A collapse in police legitimacy

Last week, the government had a big wank about police raids in Ōpōtiki, crowing about "gangs" and "drugs" and "law and order". Unfortunately the police did exactly the same shit they did in the Urewera terror raids 17 years ago, dragging people off in front of their kids and terrorising the community (so much for their "apology"; sincerity requires change, and the police are just incapable of that). And it seems that the local iwi have had enough of that:

Māori community leaders Te Aho and Tame Iti attended a meeting in Ōpōtiki, the Eastern Bay of Plenty town, where locals outlined issues caused by the police raids where mokopuna were forced to watch as whānau were arrested by armed police.

“No more will we tolerate this.”

[...]

“If the NZ Police Head office or any other government agency like Oranga Tamariki think that they can do what they have done again in our district again then they have another thing coming.

“The other thing coming is that we will establish our own intelligence and surveillance of them. When an emergency is triggered we will blockade them at the houses that they raid and not relent until the rights of our people have been validated and our tamariki mokopuna.”

Its hard to see this as anything other than a collapse in police legitimacy. Police need the support of the community to do their jobs effectively, but in Ōpōtiki, the community is saying "nope". National likes to complain about "Labour's" policy of policing by consent (you know, the foundation of our entire model of policing); the above is a glimpse of what policing without consent looks like. While the police can (maybe) use force to carry out their raids and arrests, the cost of that is to further alienate the community they are ostensibly there to protect - which means a further reduction in cooperation, and possibly even more active opposition. And the police simply cannot function as police in the face of that. At least not in any way that we would recognise or accept.

Taking the piss again

Remember Casey Costello? The government's most ignorant Minister? First she was referred to the Chief Archivist after claiming that key advice on her cancer promotion policy had simply magically appeared on her desk one day, and that she had no idea where it came from. Then, when the Ministry of Health said her plan to give Philip Morris a $216 million tax cut for its heated cancer products was a bad idea, she told Cabinet she had received "independent advice" to the contrary; when the media quite rightly asked to see that advice, she released a collection of random papers which did not support the case, and appeared to have been googled up at three a.m. by an emotional junior staffer in response to media queries. And now, she's claiming to have no idea where they came from either. In response to an OIA request for the origins of the material, she claimed:

I note that the advice consists of academic articles and health research that forms part of a wider body of scientific literature that focuses on harm reduction, rather than a moralistic, abstinence-only perspective on tobacco and nicotine products. This research is available online and my office has spent a considerable amount of time reviewing a wide range of evidence and information. As such, it is not possible to provide a definitive response to the date and time the articles and health research were first accessed by my office. Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the Act, as the information is not held.

Yeah right. And if you believe that, I have a Minister to sell you.

Obviously, this is going to the Ombudsman. They have already made clear in their previous ruling that Ministers are required to take reasonable steps to find if information is held. Obvious steps in this case could include searching emails, checking document management systems, examining file metadata, or just asking staff. Its not clear whether the Minister did any of those things - but in the wake of the previous ruling and referral to the Chief Archivist, it smacks of a further attempt to mislead the public and cover up the truth. Hopefully the Ombudsman will get to the bottom of it.

More Sabotage

The Waitangi Tribunal has been one of the most effective critics of the National government and its racist, anti-Māori agenda. So naturally, they're sabotaging it with a crony appointment:

Former ACT Party leader Richard Prebble has been appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Prebble, a Commander of the British Empire, is one of two new members to be appointed, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said in a statement on Thursday.

Prebble is a former Cabinet minister who was originally a member of the Labour Party. He joined the newly formed ACT party in 1996, later becoming its leader until 2004.

Prebble is a racist. He opposed even limited recognition of Māori rights through the (now repealed, and disastrous in other ways) Foreshore and Seabed Act. He opposed recognition of Māori interests in water through Three Waters. He hangs around with racist people like Don Brash, Michael Bassett, and Rodney Hide. He has nothing positive to offer the Tribunal, and his appointment can only be seen as an attempt at sabotage, similar to Paul Goldsmith's sabotage of the Human Rights Commission by appointing racists and terfs. And to add insult to injury, we'll be paying for him to undermine them from within.

Our institutions deserve better from our government than this. We deserve better from our government. Their contempt for democratic and constitutional norms is another reason why they need to urgently be voted out on their arses.

As for Prebble, like Goldsmith's Human Rights Commission appointments, he appears incapable of actually performing the functions of the office to which he has been appointed. And like those other racists, the next government can and should simply sack him.

National's fast-track fucks our future

A few years ago, we looked to be on-track to a decarbonised future, with an international consortium led by BlueFloat Energy announcing plans for huge offshore windfarms off Taranaki and Waikato. But National's corrupt fast-track law just fucked all that:

Spanish offshore wind developer BlueFloat Energy is cancelling plans for wind farms off the coast of Taranaki and Waikato, citing “key uncertainties” about the route to market and the competition for allocation of the seabed.

