Twin blows dent confidence in ministerial ranks, so will they affect morale among party faithful?

Is  the  government imploding?

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins  has  had  to sack  one of his  more effective (and  likeable) ministers, while another  (from the Green Party)  has  insulted  many of  the  adult  population.

For  his  part, Hipkins had appeared to  be shaping  up well since he took over the top job. Furthermore, he has been succeeding in turning  around Labour’s plunging poll ratings.

But  now  with the Nash disaster  and the Davidson insult, alongside  the nationwide strikes of  teachers, plus  the cost-of-living crisis, it may take  something  of  a  political miracle to recover.

Stuart  Nash was  already on a final warning, when Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Hipkins said the most recent scandal was “inexcusable” and this incident alone would have seen Nash sacked.

He described the call as “black and white”, but he was still “gutted” to see Nash go.

Nash splashes out with a $900,000 investment in the blue economy (or is it more corporate welfare?)

Buzz from the Beehive

Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential.

Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – more specifically, it is backing a project which will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs.

This makes it look suspiciously like corporate welfare, no matter its  environmental virtues.

The new project will establish a blue economy cluster – a group of seafood and aquaculture companies with a common interest in growing the sector’s sustainability and success – which will enable the local sector to move forward together and pool resources and expertise, Nash said.

The Government is contributing $500,000 over two years to the new Moananui – Blue Economy Cluster project through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI’s) Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund.

A further $400,000 will be invested by the Nelson Regional Development Agency, Cawthron Institute, Sealord, Pharmalink Extracts, Plant and Food, Port Nelson, Kernohan Engineering, Wakatū Incorporation, and MacLab.

Financial capability services are being bucked up, but Stuart Nash shouldn’t have to see if they can help him (not yet)

Buzz from the Beehive 

The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services.

That wording suggests some Building Financial Capability services are not community-based and are not being helped with government funding.

The ministerial press statement further suggests someone should sort out which initial letters in words should be capitalised and which should not – or, even better, why any of them should be capitalised.

In the headline and the first paragraph, the initial letters of Building Financial Capability are capitalised, but not the initial word of services.

But then the minister says:

“Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle.”

“We’re reprioritising an additional $3 million to invest in MSD-funded Building Financial Capability services to support demand.”

Latest BoP figures show NZ sinking deeper into the red, but O’Connor is doing his bit to put things right with CPTPP talks

Buzz from the Beehive

The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise.

This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that the country’s current account deficit has blown out sharply over the past two years to hit 8.9% of GDP by the end of 2022, the biggest deficit as a share of GDP since the mid-1970s.

As Westpac economists pointed out, the current account deficit is a symptom of a country that is living beyond its means.

Monetary and fiscal stimulus in response to the Covid shock has left the economy overheated, as demonstrated by the extremely tight labour market and the surge in inflation. Essentially, we haven’t adjusted our spending patterns to reflect either the shortfall in our export income or the rise in the cost of living. 

Westpac gave us much to muse on, as we consider our options for getting the books into better shape:

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Stuart Nash’s resignation shows our leaders need a lesson in civics

* Dr Bryce Edwards writes –
I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we have recently witnessed with Rob Campbell – and that government ministers aren’t allowed to interfere in some functions of the state, such as telling the Police where to make prosecutions.

It’s essentially a civics course about how our political system works, and hopefully the 1300 students who take the course each year will go off to work in government departments, businesses and other careers understanding the rules of our political system.

Politicians are fond of complaining about a lack of this type of political education amongst the voting public but, as we’ve seen in the last few weeks, so many of our leaders are themselves unaware of basic political rules.

As with Rob Campbell and other wayward senior public servant appointees like Steve Maharey and Ruth Dyson, Nash has pleaded it was just a mistake and, in defending his actions, he showed his ignorance of the rules. But shouldn’t we expect our leaders to have a much better understanding of the political rules about integrity? After all, Nash is no newbie – he’s been a minister since 2017, and an MP for 15 years.

Stopping the grain drain: govt pumps $6m into plans to make more oat milk in NZ (and eliminate need to ship to Sweden)

Who has done what in the pioneering of the oat milk industry in this country – and whether state funding is needed by industry players – are questions raised by a perusal of newspaper and magazine headlines on the development of the milk.

