Daily Archives: April 23, 2023

The relationship between Anthony Albanese and Jacinda Ardern helped to change Australian attitudes. Photo / Pool

OPINION:

It took courage and political gall to verbally stalk the aggressively rambunctious Scott Morrison, then charm the hell out of his successor, the more cerebral Anthony Albanese. But Jacinda Ardern did just that.

Just one week after Ardern left Parliament, it is clear that Kiwis particularly those living in Australia owe her gratitude.

The upshot of the outspoken and passionate campaign Ardern waged to publicly call successive Australian prime ministers to account and shame them over the second-class treatment their governments had meted out to New Zealanders has now borne fruit.

At 1 am this morning (NZT), Prime Minister Albanese announced that New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for four years on temporary, special category visas and who meet standard Australian criteria, will be able to become citizens.

It would be trite to suggest that Arderns unique style was the only factor weighing on the Australian Governments decision. It was obviously grossly unfair for Australia to also deny social services benefits to New Zealanders who had long paid Australian tax. On achieving citizenship, they will now qualify for that assistance.

It should also be noted that in reality, it is in Australias economic interest for hard-working and skilled New Zealanders to be offered a direct pathway to citizenship. It will incentivise some Kiwis to make their future in Australia at a time when international labour shortages impinge on many countries.

Since Ardern resigned, first as Prime Minister and then as Mt Albert MP, there has been a great deal of mean-spirited comment over her political legacy on the international front, where she has been criticised as a show pony.

The commentariat has, however acknowledged her undoubted crisis management: think the Christchurch mosque attack, the White Island eruption and the early years of Covid-19.

While the breakthrough was finalised under Chris Hipkins prime ministership, in truth, the credit belongs to Ardern, supported by careful diplomacy by New Zealands High Commissioner to Australia, Dame Annette King.

It was not until after the two PMs joint meeting in Sydney last July that Albanese telegraphed that Australia was prepared to move on a new pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders living across the Tasman and would adopt a more commonsense approach to deporting New Zealand citizens convicted of crimes.

Arderns formal bilateral meeting with Morrison the year before had been politically charged. It took place just as the Covid-19 pandemic was gathering pace.

The Australian Prime Minister had already moved ahead of international authorities and warned his country to prepare for a coronavirus pandemic. But while the topic was on their meeting agenda, Ardern studiously ignored it while she whipped into Morrison at their news conference.

I wrote then that it was as though their meeting took place in a parallel universe where threats of global pandemics, multiple deaths and a potential international recession did not exist.

But Ardern was fixated on shaming Morrison.

All the rhetoric around we are family that both sides in this relationship have promoted for decades, in reality counted for zilch when the Kiwi cousins were treated as inferior.

By combining empathetic advocacy with logic, the former New Zealand Prime Minister broke through the walls that Australia had erected against its Kiwi cousins.

Hipkins has acknowledged the contribution of former prime ministers to the policy shift, adding this is the biggest improvement in the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia in a generation and restores most of the rights Kiwis had in Australia before they were revoked in 2001.

He leaves Wellington this morning for his own first formal bilateral meeting with the Australian Prime Minister.

Poignantly, this is Anzac Weekend.

While the official agenda does indeed allow for the place Anzac Day holds for both Australians and New Zealanders given the large numbers from both countries who were casualties of world wars there are new threats on the horizon.

Views have been sharpened and been shaped by the Ukraine crisis and the recognition that the Pacific is no longer a benign neighbourhood.

Both prime ministers will attend the Nato summit in Europe in June. New Zealand is also considering joining Pillar 2 of Aukus, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The White House has already sent diplomat Kurt Campbell to Wellington to talk with defence and foreign affairs officials on the proposal. The British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly would no doubt have also canvassed the expansion of the security pact to include New Zealand if he had not high-tailed it back to London yesterday to manage the developing Sudan crisis.

In a perceptive speech to the FOMA conference a week ago, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade CEO Chris Seed said many of the assumptions that have underpinned New Zealands foreign policy for decades no longer hold.

We are seeing an increasing shift from rules to power. A shift towards a world where the existing rules and norms of the international system are being increasingly challenged, often eroded, and too frequently disregarded.

Certain countries are increasingly exercising hard power to test the limits of the rules-based system, at the expense of rules that serve smaller countries like New Zealand.

Seed instanced, as the clearest example, Russias unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine a clear breach of the territorial integrity and sovereignty at the heart of the United Nations Charter.

He also singled out the shift from economics to security, adding that economic relationships are being reassessed in light of a more militarised, more securitised, less stable world.

The medium of diplomatic exchange in the Indo-Pacific has, for the last 20 years, been economic. We are now seeing a marked shift towards diplomacy centred on power and security.

This scoping of MFATs evolving position will have been read well by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (Dfat) in advance of Hipkins visit.

It would be naive to assume that the deepening international security environment and the tough choices New Zealand may in future face does not play a part in the weekends private discussions between the two prime ministers.

Already, Australia and New Zealand have announced plans for their armies to work more closely together. Plan ANZAC, named after the joint WWI force, aims to improve army interoperability with more co-operation over training, capability, readiness and personnel.

Then there are the other defining moments in our nations histories.

Hipkins will be accompanied to Brisbane by four influential Mori leaders: Ngahiwi Tomoana, Liz Mellish, Traci Houpapa and Pania Tyson-Nathan.

At a time when Australia is debating what it calls The Voice and giving aboriginal people a greater role in federal and state governance, seeing the value and confidence these stellar Mori leaders bring to international discussions might just inspire Albanese to go further and faster in Australia with proposals to enhance indigenous leadership.

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Fran O'Sullivan: Jacinda Ardern's Australian campaign delivers for ... - New Zealand Herald

National's Taieri candidate Stephen Jack posted a sexist joke on Facebook. Photo: New Zealand National Party

Stephen Jack has resigned as the National Party candidate for Taieri after it was revealed he shared a poem online comparing Jacinda Ardern to Adolf Hitler.

A National Party spokesperson told RNZ on Wednesday night via email the party would open selection for another candidate for the seat in due course.

Earlier, Stuff revealed Jack re-posted a poem which compared former prime minister Ardern to Hitler.

It has come to light as deputy leader Nicola Willis labelled an earlier, sexist joke shared by Jack as "disgusting" - and warned a repeat incident may trigger the party's disciplinary code.

On Sunday, Stuff revealed the Taieri candidate shared a video in 2020 which contained the joke: "I like my Covid like I like my women. 19. And easy to spread." It was removed after the party was contacted with questions.

