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"New Zealanders aged 18 and over will be eligible for the $350 payment unless they earn more than $70,000 a year or already receive the Winter Energy Payment."
Pensioners and beneficiaries get that winter payment, so that narrows the target audience.
But $350? spread out over a 3 month period? It's lame.
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@Paekakboyz said in NZ Politics:
"New Zealanders aged 18 and over will be eligible for the $350 payment unless they earn more than $70,000 a year or already receive the Winter Energy Payment."
Pensioners and beneficiaries get that winter payment, so that narrows the target audience.
But $350? spread out over a 3 month period? It's lame.
Wasting more of other people's money
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The South Pacific can handle its own security needs, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday as details emerged of China’s plans to significantly deepen ties with 10 island nations.
“On anything related to security arrangements, we are very strongly of the view that we have within the Pacific the means and ability to respond to any security challenges that exist, and New Zealand is willing to do that,” she said after a meeting with US senators in Washington.
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@antipodean When she says “we” she means “Australia”
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Government contracts to husband and family of Minister Nanaia Mahuta 'managed for conflict'
26 May, 2022 07:00 PM
By Kate MacNamaraThe husband and family members of Labour Minister Nanaia Mahuta were awarded contracts worth $90,000 by the Ministry for the Environment in a period when Mahuta was the department's Associate Minister.
A spokesperson for Minister Mahuta said "the Minister has had no involvement in the appointment of family members."
Documents released under the provisions of the OIA show that Ka Awatea Services, a consultancy owned by (William) Gannin Ormsby, Mahuta's husband, was paid $25,000 for work that began in late October, 2020, and ran for 12 months. The work was described by the Ministry as "Maori expert rōpū".
A second consultancy, Kawai Catalyst, owned by Tamoko Ormsby, a relative of Gannin Ormsby, and his wife, Waimirirangi Ormsby, was paid $65,000, for work described as "support for Maori expert rōpū" over the same period.
Both Tamoko Ormsby and Waimirirangi Ormsby are also directors of Gannin Ormsby's consultancy, Ka Awatea. And in 2020, the Ministry for the Environment described Waimirirangi Ormsby as project manager at Ka Awatea.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for the Environment declined to confirm whether any further fees have been paid to consultancies connected with the Ormsbys outside the financial year 2020/21; the department is considering the Herald's questions under the OIA process.
The three family members made up the majority of a five member Māori group of advisers, or "rōpū", formed by the Ministry in 2020, to contribute to a waste strategy review.
The group was described by the department at the time as "Māori waste minimisation technical experts and thought leaders with wide experience in the sector."
The Ministry said the group would guide the development of a new waste strategy according to mātauranga Māori.
Sam Buckle, deputy secretary of water policy and resource efficiency at the Ministry, said the rōpū was not asked to prepare a separate report: "they were required to provide expertise and advice incorporating a Māori world view during the project, including participating in meetings with the general advisory group, preparing and presenting a conceptual framework draft, and contributing to the developing content of the proposals."
The Ministry described Gannin Ormsby as a "founding member" of Para Kore - a "Māori waste movement", and said he has "wide experience in the waste sector".
Para Kore's website states that "early conversations that started the Para Kore journey were initiated by Waikato Regional Council staffers" including Gannin Ormsby, "who wanted to help marae with waste minimisation."
Gannin Ormsby's Linkedin page notes he was employed in "iwi relationships" at the Waikato Regional Council from 2005 to 2015. The Companies Register shows he formed Ka Awatea in June, 2019.
Nanaia Mahuta is a Māori minister currently responsible for the Foreign Affairs and Local Government portfolios; she is also Associate Minister for Māori Development. Mahuta was Associate Minister for the Environment and Minister for Māori Development from 2017 until early November, 2020.
When questioned, her spokesperson said, "the Minister ensures that no conflict exists or appears to exist between her personal interests and portfolio responsibilities, in accordance with the guidance in the Cabinet Manual."
The Cabinet Manual states that it "may not be appropriate for Ministers to participate in decision-making on matters affecting family members, whānau, or close associates" it gives the examples: "attempting to intercede on their behalf on some official matter; proposing family members for appointments; or participating in decisions that will affect the financial position of a family member."
Buckle said that ministers had "no involvement in the selection process, nature and scope of the rōpū contracts. It's important to note Hon Nanaia Mahuta had no involvement in the waste work programme. The personal relationships between the Ormsby family members and Minister Mahuta were disclosed from the beginning."
Buckle also said the Ministry "took the necessary measures to manage conflict-of-interest risk. The Ministry made sure contract rates were set within a standard market range."