The move comes after a controversial seabed mining plan was revealed to be among the 149 projects listed in the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill.

Developers, including BlueFloat, have previously said the seabed mining project could shrink or completely eliminate the area available for offshore wind in South Taranaki, which is considered to have the country’s best wind resource.

This is an absolute disaster. In addition to GW of renewable generation, these offshore wind developments were expected to result in 10,000 jobs during construction and 2,000 ongoing ones for maintenance. It would have been a lifeline for the Taranaki economy, a replacement for its current fossil industry which would have allowed many fossil employees to move directly into new work. But National prefers to rip, shit, and bust for a tiny number of mining jobs with no wider benefits, to help a company which lies to the stock exchange.

Heckuva job, National. Hope you're proud of yourselves.

Member's morning

Today the House is in an extended sitting, devoted to Member's Business as a catch-up for time stolen by the government in urgency. First up was the second reading of the Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, soon to be known as the Citizenship (Western Samoa) (Restoration) Amendment Bill. Second is the first reading of a local bill, the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Act Amendment Bill. After that the House will move on to the third reading of Katie Nimon's Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (Improving Mental Health Outcomes) Amendment Bill. If that goes quickly the House might be able to spend a bit more time on the second reading of Rima Nakhle's Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill, but I doubt it'll get there. So again, no ballot - but with the postponement of several second readings, we might finally get one soon.

The cooker government

We know that the current National government is basically a government of and for antivaxxers and cookers, the people who rioted at Parliament and burned the grounds. But so far they've generally avoided explicitly identifying themselves as such. Until today, when Workplace Relations Minister dropped (or rather refused to wear) the mask, by claiming that the previous government was "anti-worker" because it supported vaccine mandates:

I don't agree with that statement because I believe, in fact, the most anti-worker Government we've seen in decades is the previous Government. It was the previous Government that ordered vaccine mandates for workers; never before had we seen the rights of workers across the country be eroded so swiftly. Not only did this erode workers' freedom of choice and bodily autonomy, so many people were forced out of their jobs because the Government refused to look at other options like rapid antigen tests. Rather than listen to those affected workers, the previous Government pushed them to the margins of society. The previous Government's legislative overreach led to ostracism and division that have hugely impacted our civil society and had a negative impact on the employment and earnings of Kiwi individuals.

ACT has form on hosting cookers, but previously they've tried to downplay it. Van Velden's stance suggests they're now nakedly trying to appeal to them. Meanwhile, we now have a Minister for Workplace safety who seems to be opposed to the whole idea. If she's unwilling to do the job properly, and commit to protecting workers from all workplace hazards (including disease as well as bad employers), she should resign.

Stomping on democracy

That's the only way to describe National's actions in appointing a crown observer to the Wellington City Council. Wellington didn't vote for National. They elected a council which supports public transport, housing intensification, and making Wellington a nicer place for people to live (rather than landlords and house hoarders to bank capital gains). So they've started the process to overthrow that council, using the disruption created by National's own proxies on the council as a justification. Which sounds an awful lot like Putin's tactics of using "instability" caused by local proxies to justify invasion...

But its not just Wellington. The Otago Regional Council is trying to pass a land and water plan which will protect its rivers. The government has just decided to legislate to stop them from doing so - and of course it will have retrospective effect (a favourite tactic of this government). In Auckland, they're trying to over-rule the Auckland Council's commitment to safe speed limits, so they can hoon to the airport in their government limos. In Canterbury they seem to be gearing up to overthrow local democracy to steal the water again. And then there's all those councils who want to keep their Māori wards...

it seems that rather than being committed to localism, National wants to micromanage our councils from Wellington. And if voters disagree, well, they'll just stop us from voting. Which probably sounds fine to them - except (so far) we can still vote in 2026, and we should take the opportunity to vote these anti-democratic authoritarian tyrants out on their arses.

A violation of law, justice, and decency

This morning, in a desperate effort to distract attention from the suppurating sore of contempt that is Andrew Bayly, National announced that it would be bringing back its "three strikes" regime. The policy never worked and had no significant quantifiable benefits; but National doesn't care, despite a commitment in both coalition agreements that policy would be "evidence-based". Instead, they seem to think the reason it didn't work was because they simply weren't vicious enough. So this time round, they'll not only be lowering the threshold for a 'strike" - they'll also be imposing them retrospectively:

The regime would also be retrospective, capturing all the strike convictions in the old regime that would count in the new one.

This is despite officials warning this would “contravene a fundamental justice right only to be subject to penalties that were in place at the time of the relevant offending (Bora section 26)”.

