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NZ First’s Shane Jones, Winston Peters and Ron Mark (Photo: Getty Images)
NZ First’s Shane Jones, Winston Peters and Ron Mark (Photo: Getty Images)

The BulletinMarch 13, 2019

The Bulletin: Another NZ First minister accused of using funding for votes

NZ First’s Shane Jones, Winston Peters and Ron Mark (Photo: Getty Images)
NZ First’s Shane Jones, Winston Peters and Ron Mark (Photo: Getty Images)

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another NZ First minister accused of using funding for votes, police refer donation complaint up to Serious Fraud Office, and Ihumātao development opponents march.

Defence minister Ron Mark has appeared to pitch for votes from a veterans group, in exchange for funding he has secured them. The story, broken by Newshub’s Jenna Lynch, comes at a shocking time for the party, which is also under pressure in relation to provincial growth fund spending decisions made by minister Shane Jones.

The Ron Mark story comes off the back of a tape from a speech he made to the group No Duff, who run veteran support services. In the speech, Mr Mark admonishes veterans for not voting for his party. He also said that if all veterans and those in the wider Defence Force community voted for NZ First, they’d be up at 15%, but on present polling he’ll be out of parliament at the next election. Mr Mark completely denied that he had done that under questioning – he said he was merely stating the obvious to the group, rather than telling them how to vote. However, he acknowledged that he had been speaking to the group in his capacity as a minister.

Founder of No Duff Aaron Wood, said it was “not the kind of thing you expect to get from a minister of the Crown.” The group received $25,000 in government funding last year, as part of a 4-year funding package for veteran support worth more than a million dollars. Mr Mark – himself a veteran – fronted that announcement last year. The Whanganui Chronicle reported in 2017 that Mr Mark was the first defence minister to give No Duff a funding grant.

The tape itself has been edited, and the way it has been done so appears damning. It is cut so that Mr Mark says “No Duff got funding courtesy of me”, before jumping to him saying “so I’d like to think you recognise that, and I’d like to think you recognise the responsibility that comes with it.” The Taxpayers Union have called for the full tape to be released, and I have to say a bit more context around how those statements were framed would make a huge difference in knowing what actually happened.

National’s defence spokesperson Mark Mitchell seemed unable to contain his glee when asked to comment on the story, saying if it had happened under a National government the minister would have been gone. It isn’t the first time Mr Mitchell has scored a hit on Ron Mark, after last year accusing him of “using the Air Force as a taxi service and getting helicopter rides to his home in the Wairarapa,” as Newstalk ZB reported at the time.

The thing about this story though is that it plays into a perception of NZ First as engaging in using taxpayer money to buy support and votes. Many of the criticisms of Shane Jones’ handling of the Provincial Growth Fund, for example, have centred on the fact that many of the grants have gone towards Northland. As a region, it has received the 3rd biggest share of PGF money. And it’s a perfectly good candidate for that money, given the social and economic conditions of the area. But it’s also a region where NZ First has traditionally had an exceptionally strong base of support, and where they’re expected to target the winning of an electorate seat again in 2020.

Finally, speaking of Shane Jones, he’s been attacking journalists. And this is a dignified response from Stuff‘s Hamish Rutherford, who was subjected to insults from the minister over an accurate story. It’s both good humoured, and also steely about the more fundamental principles at stake. Mr Jones has so far not gone on to make whatever statement he had planned to make about Mr Rutherford under the protection of parliamentary privilege, which given who has been proven right so far in this story, is probably a wise course of action.


Remember all the Jami-Lee Ross/Simon Bridges stuff last year, how that thread about donations kind of got lost in the wash? For those who were hanging out for an update, worry no more – the police have referred a complaint up to the Serious Fraud office. Radio NZ reports claims from Mr Ross that Simon Bridges was offered a $100,000 donation, which was then split up so it could be hidden from disclosure laws. Mr Bridges, in turn, completely denies anything of the sort and says he’s done nothing wrong.

The overwhelming mood of commentary around it is that it will be the dreaded ‘bad look’ for Mr Bridges and the National party – for example, we’ve republished the smart and serious analysis from RNZ political editor Jane Patterson, who says it will completely derail the momentum Mr Bridges was making on tax. And we’ve also published me making some stupid jokes about the whole thing.


