New Zealand comedians have been taking Melbourne by storm this month during the city’s annual comedy festival (or what I like to think of as the warm-up event for our very own festival in May).

Guy Williams is one of 10 comics up for the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s top award, for most outstanding show. Meanwhile, Ray O’Leary nabbed a nomination for best newcomer.

Both will be performing on our shores very soon as part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival – more details are here.

Some planned changes to NCEA will be slowed down as the government announces an increased focus on core subjects like maths and English.

Education minister Jan Tinetti’s announced that from next year there will be a list of “essential and foundational” maths and literacy assessments standards from year 10 up that must be achieved to pass NCEA. And in order to “get this right”, the government revealed it will be pushing back the deadline for wider curriculum refreshes.

The new NCEA level one will be fully implemented in 2024 as planned, but level two will now be implemented in 2026 (instead of 2025) and level three will be 2027 (instead of 2026).

“We’ll prioritise mathematics, English, te reo Māori and pāngarau areas of the curriculum, by deferring the requirement for schools to implement the other areas by one year,” Tinetti said.

“Three years of Covid-19 disruptions have left teachers and students exhausted, so we want to make sure that we are easing that workload a bit and are focusing on what matters to families most.”

Parts of the policy may appease, though not fully impress, the opposition. National launched its education policy earlier this year which also included a stronger focus on English and maths, though with a target on primary and intermediate students. It included mandatory teaching periods for core subjects and more regular assessments for younger students.

The party’s education spokesperson Erica Stanford said the government’s announcement today was a “panicked response” to “how serious New Zealand’s declining education standards are”.

Comments from sector experts provided by the minister’s office suggest the changes announced today were a good thing. The principal of the Secondary Principals Assosication, Vaughan Couillault, said the altered timeline had been requested by many in the secondary sector. “With this adjusted timeline, schools will have more time to build their capacity and adequately prepare for the changes, ensuring that the new standards can be more successfully integrated into teaching practice,” he said.

Earlier in the week the government revealed it would be trimming down class sizes by one in about three years time – a move some have said will do little for students. Writing for The Spinoff today, teacher Melanie Dorrian said the changes would mean: “Nothing. Nada. Zip.”

New Zealand could be the home of the 2034 Commonwealth Games.

The country’s Olympic Committee has expressed interest in bringing the games here, though has not put forward a formal bid at this stage.

Sports minister Grant Robertson said it was welcome news. “Further work needs to be done to understand New Zealand’s position before considering whether to make a formal bid for the 2034 games, but I am excited at the prospect and potential for us to host it here,” he said. 

Robertson attended last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which he said highlighted their importance. “Kiwis really got behind our athletes and it was a fantastic event both in Birmingham but also for people back here watching and supporting our team,” said Robertson.

The minister said he has consulted the National Party and was pleased to have cross-party support.

“The next steps will be for the New Zealand Olympic Committee to assess support for a New Zealand bid, along with consideration of the country’s capability to host the event,” Robertson said.

Sky TV’s long-delayed and – when The Spinoff reviewed it – faulty Sky Box is finally ready for release, with customers able to order the $200 upgrade from today. “After many months of hard work by the team at Sky, it’s so great to have our cool new boxes in customers’ homes,” Sky’s chief executive Sophie Moloney said in a statement.

The Sky Box, which combines Sky’s broadcast TV channels with a suite of TV streaming apps, was originally slated for release in the middle of last year. Those lengthy delays proved to be costly with Sky paying Vodafone (now called One New Zealand) $7 million to keep its junked Vodafone TV box running far longer than intended.

When The Spinoff trialled the Sky Box last month, it didn’t seem ready for release, with pop-up boxes overlaying shows and ruining the viewing experience, as well as reboots, lags and stutters while watching content. We wrote: “The first job of a television streaming device is to stream television. If you can’t see the content, it’s no use at all.” (We did like the remote control.)