Murder Minister Nicole McKee disagrees, which I think shows her complete lack of understanding of not just the BORA, but of justice. The right to the lesser penalty has been black-letter law in this country since at least 1980, thanks to s22 of the Criminal Justice Amendment Act 1980, and I suspect it goes back much further in caselaw (the law codifying practice rather than creating a new principle). We're committed to it under Article 11 of the UDHR and Article 15 of the ICCPR, so National's tyranny will put us in breach of our international obligations. And as we are subject to universal periodic review as well as an individual complaints mechanism, they will be called on it.

But National doesn't care about any of that. All they care about is the sugar hit of "tough on crime" headlines. And as with their prisoner voting law or their climate change policies, complying with our international obligations will be a problem for the next government (which National will of course criticise them for).

What National thinks of us

A "what the fuck" moment for National: Andrew Bayly went round calling a worker a "loser" on an official visit:

The worker explained their interaction with Bayly, and said once the pair were introduced, Bayly asked them why they were still at work.

“Take a bottle of wine and go home, go on, go home ... take some wine and f*** off,” the complainant wrote that Bayly said.

“What followed next was both shocking and humiliating. He called me a ”loser“ repeatedly, saying the reason I was still was work was because I am a ”loser“.

“He turned to the group of people with him at the time, including my boss, the minister’s assistant and marketing staff, and ... employees and formed an ‘L’ with his fingers on his forehead.

Again, what the actual fuck?

There's a suggestion that Bayly was drunk; alternatively, it may just illustrate the attitude of Ministers on $304,300 salaries towards people who actually have to work for a living: they're all just "losers" who should have become Cabinet Ministers. Whether either is the sort of behaviour acceptable for a Minister is left as an exercise for the reader.

Unexpected support

When the Education and Workforce Committee reported back on Camilla Belich's Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill and recommended that it not be passed, I'd assumed it was doomed. The right-wing coalition government supports employer exploitation of workers, and certainly doesn't see why intentionally and systematically conspiring to not pay them or demand free labour - an actual business model for some employers - should be a crime, or why the current law which views employers as "persons in special relationship" towards their employers, but not vice-versa - could be considered unfair and asymmetrical. So I was quite surprised when, last night, NZ First voted for the bill, getting it over the line to its second reading.

During the debate in Parliament, NZ First MP Mark Patterson said his party hadn't been part of the select committee that investigated the bill, but had listened carefully to both sides.

"It is the view of the New Zealand First caucus that this bill is not without some merit," he said.

But he wasn't guaranteeing support all the way through.

"New Zealand First will be supporting this bill through to the committee of the whole House stage.

"We, however, have listened carefully to the concerns on this side of the House. So there are some things that we want to see examined further through that committee stage."

...Which suggests that this isn't actual support, but just a weapon in some internal coalition power-play. Still, maybe they're pissed enough at ACT or National to support it all the way, if they get a token amendment to let them claim a victory. Which would be well worth doing if it doesn't further gut an (already pathetically weak) bill.

But if it passes, this bill will establish a principle: that wage theft is theft. And it means that a future government can then amend it to actually treat it as such, with an identical penalty.

We need more judicial power, not less

The Herald is reporting on yet another reporting from the ATLAS-network-linked "New Zealand" Initiative, this one complaining of a creep towards judicial supremacy, and calling for the powers of judges to interpret the law to be reined in. It seems that the billionaires who fund ATLAS and its local collaborators want to be sure they get what they pay for when they buy politicians, and don't want judges souring the deal or interfering with corporate power, even when the law requires that they do so. Hence the short-sighted enthusiasm for arbitrary executive despotism. Meanwhile, for people who aren't billionaires or shilling from them, and who actually live in Aotearoa and pay attention to our democracy, its clear that we need more judicial power, not less.

The most obvious reason for that is the current government, whose naked corruption is exactly the sort of thing judges were invented to prosecute. But beyond that, there are also long-term reasons. Parliament has been a terrible guardian of our human rights. It does not even pretend to do the job properly. Remember Hilary Calvert's absurd third-reading speech on the prisoner disenfranchisement law? That's the standard of "care" our politicians bring to our laws. That abdication of responsibility produced a constitutional backlash: the first ever declaration of inconsistency, and a law requiring Parliament to formally take notice of them. But that law did not fix the problem: the current government is ignoring formal declarations of inconsistency, and Parliament is still routinely passing laws which violate human rights. And now the present lot are taking that attitude and applying it to te Tiriti as well, on the weird belief that their private coalition agreement amongst themselves trumps the foundation of our constitution and state legitimacy. Which is in turn inviting a constitutional backlash in that area as well...