Point of Order found this report in October last year –

Boring approach: NZ’s first commercially mass-produced ‘local oat milk firm targets APAC expansion  

 New Zealand’s first locally mass-produced oat milk brand Boring Oat Milk has its eye on the discerning APAC-wide coffee crowd after a successful domestic supermarket launch, and is confident that its ‘whisper, not shout’ strategy will stand out on shelves.

Great.  But then we found this headline on a report published several months earlier:

New Zealand’s First Oat Milk Factory to Open in Southland 

A new plant-based milk processing facility is to open in the province of Southland, New Zealand. The facility is being built by New Zealand Functional Foods in collaboration with Great South.

But even earlier was a report published in January 2020 under the headline:

Oat milk company plans purpose-built factory to meet surging demand   

Nine months after Otis Oat Milk launched, the company has announced plans for a purpose-built factory capable of producing 25 million litres a year.

New Zealand’s first locally produced oat milk, Otis is made with Southland and Otago oats, processed at Food South’s Canterbury factory.

Nash delivers a tip top report on ice cream and its export potential – and maybe scientists will scoop up some research funding

We are pleased to report that science continues to loom large in the considerations of government policy-shapers.

We say this on the strength of something we noted in the Food and Beverage Information Project Report – Ice Cream, released this week to promote ice cream and its export potential.

The report says its information

“… will provide much greater insight into the industry, which is useful for a range of policy developments, from regulatory frameworks to investment in science and skills and facilitating access to international markets.”

We are uncertain, of course, whether this is a reference to science as we knew it before the Treaty of Waitangi was reinterpreted in recent years to require the merging of matauranga Maori with the teaching and practice of science.

On the other hand, we may find that ice cream was being made here long before Captain Cook turned up and appropriate Treaty partnerships – injections of the Maori knowledge that has become a politically critical component of modern-day Kiwi science and research – would greatly enhance the quality of the results.

Why gun owners are aggrieved by new firearms legislation and have brought poor policing of the old law into their sights

Latest from the Beehive

The New Zealand Police Association has declared it is both pleased and relieved that Parliament voted to pass into law the Arms Legislation Bill.

Association President Chris Cahill said many of the reforms heralded in the bill fall into the ‘better late than never’ category with some at least 30 years overdue.

“The shock to finally act was the murder of 51 people at prayer in two Christchurch mosques 15 months ago. What our politicians have passed today is law that focuses on the future safety of all of us. It also includes a powerful stated purpose – that in New Zealand it is a privilege, not a right, to possess and use a firearm, and with privilege comes responsibilities,” Mr Cahill says.

We suppose he issued this statement with a straight face.  But just just a few days earlier we were told the March 15 terrorist – according to Stuff sources – had been wrongly granted a firearms licence due to a string of police failures.

Strong dairy receipts help lift the primary sector’s export growth – and its boost to the economy

The Covid-19  pandemic has  put  enormous  pressure  on  the country’s  primary  sector,  yet it  has  managed to  expand  export  receipts  by  $1.7bn  over  the previous year.

The  government,  or  at   least  several ministers  in it, are  celebrating  the  effort  of  the  primary sector  in  doing so,  and   recognise  the  sector  is a  key  driver  in rebooting  the  economy.

Yet  the  government,  with   its climate  change  measures  hitting    agriculture’s methane  emissions  and  its freshwater  reforms, has  done   little to  encourage  farmers to  expand  production.

When  Agriculture  Minister  Damien O’Connor says the government is focused on creating more demand, pursuing greater market opportunities to generate higher export returns and growing rural communities with new jobs,   the  response  down on the farm may be   no more than a  one-handed  clap.

Farmers  are  more  likely  to  be   grumbling  over the   government’s failure   to  drive down the  exchange rate.  Or  to do  more to build irrigation  schemes.

Oh, goody – Nash says some tax relief is in the offing but only a few of us will benefit from it

After a string of spending decisions over the past two days, the Government today announced some cheering news on the revenue-gathering side of its activities.  It is moving to ease financial stress for around 149,000 taxpayers by changing the rules around write-offs for tax debt.

As a consequence, fewer people will have tax bills to pay this year.

But not too many fewer.

According to Treasury figures,  we have 3,850,000 taxpayers who generate $36,850 million of revenue.  Around 4% of those taxpayers – by the looks of it – will benefit from the Government’s relaxing of the rules.

Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said Inland Revenue’s end-of-year automatic income tax calculation process for individuals is currently underway and is expected to run until early July.

This is the annual wash-up which results in people either having tax to pay or receiving a refund.