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Winston Peters speaking to media (Getty Images)
Winston Peters speaking to media (Getty Images)

The BulletinMay 8, 2020

The Bulletin: Peters throws NZ into battle between China and Taiwan

Winston Peters speaking to media (Getty Images)
Winston Peters speaking to media (Getty Images)

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Peters throws New Zealand into the fray over Taiwan’s WHO inclusion, more detail emerges on legality of lockdown, and a potentially major decision for the courier industry.

The government wouldn’t frame it in such a way, but they’ve made several recent moves which indicate they’re not taking China’s side in their geopolitical battle with the rest of the world, particularly against the US. Right now, there is a lot going on in this space – without getting too deep into it, some of the complaints being made against the government of China have a fair basis, and some of them are absurd. Within that, there is something of a proxy argument going on over the inclusion of Taiwan within the World Health Organisation, which China is currently blocking, as it considers Taiwan to be a rogue province. Now New Zealand’s politicians have got themselves involved.

If you’re wondering if it has even been noticed overseas, it has. Earlier this week, the Taiwan News reported on comments from foreign minister Winston Peters in favour of Taiwan being allowed to rejoin the WHO. Peters’ comments were taken as a statement of “firm support”, and the story talked up the friendship between NZ and Taiwan. The story also noted that PM Ardern ducked questions on whether she supported Taiwan’s inclusion, which is currently being pushed by Australia and the US. At the time, the NZ Herald’s Audrey Young wrote that public backing for the bid by Peters would cause fresh problems for the diplomatic relationship with China.

And the Chinese government noticed, and made their annoyance clear. Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva reported that the Chinese embassy put out a statement, setting out their country’s view, and warning that the one-China principle is “the political foundation of China-New Zealand relations”. Well, that story was updated later in the day with the news that New Zealand is now formally backing Taiwan’s inclusion at the WHO, it isn’t just Winston Peters’ opinion any more. For good measure, Peters also suggested that there was a split in opinion between the Chinese embassy, and the Chinese foreign minister, reports the NZ Herald. As Politik’s Richard Harman writes this morning, this all has domestic political implications too – National’s Gerry Brownlee has criticised Peters, saying the comments were “unnecessary” and risky, and says there’s no way Taiwan will get a place at the WHO.

It’s worth remembering that there has been tension with China at each end of the Covid crisis for New Zealand. Early on, travel restrictions in New Zealand were mainly aimed at China, a point that also deeply annoyed the embassy. At the time, the ambassador called for restrictions to be lifted, before it soon became clear the only direction they were moving was towards more countries being added. Since then there has been a donation of PPE and other medical supplies made by China to New Zealand – this has been a major element of Chinese diplomatic efforts all over the world over the last month. Complicating it all – China is an intensely important export market for New Zealand, which will be crucial in any economic recovery.

There’s one other bit to this, which illustrates how New Zealand is just one country among many grappling with a complex relationship here. Yesterday Newsroom’s (paywalled) Sam Sachdeva reported that NZ has quietly joined a US-led alliance being called the ‘Quad Plus’, which includes countries like Australia, India and Japan. The Diplomat reports that Australia and India are planning to build a more united front against China, as both countries have experienced a marked deterioration in relations with the superpower. Whether we like it or not, there is an increasing sense of polarisation in these diplomatic stories, and New Zealand will have no choice but to participate.


It’s a massive moment for The Spinoff right now, and we’ve got some good news to share. We’re hiring for not just one, but two new full-time senior journalism jobs, along with looking for journos who can do more casual shift-work. We’re also looking for a full-time office manager. None of this would have been possible without the support of Spinoff Members, so thanks so much to all who have contributed. And if you’re interested in applying, all the details can be found here.


So was the lockdown illegal? Right now, opinions are split, to say the least. Thomas Coughlan has reported on advice given to the government by the the solicitor-general, and obtained by Stuff, which argues that because of the widespread interference in human rights, it would only be lawful if justified by the health risks. The advice also argued that the government had to prove their measures were proportional. Attorney-general David Parker has since come out backing the legality of the lockdown on that basis.