Again and again our parliament has shown that they cannot be trusted to make laws responsibly. Our judges, OTOH, seem to be responsible custodians. They take their duties seriously, provide real reasons for their decisions (which are in turn tested and scrutinised by others), and unlike politicians, have not institutionalised bribery as part of their culture. The balance of power between legislature and judiciary is a slider we can move. And the sheer irresponsibility and corruption of the former is inviting voters to shift it further towards the "judicial" end. And when we do, the present advocates of "parliamentary supremacy" will have no-one to blame for it but themselves.

Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day. First up is the third reading of Deborah Russell's Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill, which looks like it will pass unanimously. This will be followed by the committee stage of Katie Nimon's Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (Improving Mental Health Outcomes) Amendment Bill and the second readings of Camilla Belich's Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill and Rima Nakhle's Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill. If the House moves very quickly it will make a start on Tracey McLellan's Evidence (Giving Evidence of Family Violence) Amendment Bill, which would mean a ballot tomorrow, but that seems unlikely.

What if you run a transparent process, then ignore it?

On Friday I blogged a news story about Paul Goldsmith's appointment of terf and genocide supporter Stephen Rainbow as Chief Human Rights Commissioner, and how it appeared that he had ignored the recommendations of the appointments panel to shoulder-tap a preferred and unqualified candidate. The Spinoff was on the story as well, and has done their own piece drawing the same conclusions. And better: they've now confirmed them with a leak:

Update: The Spinoff has viewed documents with fewer redactions that show Rainbow was specifically noted as “not recommended” by the panel following his interview. Pacheco was listed as “highly appointable”. Two of the candidates for race relations commissioner (neither of whom were Derby as she was not initially interviewed) were graded as “highly appointable” by the panel.

So, just to make this clear: Goldsmith pretended to follow the Paris Principles by pursuing a transparent and independent selection process, seeking nominations from human rights groups and civil society and appointing a highly-qualified independent panel to assess them. He then took that panel's recommendation, threw it in the bin, and appointed completely unqualified candidates for reasons which have been kept secret (likely because they are embarrassingly inadequate, and possibly unlawful). Obviously, this is not how appointments to quasi-constitutional offices should be made. And again, the next government should respond to this violation of our constitutional norms by sacking the unqualified cronies the moment they take office.

A moral void at the heart of our establishment

Back in July, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care delivered its report, detailing a horrific litany of abuse for which the government was ultimately responsible. The report found that a long list of government ministers and officials had allowed, failed to stop, and effectively covered up that abuse. Today, Newsroom has started a major new series on how that happened, and how the state turned on its victims.

Reading it, what's stands out is how it all comes down to the framing. Right from the outset, officials saw this not as a crime which demanded justice, but as a fiscal and reputational risk to the New Zealand state - and advised Ministers accordingly. Which is an example of the banality of evil, how bureaucracy rots the conscience. But what's also striking is that for over two decades, no Minister seems to have pushed back against that framing. No-one - not Bill English, not Wyatt Creech, not Helen Clark, or Annette King - seems to have gone "hang on a minute; this isn't right". And while Ministers can not and should not direct police investigations, they can start inquiries (like the one which led to those findings), listen to victims, and arrange compensation schemes before everyone is dead. And none of them did that. None of them apparently even tried. And neither apparently did any of their Cabinet colleagues on the multiple occasions when details of the allegations and the government's proposed response (deny liability and wait for them to die) went to Cabinet.

What this inquiry has exposed is not just torture and abuse and institutional cover-ups, but a complete moral void at the heart of our establishment. If our political class aren't soulless husks bereft of any shred of conscience, they've done such an impressive job of faking it as to make no difference. And the obvious question that raises is: are these really the sort of people we want running our country?

Goldsmith's "transparent" human rights appointment process

Back in August, National sabotaged human rights by appointing terf and genocide supporter Stephen Rainbow as Chief Human Rights Commissioner, and terf and white supremacist Melissa Derby as Race Relations Commissioner. The appointments seemed calculated to undermine public confidence in the Commission, and there were obvious questions about how they happened. So I asked, using the OIA. I got the response back today, and its crystal clear that Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith did not follow a proper appointments process, instead parachuting his preferred candidates in to the interview process, then appointing them - possibly explicitly against the advice of the independent panel he had appointed to do the job.

