Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Soldier with far-right ties on spying charges, bright line test could be extended, and Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss will not be resigning. 

A soldier with strong ties to the far right fringe has been charged with multiple counts of espionage. As Florence Kerr and Thomas Manch report for Stuff, he is believed to be the first person charged with espionage in New Zealand. The soldier is alleged to have improperly accessed information, and then shared it with an entity or foreign government which has not been publicly named. He was arrested in December, and faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

The far right ties are worth covering further. They relate to a now defunct group, called the Dominion Movement, which the soldier led. After the March 15 attacks, the group shut down. However as Newsroom’s Marc Daalder reports, there are strong connections between that group, and the still existing Action Zealandia, suggesting more of a reorganisation than anything else. The soldier is understood to have continued participating in far right political activities following the March 15 attacks. For clarity, his holding of objectionable views is not why he’s up on charges – the alleged espionage is why he’s up on charges.

Regardless, there is nervousness around whether such views are widely held by Defence Force personnel. In this story from Newsroom this morning, that issue is discussed. So far two soldiers with active links to such groups have been uncovered, the second of which was part of Action Zealandia while serving, and is now no longer an army reservist. Is the NZDF concerned? Here’s part of a statement they gave on the matter:

“There have been robust policies and procedures in place within NZDF that highlight potential threats from a wide range of groups for years preceding March 15 2019.”

“The NZDF has confidence in its security measures, which include the threat posed by those belonging to, or who sympathise with, groups that may threaten the security of the Defence Force and wider public. The Defence Force is a community of people who look out for each other, and there are robust systems in place to hold people to account.”

The bright line test on whether tax needs to be paid on sales of houses is back in the news, as it could be extended. As Newshub reports, it’s one idea swirling around in the mix relating to skyrocketing house prices, the Reserve Bank’s interest rates, and the future of tax. For more on the bright line test, I found this Patreon article by Liam Hehir particularly useful, in explaining what exactly it is and isn’t as a mechanism.

An update on the news around Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss’s future: As Radio NZ reports, there are now tensions between two leading ministers, with minister for children Kelvin Davis criticising Whānau Ora minister Peeni Henare for openly speculating about a resignation from Moss. As it happens, she intends to stay on in the role.

You may have noticed that there’s been a lot of local government news recently, and it’s a stretch to say any of it has been good news. So, why? Kristin Hall from One News asked local government academic Andy Asquith, who put it in very simple terms – a lot of councillors simply don’t know what they’re doing, and don’t understand the roles they’ve been elected to. In fairness, the way local government is funded also puts a huge strain on councils, and you should read Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan on just how much money will be needed to bail the sector out.

MPs have been swearing their oaths of allegiance this week, and to many observers they’re starting to look all a bit out of date. As Newshub reports, the Māori Party intends to put a members bill in the ballot to get it changed, so that it includes the Treaty of Waitangi as well as the Queen. Some MPs found a way to mention Te Tiriti in some shape or form, including new Green MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, who brought with her a copy signed by her ancestors.

As a fan of hyper-local journalism, please indulge my sharing this piece about fences in a nature reserve in the Tasman town of Wakefield. As Stuff’s Amy Ridout reports, some reserve users find the fences lining the paths offensive, as they cage people in. But those that put the fences up say the point of a nature reserve is to protect nature first, and be a place for humans to enjoy second. It might not be a big nationwide issue, but it’s the stuff of life that people are deeply passionate about, and the story is told fairly and comprehensively.

For those as interested in minor parties as I am, here’s a new story for you. New Conservative deputy leader Victoria O’Brien has resigned from the role less than a week after getting the job, as part of a new leadership ticket under former deputy Elliot Ikilei. On the way out the door, she took a shot at former leader Leighton Baker, saying his continued involvement was why she left the party. But when contacted, Baker was totally bemused by the suggestion, saying he no longer had any involvement in the party. It’s all rather odd.