Opponents of the Ihumātao development marched to parliament yesterday, to demand the government return it to mana whenua, reports Waatea News. They say the land was confiscated from Māori in 1863, after it had been occupied for hundreds of years previously, and they want it protected as a green space, rather than having it turned into housing. The protesters were supported by Russian activist band Pussy Riot, on of whom, Masha Alyokhina, outlined her reasons for getting involved on The Spinoff.


Wellington’s local government leaders are backing a call for central government to step in and sort out their bus system debacles, reports Stuff. It comes from local National MP Nicola Willis, and has been supported by Wellington mayor Justin Lester. More than 30 buses a day have been cancelled over the last four months from with severe driver shortages, and it follows in the wake of an unpopular revamp of services last year.


The mayor of Christchurch’s husband’s company has withdrawn an offer to lobby on behalf of a controversial water bottler, reports Stuff. Big protests have been held against Cloud Ocean Water’s consent to take millions of litres. Law firm Davidson Legal sent an email to Cloud Ocean offering political lobbying services, with Rob Davidson initially denying his company had done so, before later acknowledging that had in fact happened – Mr Davidson says without his knowledge. Mr Davidson is married to mayor Lianne Dalziel, who says her husband has never tried to lobby her.


Greenpeace have called on the Super Fund to divest completely from fossil fuels, reports the NZ Herald. Currently, the fund holds about $550 million in shares for 130 oil and gas companies, out of the fund’s $40 billion in assets. Greenpeace says the investments fuel climate change, and so “directly threaten the future they are saving up for.” The Green Party used to have this as a policy, and Greenpeace is calling on them to bring it back.


A challenger has emerged to take on the longest serving mayor in the country – Invercargill’s Sir Tim Shadbolt. The ODT reports that current deputy mayor Rebecca Amundsen has put her hat in the ring, saying she’s “ambitious for our city – and for everyone who lives here”. Sir Tim was previously looking likely to be running unopposed, and has pretty much always enjoyed comfortable majorities throughout his tenure.


A correction to the Wellington insurance story yesterday: This one was a genuine typo that put the wrong company in the story. So, to clarify, the owner of State and AMI is IAG, not AIG. And an update here too – Radio NZ reports confirmation that IAG is refusing to take on new property business in Wellington, along with declining new customers for contents insurance.


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Right now on The Spinoff: Jess Berentson-Shaw demolishes the false balance of doing ‘both sides’ reporting when it comes to vaccinations. Teuila Fuatai gets introduced to the most dangerous stretches of road in the country, and finds out what is being done about it. Adam Goodall takes a deep dive into whether the popular video game series Hitman has written Judith Collins into the plot. And Sam Brooks ranks the subsequent solo careers of all five Spice Girls.


Here’s something on a slightly different tune today – we’re going to highlight a music feature. The Guardian have interviewed two of the members of Booker T and the MGs, about the story behind their song Green Onions. Even if you don’t know the name, I can almost totally guarantee you’ll know the tune. There are some really interesting insights in the piece about what life was like as a working band in the early 60s. Here’s an excerpt from Booker T Jones’ section.

So I started playing another bluesy riff I had. This was how Green Onions began. That band – Al Jackson on drums, Lewie Steinberg on bass, Steve Cropper on guitar – was a once-in-a-lifetime unit. We clicked because of our devotion to simplicity. The bassline was basic 12-bar blues. Al was a human metronome on the drums. Lewie called this doodling jam Funky Onions, but Jim’s sister said: “We can’t use that word.” To laced-up, deep-south conservative America, it sounded like a cuss word. So we retitled it Green Onions.

We were a racially integrated band before civil rights. One white person and three black people – one of whom looked white! Nobody realised this until we started performing in public. We had problems with things like segregated eating, but we survived.


In the sport section today, rather than do a news update, I want to share this fascinating first person article. It’s on the Players Tribune, and it’s by NBA star Steph Curry. Now, if you know anything about him you’ll probably know that he wasn’t rated much of a chance of making any waves, let alone winning multiple championship rings. But it’s the extent of how deeply he was underrated – by pretty much everyone too – that really comes out in this piece. Steph Curry and the Warriors are once again leading the NBA’s Western conference, with the playoffs starting next month.


From our partners: Climate change has already affected how electricity gets delivered to customers, and it’s only going to get more challenging. Vector’s Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha outlines what the lines company is doing to respond.


