Quick Hit: We Have Room
Day after PREFU, Hipkins tells Hosking there is room for pay equity in Labour's fiscal plan but will not put a line item on it. The costing is a vibe. The spend is a promise.
Political Intelligence
Quick Hit: Willis’s Better Books Came Partly Out of Your Trolley
Treasury has the deficit at $6.8 billion and next year within $0.8 billion of surplus. It says that is partly inflation lifting the tax take while spending allowances stay fixed, which is how Willis got there with no new taxes.
Quick Hit: Tradies Pay the Lawyers’ Loans
Labour will take 10 per cent off eligible student loans and wipe balances of $2000 or less entirely, at $583.4 million over five years. The debt moves to taxpayers and a doctor gets nearly four times what a teacher does.
Quick Hit: Don’t Write It Down
A curriculum lead was filmed telling staff the minister’s feedback was “OIA-able” and should stay out of writing. Now the chief ombudsman is formally investigating, and Erica Stanford says it’s a matter for her chief executive.
Quick Hit: Three Point Four Billion. Familiar Labels.
Fonterra’s $3.4 billion year came with a $1.2 billion one-off from selling Anchor and Mainland to France’s Lactalis. Farmers banked the cheque, and the butter still costs what it costs.
Quick Hit: Fifteen Questions. Roaming.
Hipkins dropped 15 written questions on Pacific roaming and SIM cards weeks from the election. Suit: some SIM cards at USD $35. Fifteen questions. Roaming. Country can wait.
Quick Hit: 880,000 Costumes
TPU puts a red price tag on $880k from the Major Events Fund for a World of WearableArt exhibition. Upston sells visitors and Kiwi creativity. Major Events Fund. Minor accountability. Eight hundred and 80 thousand costumes. One line on the invoice.
Quick Hit: Two Hundred And One Billion
Taxpayers’ Union Bribe-O-Meter puts Opportunity at $201 billion over four years. Another $407m Industry Energy Resilience this week. Hope has an invoice. $201 billion. Still other people’s money.
Quick Hit: Make NZ Healthy
NZ First Make NZ Healthy: prevention over medicines that manage decline and sell another Pharmac cheque. Nutrition curriculum, metabolic health, written consent, GP autonomy, Medsafe/Pharmac barriers, Vit D and IV C trials are selling a different destination.
Quick Hit: Labour Breaks Both. Nat Breaks One. ACT Breaks Nothing.
Labour would force Woolworths and Foodstuffs to split retail from wholesale. National still hedges Foodstuffs behind ComCom. Seymour brings the scissors. Breakup season. Same aisle. Three scripts. Labour breaks both. Nat breaks one (maybe). ACT breaks nothing.
Quick Hit: Breach Of Trust. Then The SFO.
Van Velden has lost confidence in FENZ CE Kerry Gregory after a seriously significant file was withheld for a year. SFO sits on a historical levy matter FENZ says is proactive and not Gregory personally. Accountability needs the file. Breach of trust. Then the SFO.
Quick Hit: Ten Point Eight Million. And The Veto.
Greens still sell KiwiMart at $10.8m a store with the library costing locked. Same week Seymour brings the aisle veto and National leaves ComCom out. Soft communism with a locked drawer. Campaign promise with coalition scissors.
Quick Hit: The Letter That Bought $4.9m
OT treated a thank-you letter from Willie Jackson's wife as the business case for $4.9m. Not procurement. A family note with a price tag.