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: Alice Webb-Liddall writes about the challenges kura Māori students face when arriving at university. Duncan Greive looks at the situation in the US of a defeated president attempting a kind of coup, and asks if it could happen here. Josie Adams reports on how 2020 has changed the curriculum for biology teachers. Danyl Mclauchlan reviews a new memoir by former president Barack Obama, of which there will be a huge number of copies in bookstores this year. Sam Brooks finds plenty to be disappointed about in the new screen adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy. And comedian Janaye Henry gets in the Christmas spirit on the question of why Santa apparently can’t be a brown person.

For a feature today, veteran political organiser and hearty union bloke Matt McCarten is promising to take pickets to the front doors of wealthy business owners during disputes. He outlined the aggressive and unorthodox strategy in an interview with Stuff’s Steve Kilgallon, and discussed his new union aimed at bringing together various migrant worker groups. To give you a sense of his comments, the story ran on the front page of the tabloid Sunday News, with McCarten quoted as calling bad bosses “absolute leeches”. Here’s an excerpt:

He says he has about 40 volunteers lined up, with veteran Unite organiser Joe Carolan as ‘captain of the guard’, with another 30 primed to run the name-and-shame social media. The idea came to him, he says, after first considering constituting a French Revolution-style Court of the People.

He expects he’ll be charged with vigilantism, like the judge-and-jury types who pursue paedophiles. He has an answer for that: he’d go after paedophiles too if they could make a small payment, never admit their guilt, be allowed to retain anonymity and continue as they did before.

New Zealander Greg Barclay will be the new boss of the International Cricket Council. As Tristan Lavallette reports for Forbes, he got there thanks to the backing of the powerful BCCI in India, who applied heavy pressure to countries who were on the fence about who to support. That piece really is quite the read, and it suggests that Barclay’s election was less about him as a candidate (by all accounts he’s a good and competent administrator) and more about stopping a factional rival from holding onto the job. Some comments from Barclay can be found in this wrap from the NZ Herald’s Dylan Cleaver.

And in breaking news, there are reports this morning that footballing legend Diego Maradona has died. He was a genius on the pitch, and lived a wild and often difficult life off it. To quote a tweet from former English footballer and broadcaster Gary Lineker, “by some distance the best player of my generation and arguably the greatest of all time. After a blessed but troubled life, hopefully he’ll finally find some comfort in the hands of God.”

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

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Shocking incidents show prison culture, exchange of letters over monetary policy more exciting than it sounds, and Auckland locations close over Covid warning.

A shocking story from Auckland Women’s Prison that raises questions about whether prisoners are being treated humanely. Radio NZ’s Guyon Espiner reports that prisoners have spoken out about being forced to beg for food and sanitary products, spending far longer than they should have in solitary confinement, and being subjected to the practice of ‘bombing’ – the use of canisters of pepper spray to extract people from their confined cells. Above all, the story spoke to a culture of cruelty and punitiveness, at odds with measures taken by corrections minister Kelvin Davis to change that culture.

Davis said yesterday morning that he’d be asking officials for a briefing, in an interview on Radio NZ largely focused on Oranga Tamariki. He said he was unable to comment much more, because aspects of the matter are currently before the courts. On One News, Davis said he wasn’t aware of the practice of ‘bombing’, and said that he would expect all prisoners to be treated in line with the Corrections Act. PM Jacinda Ardern said that she found the report “disturbing”. Later in the afternoon, Davis put out a statement saying that Corrections had informed him that all force used was legal and proportional, with the department saying the use of pepper spray canisters was only a last resort.

However, a human rights lawyer picked up on the harsh use of solitary confinement, and said it may breach international law against torture. Douglas Ewen told Radio NZ that rules that set out how solitary can be used were not followed, and in court, the second in command at the prison “admitted she did not even know existed”. Ewen suggested that New Zealand might have a responsibility to report the incident to international monitoring organisations.

Speaking about the case, Justspeak director Tania Sawicki-Mead said the practices needed to end. “Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, and Corrections failure to do so is not only abhorrent to us, it also undermines their commitment to rehabilitation and support for people to live good lives after prison.” And she said that with a focus on punishment in prisons, “it is not an accident that horrific stories like these keep being unearthed from prisons across the country – it’s a feature of an outdated colonial system that needs to be radically transformed.”

I would also highly recommend you read this piece on the story, by Ātea editor Leonie Hayden. It’s about being a Māori women and reading about the treatment meted out to others in the prison system, drawing a connection to the racist vitriol that is commonly directed at Māori in public life.

