Question Time review - 28.6.2023

Gary has Covid, so this is my first solo review. Other things happening at Parliament today: a singing competition (possibly sponsored by Ryman Healthcare). Showed up too early - I've got 25 minutes to peruse the questions. One of the reasons I like attending is that there's no phones/internet for the audience, and it's a nice place to collect my thoughts. - Sitting above the Government so I can see the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, who both have questions today. If I crane my neck, I can see the Labour front bench. The questions aren't hugely interesting: electioneering or PR releases. Quite an empty audience (though it filled out during Question Time). On a personal note: I'm surprised that a crazy trannie has managed to get under the skin of the political class. Who knew these reviews would be so effective? 🤣 12 minutes to 2pm: MP's are starting to file into the House. - Before the questions, all the parties (except Te Pāti Māori) congratulated the NZ Special Olympics Team, which took about 10 minutes. - 1. Luxon to Sepuloni Sepuloni: "we have no plans" to introduce a capital gains or asset tax. Stuck to her guns in the supplementaries .. "we have not announced a tax policy" Honestly, this elaborate game of chicken that Labour are playing about their tax policy is driving me nuts: everyone knows they're going to implement one or the other of those. - 2. Swarbrick to Edmonds Healthy Homes Standards: according to a Kantar survey, 92% of landlords have either fully met the standard, or are working to do so. Chloe pointed out it was a voluntary survey, so not really representative. Chloe: why is compliance incumbent on renters? [my paraphrase]. - 3. Lorck to Robertson Stats NZ reported employment has risen each month for the last 5 months. Exports have risen 2.8% to $7 billion in May 2023. NZ activity index: 0.7% higher May 2023 compared to May 2022. - 4. Willis to Robertson

The duel of the selective quotes from the BNZ report... this was rather silly: Willis plugged a "National-led government" I yawned, as I usually do during this question. It's really boring! Some good rhetoric from Grant near the end of the question while the Nats heckled him. - 5. Bennett to Woods The Clean Heavy Vehicles Grant: low-emissions versions of planes, buses, trucks etc. The current grant is expected to support 500 vehicles, which doesn't sound like much... The national EV charging network is developing, with 23 charging stations soon to be added. It's a public-private collaboration, apparently. Green Hydrogen Consumption Rebate. - 6. Mitchell to Edmonds (filling in for Andersen) Another stupid crime question. Apparently 80% of NZers believe the cops are highly professional according to the Crime and Victims survey. - 7. Peke-Mason to Tinetti Double-check these stats.... Women represent 53% of public sector board seats. Māori = 26.8% of board seats. Wahine Māori = 15% - 8. Seymour to Verrall About warehouses storing millions of dollars of expired PPE and RAT equipment. The company is called Healthcare Logistics. The question was about a specific warehouse, but Verrall said that the numbers hadn't been disaggregated from the total yet. - 9. Whaitiri to McAnulty The Emergency Management Bill: Whaitiri took the Māori Party line and suggested the establishment of a separate, Māori-led emergency management group. McAnulty called her out for supporting the Bill when she was a Labour member. - 10. Twyford to Parker Repealing the RMA; they're on track to finish that by the end of this term. Plan-making will be faster, and fewer consents will be needed for property developers. Potential savings of $430 million. - 11. Woodhouse to Robertson (filling in for Edmonds) Provincial Growth Fund: is it any good? I dunno: this is over my head.

- 12. Kanongata'a to Mahuta Adoption of a new UN Treaty about restoring biodiversity to the high seas. There's a novel clause, which relates to the sharing of marine genetic resources; various nations would share research with developing countries and possibly undertake research for them. Mahuta said something about developing countries lacking the technical resources to research their oceans.