Political Roundup - The Anti-Environment Government to Dame Jacinda Ardern
Good morning ! Weekend at last ! Here’s some quick updates for the field:
1. Three Ministers chose projects for the Fast-Track list. The government’s hand picked advisory team then failed to independently verify ANY information provided by applications. Nor did anyone consider any environmental impacts.
This explains how over $500,000 of NACT1 political donations correlated to the chosen projects - including Winton Property Development - which has a long standing and close relationship with Chris Bishop.
It also explains why and how the personal invitation Chris Bishop sent to Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for fast-track successfully made it through - considering the Australian company wants to mine 50 million tonnes of seabed - dumping 45 million tonnes back - off our Taranaki Coaast for 30 years. The area is home to 30 mammals including endangered blue whales & Māui’s dolphins. TTR’s boss admits the giant crawler will destroy the seabed.
Furthermore, TTR claimed their application would bring $1bn a year to the NZ economy but once chosen, they retracted the statement. Figures for a company that has lost its applications in our Supreme Court for almost 10 years.
Source: Ministers lift the curtain on fast-track approval conflicts (RNZ) & Seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources retracts claim it will earn $1 billion a year
2. Luxon over-selling and under-delivering again in India where he fails to reach promised free trade deal
Luxon emerged optimistic about his pre-election pledge to secure a free trade deal with India this term, a commitment which has been characterised as "ambitious" or "implausible" depending on one's generosity.
A previous attempt - initiated under Sir John Key - stalled about a decade ago, and formal negotiations have yet to resume.
Labour's David Parker earlier told RNZ the commitment was simply not credible.
But pressed on the matter, Luxon is defiant.
"We're determined to do it," he told RNZ. "We'll get it done."
Source: East Asia summit: 'We'll get it done' - PM Christopher Luxon on India trade deal (RNZ)
3. The NZ right wing Government continues agenda to strip Health NZ of money and negatively impacting frontline services.
Yesterday, Health NZ announced it expected staff to take 3 weeks leave over Christmas. Those without the balance were expected to take leave without pay. HNZ confirmed they would ensure enough staff to “keep the lights on”.
The government is also stripping Health NZ of significant IT investments - removing another $100 million from data and digital and firing key roles - despite significant lags in technology that impact clinical efficiency, national standards, and accuracy.
That brings the amount of money stripped in health technology to $572mn so far this year. These cuts will “absolutely affect frontline services”.
People in the know also say this will lead to millions of dollars in sunk costs, and put NZ back decades in an already inefficient and cumbersome technology framework.
Meanwhile, Northland hospitals are still without doctors overnight after Health NZ halved the pay of locum doctors.
Source: Health NZ's data cuts 'will absolutely affect front-line services' & May flashback article: Heath funding fails to keep up with inflation or demand - doctors' union
4. Here is a video of a storm surge washing away homes in Florida two years ago.
Climate change is a social, survival and economic issue and a government which fails to acknowledge that shows it is antithetical to science, reality and may be associated with vested interests e.g. the fossil fuel industry.
Climate change is an area I don’t comment on often because of my lack of technical knowledge. However, skeptics only need to look at the business driven insurance industry worth $6 trillion US dollars - and led by folks like Warren Buffett - to understand that climate change is very real and the impacts are going to be significant for us all.
5. It is coming up to a year now of Mark Mitchell’s tenure as police officer, with no sign of crime - particularly violent crime - abating. Mark Mitchell promised to resign if Kiwis didn’t feel safer with him at the helm of Police after one year.
Mitchell had been a strong critic of Labour, claiming they were soft on law and order and using gang membership numbers as evidence of this on multiple ocassions. However, this year, after it was revealed National was scrubbing gang membership numbers, Mitchell said gang membership lists and numbers weren’t always accurate nor reflective of crime.