Having said that, it is still likely to end up being tested. And on the aspect of whether or not the lockdown rules were actually enforceable in a legal sense, a story by Newstalk ZB’s Barry Soper suggests they were not, particularly during the first iteration of the legal basis of the lockdown, which may have implications for the hundreds of people prosecuted under those rules. Who’s right? As someone with no legal training I have no idea, but have no doubt that more learned folk will be working hard on this.

As for whether this all matters, I strongly encourage you to read this piece by Otago University’s Andrew Geddis – and not just because he very generously quotes The Bulletin in it. To quote him right back:

“Given that we’re dealing with the use of powers contained in a piece of legislation more than six decades old, expressed in quite terse fashion, and exercised in the midst of an emergency situation, it’s unsurprising that there’s some uncertainty about their “correct” interpretation and application. 

Having that debate involves no malice or unwarranted pedantry. Rather, it reflects a desire to get clarity about whether the claimed legal powers actually permit the very extensive actions that have been taken.”


A legal decision to deem a courier an employee could have big implications for the whole workforce, reports Stuff. It follows one courier’s battle to not be considered an independent contractor – which is the model used by much of the industry. Being an employee brings with it a range of other benefits and legal protections. The judge made it clear in the case that the decision applied only to the courier in question – however, FIRST Union say it is a landmark one that should be noticed in all industries “that blur the boundaries between contractors and employees.”


We got a lot more detail yesterday about the regime that will be in place when the country moves to alert level two. Here’s a cheat sheet about all the things you will and still won’t be able to do, including going back to the office, having a meal in a restaurant under strict conditions, and finally seeing other human beings outside of your bubble (no offence to my bubble, who are all great.) Incidentally, our live blog reported yesterday that legislation will be formally introduced to parliament next week that sets out the legal basis for level two restrictions. We’ll find out on Monday afternoon if and when we’ll be moving into it.


The vice-president of Young ACT has quit the organisation, after alleging that complaints of sexual harassment had been ignored. Stuff reports that several members have since been kicked out, and the youth wing’s president has acknowledged that the organisation had failed, putting in place a range of actions in response. An independent inquiry into it is also being considered. The vice-president also alleged that there were other victims of similar treatment within Young ACT.


It seems like it’s happening much sooner than normal given everything else going on, but the Budget will be unveiled next week. The NZ Herald (paywalled) has published a useful comment piece by tax expert Geof Nightingale, who has assessed the sort of spending that will take place, and the debt that will inevitably accrue as a result. So will that mean higher taxes are announced? Nightingale says that is unlikely, but at some stage tax revenue will be needed to pay that debt back. On that point, Newshub reports the PM repeatedly faced questions over whether new taxes would be introduced yesterday in parliament – Ardern didn’t rule it out, and the pair had an exchange of views.


This story is almost worth reading for the brilliantly dry intro alone: Blasting a millions-of-years-old rock overhang in a national park wasn’t a good idea, the Department of Conservation has found. The piece, by Newsroom’s David Williams, concerns the decision last year to bring down a sandstone overhang in the Paparoa National Park, which has subsequently been criticised as prioritising tourists over nature. Unfortunately, it’s a decision that is now a little too late to reverse.


Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Drop us a line at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz

A Man who if you squint looks like hes is from Flight of the Conchords catches up with a kangaroo in Tasmania. Photo: Getty

Right now on The Spinoff: Historian Aroha Harris looks at the way Māori communities have mobilised in the past to protect themselves, echoed today in iwi-led checkpoints. Emily Writes has an important report on the abuse and dehumanisation that has been heaped on customer service workers during the pandemic. Jessie Moss writes about the learning journey of her kids outside of their normal classroom. A group of good brains from the New Zealand Alternative write about how this country can make use of the global acclaim being built up by our Covid-19 response. And Ryk Goddard, former Tasmanian, writes about how good it would be if the first international connection New Zealanders had would be to the best part of that country.