The poem posted in 2021 remained on his personal Facebook page on Wednesday. It contains the lines: "Just as Hitler had the SS, our prime minister's on the job. She's given up on the police and bought the Mongrel Mob."

SS is an abbreviation for the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel organisation, largely responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated six million Jewish people.

The 'Enough is Enough' verse was written by Balclutha farmer Ross Agnew, and also refers to Ardern as "Cindy". It also reads: "I'd like to leave my carbon footprint on [Environment Minister] David Parker's arse."

Sheep and beef farmer Jack re-posted with the comment "a sequel to the fart tax blues" - a reference to a protest song written by Agnew in 2003, opposing a proposed levy on livestock methane gases.

Jack tagged farming lobby group Groundswell, and rural radio show The Country.

On Wednesday, Willis told Newstalk ZB that Jack had apologised for the joke. She said she would feel uncomfortable if something similar happened again.

"I think it would be incredibly unwise for him to do anything like that again and in fact that would probably trigger some of our party rules in terms of our code of conduct," she said.

Earlier in the week, leader Christopher Luxon called the joke "a pretty crass comment" and defended the party's candidate selection process.

"We're doing a good job," he said. "I am proud of the process I have put in place since becoming the leader, working with the president to make sure we've got a very good vetting process."

Earlier this month, the party's Maungakiekie candidate Greg Fleming, faced heat for comparing civil unions with polygamy and incest during the civil union debate around 20 years ago.

MP Sam Uffindell was selected for the Tauranga by-election last year, despite the party knowing he was kicked out of boarding school for severely beating a younger boy.

* This story was originally published by Stuff, additional reporting by RNZ.

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National candidate shared a poem likening Jacinda Ardern to Adolf ... - RNZ

Former Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns worry that engaging with Parliamentary protesters could set a precedent was a valid concern, experts say, with her presence having the potential to inflame the situation.

However, some say there should have been some engagement with protesters, who spent weeks on Parliaments lawn, ending with rioting and fire.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) released its report on Thursday scrutinising the police response to the occupation around Parliament from February 8 to March 2, 2022 after receiving more than 1900 complaints.

The IPCA report stated that protest leaders wanted to meet with Cabinet Ministers or MPs, telling police, other agencies and media it was one of their main aims.

READ MORE:* A chaotic day in Wellington, a 'distraction team' equipped with safety goggles and 'gardening gloves' * PM, IPCA say there wasn't 'undue' pressure to end Parliament occupation* Jacinda Ardern interviewed for investigation into police conduct during Parliament protest

On February 16, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster asked if then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would meet with the protesters.

Her considerations against engaging with protesters were that a section of the protest was not new and had already raised their issues, there was no designated leadership and there were violent and threatening elements.

She said after Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted, certain people began following and protesting her. She had tried to talk to them twice but found it impossible to do so because she was shouted down, abused and had to withdraw in fear for her safety, the report stated.

Stuff

Jacinda Ardern held a media conference as police continued to clear out protesters and their camping gear from around Parliament.

Ardern also did not want to set a precedent that if people occupied Parliaments grounds the prime minister would talk to them, and all MPs had agreed to not engage directly with protesters.

Former lead crisis negotiator Lance Burdett said there was the potential of violence if the prime minister had gone out to talk to protesters.

However, someone else should have engaged with protesters, such as a senior MP, to hear what they have to say.

Its about getting in early, talking with them, finding out what they want, dont give them what they want ... Its about coming to a mutual arrangement.

Burdett said being more open in negotiating a crisis helped situations.

STUFF

Stuff visual journalists were in the thick of the action for all 23 days of the occupation of Parliament's grounds and the surrounding streets. Here's some of their best work.

He suggested the Government could have been more transparent about looking at loosening Covid restrictions at the time, which could fill the void.

Disinformation project director Kate Hannah said there was a really difficult balance that needed to be found in engaging and dealing with the protesters.

People living in Wellington, working in Wellington ... kids going to school, felt very, very unsafe. People ... were really, really scared, we cant really discount that.

Hannah said to a certain extent, the majority of people whipping up the crowds ... and posting from outside of Wellington, the narrative benefited from Ardern not engaging, and seeing the Speaker (then Trevor Mallard) as an opponent.

It would have been far less engaging if people had sat down and had a krero.

She said it was a very real concern that Ardern talking to protesters could create a precedent, and had they had been successful in forcing someone to speak to them, that would become a reusable tactic.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

President of the NZ Police Association Chris Cahill said the opportunity to talk with protesters has got to be preferable to what we ended up with on that day.

Hannah said realistically, there was not a senior member of Parliament of any side who would have been able to take on that role of engaging with protesters.

As a collective, the distinguishing feature was mass distrust of Parliament.

She said there was a possibility there could have been a community leader or someone else with mana who may have been able to take up the role, but noted the stance of mana whenua.

The major iwi in Wellington, Te tiawa and Ngti Toa, said they did not support the protest and were worried it could harm Mori.

President of the NZ Police Association Chris Cahill told RNZ the opportunity to talk with protesters has got to be preferable to what we ended up with on that day, referring to the last and most violent day of the protest.

You need to at least give people a chance. There were people there that needed to be listened to, they should have been listened to.

You should try everything first, and I dont believe it was done because politics overruled common sense at times.

Former deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters while no longer working at Parliament, made a brief appearance at the protest, visiting various tents and talking to protesters.

The government and politicians refusal to talk is just going to make things much worse, he tweeted at after visiting.

On Friday, he wrote on social media, Chris Cahill is right.

The violence could have been avoided if any one of the sitting MPs had the courage and common sense to leave their parliamentary office to just go and listen to the people, who as the IPCA report said, had a legal right to be there.

Expecting the prime minister and other parliamentarians to engage with a group that were displaying threatening behaviour was a question we haven't had to grapple with in the past, Hannah said.

We need to reflect that some people did expect the prime minister and others turn up and speak to people who made violent threats and continued to make.

Hannah said there needed to be refection on how to keep those in Parliament safe, while being able to keep the accessibility of New Zealands Parliament.

