NZ Politics

An investigative journalist who was barred from attending the national apology to survivors of abuse in care has now been granted accreditation.

Parliament's speaker has now granted temporary Press Gallery accreditation to journalist Aaron Smale for Tuesday's apology for abuse in care. He must, however, be accompanied by a Newsroom reporter at all times.

Last week, speaker Gerry Brownlee declined an application from Newsroom for Smale to report on the apology.

Parliament's Press Gallery gallery had asked for an explanation, as a refusal was quite rare, especially when a reporter met the gallery's criteria for accreditation.

It was told the application was declined, with the speaker citing Smale's conduct on a prior occasion.

On Monday afternoon, the press gallery wrote to the speaker, requesting a more fulsome explanation.

In an about-turn, the speaker approved the application.

At a media conference at Parliament in July, Smale and the Prime Minister had an exchange over the government's law and order policies, and whether the Prime Minister would acknowledge the link between abuse and gang membership.

According to Newsroom, Smale had also attended a media event at a youth justice facility in Palmerston North, and pressed children's minister Karen Chhour over whether it had been appropriate to associate the memory of the Māori Battalion with the new youth justice programme.

"The Beehive was in touch with us to say they believed he had been too forceful and too rude, in their view, in those two occasions," Newsroom's co-editor Tim Murphy told Nine to Noon.

Murphy said that Smale had conceded he had pushed the children's minister a bit far.

"But the one in Parliament, he was asking specific questions and kept asking them of the Prime Minister and I think that became irritating to the Prime Minister," Murphy said.

Describing Smale as "the most informed, possibly, probably of all New Zealand journalists" on the issue of abuse in state care institutions, Murphy said political discomfort should not be a reason to exclude Smale, and the ban should not stand.

"As a society that values the role of the fourth estate, we should value the work of journalists like Aaron, because it helps us take a critical look at where we have gone wrong and how we may move forward," said the Greens' media and communications spokesperson Hūhana Lyndon.

"Barring a leading journalist from an important event like this speaks to this Government's lack of accountability. It is something we might expect in Putin's Russia, not 21st century Aotearoa New Zealand."

Am I the only one that gets lizard person vibes from the quotes from Luxon in that article?

Well, they did it after all. Do you think she will finally resign, or will she go kicking and screaming?

For a party that ran its campaign on devolving decision making to the regions, this is massive overreach.

I know first hand the infrastructure problems facing Wellington but the council literally only just had the vote. They need to be given the opportunity to find solutions, and go back to the public for consultation, rather than being blackmailed by the minister. Very much comes across as “do as I say, or else” given their hard on for asset sales.

Submissions on tolling the replacement gorge road have now closed, but Woodville residents are refusing to give up fighting.

Under the current proposal, those driving between Palmerston North and Woodville in a light vehicle could pay $4.30 per trip, $8.60 for a return - and up to $17.20 for heavy vehicles.

The former State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge closed in 2017 due to rockfall.

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.

University of Otago legal expert Professor Andrew Geddis said the Cabinet Manual doesn't cover whether receiving a donation is a conflict of interest.

In a political system where a lot of the money used for campaigning comes from private sources, it would be difficult to bar parties from being involved in decisions which impact donors.

"The unions give lots of money to the Labour Party. If that was then to mean that the Labour Party couldn't pass workplace relations legislation that impacts on unions, it would take a huge policy issue just out of play."

If this was the rule, donors wouldn't donate, he said.

Key: "Donald Trump is driving very much an America First and a more isolationist kind of view. Actually, it's quite different, it's a very different foreign policy than we've ever seen. So that probably doesn't help New Zealanders much. But on balance, I think he's probably better for the economy.“

Please participate. Don't let the country be handed over to the oligarchs.

The police powerpoint presentation, released to Stuff under the Official Information Act, said members of sovereign citizens group Mauri Nation used fake ID to reach the Prime Minister's floor at Parliament.

The presentation from the Police Security Intelligence and Threats Group in November last year, does not say whether the Prime Minister - then Jacinda Ardern - was present.

Everything is going as planned with this government "starve the beast" strategy. They want to destroy the healthcare system so that people will accept privatisation as a possible cure.

The nation as usual is utterly ignorant of what's going on.

Write up from my old mate Max Rashbrooke on the success of the school lunch program, and the likely impacts of the cuts to the program from the National-Act-NZ First government.

Budget documents show the government was told of "profound" wellbeing benefits from the free school lunch scheme months before it decided to trim its funding.

The research was supposed to be published in June but was still under wraps.

However, Budget papers published this week referred to the study's early findings.

"Emerging findings support previous evaluation findings, but also highlight further benefits of the programme, including improvements in achievement and the importance of universality," said a December briefing note to Minister of Education Erica Stanford.

"This includes that learners are more settled and able to engage with classroom activity and learning, with some schools showing increased academic achievement resulting from an enhanced learning experience from being more settled and less distracted. Initial findings also indicate that the programme is having a profound impact on the wellbeing of learners," it said.

Earlier this year, the government cut annual funding for the scheme by $107 million, reducing the per-student spend for children at intermediate and secondary schools to $3.

A March briefing paper about changing the model for Ka Ora, Ka Ako said it was not clear whether lunches could be provided at that price.

"The most significant risk from the proposal is that we have not market-tested or otherwise analysed the proposed $3 per head price. We do not know whether sufficient supply exists to offer lunches to the specified standard at this price across the full range of schools," the document said.

