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Chris Bishop’s Speed Bump
Rumours are rife that Chris Bishop will have some of his Ministerial portfolios removed/reshuffled as Luxon gears up for this week’s State of the Nation address.
NZME’s Thomas Coughlan was keen to downplay it as about ensuring Bishop wasn’t overworked. But Bishop’s 2 million extra Auckland homes intensification plan is also under fire, with one political commentator noting Luxon’s captain call to water it down is as much about Luxon showing Bishop who is boss after a failed leadership coup, as it is about political calculus.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told press he and his Councillors have no clear information on what’s happening, but observed that National is busy leaking to media figures instead.
Matthew Hooton explained last week that changing Auckland’s intensification plans was about protecting Auckland’s leafy suburbs and heritage homes, while facilitiating more growth around Auckland’s new City Rail Link - something Wayne Brown and National would be able to easily sell to Aucklanders - while fending off any attacks from ACT if Epsom/Remuera came under ‘threat.’1
Last month, Sir Geoffrey Palmer wrote an op-ed about Bishop called “The vaulting ambition of Chris Bishop”, noting:
“The minister has created a massive ministerial empire ..…What worries me the most with Bishop’s RMA reform is the loss of significant features of the environment being sacrificed on the altar of development.”
Spying on Firefighters; Ignoring Doctors; Risking Lives
FENZ is reportedly directing and using Auckland Transport (AT) cameras to spy on firefighters and supporters during 1 hour strike / protests. The firefighters’ union has lodged a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner but FENZ has not responded publicly. The National and ACT government, along with FENZ leadership, appear intent on attacking firefighters.
Senior doctors blame months of cuts for another major technology outage in hospitals this past week. The PSA (Public Service Association / Union) blew the whistle, and Health NZ confirmed it two days ago. The outage affected Southern district hospitals such as Central Region, Wellington Hospital, Wairarapa Hospital and Hutt Hospital, and “staff throughout the central region” for more than 12 hours, as clinicians warned of the severe risk to patients from missing lab, patient and dosage notes.
Regrettably, the issues had been well known for months according to senior doctors. Health NZ eliminated 33% to ~50% of their data and IT teams last year, and culled significant year long IT investment projects, as part of Lester Levy & National’s “budget savings”.
Meanwhile, National has increased NZ’s defence spending by $9 billion in new money to please Trump, and retained billions of dollars of taxpayer funded tax cuts to tobacco companies and global tech firms.
2025 Hottest Year On Record As Trump & Fossil Fuel’s War Cries Work
Newsroom’s Marc Daalder reports:
“New Zealand’s land and sea temperatures in 2025 were the highest in 151 years of records…
Human activity – the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of natural areas – has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 50 percent since the preindustrial era, leading to sustained global warming. The five hottest years on record for New Zealand have all come in the last eight years.”
And Australian journalist Nick O’Malley takes note of how Trump and fossil fuel’s “war on the planet” is pervading politics everywhere - elaborating with exceptional skill:
“The impacts of Trump’s attack on climate science are profound but as yet unquantifiable. Appetite for ambitious climate policy is also waning in Europe. The COP is faltering and multilateralism itself is under threat. But the voice of Trump and the fossil fuel-funded think tanks that helped draft his climate and energy policies has metastasised to Australia too, where it has cluttered our crucial climate and energy policy debate with dingbattery and cant…
Commentators and not a few politicians in this country rage against subsidies to renewable energy but not those to fossil fuels, all the while pining for a fantastical state-funded nuclear power industry.
They fret about the thousands of tonnes of pollution spent on turbine blades and solar panels, but not the billions of tonnes of coal ash and carbon dioxide. They rail against car battery fires as though petrol was not combustible.
Men better known as champions of broadscale land clearing fuss about the harm that wind turbines might cause whales and birds. (Not much.)”