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Potential for violence if Ardern had talked to Parliament protesters ... - Stuff

Blues player Beauden Barrett celebrates a try with Caleb Clarke during the win over the Waratahs. Photo / Photosport

Enabling more to go is dumb

Jacinda Ardern, when she was Prime Minister, announced an agreement with the United Kingdom government to extend the age range for Kiwis to work in Great Britain. Now, Chris Hipkins is proudly announcing that it will be much easier for Kiwis to get residency and citizenship in Australia. When we are so short of doctors, nurses, teachers, builders and such, why are we encouraging people to migrate overseas? Peter D Graham, Helensville

Beauden Barretts decline

It is heartbreaking to watch the demise of one of our greatest rugby players. Beauden Barrett is a mere shadow of the great player he once was. Watching him try to play against the Waratahs on Saturday was tragic. It was so bad I stopped watching. He has never had a good kicking game and Saturday night proved it. A coach once said that the difference between good and great players is 2cm and poor old Beauden has lost his. This applies to Sam Cane as well and, for his future health, he should be made to retire. How many head knocks and concussions can he sustain? Jock MacVicar, Hauraki

Live animal exports barbaric

Nearly choked on my dinner on Wednesday night when Christopher Luxon announced that if National got in they would allow live animal exports again. Immediately contacted my local MP and asked him to pass on a message that, as a National supporter all my life, I will not be voting for National if they bring back this barbaric treatment of animals. The reply the next morning was along the lines of we will treat the animals better than some other country would; and so that makes it all right, does it? Not for me, and I know many other people feel the same. Cows and sheep belong on the ground, not on the seas. Send semen over by air and impregnate their own cows. I will not vote National if this is what they are going to do. Gill Court, Howick

Go back to old Plunket days

We take care of our animals and require a vaccination certificate to go into kennels or catteries to prevent infectious diseases spreading, and yet our babies and pre-schoolers do not have this requirement when placed in daycare. Do we not value the lives of our babies enough to protect them from potential illness and death? We live, supposedly, in an era of technology and enlightenment and yet our babies were better protected, cared for by their parents at home, were loved and treasured, and had a better start in life during the advent of Plunket in the last century where every child had a record book of their milestones, feeding, health issues and vaccinations to the age of 5. Many issues were picked up and rectified before the child started school and parents had a written record to refer back to. Many children born in this time still have their Plunket books. It is typical New Zealand thinking that if a system works but it costs money then dump it! Money, greed, selfishness and materialism have become modern-life power tools to our detriment. Marie Kaire, Whangrei

NZ public transport amazing

My partner and I have just returned to the United States after two months in New Zealand. We had an extraordinary time visiting your country. We were delighted by Kiwis warmth and openness, awed by the beauty of your islands, and also amazed by your excellent urban public transportation systems. We were surprised to hear many complaints about Auckland Transport. Both in Auckland and Christchurch we experienced timely, clean buses. Bus drivers and train staff were kind, helpful, and patient with our moments of confusion. We couldnt believe we could get from Mission Bay to Auckland Airport for $2! We have been telling all of our friends at home about your wonderful public transport (and clean public toilets everywhere!) Thank you for the incredible welcome to New Zealand. We would move there instantly if we could. Rebecca Dorr, Maine

Co-governance catastrophic

Brodie Stone (Weekend Herald, April 22) reported on the canning of Jason Momoas film with measured clarity. If a group of local iwi and hapu cant reach consensus over the filming of a scene for the series Chief of War, what chance has co-governance on a national basis got of succeeding? The economic damage to the Whangarei Heads community is tragic. This idealistic approach on a national scale would be catastrophic! Chris Parker, Campbells Bay

Kiwis rights in Australia

I take issue with Fran OSullivans bouquets (Weekend Herald, April 22) tossed to our former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, that she played a key role in gaining more rights for New Zealand expats. Ardern may have kept the issue highlighted with the Australian powers that be, but I dont accept for one minute hers was the final push to get it over the line. My wife and I moved to Australia in 2001 and remained there until 2017. Throughout this period there were numerous groups, highly active in continually raising the inequities of citizenship with successive Australian governments. This was in addition to various, regular submissions made by NZ parliamentarians to Australia. OSullivan gives little or no credit to any of these lobby groups. For her to suggest Ardern swept in to publicly call successive Australian Prime Ministers to account and shame them is totally erroneous. Knowing Australians as intimately as my wife and I do after many years of living and working there, Australians arent shamed by any Kiwis. On the contrary. More likely the current Australian government saw a brilliant opportunity to bolster their workforce in a tight international labour market by offering an excellent carrot to Kiwis to make the move across the Tasman. Murray Brown, Hamilton East

Easy Great Walks

One option for some of the Great Walks other than the Milford is to walk halfway on the first day and then walk back to your car. Some days later, drive to the other end of the track, walk halfway and back. Youve done the whole track twice. It costs nothing, and best of all, no booking required. No pack needed other than a day pack with your parker and lunch. Pick a day with good weather. I did the Routeburn this way at the age of about 60. Or go with friends walk the whole track starting at opposite ends, swap keys along the way. Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central

On NZ Commonwealth Games

Like all big projects these days, the benefits are grossly overestimated. Look at the Olympics and Commonwealth host cities spending years and years paying back the debt. Birmingham is still paying it back and still proclaimed the event a success. I really love my sport, but New Zealand wanting to host the Commonweath Games is just another ego trip of this country wanting to play with the big boys. Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe

Easy fix for public transport

Auckland Transports chief executive Dean Kimpton must start improving public transport by first getting more out of Aucklands existing transport system. More dedicated bus lanes and priority measures, such as a separate bus transit signal at traffic lights. Give buses the right of way on all roads. Cheaper, flexible and time-differentiated fares can reduce congestion and make public transport more attractive. Higher fuel prices will also encourage more people to use and try public transport. To stop the public loathing of AT and its services, it must continuously improve and promote public transport upgrades. Kimpton can change this perception by getting the buses moving so people can enjoy reading a library book on the bus. Only then will public transport be loved as much as libraries. Patrick McFarlane, nehunga

Police criticism unjustified

There is nothing wrong with having a review of the riot at Parliament grounds so that any loopholes could be plugged up for future protests, but it is galling that the police and their leaders should be maligned for their handling of the situation. What is not appreciated is there is a fine line between peaceful resolution and an all-out riot. When a large group gather to protest a very contentious issue, flashpoints can occur for no real reason. Had the police dispersed the protest earlier, no doubt they would have been criticised for heavy handling of the situation. Reg Dempster, Albany

Short & sweet:

On West Island

Now might be a good time to start the debate as to whether Australia should become part of New Zealand. James Gregory, Parnell

On Gore blimey

As more facts emerge of the Gore Council standoff, the inevitability of this conflict becomes more apparent. Long-serving, ageing and crusty CEO meets youthful, self-serving opinionated first term mayor. Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay

On foot-in-mouth

Are MPI workers doing their job properly? There appears to be a severe outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease in Wellington. Martin Adlington, Browns Bay

On Kiwaussies

Now Australia has returned most of the 501s they feel confident enough to offer well-behaved New Zealanders living in Australia citizenship. Neil Hatfull, Warkworth

On TV complaints

RNZ and TVNZ complained that Twitter called them government-controlled entities. NZ Herald reports Minister wants changes to TVNZ programming. Perhaps they complained too much. Nick Hamilton, Remuera

On Braunias

Steve Braunias The secret diary of Elizabeth Kerekere (Weekend Herald, April 22) absolutely nailed it. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth

Link:

Letters: Live animal exports, Beauden Barrett and NZ ... - New Zealand Herald

A bunch of policy plans, we count 14, have had their names called by the reprioritiser-in-chief over the last few months. Toby Manhire puts them all on one page.