Unfortunately that's behind a paywall, but there's ways and means of reading it, eg via RSS subscription to NZ Herald.

A couple of notes for the benefit of those that can't read it. Two lecturers in maths education have pointed out that Luxon's claim that there is a crisis is misleading as the achievement data is "based on a new draft curriculum, with a higher benchmark compared to previous years."

ie, the standard for achievement is higher, not the level of maths knowledge declining suddenly. In fact "We’ve been tracking student achievement in mathematics at Year 8 for more than 10 years, and in that time, there has been no evidence for improvement or decline."

More alarmingly for me, a ministerial advisory group was setup which has recommended a new curriculum even while acknowledging there is a lack of evidence for teaching maths the way it proscribes.

That advisory group is chaired by an NZ Initiative idealogue, Dr Michael Johnston and the article almost infers he is basically pushing his own manifesto on how education should be conducted into the curriculum - again, despite evidence it has application to maths education.

For anyone that doesn't know, the NZ Initiative was formed by merging the Business Roundtable and the NZ Institute. They are far right neoliberal idealogues and you'll see people cycle through the organisation before going into political reporting or lobbying, or in Nicola Willis case being placed into political party roles.

"More people are going to have to rely on cars and trucks to get around because we don't have a pipeline of alternatives like rapid transit, inter-city passenger rail, public transport and safe walking and cycling in our communities”

I make no secret of how much I disagree with the Governments policy choices but this takes the award for making me apoplectic.

Fuck the most vulnerable members of society! They don’t contribute anything. Landlords need their dignity back and house flippers should get more profit.

Fucking scum.

I'm sure it was just a poorly thought out choice of words, but the Tsunami remark is kinda hilarious.

Good on the postal union to tell them where to stick their pamphlet, I say.

Of course, David Seymour is upset about it.

Ground-breaking work on fairness and equity within New Zealand's police force has quantified for the first time the gap between Māori and Pakeha when it comes to how they're treated.

It comes from the world-leading project Understanding Policing Delivery, which granted a research team unrestricted access to police staff and data.

Controlling for all other relevant factors, including previous criminal history, youth and gang affiliation, Māori are still 11 percent more likely to be charged with an offence than a Pakeha person in the same situation.

A leaked document from tobacco giant Philip Morris says the company should target political parties including NZ First to get more favourable regulation for its Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs).

RNZ has obtained the 2017 document 'Designing a Smoke-free Future in New Zealand', a corporate affairs plan to lobby for HTPs and other smokeless nicotine products to be embraced as part Smokefree 2025.

The Philip Morris New Zealand (PMNZ) lobbying plan, dated August 2017, was drawn up as the National-led government of the day was legalising vaping products. The document maps out a path for HTPs to gain similar recognition.

"It is essential that we move proactively to control the narrative about PMNZ, our products and in particular, our potential contribution to harm reduction," the document says.

"We would like to force those opposing PMNZ's role in a Smokefree NZ … into a position whereby to oppose PMNZ's RRPs (Risk Reduced Products) is to oppose harm reduction, or be pro-harm."

Tougher rules are needed to combat the risk of political corruption in New Zealand, according to the Helen Clark Foundation.

In a report for the public policy think-tank, set up by former prime minister Helen Clark, author Philippa Yasbek set out 26 recommendations to strengthen the country's anti-corruption measures.

They included penalties for those who failed to comply with the Official Information Act, capping a person's political donations to $30,000 per electoral cycle, mandatory reporting of all gifts offered to politicians, and a three-year wait before any former politician could become a lobbyist.

"Corruption is an insidious cancer. It is not enough for democracies like ours to pay lip service to principles of transparency and steps which need to be taken against corruption," he said in a foreword to the report.

"New Zealand must critically examine these issues on a regular basis. That is why this article is so important and why it raises very serious questions about New Zealand's current commitment to transparency."

Yasbek said anti-corruption measures in New Zealand were largely governed by social norms, but laws were needed.

The government aims to test just over 3.3 million drivers a year in its plan to increase roadside tests for drink and drug-impaired drivers.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown is launching a $1.3 billion Road Policing Investment Programme which will run for the next three years.

He said 65 percent of breath tests will be done at high or extreme alcohol risk times.

The scheme will also have a target of carrying out 50,000 drug tests per year.

Brown said another priority will be speeding on open roads and at high-risk locations.

"This plan has a clear focus on outcomes and has clear targets to ensure police are focused on the most high-risk times, behaviours, and locations.

It follows Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford's selling their new maths policy at the National Party conference over the weekend, claiming just 22 percent of Year 8 students were at the expected standard for maths.

However, Aotearoa Educators Collective on Monday raised concerns the 22 percent figure was not comparing apples with apples because it was benchmarked against a new curriculum which was not yet being taught to Year 8 children.

"The original implementation of the refreshed curriculum was to begin in 2026, with a logical expectation that, as students moved through the school years, their maths achievement would be advancing. Year 1 students starting with the refreshed curriculum in 2026 would be in year 8 in 2033," AEC spokesperson Prof Jodie Hunter said.

"We question the use of data based on assessments where student tasks are based on a curriculum that is not being taught.

"The result of around only one in five students working at the appropriate curriculum level in Year 8 seems questionable given it contradicts previous national and international studies, including NMSSA, TIMMS, and PISA, which all show higher levels of student achievement."