Waimirirangi Ormsby was also appointed to the Technical Working Group on a plan for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DWG) which produced the controversial He Puapua report for the Government in 2019 (the report recommended much greater power-sharing between the Crown and Māori over the coming decades).
He Puapua was supplied by DWG chair Dr Claire Charters to Minister Mahuta as chair of the Cabinet Māori/Crown Relations Committee in November, 2019. Mahuta was also Minister for Māori Development at the time.
Minister Mahuta's office directed questions about the appointments to the "agencies responsible for those appointments".
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Māori Development advised that the department could not meet the Herald's Thursday deadline for questions concerning the appointment process for the DWG.
Minister Mahuta is also in charge of the contentious water reforms planned by the Government.
The Government aims to force, through legislation, the consolidation of local council waste, storm and drinking water assets into four new water entities; controversially, the plan will weaken local ratepayers' control of the assets, and strengthen the control of iwi groups.
There are three levels of governance anticipated to sit between iwi groups and local councils and the new water entities. Among the plan's provocative provisions is the stipulation (delineated in Cabinet papers) that the appointees to these levels of administration, including the boards that directly govern the new entities, will require expertise in Māori principles and Māori knowledge.
Critics, including the Act and National Parties which oppose the water reforms, say that prioritised skills should be in funding, building and managing water infrastructure projects.
Tipa Mahuta, sister of Nanaia Mahuta, is also a powerful political figure and active in the area of water governance.
In early 2021, official documents show that responsibility for appointments to the Māori advisory group to Taumata Arowai (the newly formed drinking water regulator) passed temporarily, for the period February to June, from Nanaia Mahuta as Minister for Local Government to her colleague Kelvin Davis. The purpose was to mitigate a potential conflict of interest related to whānau.
In May, 2021, Davis appointed Tipa Mahuta chair of the Taumata Arowai Māori advisory group. She is also a Waikato Regional Councillor, co-chair of the Waikato River Authority, and co-chair of the Māori Health Authority.
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@antipodean said in NZ Politics:
Really?
More evidence these guys have no idea. Hopefully the voters work this out and turf Labour and their allies out next election
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@Kirwan said in NZ Politics:
@canefan have been surprised at random people bringing up how much they despise Jacinda and this government. Usually after me mentioning something like petrol prices.
3 waters is another thing I've seen people get angry about. Also the way she doesn't really treat the public like adults, and the slow progress in winding back aspects of the covid19 response especially relating to travel. Its all anecdotal, but I agree there is significant discontent out there. It will be made worse if inflation and cost of living issues deepen
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@canefan 3 waters is a complete sham.
Sure, some regions are in desperate need, but like the Govt does with councils when things turn to shit, they should step in, not 'take' a strategic asset, pay way, way under market value for the asset, then, in a year or so when something needs upgrading to it, expect the previous 'shareholders' to dip into thier pockets again for the upgrade.
The govt has done so well with the DHB model, yet somehow, think they can do it better with 3 waters?
The Labour & Greens are so far out of touch with reality.
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If I was Jacinda I'd be bowing the fuck out right now and sailing off to a cushy UN job leaving the trail of destruction behind me.
Shit is going to get tough for a lot of people over the next 5 or so years, and she will be blamed.
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@antipodean keep the fluffybunnies that Aus turned into crims!!
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@antipodean said in NZ Politics:
Ahahaha, nah. Fuck off.
Labor's brightest and best meeting on the world stage, earnestly discussing matters of great moment to no-one.
Albosqueaky was the office boy at Labor HQ in Sussex Street during its great days, and was the last bloke wandering around the empty corridors after they ended 25 years ago. He's got nothing.
Ardern? She is clearly going to need to hedge her bets in a year or so. Without some sort of "leg up" crisis appearing I doubt she can run the con successfully one more time.
Australia doesn't need the lifelong criminal big tough tatts fellas for the same reason New Zealand doesn't want them back. If Labor is to retain western Sydney they need to do more to protect the industrious Asians and nothing for the mobs wandering about on the dole being important gang members.
Next effort by Clip Clop Ahem will have her back here preaching empathy for illegals from places that have not been war torn for a decade or more. She flies about the place, on a budget around the size of Bankstown Municipal Council, lecturing Australia about being humane. She hasn't contributed a zac to the $7 million the Sri Lankan pin up family of chancers has cost the country so far.
There are a lot of unworthies with their snouts in our shallow taxpayer trough. Friday evening schooners of New with me dodgy mates will get my mind off that quick smart.
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Meanwhile, our leader has been offshore talking NZ up as a great place...
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I hope the Greens can shoot themselves in the foot again 🙏
NZ Politics