The full documents are here. Note that they are incomplete, and fail to include panel reports on the successful candidates. My request was also poorly phrased, and did not ask for Goldsmith's communications around the appointment, but there were obviously several important ones. But judging from the documents, this is what happened:

• In December 2023, the Ministry of Justice advised Goldsmith on the need to appoint new EEO and Race Relations Commissioners, and the upcoming need to appoint a new Chief Commissioner. They remind the Minister of the Paris Principles, which require that there is a transparent process for appointments and that an independent review panel advise the Minister. They recommend the appointment of such a panel.
• Later in December, they do a followup briefing about the need to advertise the positions. They also suggest writing to government caucuses. Goldsmith does so.
• In February 2024, he appoints an independent panel, consisting of retired judge Terrence Arnold, former Attorney-General (and National MP) Chris Finlayson, human rights lawyer Paul Rishworth, and iwi chairs representative Lorraine Toki to assess the applications. They do their job properly, and in March they report back with a shortlist (p30). Neither Rainbow or Derby's name appears on it.
• Despite this, later in March Rainbow appears on the interview list. It appears that Goldsmith wrote him in, and bumped another candidate to do so. The recommendations of the panel are (of course) redacted, but if they'd recommended his appointment, they wouldn't be.
• Sometime after this, Goldsmith "asked for the panel to interview Dr Melissa Derby for the position of Race Relations Commissioner" (p46). The panel's views on her are not included.
• In June the appointment goes to Cabinet's Appointments and Honours Committee. The Ministry of Justice's briefing on this (p44-45) and recommendations (p46) suggest strongly that Rainbow was not the candidate recommended by the panel (if he was, then his name would be recommended on p46, and there would be no redaction). Instead, he seems to be recommended as a second-choice because of some redacted objection to the recommended candidate.
• And just like that, Goldsmith's two preferred candidates are appointed!

As noted above, we don't know what Goldsmith said to the panel, and we don't have their recommendations. I can go to the Ombudsman, and if I'm successful, we might know in a year or two. But one thing is clear: rather than run a transparent, independent process as required by the Paris Principles, Goldsmith simply appointed a pair of hatemongers, apparently against the explicit recommendations of the appointments panel. And when we're talking about our chief human rights body, that simply isn't good enough. having seen this appointments process, i stand by what I said in August: these people are unable to credibly perform the functions of the office. And the next government should simply sack them.

10/10: World Day Against the Death Penalty

Today, October 10, is the world day against the death penalty. Out of 195 UN member states, 63 still permit routine capital punishment. Today is the day we work to change that.

This year's theme is the misconception that the death penalty makes people safer. The use of the death penalty in "security" cases, which relies on an inherently political narrative of who is a "threat" and who is not. So its not about "safety", but just another tool of oppression. But even in ordinary cases, the regular execution of the innocent in death penalty states shows the same problems. If we want to make people actually safe, we need to deal with the root causes of crime and conflict - not use the state to murder people.

While no states abolished the death penalty this year, Zimbabwe's government agreed in principle to do so, and legislation is pending. Hopefully that will pass before the end of the year.

This is what corruption looks like

One of the risks of National's Muldoonist fast-track law is corruption. If Ministers can effectively approve projects by including them in the law for rubberstamping, then that creates some very obvious incentives for applicants seeking approval and Ministers seeking to line their or their party's pockets. And its a risk that seems to have been realised, with $500,000 in donations associated with fast-track projects:

Companies and shareholders associated with 12 fast-track projects gave more than $500,000 in political donations to National, Act and New Zealand First and their candidates, RNZ analysis shows.

The projects include a quarry extension into conservation land and a development whose owner was publicly supported by National MPs during a legal battle with Kāinga Ora.

[...]

An RNZ analysis of donations shows entities and individuals associated with 12 of the 149 projects that will be written into the Bill donated to National or its candidates in 2022 or 2023. These projects will be assessed by expert panels as to whether they proceed through the fast-track process.

Two also donated to NZ First or Shane Jones, and two donated a total of $150,000 to Act within the same period.

Note that this does not include donations given through NZ First's secret bribe trust or equivalent vehicles.

The government says this is all OK because the donations were declared. They would never, never be so foolish as to take a donation in exchange for favours when everyone could see what was happening. The problem is that no matter how often they say this, the public simply does not believe them. We know that people (and especially companies, with statutory duties to pursue profit) do not give away such vast amounts of money for nothing; we know they want something in return. And Jones and Bishop seem to be giving them something. If they're not corrupt, they're trying very hard to give us that impression, and they have only themselves to blame if we draw the obvious conclusion.

Which is another reason why the next government will need to not just repeal this outrageous law, but revoke and review every single consent granted: as a basic political hygiene measure. Because corruption cannot be allowed to pay, ever.

But beyond the bill, this again shows the need to outlaw political donations, for full public funding of political parties, for lobbyist regulation, and for the creation of an independent anti-corruption commission to go over every past and future donor, minister, and governing party with a microscope to see if favours were ever traded for money or other reward. National's open embrace of naked bribe-taking is hugely damaging to public trust in our political system. If we want to restore it, we know what needs to be done.

One cheer for the Samoan citizenship bill

Back in April, Teanau Tuiono's member's bill to undo a historic crime and restore citizenship to Samoans stripped of it by Muldoon unexpectedly passed its first reading and was sent to select committee. That committee has now reported back. But while the headline is that it has unanimously recommended that the bill proceed, that masks a very ugly compromise.