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you liked what you read, and know other people who would find it useful, pass on this signup form to them.


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A child being very brave about getting a vaccination (Getty Images)
A child being very brave about getting a vaccination (Getty Images)

The BulletinMarch 12, 2019

The Bulletin: Measles cases surge in Canterbury outbreak

A child being very brave about getting a vaccination (Getty Images)
A child being very brave about getting a vaccination (Getty Images)

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Measles cases surge in Canterbury, Vodafone reportedly outsourcing jobs to India, and Shane Jones says Kupe facility funding story is a beat up.

Measles cases are surging in Canterbury, and there are warnings that the highly infectious disease is now “circulating widely in our community.” The local DHB said late last night the number of cases are now up to 25, and that under-immunised people have a 90% chance of contracting the disease if they come into the smallest contact with an infectious person – that probably gives a good indication of how quickly this can spread. The number of cases is expected to rise. The DHB’s goal is to now keep the outbreak confined to the region, rather than letting it go nationwide.

Furthermore, the DHB says up to 30% of cases will result in complications developing – and many of those cases will be children under five. Stuff reports that “several” people have ended up in intensive care from a bout during this outbreak. Some children are already at extreme risk of serious complications if they catch it. One mother told Newshub that she has had to take her 3 year old son, who has leukemia, into isolation as a last ditch effort to keep him safe.

As of the result of the outbreak, there’s now an overwhelming demand for vaccines. The NZ Herald reports that a month’s worth of supplies were used up in the space of two days – more doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Canterbury by Wednesday. 100,000 people around the region need some form of vaccination, and supplies will be prioritised in the following order: People aged 1-29 who haven’t been vaccinated at all, children who require a second vaccination, and then adults between 29-50 who want to make sure they’re fully immune.

So, part of the reason why these outbreaks of preventable diseases happen, is that some people refuse to get vaccinations for themselves or their kids. The editorial on The Press today has some good points to make about anti-vaxxers. Chief among them is that it probably won’t help anyone to have big social media pile-ons against anti-vaxxers – rather it will probably just result in their position becoming entrenched. As frustrating as it may be to not hammer dangerous ignorance when you see it, the key message that needs to get out is that nobody who has had both doses of the MMR vaccine has got sick in this outbreak. Having a widely vaccinated population also helps those who cannot get vaccinated – I wrote about the concept of herd immunity last week.

Finally, some believe that measles – while it may make you sick – is relatively harmless. This is not the case. Figures were quoted on Morning Report this morning that show deaths still happen. 260 people have died of measles this year in the Philippines, and 7 people have died in Ukraine. Yes, those death rates are low relative to the thousands of cases in those countries. But measles deaths are avoidable if everyone who can get vaccinated does so, and it would be a tragedy if someone were to die in the Canterbury outbreak.


The NZ Herald is reporting that Vodafone appears to be culling hundreds of jobs, and outsourcing others to India. That second part is based on a source who the Herald have not named, along with testimony from a former employee that the layoff process for them also involved training offshore replacements. There’s a hugely wide ranging restructure going on at the company, nearly all employees have been asked if they want to take redundancy, and Vodafone says they’re being transparent with all staff who might be affected. A union who represents some of the call centre staff says hundreds have expressed an interest in voluntary redundancy, reports Radio NZ.


An update to yesterday’s story on minister Shane Jones, and the approval of funding for the Manea Footprints of Kupe facility in Northland. Mr Jones went on Radio NZ yesterday, and extremely strongly defended his conduct in the matter. The “whole story is a beat up”, he says. However the NZ Herald’s political editor argues that while it might not be a sackable offence, Mr Jones gave a “blatantly misleading answer,” and must correct the record and apologise to parliament. She adds that it appears the bar for what might be a sackable offence for Mr Jones appears to be much higher than what it would be for another MP.


Insurance companies have been stung saying one thing and doing another towards Wellington renters. Radio NZ’s Charlie Dreaver was told by AIG (who own AMI and State) that there was no blanket policy about contents insurance. But posing as a customer, Dreaver was told no new customers would be taken on, because of the high risk in the area from earthquakes. It’s leaving plenty of Wellingtonians in the lurch, with few affordable options available.