In her statement, Moloney admits: “It’s been quite the journey with a few challenging obstacles along the way.” Sky customers can order their new Sky Box now for a $200 upfront fee, or for $10 per month. There’s still no word on when the Sky Pod, a second Sky TV product that combines apps and doesn’t include broadcast content, will be available for release.

Christopher Luxon is standing by his treaty spokesperson Joseph Mooney despite a wave of criticism over comments he made on Twitter about the Treaty of Waitangi.

Mooney said article two of the document guaranteed tino rangatiratanga to every New Zealander. Stuff has dissected the claims and put them to a number of leading academics, all of whom say Mooney has got it wrong.

And Luxon himself has rejected the views and said Mooney shouldn’t have been debating the subject on Twitter anyway.

“I don’t think it is helpful to start a debate on constitutional arrangements on Twitter and I don’t think he’s got it right on this occasion,” Luxon said.

“What I want National to be judged on is our track record of completing Treaty settlements based on article two and that is something a government I lead will continue if we are elected in October.”

On Newshub this morning, Luxon continued to back Mooney as an MP – but wouldn’t say if he’d still hold the treaty negotiations portfolio should National enter government in October.

Only half the beds in a newly-opened intensive care unit (ICU) at Starship Hospital are being used after a $40m upgrade. The unit has 30 beds. As the Herald’s Issac Davison writes (paywalled), a shortage of nurses means just 16 beds are being used until more specialist staff can be hired. Starship says the ICU was upgraded to cope with future demand and demand has reduced because of a drop in respiratory conditions during the Covid pandemic. National’s health spokesman, Shane Reti has expressed concern about understaffing at the paediatric ICU unit and said he strongly suspected it was due to health workforce shortages.

Meanwhile, as BusinessDesk’s Pattrick Smellie reports, a brand new private nurse training facility in Auckland is currently sitting empty. It’s unable to open because of regulations on nurse training that have, as Smellie details, been abolished in Australia.

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The National Party will launch an agriculture package today, including 19 policies targeted at cutting red tape in the farming sector.

It includes, reported the Herald, a plan to crack down on foreign investors buying up farmland to convert them to forestry for carbon farming. And the party also wants to reduce regulations on the farming sector, saying Labour has made it more difficult for agriculture workers since coming into power.

The RSE worker cap will also be doubled from 19,000 to 38,000 and a new pathway to residency will be introduced through the Accredited Employer Work Visa.

With regards to the forestry plan, Luxon was asked by RNZ’s Corin Dann whether it was actually a problem – or if locals were primarily responsible for carbon farming. “The bottom line is there were 50,000 hectares converted into forestry just last year, up from 5,000 back in 2017. About 20,000 hectares [of that] was foreign investors. We’re saying is we know we need forestry, but with respect to foreign investors coming in and buying sheep and beef land and converting it into forestry for carbon credits – that’s something we want to [stop].”

The opposition leader couldn’t give a specific example of farmland being bought up by international investors just for carbon farming, but maintained it was changing the “nature of our communities”. He said the party would have more to say on farming but today’s policy announcement was the start.

Update 10am: National’s full policy has now been released – 1News has all the details

With parliament not sitting, Green MPs have largely gone to ground after bullying claims were levelled against one of their own.

Five sources told RNZ yesterday that Elizabeth Kerekere had a track record of bullying, off-hand remarks and a particular dislike of colleague Chlöe Swarbrick. Neither Kerekere nor Swarbrick would comment yesterday.

However, speaking to Newshub’s AM Early today, Green MP Ricardo Menendez-March he was waiting for the internal review to be released before commenting.

“An investigation that is centred on our values of fairness, appropriate decision-making and most importantly natural justice will be what will deliver the information that will be required for all of us to move forward,” he said.

“This is why I want to respect the work that our musterer and chief of staff are doing and so that we can cut through the noise and get a report out that will honour the voices of those people that are being involved.”

Menendez-March said the Greens were working “tirelessly” to deliver positive outcomes for New Zealand.