Bonfires. Guillotines. Purges. Its hard enough to keep up with the metaphors, let alone the full suite of policies impacted by Chris Hipkins bread and butter revolution. The process, remember, was begun in the twilight of 2022, when Jacinda Ardern announced in a series of interviews a summer of reprioritsation to just pause, stand back and say, in the next 12 months what are the things we really need to prioritise, and by prioritising does it mean there are things that you then just say we dont have the capacity within government to pursue, [that] theyre just not the most important things for us.

Little did we know then, but it was the twilight of Arderns premiership, too, and in the middle of January she revealed she was reprioritising herself out of office. A blink of the eye later, it was Chris Hipkins standing in the Beehive theatrette. But the policy reprioritisation lived on. If anything, it was amplified. It came in two major tranches or three, if you count the reinvention of Three Waters as whatever it is theyre calling it now. The government resisted calling that part-three of the reprioritisation, however. Which is just as well because it would have only have inspired someone to accordingly rebrand the reprioritisation as Three Slaughters.

Reprioritisation is an eternal task, of course, and Hipkins says to expect more in the budget next month. But will that include turfing out more work already under way? It will be more of a business-as-usual reprioritisation process, says Hipkins.

As good a time as any, then, to review the policies that had their names called during that process of reprioritisation. The government says they collectively will save more than a billion dollars, for reallocation to support New Zealanders with the cost of living, as well as saving on the more nebulous bandwidth. Below, theyre sorted into three categories. Theres the purged, for ideas that have been dragged onto the trash icon. Theres the punted, in which the government has essentially said: not this term, but well get back into it next time, should we be re-elected. Oh, and the pruned, protracted and upholstered, for good measure. Hang in there.

The sixth Labour government has been variously brilliant and terrible at doing communications. Just under Three Waters in the terrible column is the media merger. What should have been a proud banner policy cementing public service journalism and rich, local programming ended up an albatross. Somehow, no one managed to give it a McAnulty heres the guts.

And so as soon as Ardern volunteered in December that it wasnt top of the priority, the last rites were being read. It was the top of the list when Hipkins played grim policy reaper on February 8. The project, intended to take form in the middle of this year, has cost just about $20 million, but the reversal means saving just shy of $365 million across four years, said minister Willie Jackson. RNZ will receive $25.7 million more a year, while NZ On Air gets a $10 million one-off top-up.

Jackson at first indicated the merger was still an ambition, but quickly clarified that it was off the table and in the sea. He has not given up on reforms, however. Alongside the extra funding for RNZ, he is looking at the reintroduction of a TVNZ charter, a fresh board intake at the broadcaster and a broad culture change. Simon Power has announced his resignation as CEO of the broadcaster after just over a year in the role.

Under a scheme set to have come in at the start of this month, a proportion of fuel sold in Aotearoa would have been required to be biofuel in the cause of reducing emissions. That went out the window in February. Introducing a biofuels mandate will increase the price of fuel and, given the pressure on households, thats not something that Im prepared to do at this time, said Hipkins. As to the impact on the emissions budget, he said: Weve got work to do to identify how we fill the hole thats created by the decision around biofuels, and well do that with haste.

The plan had encountered various practical problems and was not expected to have a massive impact on emissions. The Greens, who had claimed the policy as a victory in 2021, didnt raise objection to its demise, but that was before the next round of policy purges, with its unmistakable green shadow.

Not to be confused with the clean-car discount, the upgrade scheme aka cash for clunkers was designed to get lower- and middle-income earners out of gas guzzlers and into more environmentally friendly vehicles. It was hailed at the 2022 budget by ministers Michael Wood and James Shaw as a critical part of the Emissions Reduction Plan that will put Aotearoa on the path to net zero.

Trials of the scheme have already proven to be difficult, and its not clear that this is the most effective way to increase the uptake of low-emissions vehicles, said Hipkins on March 13. Sending the plan to the wreckers produced by some measure the biggest saving of the purge: $568 million. It also produced more questions about the governments commitment to its emissions budgets. Climate minister James Shaw said he and his Greens co-leader Marama Davidson had been called for a really positive conversation with Hipkins a few hours before the announcement was made. But was he not pissed off? Yes, he said. Ive been pissed off for a while now. Its just exasperating and disappointing that we keep making short-term decisions at the expense of the future. It drives me nuts.

Unveiled at the same time as the upgrade programme, a social leasing scheme had been trialled with a view to support low-income families to lease a safe, low-emission vehicle from a community organisation, said Shaw in 2022. This will provide a leg up to those who wouldnt otherwise be able to afford to shift to a low-emission vehicle, helping them reduce their living costs and get ahead.

No dice, said Hipkins last month. It was proving difficult to implement, and several of the communities where it was due to be trialled have been affected by the recent weather. It meant $19 million of the $20 million assigned would be saved, he said.

This was hardly inked in the government programme, but Hipkins did announce as part of the reprioritisation that any legislation to lower the voting age to 16 for general elections is off the table. It will, however, respond as required to the Supreme Court decision in favour of Make It 16, and it would be introducing legislation by the end of the term to lower the voting age for local elections. So, a purge and a pledge, really.

With families and businesses under pressure, its not the time to pursue this change and put additional costs on them, said Hipkins, kicking the social insurance scheme championed by finance minister Grant Robertson into a hypothetical third term. The proposal, also known as income insurance, also known as unemployment insurance, would cushion the impact of a job loss, providing a freshly unemployed person with 80% of their income for six months, funded by a new ACC-esque levy of around 1.4% on incomes. Its off the table for this term, and until we see significant improvement in economic conditions, said the PM.

Around $60 million had been set aside to develop the scheme.

The Human Rights (Incitement on the Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill had emerged out of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Christchurch mosque attacks. It had a bumpy ride, got diluted, and as of January was punted to the Law Commission for consideration alongside other issues around hate speech and discrimination, which allows them the opportunity to consider a difficult and a highly contested area of the law in its totality.