For a feature today, a look at some of the ways we might figure out the real time state of the economy. It comes from the blog Economics NZ, by economist Donal Curtin, and is an update to a series started last month which looks at a range of economic indicators. The standard ones like consumer spending are there, but the one that really piqued my interest was electricity generation – it dropped quite a bit lower than normal when we went into level four, and has stayed below normal levels ever since. For an excerpt, I’ll take a section from the introductory post, in which Curtin explains why these measurements are useful:

The wider point about the limited range of our current official cyclical data, and the speed with which what we have gets published, needs to be addressed. You can’t go to a competition or regulation conference these days without people blathering on about how ‘big data’ enables market power, or threatens privacy, but you don’t see anything like the same focus on how the torrents of big data could be used to generate near-real-time cyclical gauges.

It’s fine to have the business as usual, industrial strength, quality-assured things like the quarterly national accounts. But as Grant Robertson and the lads at Treasury – and the rest of us – are finding out, there’s a big role for the cheap and cheerful but timely and informative indicators, too.


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you want to support the work we do at The Spinoff, please check out our membership programme

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The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media during a press conference at the Beehive (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media during a press conference at the Beehive (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The BulletinMay 7, 2020

The Bulletin: Questions swirling about legality of lockdown 

The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media during a press conference at the Beehive (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media during a press conference at the Beehive (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions swirling about legality of lockdown, Microsoft moves towards much bigger presence in NZ, and Transmission Gully in turmoil.

On one level, it’s quite a bizarre question – was it legal for the whole country to be ordered to go into lockdown? The question feels strange because in one sense, it doesn’t matter – we did it anyway, and it worked to stop the spread of Covid-19. But looking ahead, it matters a great deal, and it’s worth exploring why. We might need to go into lockdown again at some stage, and the perception that authority is being enforced legitimately matters a great deal to whether people accept it. And on a more fundamental level, it sets an extremely bad precedent if governments and senior public servants can put vast constraints on civil liberties without the legal authority to do so.

As such, a court case will be brought against Dr Ashley Bloomfield, reports Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan. It has been filed by top lawyer and former parliamentary counsel Andrew Borrowdale, who says up front that “bringing the application is not in any way intended to impugn Dr Bloomfield personally or to decry his admirable work”. Rather, he contends that Dr Bloomfield overstepped the powers given to him by the Health Act – the law under which the lockdown was ordered.

The ministry have said they’re confident they acted within the law, and won’t comment further while it is before the courts. For more on the particular legal questions swirling around this, have a read of this piece by academics Claudia Geiringer and Andrew Geddis.

National leader Simon Bridges has also made a move to test the legal basis of the lockdown, reports the NZ Herald. He’s summonsed the Solicitor-General to the Epidemic Response Committee (which he chairs as leader of the opposition) and will ask them to present legal advice given to the government. The story also notes the position taken by Bridges in his capacity as a minister in 2013, when he noted that the Crown never makes legally privileged documents public. Current minister David Parker has also made that point in saying that the advice is legally privileged, so won’t be released now. It’s an unprecedented move by Bridges, and speaking to Radio NZ, Claudia Geiringer suggested it was “quite improper.” In a One News report, Bridges said that National would handle the matter cooperatively if it was brought before parliament.

These are certainly issues that have been closely considered, including by those at the top of the police. Two days ago Newstalk ZB’s political editor Barry Soper reported on leaked emails that show police were deeply uncomfortable about what powers officers would actually have – and in effect, officers were told not to push the issue with the public in all but the most egregious situations. But hundreds of charges have been laid against people for breaching the lockdown over the course of the last month, so these are now legal issues with quite urgent implications for many.

It might be tempting to write all of this off as just procedural nonsense – because as mentioned before, the lockdown prevented a mass outbreak of a deadly virus. But this sort of thing taking place is what it looks like when civil society systems are working as they are supposed to. It might not make for particularly exciting or juicy scandals, but these questions are fundamental to a functioning society, and we have to pay attention when they’re raised.


We’ve got a back to work survey: As alert level two beckons, we’re running a survey with Stickybeak to find out how employees feel about returning to the workplace. Click here to give us your view. It only takes a minute to complete, and results are aggregated and anonymised.