The purpose of the bill was to undo Muldoon's historic crime. Lest anyone forget, in 1982 the UK Privy Council - then our highest court, because colonialism - ruled that Samoans born in Samoa between 1924 and 1949 were and always had been New Zealand citizens (and therefore could not be deported). Muldoon's response was to pass a law - under urgency of course - stripping them of that citizenship, unless they were presently in New Zealand. Tuiono's bill was meant to undo that: not just the effect, but also erase the infamous law from the statute book. While its effects would continue, but be ameliorated by a grant as of right, that evil law declaring Samoans to never have been citizens would be gone.

But that was a bridge too far for the political establishment. So instead, a bill aimed at erasing a crime will now perpetuate it, by explicitly retaining Muldoon's racist law while amending it to add the grant provision and a reference to it. The citizenship gained will very explicitly only apply from when it was granted (rather than being recognised as having always been held and never removed), and unlike "normal" citizenship, won't be able to be (and, more importantly for the government, will not have been) passed on to children born outside Aotearoa. Its explicitly called a "citizenship of special nature" for Samoans; a second class of citizenship, if you will. And of course New Zealand can't be expected to make even this limited restitution for our crimes for free, so every single person who wants this second-class citizenship will have to pay for the privilege - albeit at the reduced price of $204.40. The Department of Internal Affairs has to cover its costs, you know! But given the number of surviving victims - maybe 3,400 still alive - the amount of money is utterly trivial to the government: less than a million dollars. They could simply appropriate it and cover the costs as a goodwill gesture. But like full, uninterrupted citizenship, even that was apparently too much for the racists in Parliament.

Both the Greens and Labour wanted the bill to go further, repealing Muldoon's racist law (the diplomatically important section 7 could simply have been moved to the Citizenship Act, where it belongs), eliminating fees, and extending eligibility to descendents born before Samoa became independent in 1962. But NZ First, whose support provides a majority for the bill, said no. The resulting compromise is an improvement on the current situation - some people will have a form of citizenship recognised! Huzzah! - but its also ugly, nasty, and petty. Rather like NZ First, really. It is a long way from what we ought to do, or what submitters expected. About the best that can be said for it is that its something that can be improved upon in future. And that's... not enough.

So, its one cheer for Teanau Tuiono and his bill. I'm sure this is the best he can do at the moment with the Parliament we've got, but no-one should pretend that this is decent, or honourable, or enough. Like everything else happening this term, the next government will have to fix this. Fortunately, Labour has publicly committed to a position. Now we have to hold them to it.

"The party of personal responsibility"

When National decided to shovel $24 million of public money to a charity run by a donor and chaired by the son of a National MP, on the "independent" advice of a former National PM, they proudly stated that it was because it was in the coalition agreement. Now, the Auditor-General has found that the decision did not comply with public procurement rules, which exist precisely to stop Ministers from giving public money to donors and cronies. The government's response? Blame the Ministry:

Doocey was not available to be interviewed but in a statement a spokesperson said any faults with the procurement process lay with the Ministry of Health.

"While the decision to fund Gumboot Friday was a decision made by the government, how this commitment was implemented was a decision for the Ministry of Health.

"Throughout the process, the minister has sought, and received assurance from officials that the implementation option chosen by the Ministry of Health is compliant with government procurement rules," the spokesperson said.

Of course, those officials gave that advice because the Minister made it clear that he wanted it, and the Ministry is there to serve and provide post-hoc justifications for whatever mad scheme Ministers cook up. And there is no simply employment upside for telling a Minister that their plan is illegal and corrupt.

The bottom line here is that this was the Minister's crooked scheme. It may have been imposed on him by NZ First, but he was proud to own it back in May when he announced it. But suddenly he's pretending it was nothing to do with him. Whatever happened to being the "party of personal responsibility"?

Climate Change: The same problems everywhere

Here in Aotearoa, our right-wing, ATLAS-network-backed government is rolling back climate policy and plotting to raise emissions to allow the fossil fuel industry a few more years of profit. And in Canada, their right-wing, ATLAS-network-backed opposition is campaigning on doing the same thing:

Mass hunger and malnutrition. A looming nuclear winter. An existential threat to the Canadian way of life. For months, the country’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has issued dire and increasingly apocalyptic warnings about the future. The culprit? A federal carbon levy meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

In the House of Commons this month, the Tory leader said there was only one way to avoid the devastating crisis: embattled prime minister Justin Trudeau must “call a ‘carbon tax’ election”.

