What's new in the new quarterly action plan?
Law and order is the focus of the government's next 100 days.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Tuesday, July 2.
In today’s edition: Outgoing Kāinga Ora boss set for mega payout, the dilemma over whether house prices should fall, and a leaked video calls for staff to stop leaking inside Oranga Tamariki. But first, the government sets its agenda for the next three months.
New action plan, but nothing much new
If you felt a little out of sorts yesterday, perhaps that’s because there wasn’t a current government action plan in play. The coalition claimed success in 35 of the 36 goals it had for “quarter two” which wrapped on Sunday night. If you need your own personal “energy” to be raised, good news: the government’s now unveiled 40 further actions it aims to have completed by September. Newsroom’s Tim Murphy, writing on Twitter, said the action plans tend toward the “menial and incremental”. With tongue firmly in cheek, he added: “When they start listing ‘Hold cabinet meetings’ and ‘attend question time’ we’ll know they’re really running out of imagination”. We’re not quite there yet, but there’s nothing hugely surprising in the new list.
Economic growth over a sugar hit
The bulk of the goals (19) are targeted at the cost of living crisis. Most of these have been heavily signposted previously, like reversing blanket speed limit reductions or launching a new infrastructure agency. I’d argue the link between speed limits and the economy is tenuous at best, though National has framed it as an economic issue since the election campaign. But as Newsroom Pro’s Laura Walters writes (paywalled), most of the proposals focus on longer-term projects to address the economy, rather than quick fixes to keep bills down. At his post-cabinet press conference, Luxon said the cost of living remained his top priority. “You’ve got to invest in world-class education, you gotta get modern infrastructure in place,” he said. Newsroom’s Fox Meyer noted (paywalled) that the new action plan had no mention of the government’s controversial “fast track” bill, but it’s there under a new name. The plan referred to “the government’s one-stop shop consenting and permitting scheme”, which brings it in line with the New Zealand First coalition agreement. Crucially, the action plan reiterates plans to incorporate changes to the bill following select committee, though as Meyer writes, we’re no closer to understanding what changes the prime minister wants to see.
Putting the boot in
The more meaty proposals in the action plan centre around law and order, as The Post’s Anna Whyte summarised here. Four laws will be passed in the next three months to, in Christopher Luxon’s words, “crack down on criminal activity”. So what’s the top priority? The first bullet point in the law and order section reads: “Launch a military-style academy pilot for serious and persistent young offenders.” Yep, the so-called “boot camps” are coming back this month. Luxon was at pains to say that the government had to try “something different” to tackle the causes of crime, though it was pointed out to him that similar programmes have run before, largely unsuccessfully. I looked at some of the pros and cons of the proposal back when it was first announced in late 2022. Criticism over the proposal is nothing new, as this feature by Hanna McCallum at the Sunday Star-Times looked at back in March. Recent attention has turned to the potential psychological impact, with this piece in The Conversation arguing that young people who offend have already experienced more trauma than most. “When young people with these difficulties are subjected to harsh discipline in boot camps, they are likely to associate their treatment with the serious physical harm caused to them in the past, causing further anxiety and stress.”
Yesterday’s action plan announcement came on the same day internal concerns over the boot camp plan were raised in the media. RNZ’s Craig McCulloch reported on the “serious mental distress” suffered by Defence Force staff running the six-week Limited Service Volunteer (LSV) programme, seen as the blueprint for the coalition’s plans. Luxon wouldn’t be drawn on the allegations – in fact he said he wasn’t aware of them, despite McCulloch’s report being 10 hours old by this point. Earlier in the day, police minister Mark Mitchell told Morning Report the volunteer programme was “hugely successful” regardless of these concerns, while emails obtained by 1News revealed the Defence Force had sought to quash comparisons between the LSV and the proposed boot camp programme as it could create "public misunderstanding".
