Policies were cleared off the table, so what happens now?
With one cull complete, many of issues the policies were designed to address remain, and the government will need to start moving away from the retrospective and towards the proactive
In today’s edition: Tropical cyclone Gabrielle expected to bring severe weather to the upper North Island from Sunday; largest cocaine haul in our history; the widening gap between Island nation rugby teams and the global teams that benefit from Pasifika players; but first, yesterday's announcement got some troublesome policy out of the way but pressure to outline the road ahead will increase
Chris Hipkins delivers the first tranche of policy culls (Image: Tina Tiller)
The mother of all whiteboard sessions
If you’ve ever sat in on a workplace strategy session, you might be familiar with the “stop, start, continue” exercise, sometimes used to get hopeful employees to volunteer ideas for work that can be stopped in order for new work to get done. It’s very difficult for me not to picture the prime minister and cabinet in the days before yesterday’s announcement doing this exact exercise. Here’s the imagined whiteboard:
TVNZ/RNZ merger – stop
Biofuels mandate – stop
Income insurance scheme – soft stop (possible pick up post the election)
Hate speech law – weak continue and bounced to the Law Commission
The largest aggregate increase to the minimum wage – start
The 2023 Labour party election mantra of “focusing on bread and butter” – huge start
Stewart Sowman-Lund has more details on what was announced yesterday.
The cost of explaining
You could also put “early polling momentum” under continue, and place “winning the 2023 election” under start. Getting right to the political point, Toby Manhire posits that while the cost-of-living was the key catchcry yesterday, “the cost that stung Jacinda Ardern into announcing a cull (sorry, refocus) of the government programme, and Chris Hipkins to eagerly take up the clippers, was something different: the cost of getting bogged down in arguments you’ve proved really ropey at making.”
Hate speech law withdrawal a “backward move”
That comment rings especially true for the bouncing of the changes to hate speech laws to the Law Commission. The hate speech law changes have no real cost-of-living implications and it’s fair to ask how much further work is required when the Human Rights Commission, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the country’s worst terrorist attack in Christchurch and the Ministry of Justice have all contributed reviews and recommendations on it to date. It acquired the label “controversial” which now feels like short-hand for badly explained or handled given it’s also applied to Three Waters and the merger. It’s no easy or small subject with its ideological sprawl, but many will be feeling betrayed by this move. The Islamic Women’s Council Of New Zealand called the withdrawal “a backward movement.”
“Dazzling challenges” remain
The least surprising of all the announcements made yesterday was the call to end the TVNZ/RNZ merger. Instead, between $5-12m in additional funding will be allocated to Radio New Zealand, with additional funding provided to New Zealand on Air. Stuff’s Luke Malpass quite fairly notes that matters concerning the media receive outsize coverage for obvious reasons and asks how many votes the move will really change. Toby Manhire has spoken to sources at the media entities involved to gauge their reaction to the news. For those impacted, “the dazzling challenges the public-owned media companies face; many of the same challenges which prompted the exercise in the first place”, remain.
Shift from retrospective review to what will be done needed
The thing about the “The Start, Stop, Continue” exercise in a workplace setting, is that it is most frequently used as a retrospective exercise - a reflection of what went well and what didn’t. As the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan writes (paywalled), “At some point, the government must shift the conversation from what it will not do to what it will do.” Take the one “bread and butter” announcement yesterday, the minimum wage lift. As Coughlan and BusinessDesk’s Dileepa Fonseka (paywalled) note, that wage lift pushes people very close to being in a higher tax bracket. They might be earning more, but they could also be paying more tax. Tax bracket creep will need to be addressed. It’s one example of an issue the government will need to tackle to shift beyond the retrospective and snuff out the lingering “what now?” questions that remain.
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Tropical cyclone could bring a month’s worth of rain in just days
The tropical cyclone headed towards the upper North Island has a name and it’s Gabrielle. While there is still some uncertainty, MetService expects it to bring severe weather to the area from Sunday onwards. Meteorologists have warned the cyclone, which is likely to form in the Coral Sea between New Caledonia and Australia within a day, could bring a month’s worth of rain in just days. Auckland Emergency Management controller Rachel Kelleher said people should use the current break in the weather to clean up from last week’s flooding and prepare for possible severe weather this weekend.
Enough for 30 years – cocaine haul found in Pacific Ocean
This didn’t get buried yesterday, especially with the quantification of exactly how much cocaine was found, but it did perhaps lose some oxygen to the policy announcements. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster announced yesterday that, in a joint operation between New Zealand’s police, customs and the defence force, 3.2 tonnes of cocaine ($500m in street value) was found dropped at a transit point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. "We believe there was enough cocaine to service the Australian market for about one year and this would be more than New Zealand would use in 30 years," said Coster. Cocaine use has doubled in New Zealand in recent times, with Latin American cartels exporting methamphetamine and cocaine into New Zealand because of the high prices. The last record-breaking seizure of cocaine was in Tauranga in March 2022, where a 700kg shipment was intercepted by customs.
Click and collect
The death toll in Turkey and Syria has risen to close to 12,000
Big cuts to Covid health system funding which will impact what you pay at GP for Covid testing and assessment
Almost everyone affected by the floods in Auckland has had help to recover - a good feature on those who dropped everything to help
$5m support package for flood-affected businesses in Auckland announced by government
Wellington ratepayers facing a near 13% rates increase
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
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Sporting snippets
The very mixed messages on the All Blacks coach appointment process explained
White Ferns confident they’ll have a fully fit Sophie Devine for Sunday’s T20 World Cup opener against Australia
NBA all-time scoring record broken
Pacific rugby against the world
Today's recommendation could sit under the sports header but it’s got broader themes beyond the sport it’s covering including racism, possible corruption and Pacific diaspora. "Fair Game: Pacific Rugby Against the World" is a new podcast released this morning featuring comedian and columnist James Nokise, and journalists John Daniell and Talei Anderson. It explores the contribution Pasifika rugby players make to global rugby and the gap that’s widening between the teams that benefit from the sporting diaspora and the national teams of Island nations like Fiji, Tonga and Sāmoa. In the first episode, Nokise speaks to Sir Bryan Williams, former All Black, former coach of Auckland, Manu Sāmoa, and the Hurricanes and the first Pasifika player to play for the All Blacks and be granted “honorary white status” so he could play in South Africa.