How would that decision save money? Well, one of the things is that it consumes time and energy and, at the moment, we need to have our time and energy focused on those issues that Ive set out as priorities for the government, said Hipkins. They had not walked away from the commitment, he insisted.

Changes to address the imbalance communities faced in challenging licensing decisions are ongoing, but a second, bigger chunk of alcohol reforms, covering sponsorship, advertising, and pricing, has been pushed back, the government deferring receipt of advice by a year to April 2024. These are areas that we do need to take the time to investigate properly so that we can ensure that there arent unintended consequences, said Hipkins.

The Greens Chle Swarbrick, whose members bill containing similar measures was voted down this month, said the government decision had been an absolute slap in the face.

In 2019, then associate minister for the environment Eugenie Sage launched work on a container return scheme that would require small refunds for returned beverage containers. Hipkins said last month: The evidence overseas shows that this does help to reduce waste. However, its also estimated to add small additional costs to households, and we dont want to be imposing those additional costs right at the moment. This policy does remain on the agenda, and we will look to assess it again in the future when the time is right to do so.

Sage was not impressed by a rubbish decision. She said: [Im] gutted for all the work that Ministry for the Environment staff and stakeholders have done Deferring the container return scheme is just kicking the can down the road on ending plastic pollution.

Following a landmark Employment Court ruling that Uber drivers should be classed as employees rather than contractors, the government said it would launch a consultation on how to assess such employment classification. Given an appeal is under way, said the prime minister, rather than pushing ahead with our proposed consultation on changes, well be putting that work on hold until the appeals in that case have been heard.

The clear-car upgrade had been announced with other climate measures including initiatives to boost public transport use, with vehicle kilometres travelled targets introduced as part of the Emissions Reduction Plan dropped for tier two councils, meaning they are required only in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch, where, said Hipkins, where there is the scale for decent public transport alternatives. He said: We need to focus our efforts on the areas where we can achieve the greatest reductions.

The speed reduction programme will be narrowed to focus on the most dangerous 1% of state highways. Hipkins said: Speed limits will reduce in the places where there have been the highest numbers of deaths and injuries. Well continue to make targeted reductions in the areas immediately around schools and marae and in small townships that state highways run through.

The refocus here, which follows pressure from the opposition and some lobby groups, throws into question how the Road to Zero targets can conceivably be achieved.

It might hardly have seemed as if anyone was getting the speed wobbles with the much delayed process towards light rail for Auckland, but Hipkins nevertheless announced a slowing, or as he put it, staging, with the first stage expected to be confirmed by the middle of this year.

In a field in the Wairarapa, Hipkins and his local government minister, Kieran this is the guts of it McAnulty, buried Three Waters, and from the soils did spring a shoot called Affordable Water Reforms or was it Water Services Reform Programme? Honestly, if youre feeling a little sleepy at this point, it probably worked, but in truth that new shoot looked substantially like Three Waters.

The big difference is that the four entities that had been set up under legislation to run tap water, wastewater and stormwater will now be 10. Thats designed to assuage concerns from councils that felt they were losing local control. It means some of the economies of scale will be lost, but the shift in the balance sheet is still there, so the entities can borrow in a way that councils, the smaller ones especially, simply couldnt. National remains committed to repeal.

The co-governance element remains, though the government is now insisting that what it once very clearly called co-governance is not and never was co-governance. As before, the regional representation groups that set the broad direction and appoint the boards of the entities will be comprised 50-50 by council appointments and mana whenua. The start date was also kicked out a couple of years to 2026, by which point, well, who can say where priorities might be.

This post was updated to remove an erroneous reference to the Transport Choices package, which remains intact.

See original here:

Purged, punted and pruned: the Chris Hipkins reprioritisation in full - The Spinoff

ASUCI election season began earlier this month, with the voting period opening on April 17. Voting for offices such as ASUCI president will run until April 21.

In order to learn more about them, the New University spoke with Jonpaul Cohen and Jun Jang, the two candidates for ASUCI president.

Jonpaul Cohen, a third-year cognitive sciences student, is running with the election slate Empowered Anteaters. He told the New University that the importance of community influenced his decision to run for president.

I grew up volunteering a lot in my community, Cohen said. Something that always meant a lot to me was being able to serve my community and give back Whether Im the one that gives back or whether [Jang] gets to give back whichever one of us wins, I just want to give back.

For example, Cohen has experience working directly with the government of New Zealand on the issue of climate change.

A July 2022 School of Social Sciences newsletter says that Cohen wrote a letter to the New Zealand Parliament and was invited to speak before them a month later. Cohen also claims to have been nominated for a Pacific Island Youth Award by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Cohen also spoke about his Jewish and Polynesian identities, a background that he says has shaped his experiences at UCI.

Being Jewish has been the absolute hardest, Cohen said. Being Jewish here [is] not easy at all.

Cohen claimed that he had trash thrown and slurs hurled at him in the past for being Jewish.

I realized the campus hasnt felt very safe for me as a Jewish student, he said.

Cohen also identifies as Polynesian. During the presidential debate on April 11, he said that he was from New Zealand, that his family was from Samoa and that his grandmother was from Tuvalu. Cohen said he is involved with UCIs Pacific Islander community and meets with Pacific Islander students and faculty every quarter to socialize and eat Pacific Island food.

Cohen also discussed the limitations of emergency housing at UCI and how a lack of housing affects students.

I feel like the bar for emergency housing is a little low, he said. You have to meet with a social worker and then you get very short term housing. I dont think we can expect students to academically succeed if theyre [housing] insecure.

Cohen also clarified his comments on R58-97, a piece of legislation passed by the Senate earlier this year to address the effects of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. During the presidential debate, Cohen claimed that R58-97 endorsed a controversial political organization.

Thats not a part of my campaign, he said. My campaign is about student housing. Its about food Anything that I have said with Turkey, I said as a friend of people that were struggling, not as a candidate for student government.

The New University asked Cohen to share some fun facts with members of the UCI community.

In his free time, Cohen sings and acts in musical theater shows in Redlands, his current city of residence. He also enjoys karaoke and plays a number of instruments: the piano, drumset, ukulele, imzad, baglama and theremin.

The New University also spoke with Jun Jang, a third-year political science and Asian American studies student who is running with the election slate ANTvocating for Change. He is the current ASUCI Senate President.

Jang spoke about his various involvements on campus.

During his two years in the Senate, Jang led the now-dissolved Anteater Safety Net Grant special committee, to which eligible students could apply for a $1,000 grant to pay for basic needs expenses.

