Mallard was adamant it would happen, but in 50 to 100 years – a bit longer than the 10 years estimated by Sir Peter Jackson and his science collaborators at Colossal. Geniuses, all of them.
Prickly confrontation
It is a shame that Labour’s Deborah Russell got so prickly with former Judge David Harvey about political philosophy when he was presenting to the select committee this week on the Regulatory Standards Bill. She accused Harvey of patronising her. “I have a PhD in political theory, so I’m familiar with [Thomas] Hobbes,” she said when he asked if she was aware of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the German Enlightenment philosopher.
She got waylaid by whose theory on liberty was best and wasted an opportunity to quiz perhaps the only supporter of the bill who also believes any reference to the Treaty of Waitangi should be included in it – at least Articles 1 and 3 of the Treaty, about governance and equal application of the law.
Act’s Cameron Luxton tried to draw him out further about how that would be done, but by then Harvey’s five minutes were up. “I’m still recovering from my academic dispute with Dr Russell,” he said.
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Reports will drop ‘like autumn leaves’
Political reporter Jamie Ensor covered submissions this week, including from Rahui Papa, representing the Pou Tangata National Iwi Chairs Forum, who was concerned the Treaty was being sidelined: “We think this is about individual rights as opposed to the collective property rights that Māori have at the core function of ourselves.”
Later that day, Minister for Regulation David Seymour repeated his suggestion that if his bill had been around in the 1860s, it might have protected Māori against some of the Crown actions against them.
Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer said it was the strangest bill he had ever seen and the proposed Regulatory Standards Council would “drop reports like leaves in autumn” demanding justification for various regulations.
Seymour: “If he thinks it’s too hard for the Government to keep tabs on all the rules it’s making, he should be worried about all the poor buggers out there that have to follow the Government rules.”
Attention Les Bleus!
By sheer coincidence, Les Bleus are touring New Zealand on the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior protest vessel in Auckland 1985 by French spies. They’ll be at Parliament tomorrow for an early celebration of Bastille Day, ahead of Saturday’s test.
The chances are that most of the young players have never heard of the bombing. Notwithstanding the manslaughter of a photographer on the ship, the act of state terrorism helped to cement New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policies. A meeting of the tripartite security alliance, Anzus, had been cancelled in March and the Australian PM, Bob Hawke, had declared it “a treaty in name only”. But debate over the policy continued. As David Lange said in a recently republished interview, three things strengthened the policy: the persistence of French nuclear testing in the Pacific, reprisals by the United States, “but the Rainbow Warrior certainly engraved it in platinum”.
To learn the story of the capture of the spies and the unravelling of their mission, Les Bleus couldn’t do any better than to listen to the new podcast, Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History, by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy.
By the way …
• Te Pāti Māori will select its candidate tonight for the byelection in Tāmaki Makaurau following the death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
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• Scott Brown, former US ambassador to New Zealand and former Republican Massachusetts Senator, is planning to run again for the Senate next year in New Hampshire.
• MPs overseas: Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Kuala Lumpur for meetings with Asean, the Association of South East Asian Nations. Shane Jones has been at resources meetings in Sydney. Chris Bishop has been in Texas and New York for infrastructure, transport and housing meetings, and Casey Costello has been in Tonga for Customs and police meetings. Speaker Gerry Brownlee has been leading a delegation to New York and Washington DC.
Quote unquote
“There’s a lot of meat on a moa. They could feed a lot of people” – Act’s Nicole McKee, an experienced hunter, jokes about the return of the moa with Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW.
Micro quiz
Which country’s leader is currently on the first state visit that Britain has hosted since it voted to leave the EU in 2016? (Answer at the bottom of this article.)
Brickbat
Some submitters had flown to Wellington for a face-to-face hearing with MPs, but ended up disappointed in the select committee room to be presenting to the MPs Zooming in from home.
Goes to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It was about to be awarded the Bouquet for conducting hearings on the Regulatory Standards Bill when most other MPs were on holiday, until it become clear that some submitters had flown to Wellington for a face-to-face hearing with MPs, but ended up disappointed in the select committee room to be presenting to the MPs Zooming in from home (or perhaps their holiday houses). We’re not in a pandemic. Do it properly or not at all.
Bouquet
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has questions for Fonterra’s CEO.
Goes to Finance Minister Nicola Willis for planning to discuss the price of cheese, butter and milk with Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell, and why they are often cheaper overseas than at home.
This week’s top stories
Regulatory Standards Bill: A select committee hearing on David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill turned into “academic jousting” on Tuesday morning as Labour’s Dr Deborah Russell went head-to-head with a retired District Court judge.
Regulatory Standards Bill: Opponents have lashed David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill at select committee hearings in Parliament.
Rainbow Warrior: A new six-part podcast series, Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History, tells the full story of how and why French spies bombed a Greenpeace protest ship in Auckland’s harbour 40 years ago.
OCR decision: International uncertainty has prompted the Reserve Bank to leave its Official Cash Rate unchanged at 3.25%, but the bank has heavily hinted that it expects to resume rate cuts later in the year.
FamilyBoost changes: The Government is tweaking its flagship family tax policy by increasing the maximum refund amount and lifting the income threshold.
Covid inquiry: Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern has not been formally asked to appear before stage 2 of the Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19.
Gambling levy: A high-powered commission has castigated the Ministry of Health for trying to take $92 million off the gambling industry to pay for problem gambling solutions when it can’t prove the solutions work.
Health board: The Government is re-establishing the Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora governance board, putting current commissioner Lester Levy in charge.
OPINION – Labour Party: New York is on track to elect a self-proclaimed democratic-socialist and Muslim mayor. Is there a lesson for Labour and Chris Hipkins? You bet, writes Simon Wilson.
ATM ban: ATMs that can be used to send cryptocurrency offshore will be banned as part of the Government’s anti-money laundering crackdown.
Bank tax: Act leader David Seymour believes the review Finance Minister Nicola Willis has commissioned into bank tax settings will come to the same conclusion he already has: “They’re fairly taxed”.
Bank tax: The Finance Minister has quietly asked Inland Revenue to look at the appropriateness of the tax settings being applied to banks.
Sentencing: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says it is a “possibility” that the Government could introduce more minimum or mandatory sentences for crimes.
Quiz answer: The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald‘s politics podcast.