Unlike our ETS, Canada's carbon tax is fully and directly rebated - meaning most people actually profit from it. Like our (sadly repealed) clean car discount, its the polluters that pay. But Canada's Conservatives and their far-right fossil think-tank backers have used waves of misinformation to pollute the infosphere and try and hide this fact. If they succeed, not only will Canada fail to meet its climate targets - most Canadians will actually be financially worse off. But you wouldn't know it from the institutional liars on the right.

...and all so a dying industry can eke out a few more years of profit. But technology change - solar and the electrification of transport - is going to bury them eventually, if policy doesn't first. The problem is that that may be too late to avoid horrific damage.

The corruption list

Yesterday the navy lost one of its newest ships in an accident. And so obviously, National used it as cover to release its list of projects to be rubber-stamped under its corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law. When the list of invitees was released, I called it "a who's who of New Zealand's dodgiest companies". The final list is a who's who of our most corrupt. Those willing to bribe ministers or simply trample all over our democracy is order to get their projects (briefly) approved.

Trans-Tasman Resources is there, with their seabed mine which has already been rejected by the Supreme Court and which would prevent the construction of a vital offshore windfarm. As is the South Island garbage incinerator, Oceana Gold's giant Waihi gold mine, and a host of other dirty mining and irrigation projects. Plus a bunch of housing developments to pay off the property developers. All wrapped up with a tiny amount of infrastructure and renewable energy projects for PR purposes (except: there's NZ's dodgiest solar farm company's Warkworth project; and a bunch of projects in the Mackenzie Country, which independent panels have already decided is not an acceptable place for solar farms; and a bunch of the wind projects are already consented).

Some of these filler projects might gain consent through the normal RMA process. The fact that their promoters have chosen to piss in our faces and shit on our democracy by pursuing fast-track authorisation tells us something ugly about them and their corporate mindset. And they need to be punished for that choice. So I'm not in favour of drawing any distinctions when the next government inevitably revisits this. Repeal the law, revoke all their consents without compensation, and make them do it properly or not at all.

The good news is that while the bill will be law by the end of the year, and the government thinks it will have the first approvals early (really mid) next year, there's really only an eighteen-month window for construction and profit before the next election and a potential change of government and policy. Every month of delay due to legal action, protests etc against these projects narrows that window. And if its narrowed enough, it will become too risky to start for fear that consent will be revoked and money wasted. So, we may not have to do too much against the worst of them to stop them - provided the left wins the next election.

I've posted before about the legitimising effect of the RMA process. Given the potential for protest, occupation etc, whether these projects proceed is ultimately a matter of public consent. But by choosing to pursue this process, these companies have basically surrendered any prospect of that. I hope they are made to regret it.

Taking the piss

When cancer minister Casey Costello convinced Cabinet to give her mates at Philip Morris a $216 million tax cut, she did so in the face of departmental advice that there would be no benefits and that Philip Morris' "heated tobacco products" were more cancerous and toxic than cigarettes. But she told her fellow Cabinet Ministers that it was fine because she had received "independent advice" that they were effective as an anti-smoking tool. Yesterday, she finally produced that "advice". And it was simply laughable:

The Associate Health Minister Casey Costello's "independent advice" on heated tobacco products is five articles that are either about different products, outdated, or only offer weak support for her view.

The five documents are not decisive on the benefits of the products.

They're also published in dodgy scam-journals and potentially funded by the tobacco industry. As Ayesha Verrall points out, it looks like she just did a quick google and grabbed whatever came up. It is certainly not the level of evidence you would expect to support a $200 million government policy, and not the level of care we should expect from a government minister.

At this stage it is clear that Costello is simply taking the piss. We deserve a better standard of government than this. Its long past time Luxon sacked her. And if he can't or won't, maybe we should start recognising that it is Winston who is really Prime Minister and deciding who is in cabinet...?

National's democratic suppression fails

Last week, National rammed its destructive offshore gas-drilling legislation through to select committee under urgency, and then gave submitters only four working days to have a say on it. The goal was clearly to stifle opposition, but it appears to have failed spectacularly:

Despite being given only 3½ working days to make a submission, 5600 people and organisations lodged written submissions on the legislation, with 392 asking to be heard by the committee.

That's not a record number of submissions, but it is a large one, and incredible for only four days. And an overwhelming number of them oppose the bill, with only a few self-interested lobby groups and industry shills in favour.

We know who the government will listen to, of course - but the purpose of submitting isn't to change their mind or to fix the bill: it is to convince the opposition to promise immediate repeal and revocation of all permits issued without compensation, and so deter the investment National hopes to encourage. The Greens are on-side with that, because they recognise the stakes here. The question is whether Labour will listen, or whether they'll again tell everyone they are useless chickenshits unworthy of your vote.