While Jang did not create the committee, he was the vice chair from the 2021 fall quarter to the 2022 spring quarter and the committee chair from the 2022 fall quarter to the 2023 winter quarter. During his time on the committee, its budget allocation increased from $20,000 to $200,000, allowing 200 students to receive the grant as opposed to the initial 20 students. Jang also led the charge to increase the grant from $275,000 to $350,000 in the winter 2023 quarter.

In addition to serving as the Senate President, Jang is the commissioner of the Office of the Presidents Student Programming Funding Board (SPFB), which allocates funding to on-campus organizations with the goal of promoting social, cultural and education awareness on campus.

Its one thing to suggest an idea for how our fees are used and its another thing to actually understand the limitations, Jang said. It makes me sad [that] there are a lot of limitations on how we can use our student fees.

Outside the Senate, Jang is the current chair of the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC), a campus committee in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor that looks at the fees that students pay in their tuition along with the budgets of campus departments that receive funding from student fees.

Jang also holds two jobs. He works at the Student Success Initiatives office, where he helps students file for scholarships with the Learning & Academic Resource Center (LARC), and as a CalFresh Advocate, assisting operations at the Basic Needs Center at times and helping students apply for CalFresh at others. Jang is also a member of Hansori, a traditional Korean drumming club at UCI.

Im all over campus, Jang said. With that, naturally, comes the opportunity to speak to a lot of people Out of all the candidates in all the elections, I may have the most relationships and connections to administrators on campus.

Jang also spoke with the New University about his various identities and how they have affected his experience at UCI.

Thats a reason why I got into Asian American studies, Jang said of his Korean background. I dont really see Korean Americans reflected much [outside of entertainment] Theres a whole host of things that people should know about Korea and Korean Americans.

Jang said that he plans to pursue a masters degree in Asian American studies at UCI once he graduates.

Jang also identifies as a first-generation and low-income student, which has affected his experience at UCI including his work in student government.

[I have] been low-income all of my life, and so there are a lot of things that come up in life when youre low-income Being low-income isnt an ideal situation, so that guides a lot of the work that I do, Jang said.

Like Cohen, Jang brought up UCIs emergency housing program, which both described as inadequate.

We only have three emergency housing units on campus, Jang said. Realistically, when hundreds of students dont have a home, three units isnt nearly enough.

For his fun fact, Jang shared that he loves boba a love shared by his fellow candidate Jonpaul.

Members of the UCI community who are interested in learning more can watch the presidential debate here and read the recap here.

Voting will end at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 21. Students can cast their votes on the UCI Elections website.

Rustin Roudi is a Campus News Intern for the spring 2023 quarter. He can be reached at rroudi@uci.edu.

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Meet This Year's ASUCI Presidential Candidates | New University ... - New University

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This weekendsvisitto Australia by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks volumes about major changes underway in New Zealand foreign policy.

Hipkins is flying toBrisbane Australias third-biggest city and home to around 100,000 New Zealand citizens to meet with his counterpart, Anthony Albanese.

The trips significance comes in part from its timing. Hipkins is visiting just beforeAnzac Dayon April 25. On this day each year, Australia and New Zealand both remember the role played and losses suffered by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (or Anzac for short) in World War I, and by their forces in other conflicts.

In advance of the New Zealand prime ministers travel, a newpartnershipcalled Plan Anzac has been unveiled, which promises sustained cooperation between the Australian and New Zealand militaries. The arrangement covers a wide range of areas that include strategic engagement, capability, training, readiness and common personnel issues.

Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

Hipkins visit is alsoexpectedto serve as an occasion for Australia to unveil a more generous pathway to citizenship for the near million-strong population of New Zealanders living in Australia an attempt at putting to bed disquiet from New Zealanders who feel Australia has not upheld traditional Anzac mateship.

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There is no better time of year for Canberra and Wellington to send signals of unity. And the bonhomie comes as New Zealand increasingly follows in Australias foreign policy footsteps.

The most recent example of the alignment came in the acceptance by both Albanese and Hipkins of an invitation to the NATO leaders summit in Lithuania this July. The joint RSVP was almost certainly coordinated between Canberra and Wellington.

After NATOs Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg publicly invited the pair to attend the meeting a fortnight ago, Hipkins initially remained non-committal,tellingreporters he hadnt decided on whether he would attend and pointedly noting his busy schedule during New Zealands election year.

Mediareportssurfaced soon afterwards that claimed Albanese would be a no-show in Vilnius.

The reporting was not initially denied.

Albanese already has a packed internationalcalendarthis year. The Australian prime minister perhaps thought that his guest attendance at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and hosting of a Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) leaders summit in Sydney next month would be more than enough to satisfy U.S. and European leaders.

If Albanese was planning on skipping NATO, this also explained why Hipkins showed a marked lack of enthusiasm.

Butcriticismby political rivals and commentators and perhaps some pressure behind the scenes appeared to change Albaneses mind and by Monday this week, the Australian leader wassayinghe would be very pleased to accept the NATO invitation.

Yesterday, Hipkinsannouncedthat he would also be heading to Vilnius. In other words, Australia led and New Zealand followed.

The countries are also becoming closer in other ways.

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Most notably, New Zealand Defense Minister Andrew Littlesignaledlast month that Wellington was interested in joining the second pillar of the AUKUS arrangements, which focuses on cybertechnology.

A week later, Little heldtalksin Wellington with his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles. Little was typically circumspect about the substance of the talks and played down the AUKUS element. However, Marles noted alignment between Australia and New Zealand, adding that its really important that we are working as closely together as possible.

The pairs meeting came not long after avisitto New Zealand by Kurt Campbell, the White Houses Indo-Pacific coordinator illustrating how pressures and interests from further afield are also at play, a factor reinforced by the NATO invitation.

Then there is the small matter of TikTok. Both Australia and New Zealand have issued bans over the past month and surprisingly, this time New Zealand appeared to be the leader, not the follower.

In March, New Zealands Parliamentary Service effectivelybanneduse of the smartphone app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, by MPs and staffers who accessed Parliaments network. The move followed adirective(issued in November 2022, although only publicly revealed months later) by New Zealands Defense Force ordering its personnel to delete TikTok from their devices.

For its part, Australia waited until earlier this month to make its decision, but it then issued a far more sweepingbanthat prohibited the use of TikTok on devices used by employees at all Australian federal government departments and agencies.

It was also reported that more than half of Australias federal government agencies had already banned TikTok. This suggested Australia was the leader after all.

If alignment is a keyword in the 2023 version of the Australia-New Zealand relationship, another is interoperability. Littlespokeof the need for a seamless sort of interoperability with Australia after taking on the defense portfolio earlier this year, and the word is alsousedrepeatedly to justify the new Plan Anzac military partnership.

