Tough questions ahead for new climate minister at Cop28
New Zealand's scrapping of the fossil fuel exploration ban and other green policies could make for some awkward conversations for Simon Watts in Dubai.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, December 4, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Health worker arrested over Covid vaccine data breach; RBNZ ‘not playing games’ with OCR warning; Luxon admits government got it wrong on Northland tobacco outlets. But first, as New Zealand prepares for one United Nations conference, our relationship with another UN agency is under the spotlight thanks to NZ First.
Fossil fuel u-turn leaves Watts in a sticky spot at Cop28
On Thursday, climate change minister Simon Watts arrives in Dubai for Cop28, the global climate conference, accompanied by his predecessor James Shaw. While New Zealand remains officially committed to the global phase-out of fossil fuels, the new goverrnment’s decision to reopen offshore oil and gas exploration could lead to awkward questions for Watts at the conference. Already New Zealand has raised eyebrows by not joining more than 100 signatories – including Australia – to a pledge to treble world renewable energy use by 2030. The government is yet to discuss the pledge in cabinet, RNZ reports. The news comes as the government confirms it is cancelling the $16b Lake Onslow hydro project, which was meant to act as a giant energy battery for years when other hydro lakes were low. Critics, including Watts, said it was too costly and would have damaged the wider renewable electricity industry.
Carbon credits set to fill the gap left by scrapping green policies
As part of its election manifesto, National committed to NZ’s 2025 and 2030 carbon emissions targets, but as climate policy analyst Paul Winton tells Stuff’s Olivia Wannan, official policy – such as scrapping EV rebates and public transport plans – makes that promise very hard to keep. By taking less action at home, the government could end up spending between $500m and $3b more on carbon credits, he says – which gives him “a glimmer of hope” that ministers might rethink their plans. “On many, many measures, climate action is the most economically efficient path for us to take.” Meanwhile New Zealand’s own carbon credit auction is expected to fail again this week – and that’s good news for the climate. “That will mean the country won’t create 15m tonnes of emissions in future – pollution equivalent to seven Huntly power stations running for a year,” writes Stuff’s Wannan.
Helen Clark among critics of decision to hit pause on WHO agreement
With the world’s attention on the United Nations climate conference, New Zealand’s relationship with another branch of the UN – the World Health Organisation – is also in the spotlight. New Zealand has lodged a letter of reservation with the agency, stating NZ will not yet sign onto proposed amendments to international health agreements. The government says it’s reserving its assent until national interest analysis can be undertaken, but public health expert Michael Baker tells RNZ such tests are done as a matter of course and he’s “baffled” by the letter. The reservation stems from National’s coalition agreement with NZ First, whose election campaign was in part aimed at the political fringes where suspicion of the UN and WHO is rife. Former PM Helen Clark, who has worked closely with both agencies, says she’s concerned: “What we’re seeing now looks more like Trump’s America or Bolsonaro’s Brazil. Not what people would expect of any New Zealand government.” Health minister Shane Reti says critics are overreacting and NZ remains fully supportive of WHO’s work.
‘We got that wrong’: Luxon admits mistake on tobacco outlet numbers
As the controversy over the smokefree reversal rumbles on, National was forced to backtrack on a claim that Northland would be left with only one tobacco retailer under Labour’s law. In an interview with Q&A’s Jack Tame on Sunday morning National’s Chris Bishop denied they’d got the figures wrong but later PM Chris Luxon admitted the number of outlets left in Northland would in fact have been 35. “We didn't express it the way that we should have, which is that there will be towns across Northland, across New Zealand that only have one or two retail outlets in them,” he said. Under Labour’s plan, the number of outlets selling tobacco products would have dramatically decreased from about 6000 to about 600 across the country from July next year. The new government argues that restricting the number of outlets to just a handful would lead to more crime and a bigger black market for tobacco.
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Health worker arrested over Covid vaccine data breach
A 56-year-old Te Whatu Ora staff member has been arrested in connection with a mass privacy breach of Covid-19 vaccination data and will appear in Wellington District Court today on a charge of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes. The employee had no clinical background or expert vaccine knowledge, according to Te Whatu Ora chief executive Margie Apa, and “appear[ed] to be trying to spread misinformation” using the data. Last week a man believed to be a Te Whatu Ora staff member was interviewed on a New Zealand conspiracy theory site, where he claimed he developed a database for the vaccine rollout and quoted from that work, the Herald reports. He said the data backed up his claims of “excess mortality” due to the vaccine. Said Apa following the arrest, “What this individual is trying to claim about vaccines is completely wrong and ill-informed, and their comments demonstrate this.”
RBNZ ‘not playing games’ with OCR warning
Reserve Bank deputy governor Christian Hawkesby says they were deadly serious about last week’s warning that the official cash rate could rise again. Despite the warning, markets continue to bet on the OCR being cut next year, the Herald’s Jenee Tibshraeny reports, apparently on the basis that New Zealand will follow overseas markets and see a rapid decrease in inflation over the coming year. New Zealand was one of the first countries to raise rates, and that may also encourage some to believe we’ll be among the first to cut. However Hawkesby warns that a number of factors could mean NZ’s cash rate stays higher for longer. Top of the list is record-high immigration which is putting upward pressure on rents and house prices. A less flexible labour market, higher freight rates and the prominence of oligopolies and duopolies – such as in the supermarket sector – also make taming inflation a harder task here.
Click and Collect
Renters United president Geordie Rogers has been selected as the Green candidate for Tamatha Paul’s vacant central Wellington council seat.
Auckland ratepayers will have to fund the City Rail Link to the tune of $220 million each year once it opens in 2026
Nicola Willis, Simeon Brown and Cam Burrows, Chris Luxon’s chief of staff, are numbers 1, 2 and 3 on The Post’s Wellington Power List (paywalled).
Feeling clever? Click here to play 1Q, Aotearoa’s newest, shortest daily quiz.
Alex Casey reports on what can happen when chronically depressed patients lose their WINZ-funded therapy. Laura Gemmell gives the lowdown on what you need to know about COP28. Duncan Greive talks to the friends behind Pals, and finds out what’s behind the RTD’s massive success. Why are drive-thru menus so hard to read, asks a stressed-out Hayden Donnell. The great Jaquie Brown shares her life in TV. Shortland Street’s Michael Galvin talks to Sam Brooks about his side gig as an award-winning playwright.
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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Aotearoa NZ has a low wattage climate change Minister
Ask those who are pushing the climate agenda to show just one instance of climate change outside of the normal that a citizen could verify as correct.