford   in  the  “look, no hands”  brigade,   as he  shrugs  off   responsibility   for   failing  to  ensure  the government’s   strict border  protocols   as  agreed   by  Cabinet   were  implemented.

And  Twyford, adding the failure to deliver Labour’s  key  2017 election pledge to  build   Auckland’s  light  rail  by 2021  to  his  KiwiBuild  performance,  must still be laughing  as he   draws  his  ministerial  salary  and looks  forward to  another term,  after being  promoted  to  number four on   Labour’s list.

The  consequence  is  headlines  such as “Phil Twford, Minister of   embarrassing failures”  and  “David Clark throws  Ashley Bloomfield  under a  bus,  while Bloomfield looks on”.

Not   quite  the sort   Labour   will cherish  as  it  goes  into a general election  campaign.

Point  of  Order, in an earlier  post,  noted   what  is  emerging  in  NZ as  a redefinition  of   leadership:  Ardern  is   there to lead,  not to take  responsibility.  This defies    all  previous conventions in a  parliamentary   democracy.

This  is  now being refined  for  ministers, too.   They  are there   to  get  Cabinet sign-off  on measures,  but not to take  responsibility  when  a programme is not fulfilled.

A fast-track environmental test to short-circuit the RMA is welcome but fast-track projects should pass a business test, too

The government  is to  short-circuit  the   unwieldy  and  time-wasting  Resource Management Act  to fast-track   projects  it likes to call  “shovel-ready”  as  a  major  element  of its plan to get the economy up and running  again.

Environment Minister  David Parker  says:

“We went hard and early to beat the virus and now we’re doing the same to get the economy moving too. The success of our health response gives us a head start on the world to get our economy moving again and this fast tracking process will allow our economic recovery to accelerate”

In effect  the government  is   recognising  the RMA  legislation is  obsolescent, a  block to   economic  progress.  As  ACT’s  David Seymour pointed out, the 900-page RMA is the single biggest impediment to progress, and to housing affordability in particular.

In  accepting that the consenting and approval processes previously  used don’t provide the speed and certainty  needed now in response to the economic fallout from COVID-19,  Parker  says environmental safeguards remain.  The resource consent applications for these projects will be processed by an Expert Consenting Panel.

But this is  the  telling  line in  Parker’s  announcement:

An open aviation market is worth revisiting while we consider the merits of an Anzac bubble

There’s mounting enthusiasm in both Anzac countries to create a Trans-Tasman bubble linking both for air travel and tourism.

Why not?

Those  familiar  with history  say  the two countries should go a step further and re-invent the famous open market which was killed by the then Australian Transport Minister, Laurie Brereton, back  on October  23, 1994?

Reincarnated, this might serve both countries well  at this critical  point  for their economies.

In the early 1990s, both Canberra and Wellington envisaged a single market where the airlines of each country could fly freely to and within the other.  The idea had its genesis with the late Sir Peter Abeles when he chaired TNT, the former Australian multi-model transport giant.

Sir Peter was joint chairman, with Rupert Murdoch, owner of the vast News media empire, of Ansett Australia. He took advantage of NZ deregulation to launch Ansett NZ in 1987 but soon realised the only way it would ever become commercially viable would be to link Ansett operations in both countries.

This ran foul of the current air services agreements between each country.

Restoring the Ministry of Works may be the answer to recovery challenges when the lock-down is lifted

Based on the experience of Kiwibuild, wiseacres chortle at the prospect of another Ministry of Works to design and build New Zealand infrastructure from highways and motorways to airports, power stations and railways.

The prospect was raised in a Newsroom report which said:

Ministers are rushing to prevent the country’s construction sector hollowing out under coronavirus lockdown. 

However, they’ve also admitted the state’s role in construction will massively expand in a way unheard of in several generations. That could include turning Crown Infrastructure Partners into a new Ministry of Works-style government department.

And:

Answering questions on whether the Ministry of Works would be revived at the end of the country’s Covid-19 recovery Twyford said he “wouldn’t want to rule out that more hands-on approach”, and Jones said he was strongly in favour of it.

The quotes came from Transport Minister Phil Twyford (previously associated with a failure to meet Kiwibuild targets)  and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones (who will be judged, among other things, on his success in meeting the billion  trees target).

Before the idea of a new Ministry of Works is judged on the strength of those ministers’ connection with it, let’s reflect on how it actually operated.

SPVs are hailed as a way of funding infrastructure for housing – but will they be open to public scrutiny?

Readers who haven’t encountered the concept should brace to hear more about the use of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV).

An SPV is a legal entity created for a specific purpose, such as raising capital – the SPV then can be a funding structure, through which all investors (or investors under a given investment threshold) are pooled together into a single entity.

The NZ Productivity Commission last year said SPVs could help debt-burdened councils to supply the infrastructure needed to support housing development.

The idea is supported by the Auckland Business Chamber. 

Just before Christmas, the government introduced legislation to give effect to it.  The Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill establishes a framework for the establishment of SPVs to  fund infrastructure such as roads and sewers in “high-growth” councils.

Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, described it as a linchpin of Phil Twyford’s vision for better-functioning housing markets.

How taxpayers are pumping millions into the motel business to provide emergency housing

Blogger Lindsay Mitchell has used the Official Information Act to flush out data on emergency housing from the Ministry for Social Development.

The results have been posted under the heading Motel charges premium for emergency housing.

At long last MSD has updated OIA requests, Mitchell writes. Responses up to November 2019 are on-line

“ … and always make for interesting reading. For instance payments made to the Olive Tree Motel for emergency housing.”

Clients are granted an amount which is paid directly to the motel, Mitchell explains.

In the June 2019 quarter the motel was receiving $265 a night.

But nightly charges per unit range from $145 to $165 according to their website. Charges reduce for longer stays.

The response to another request reveals that over 600 accommodation providers  received emergency grants in the June 2019 quarter.