A national policy statement aimed at protecting productive growing soil is expected in the future from the government, reports Farmers Weekly. The publication has been keeping an eye over the issue, over concerns a lot of fantastic land is being paved over for housing. That in turn raises serious concerns about food security for cities. An NPS would give the government the ability to go over the heads of Councils, who are often under pressure from developers to release more land for housing.


PM Jacinda Ardern has deferred questions regarding the NZDF report into an Afghanistan incident, reports Stuff. The report relates to conduct allegations made against SAS soldiers, and disputes some elements of the allegations, while revealing new information about other aspects of the event. The PM says she hasn’t been directly briefed on the report, and that they should instead be directed to Defence minister Ron Mark.

By the way, I speculated on something yesterday that more light can now be shed on. The NZDF says it was actually coincidental that the report was released on the same day as Corporal (not Colonel, as previously stated) Willie Apiata VC’s organisation was launched. A spokesperson said that the report wasn’t released with any connection whatsoever to the launch, and that it was released in response to questions from Stuff, who had placed a 4pm deadline on answers – hence the late afternoon release. Stuff journalist Paula Penfold agreed that questions had been sent with that deadline, but argued that they weren’t directly related to The Valley, and she stood by her earlier criticisms of how the report was released.


This will be a fascinating story for anyone who lived in Wellington in the early 2000s. The costs and benefits of the inner city bypass have not matched up to the projections made when the road was being built, reports the Dominion Post on their front page today. The road was hugely controversial, because of the damage building it did to the Te Aro suburb – some argue it also revitalised the area. But since it was built, fewer than expected cars have actually used it – meaning better than expected time savings for commuters.) However, there have also been more accidents than expected on the road.


People who more want superyachts and cruise ships to come to Auckland are gearing up for a fight over a proposed new anchor fee, reports the NZ Herald. Auckland councillor Chris Darby says ratepayers are subsidising the extra work the harbourmaster has to do when these big beasts dock. But the industry says the boats bring in enormous sums of money through onshore spending, and Auckland wouldn’t want to do anything to harm the city’s reputation as a good place to dock. A reminder though, many of the people who might be asked to pay this fee own superyachts.


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Extinction Rebellion protesters in England holding a ‘die-in’ along with a mock funeral to protest government and business inaction on climate change (Getty Images)

Right now on The Spinoff: Terry Baucher writes about the tax risks SkyCity faces with their forthcoming offshore online gambling venture. Gareth Shute profiles the state of the Auckland City Mission, and looks ahead to what the future holds for the nearly 100 year old institution.

There’s few pieces to share about climate protesting too. Auckland secondary school students Grace Wilkie and Libby Morrison have declared their reasons for being part of the upcoming school strikes. And in a counterpoint, New Plymouth secondary school student James Macey writes that while climate action is important, he doesn’t think the strike will do any good.

And I’ve written about the climate protest group with chapters springing up all over New Zealand and the world. They call themselves Extinction Rebellion, because the science indicates that at the current trajectories of carbon emissions and climate change, neither human society nor vast swathes of the animal world will survive. To be honest, I’m not sure how anyone is able to deal with the magnitude of that as an idea, and the piece is an attempt to process it.


It’s not a long read today for the feature, it’s an audio documentary. I highly recommend you carve out some time to listen to this episode of Te Ahi Kaa from Radio NZ. I happened to hear it on Sunday evening and was engrossed all the way through. On one level, it’s about the artist Harry Sangl, who travelled around Tūhoe country in the 1970s asking Kuia in the area if he could paint their portraits. But it’s also about the practice of Tā Moko more generally, and the experiences of the Kuia getting their tattoos when they were younger. It’s an absolutely fascinating story all the way through.


For those reckless enough to bet actual money on the Warriors, bookies are not rating their chances this season. They’re picked to come 11th this year in the market consensus, reports Stuff, the season after finally making it back into the playoffs. Much will depend on how the team goes in the first few weeks without Shaun Johnson or Mason Lino. Of course, all of this will just make the ride on the bandwagon sweeter when it starts rolling.


From our partners: Climate change has already affected how electricity gets delivered to customers, and it’s only going to get more challenging. Vector’s Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha outlines what the lines company is doing to respond.


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you liked what you read, and know other people who would find it useful, pass on this signup form to them.


This content is brought to you by Vector. If you live in Auckland, they also delivered the power you’re using to read it. And they’re creating a new energy future for all of us, as showcased by the incredible Vector Lights in partnership with Auckland Council.