Expect to hear more about the need for New Zealand to harmonize its capabilities with those of Australia especially when the results of New ZealandsDefense Policy Revieware soon announced. The outcome of the Defense Policy Review is also likely to serve as a justification for New Zealand to announce greater military spending.

It remains to be seen how China will react to New Zealands increasing willingness to fall in line with Australia and NATO. Trade repercussions seem unlikely, although cannot be ruled out if New Zealand becomes deeply intertwined with AUKUS.

China and Australia are currently in a healing phase over trade, after Beijing effectively offered tosettlea dispute with Canberra over the tariffs China imposed in 2020 on Australias barley exports.

In the short term, any displeasure from China at New Zealands decision to take a more Australia-friendly path is more likely to come in the form of playing hard to get.

A notable omission from Hipkins travel announcements this week was any confirmation of a trip to China.

In her final months in office Hipkins predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, indicated she was seeking to visit China early in 2023 a plan that Hipkins initially reaffirmed, but later walked back.

In the announcement of his travel plans this week, the Prime Ministers Office didaddthat the government was continuing to pursue a trade focused trip to China later in the year.

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But for Hipkins to visit China, he will need an invitation. And that invitation may have just become that much harder to obtain.

After all, Hipkins is choosing Brisbane over Beijing, at least for now.

This article was originallypublished by the Democracy Project,which aims to enhance New Zealands democracy and public life by promoting critical thinking, analysis, debate, and engagement in politics and society.

See more here:

Why New Zealand's Prime Minister Is Heading to Brisbane Not ... - The Diplomat

Andrea Vance is a senior Stuff journalist and regular Sunday Star-Times columnist.

OPINION: Its usually the third term before the rot sets in.

Labour is displaying early symptoms of third term-itis, a kind of arrogance and complacency that can be fatal to future electoral success.

The longer they spend in office, the more a government start to look a little grubby. And there is nothing dirtier than money in politics.

READ MORE:* The week ahead in parliament: Jacinda Ardern to say goodbye, while questions around Nash won't go away * Cock up over conspiracy? There is a more obvious explanation to the Stuart Nash scandal* Stuart Nash scandal puts OIA and lobbyist laws in the spotlight

Stuart Nash emailed two donors about a confidential cabinet discussion. They were commercial property owners who had an interest in the decision.

His office then refused to disclose this information a breach of official information laws, in which the then-prime ministers office was complicit.

It was his fourth strike, and Nash was out. Donations from the forestry industry, which he went on to regulate as minister, were already controversial but there was never any suggestion of impropriety.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Minister of Justice Kiri Allan apologised after criticising Radio NZ at an event for one of its outgoing staff members.

He had a parting shot, quoting Theodore Roosevelt. It is not the critic who counts...the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

Using the words of the former US president, Nash appeared to be taking issue with those cold and timid souls in the media, who had pointed out his breaches of Cabinet standards.

To draw heat out of the scandal, PM Chris Hipkins changed the narrative by pretending to fix a problem that was never really there.

With Trumpian-level gaslighting, he promised transparency and vigilance around lobbyists and their relationships with politicians.

The real issue of influence in politics comes from the fact that we have a fundraising regime that sells access to the highest bidder and outdated, compromised freedom of information laws that allow politicians (and their officials) to cover it up.

I can promise you ministers are much more likely to pick up the phone to a donor, than scratch the back of a colleague-turned-shill begging a favour.

But sure. Take away the swipe cards that allow a handful of professional schmoozers to sip burnt coffee in Parliaments cafe. Thatll fix it.

If youve been paying attention, youll know a review is code for make it go away until the public forget about it.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

With Trumpian-level gaslighting, Hipkins changed the narrative.

Still, once government starts to go off, the smell lingers in the nostrils.

It soon emerged another minister had broken Cabinet manual rules. Kiri Allan criticised Radio NZ's treatment of Mori reporters and urged the public broadcaster to examine its culture during a farewell event for her fiance, outgoing RNZ broadcaster Mni Dunlop.

The legislation that establishes editorial independence of the public broadcaster stipulates that no minister can give it direction in that way. The Cabinet manual makes it clear ministers must conduct themselves at all times in the knowledge that their role is a public one.

Allan sincerely apologised, and PM Hipkins took no further action.

On Friday, it emerged Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon gave about $10,000 (in cash and in kind through a rent subsidy) to Allan ahead of the 2020 election. (He also gave $1000 to National's East Coast electorate.)

Ex-Gisborne mayor Foon was appointed in July 2019, by the Labour Government but not Allan, who was then a backbencher. However, she is now Justice Minister, and holds the power of appointment.

Foons position is now probably untenable. As a former politician he should have identified that his donations were inappropriate while he held a supposedly apolitical role, charged with holding the Government to account.

MPs should not be taking money from state servants, and Allan should never have accepted the donation. It must immediately be repaid.

It compromises the neutrality of the public service in the eyes of the public. But that will worry Labour less than the damage it does to its own image.

This drip feed of mini-scandals have common threads. They paint a picture of a cosy elite bound by mutual back-scratching, most of which happens within the limits of the law, but that dont quite pass the voters sniff test.

Power eventually corrupts. And once that happens, it's really hard to get the stink out.

What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz.

Read more about how Stuff manages the distinction between opinion and reporting by its journalists.

Link:

Why Labour is starting to look a little grubby - Stuff

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

Nothing highlights the extent to which new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has reversed Jacinda Ardern-era policy like the incredible turnaround in migration numbers.

After months of concern that Labours tough immigration rules were squeezing the economy, the policy has been relaxed to the point that, suddenly, migration is smashing records.

The net migration gain of 11,700 in February this year was the second highest for any month ever, (behind February 2020 which had a net migration gain of 14,600 ... and was completely distorted by the onset of Covid-19), according to the latest Stats NZ data.

The February result was driven by a record number of arrivals on work visas, Stats NZ said.

It took our provisional annual net migration gain to 52,000 - made up of a net loss of 17,300 New Zealand citizens, which was more than offset by a net gain of 69,300 non-New Zealand citizens.

Thats getting back to John Key-era migration gains - when the nation was gaining around 60,000 people a year.

But wait, theres more!

The annual gain of 52,000 actually understates recent strength, Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon has pointed out.

If our net migration rate across the past four months was annualised wed be looking at a net migration gain of around 100,000 for the year - an unprecedented number.