The announcement that Microsoft will set up a datacentre in New Zealand made a lot of noise yesterday. It was heavily talked up by the government as a vote of confidence in investing in New Zealand, which may well be fair, though we don’t yet know how many jobs will be created – either directly, or indirectly through wider benefits to the tech industry. As this Business Desk (paywalled) story notes, there will be significant advantages for Microsoft in terms of gaining and retaining market share for data storage that would preferably stay in NZ, which is an important consideration for some organisations.


There have been a few interesting pieces published about Transmission Gully this week – the major roading project north of Wellington which appears to be stalling. As Newsroom’s Dileepa Fonseka reports, there are signs that the ‘private’ part of the public-private partnership behind the project could be about to walk away, leaving the government carrying the can. There has already been confirmation that it won’t open until 2021, which is behind schedule. Radio NZ’s Charlotte Cook reports that a construction error has meant that parts of the road will now need to be re-laid, and the impression given by sources quoted in that story suggest the whole project is starting to resemble a giant money-pit. Finally, we’ve republished a piece on The Spinoff by transport blogger Matt Lawrie, who argues that it all raises serious concerns about the PPP model, which is being used for other major infrastructure projects around the country.


Auckland Council is likely to impose water restrictions on the city today, reports the NZ Herald’s Bernard Orsman, as Watercare struggles with both heavy demand and a bad drought. The storage dams are now well below half full, and even very heavy rain at the start of the week has failed to make a dent in that. The city is currently scrambling around for more sources of water, and has bids in to take more from the Hunua Ranges and Waikato River.


A contract cleaner for Auckland Council says they’re making less than minimum wage after taking a Covid-related pay cut, reports Todd Niall for Stuff. They’re not directly employed by the Council, but rather a company that has instituted a 20% pay cut which fulfils Council contracts. But the worker says it contradicts an election promise made by Auckland mayor Phil Goff to put all Council-contracted staff on a living wage. In turn, Goff says the payment of contractors is a matter for the company that employs them, and the Council is not currently in a financial position to meet the shortfall.


We’re going to get an explanation today of what the rules will be if the country moves to level two. As always, you can keep an eye on the developments on The Spinoff’s live blog. What we’re probably not going to get today is a declaration on exactly when we’ll move to level two. On that point, the latest from Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris is well worth reading – it’s about the recent low numbers of new cases, and why there could still be a lag in infections lurking around the corner.


Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Drop us a line at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz

Right now on The Spinoff: Planning expert Hamish Rennie urges the government to put more emphasis on climate change in their rush to get shovel-ready projects going. Nicole Pervan explains why a mortgage holiday isn’t as fun as it might sound. James Dann writes about the Christchurch earthquake rebuild, and how it should be a guide for what not to do now. Pamela Wood looks at the experience of nurses during the pandemic of 1918, with many getting sick and dying. And Josie Adams speaks to Troy Kingi about winning the Taite music prize for this year.


A couple of days ago was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State University shootings – an event that had a profound effect on the course of US political culture afterwards. For many today, it might seem like the shooting of unarmed student protesters is impossible to imagine – that it couldn’t possibly happen now. But as this piece from left-wing journal Overland argues, the political ferment that led to it is perhaps not so different to other periods in the past, and even today. Here’s an excerpt:

Kent State matters now more than it did a decade ago simply because today it’s easier to imagine a Trump – or a Trump wannabe – whipping up the kind of murderous atmosphere that preceded the shootings in Ohio.

‘If it takes a bloodbath,’ declared Ronald Reagan as he pledged to defeat radical students in California, ‘let’s get it over with.’

Trump might say something very similar, probably on Twitter.


Sport NZ has put together a $25 million package to support struggling community and regional sports organisations, reports Stuff’s Dana Johannsen. Right now, a lot of clubs are up against it – it’s not like the sector was flush with cash before all of this, and the hit to revenues will not have helped. Sport NZ boss Peter Miskimmin says the focus of the money will be directed at the community level, because it “is the heartbeat of our sector.”


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you want to support the work we do at The Spinoff, please check out our membership programme

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