The one that got away
Returning to the last action plan and the one goal the government failed to tick off. It’s related to the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga, the super-polytech the coalition has pledged to break apart. Luxon said that while decisions had been taken, consultation had not yet begun. “It just genuinely has been very complex… we’re doing a lot every quarter,” he told reporters, saying that he was being “transparent” by admitting the government hadn’t quite achieved all 36 goals. Asked whether tertiary education minister Penny Simmonds, who earlier in the year was stripped of her disability issues portfolio, was to blame, the prime minister said she wasn’t. There’s been some recent reporting around the proposed break up of Te Pūkenga, with RNZ’s John Gerritsen writing yesterday that there remain questions over millions of dollars of loans between different parts of the institute.
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Outgoing Kāinga Ora boss set for mega payout
The chief executive of Kāinga Ora is set to leave in October ahead of a major shake-up of the housing agency, reports RNZ. It comes on the back of the government-ordered review of the agency, led by former prime minister Bill English, that called for a financial overhaul and a refreshed board. New chair Simon Moutter said chief executive Andrew McKenzie was stepping down as delivering on the proposed changes was not what he signed up for. McKenzie’s departure is being treated as a redundancy, meaning he’s in line for a $365,000 payout when he leaves later in the year. The prime minister wouldn’t directly comment on the resignation, telling reporters yesterday that was a matter for the agency. But, he reiterated that Kāinga Ora had been “chronically underperforming”.
As we touched on yesterday, former National MP Amy Adams has also stepped down as director of Health NZ saying she was “not able to advance the changes” she wanted to. Newsroom Pro’s Sam Sachdeva has reported further on that today (paywalled).
The house price dilemma
The issue of houses prices has been in the media quite a bit lately, with suggestions that properties were becoming more affordable, even in Auckland. It comes off the back of claims by the housing minister Chris Bishop that he would like to see house prices drop, a comment that is incredibly rare to hear out of the mouth of any politician. Interest’s Dan Brunskill has delved into that, looking at the views across the political spectrum and the arguments for and against policies that support prices to fall. Meanwhile, as RNZ’s Susan Edmunds writes, we’re still not close to the point where house prices can be called “affordable” – they’d still need to drop at least another 16%.
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Click and Collect
A video of Oranga Tamariki’s boss vowing to crack down on leakers has been, well, leaked.
I missed this over the weekend, but it cropped up again in the government’s action plan: the workplace relations minister is considering banning contractors from going to court over their employment status. Given the tension over the issue of Uber drivers, this is something to keep an eye on.
From the New York Times (and available to Herald Premium subscribers): Inside the Biden camp’s post-debate frenzy.
New Plymouth’s mayor is, I think understandably, a bit confused about why he’s ended up on the Russia travel ban list.
Ponsonby bar Chapel is in receivership after failing to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars it owed. It has connections to the fall of K Road restaurant Cotto, a story I extensively reported on back in February for The Spinoff.
Vanity Fair has your first look at Gladiator 2 – get excited!
Hayden Donnell wonders what the government should find next, after successfully discovering the existence of Pharmac. Liam Rātana asks whether Auckland high schools take rugby way too seriously. Madeleine Chapman and Claire Mabey argue about whether TV Show The Bear sucks now. Henessey Griffiths presents a guide to Wellington's underground music scene. It might be the age of 'mid' TV but Anna Rawhiti-Connell argues that House of the Dragon defies franchise fatigue. Despite standardisation, recycling rules are still confusing: Shanti Mathias answers the common question 'where do my lids go?' Here are all the new movies and TV on streaming services this week.
That’s it for The Bulletin today, thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Let me know in the comments, or get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz, if you have any feedback on today’s issue or anything in the news.
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Is there a downloadable pdf of the bingo card for this quarter?
Whew - mystery of my out-of-sorts feeling cracked! I’d put it down to post long weekend blues, but, I’d just say to you that it was obviously the anxiety of waiting on the edge of my seat for an inspiring action plan.