National wants to loot the health system

Hot on the heels of their cancellation of Dunedin hospital (meaning a cut to health services in half the south Island), National has revealed the next part of their agenda: the outright privatisation of the health system:

The health agency is suggesting the Government to consider allowing private companies to build – and potentially run – the country’s public hospitals.

[...]

Earlier this year, Health New Zealand told ministers given the scale of investment required, "a range of options for different financing and commercial arrangements may be needed".

Build and leaseback arrangements, where private companies own the buildings, would help free up funds.

They also floated "Public Private Partnerships", and said they are widely used overseas.

Health NZ chief infrastructure and investment officer Jeremy Holman said PPPs are "a whole spectrum of how the private sector could work with the private sector from that side of it so there are many different options in there".

They're also hugely expensive, wasteful, and inevitably corrupt. You just need to look at Transmission Gully or the UK's Private Finance Initiative to see what a disaster they are for the public. But the contract providers laugh all the way to the bank.

National seems intent on destroying our entire society - the schools, the hospitals, te Tiriti, our democracy - in favour of an economy focused on corrupt capitalist extraction and rent-gouging. All that will be left will be motorways leading to airports and gas wells (at least until rising sea levels wash them all away). As for what to do about it, as with everything else this government is doing, the opposition needs to be crystal clear: this will be repealed on day one. Contracts will be legislatively revoked, with no compensation to contractors, and the health system returned to public ownership and control. Those who steal from us will not be allowed to profit from it.

Luxon just became a poster boy for taxing the rich

Whenever our politicians are caught with their hand in the till, they loudly proclaim that their theft from the public was "within the rules". The problem is that they are the ones writing the rules, and there's a certain suspicion that they write them to suit themselves. And so their their legalistic defences simply add to the stench of self-interested corruption from our political class.

That's bad enough when it comes to rorting perks and getting paid to live in your own house. But Prime Minister Chris Luxon has taxen it to a new level, apparently scamming $70,000 from a tax break he gave himself:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon narrowly avoided paying what might have amounted to a large tax bill on the sale of his Wellington apartment thanks to changes brought in by the Government.

Luxon sold his Wellington apartment and moved into the Prime Minister’s official residence, Premier House.

[...]

Because Luxon bought and sold the apartment within five years of purchase and he bought the apartment after the introduction of the five-year test, he would have been required to pay tax under that test at a rate of 39% - equating to a maximum tax of $70,200.

However, on coming into office, Luxon’s Government scrapped both of Labour’s extensions of the bright-line test, shifting it back to two years as of July 1, 2024. That means Luxon avoided being caught by the five-year test by just over two months and saved himself $70,200. If he had sold the apartment in February, when he declared he would move into Premier House, he would likely have been required to pay the tax.

Obviously, Luxon didn't change the rules solely so he could profit from it. But he did nakedly profit from the rule-change he wrote. And that's... unseemly. A "bad look". A bit stinky.

But I guess that's just who our political class are now: not normal people, but people with huge portfolios of hoarded houses, and the rapacious, grasping, self-interested attitudes to match. According to his Gospel of Prosperity, Luxon saw an opportunity and took it, and that's why he's "wealthy and sorted" and the rest of us are just struggling peasants. And because we were fools enough to give him power, we deserve to be exploited in this way. But while that may sound great in the weirdo fundamentalist circles Luxon moves in, to the rest of us, it just looks like a greedy arsehole abusing his power to rip off the public. And it makes some form of wealth tax a necessity. Because its no longer just a fair way of giving the state the resources it needs to pay for the services we need - its about making sure rich arseholes like Luxon don't get to rort us while laughing at us.

Climate Change: Fossil fuels versus free trade

One of the arguments against National's gas fantasy is that it breaches our environmental commitments under various free trade agreements, including the NZ-EU FTA, which requires us to meet our Paris commitments and not weaken our environmental protections. And it turns out that MFAT agrees:

Legal advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade states the Government’s plans to repeal the 2018 ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration will “likely” breach New Zealand’s obligations in recent free trade agreements.

Deals with major trade partners such as the European Union and the United Kingdom prohibit New Zealand from reducing environmental protections to encourage trade or investment. Though officials said the risk of a country taking a case against New Zealand was low, the policy was “likely” inconsistent with these provisions.

National apparently doesn't care, leaning heavily on that low chance of anyone bringing a case. Which I guess shows how committed they are to the "rules-based international order" they keep talking about. But we're a pretty poor international partner if we only keep our commitments if they are actually enforced against us, and I think most kiwis would expect better from our government than that. We've made promises, and we should keep them. Only business weasels and sociopaths would try and cheat.

But also, it seems that if we want the direction of this government to change, we should be doing our utmost to ensure that these countries do take action. After all, National has said its the only thing they'll listen to. We should take them at their word. And if it results in sanctions on the dirty dairy industry, so much the better.