Bearing in mind that the Government only really began carving exemptions to its migration policy last year, theres no reason to assume the monthly rate wont continue at something like these high levels (even allowing for the possibility of some sort of quirk in the February figures).

We could be about to blow the numbers from last decades migration boom out of the water.

It is hard to think of a bigger policy turnaround, by the same political regime, in living memory.

These big arrival numbers ought to silence some of the concerns business groups have had about government immigration policy.

I have certainly shared those concerns about the timing and implementation of the policy.

To recap, in the 2017 election campaign, both NZ First and Labour made capital out of the stress elevated immigration levels were putting on the economy.

Labour wanted numbers cut by 2030,000 a year. NZ First targeted a net migration figure of just 10,000.

Moves to cut immigration were slow, then Covid hit and everything went a bit haywire anyway - we had record arrivals as Kiwis flocked home, followed by completely closed borders.

The Government forged on with policies designed to limit low-skilled migrant numbers, with a view to driving up local productivity and wages.

There was some solid economics underpinning the argument.

Studies have shown that a steady supply of cheap, low-skilled labour is a disincentive for businesses to invest in the kind of new technology that boosts productivity.

And New Zealand does have a productivity problem.

But the timing - in the middle of an inflation crisis and a global labour shortage - was not good.

Business groups have lobbied hard, making the point that labour shortages are restricting economic growth and driving up wage inflation without any productivity gains - exactly the thing the new immigration policy sought to reverse.

The Government appears to have listened and has incrementally dialled back the policy.

But the strength and speed of the turnaround have been astounding.

A lot of commentary from business leaders and critics of the Government has bemoaned the fact that New Zealand has lost ground in the international race to attract immigrants.

Weve been told were no longer the preferred choice, with the likes of Australia and Canada now leading the pack.

But that argument may have been overblown.

In fact, according to the OECD, New Zealand is currently the most desirable destination for highly educated migrant workers

The OECD has just launched its Indicators of Talent Attractiveness (ITA) index, which it says is the first comprehensive tool to capture the strengths and weaknesses of OECD countries regarding their capacity to attract and retain different types of talented migrants.

New Zealand tops the list for high-educated workers. We come in fifth for attracting entrepreneurs and fare less well (15th) for attracting start-up founders.

Still, its a heartening reminder that New Zealand still has plenty of power to attract immigrants.

High migration is of course a double-edged sword.

Were going to have to move fast to ensure we dont strike the same kind of infrastructure and housing issues we had back in the middle of the last decade.

You can run high immigration to boost economic performance but you cant ignore the costs involved in having a large population.

More migrants should make life easier for employers in the coming months, but as well as helping to ease labour force pressure they add demand to the economy.

In other words, they pull both the supply and demand levers on inflation and the net outcome isnt clear.

On balance, the net inflation effect is likely to be broadly neutral for the economy as a whole, Westpacs Gordon has said, though the effects might differ across sectors.

One thing we can be sure of, the sudden surge in migrant numbers added another fascinating variable to an already complex economic experiment as we seek to find some economic balance in the post-pandemic era.

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Liam Dann: Is this the biggest policy U-turn in NZ history? - New Zealand Herald

Supplied/National Party

National's Taieri candidate Stephen Jack posted a sexist joke on Facebook.

Andrew Gunn is a Christchurch-based film and television scriptwriter, and columnist.

OPINION/SATIRE: Welcome to National Party Headquarters! So youve decided to apply for selection as a candidate. Thats great! Before you proceed to your interview, please fill out this pre-interview screening questionnaire to cover our butts/ensure you are the right fit for the job.

Question 1: Are you

A bloke?

A lady?

Something else?

If you answered a) a bloke then well done! Proceed directly to Question 2.

READ MORE:* Poem shared by National candidate 'disgusting', disrespectful to Ardern, MPs say* National candidate Stephen Jack resigns after sharing a poem likening Jacinda Ardern to Adolf Hitler* 'Crass' post about young women doesn't reflect National's candidate vetting Luxon* How an offensive joke reveals a problem with how National chooses its MPs* Christopher Luxon faces a real challenge in National Party selection

If you answered c) Something else then we are required by our lawyers to tell you that the National Party welcomes a diverse range of candidates and takes its responsibilities pursuant to the Human Rights Act 1993 very seriously. Having said that, come on. Read the room.

If you answered b) a lady: are you prepared to stand in the back row of a press conference nodding empathetically while a male National Party candidate expresses regret for acts of violence in the past and adds that he has changed a lot since then?

If your answer is No then we regret to advise that your values do not match those of the New Zealand National Party. Please return your lanyard and leave the building immediately.

Braden Fastier/Stuff

Christopher Luxon insisted this week National has a very good vetting process in place for its candidates, despite the controversy that ultimately led to Taieri candidate Stephen Jack stepping down this week.

If your answer is Yes then congratulations! You have passed the pre-interview screening test. You may go immediately to your interview. Wear something nice.

You are now in the blokes-only section, which usually means the chance for some informal networking and speaking freely without some snowflake misinterpreting what you say. But in this questionnaire it just means a few more questions that we need you to tick the box on before your interview:

Question 2: How do you like your women?

If your answer was anything at all apart from Equal then return to Question 2 and keep answering it until you say the right thing. You may have unlimited attempts.

Question 3: Get up from your seat and go directly to the Mens bathroom. Look in the mirror and keep repeating The National Party takes climate change very seriously until you can do so without visibly smirking. Return to your seat and proceed to Question 4.

Question 4: At the beginning of todays pre-screening process you were issued with a National Party mobile phone. If you have managed to avoid texting send nudes or taking photographs of your genitals then proceed to Question 5. Otherwise, use the hand sanitiser provided, return the phone and leave the building immediately.

Question 5: If we looked on your Facebook page right now, would there be anything that could be embarrassing for you or us? (Examples might include, say, drawing comparisons between a New Zealand prime minister and one of historys most reviled and murderous dictators).

If your answer is Yes then delete your social media post and feel free to reapply for candidate selection in the next round.

Alden Williams/Stuff

Andrew Gunn: You are now in the blokes-only section, which usually means the chance for some informal networking and speaking freely without some snowflake misinterpreting what you say.

If your answer is No do you pinky-promise that you are telling the truth? The selection committee are technologically-challenged and do not understand how to use The Google, so were relying on you.

If you do so pinky-promise, then congratulations! You seem just the sort of chap were after. Hand in this form and go to the next room where youll be fitted with the standard dark blue suit-jacket and trou, and regulation tie-less white shirt. And good luck in the interview - not that youll need it! Wink wink!

Read more:

'Dear would-be candidate, do you pinky-promise that you are telling ... - Stuff