First they said they wouldn’t do it, now the government has asked the Reserve Bank to take rapidly escalating house prices into account when setting monetary policy. As Interest reports, at this stage it is just an ask – finance minister Grant Robertson wants feedback from Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr on the proposal to “avoid unnecessary instability”. However, if the results the government wants are not forthcoming, it is possible that the remit of the Reserve Bank could be changed, so that house prices are included. In response, Orr wrote a letter of his own.On The Spinoff, we’ve published both and attempted to decode the bureaucratic language in them.

A new RBNZ approach would in theory have a significant effect on aspects of the house price boom. While supply of housing is an ever-present issue in the market driving up prices, many commentators have also pointed the finger at very low interest rates and cuts to the loan to value restrictions on lending as causes, particularly as they combine to drive up demand from investors and first home buyers. If the remit were to change, it would make the prospect of negative interest rates much less likely – here’s an explainer on what that means.

It marks a huge reversal in position from the government, and depending on your point of view is either a case of listening to constituents, or buckling under pressure. As Justin Giovannetti reports, just last week the PM was saying that there’d be no intervention with the Reserve Bank. The very suggestion was described as Muldoonist. Some of that pressure around reining in the Reserve Bank has come from National – shadow treasurer Andrew Bayly has been pushing hard on aspects of the relationship between the government and the central bank. His concern was about a slightly different issue (the lack of conditions on the Funding for Lending programme aimed at banks) but it spoke to a wider breakdown in the previous political consensus that the RBNZ should operate completely independently of the government.

And what does it say about the wider economy? Writing in The Kākā, Bernard Hickey argues that it shows the consequences of an economy “that is really just a housing market with bits tacked on and your banking system is all about lending to landlords and other home buyers.” Because so much of the government’s stimulus money to date has ended up flowing into the housing market, it has effectively acted as a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to property owners. It’s too late to change that now of course, but yesterday’s move indicates the government is concerned with stopping more of the same.

Meanwhile, with supply increasing, a dent may finally be coming in Auckland’s chronic housing shortage, reports Interest’s Greg Ninness. He’s crunched a range of numbers, including population growth, dwelling completion figures, and internal and external migration to come to that conclusion. However, there is a long way to go, because of many years of accumulated growth in the housing shortfall.

A few places around Auckland are closed over a possible case of Covid-19, and our live updates has the details. People who went to Animates Manukau on Saturday afternoon, and Resene Mt Roskill on Friday from 11.45am-12.45pm, are asked to self-isolate and get tested. People who visited a few other locations are being asked to keep an eye out for potential symptoms.

Meanwhile, a salute to the new sacrifices being made by managed isolation workers. As Radio NZ reports, staff shortages are now happening, because of the new conditions put in place on those working in facilities. It involves significant restrictions on the freedom to live a normal life, and for totally understandable reasons, some previous staff weren’t able or willing to sign on to the new contracts.

The late intervention has happened, and the paramedic strike will not be going ahead after all today. A joint media release from St John and FIRST Union, published by NZ Doctor, said that a resolution had been reached, subject to union members ratifying it. The resolution includes a commitment for “full implementation of the independent pay review commissioned by St John while ensuring that no staff member will earn less than they would have from a previous agreement to implement 25% penal rates for nights and weekends for a transitional period.” In other words, the paramedics got what they were after. St John’s will be increasing their operating deficit to pay the settlement, which in turn will probably increase pressure on the government for funding.

Grainne Moss may be about to depart as chief executive of Oranga Tamariki, reports Whatitiri Te Wake for Te Ao News. That’s based on the word of several sources not named in the article, but follows a period in which the organisation has been under sustained pressure over Māori children being taken by the state. As Stuff reports, minister Kelvin Davis hasn’t expressed his full confidence in the chief executive. Meanwhile the Children’s Commissioner is calling for urgent transformation of the organisation, including transferring much more power and responsibility to Māori, or event disestablishment altogether, reports Charlotte Muru-Lanning.

A tense Wellington City Council meeting is looming today, as it will be the first one since Andy Foster joined (or maybe didn’t join) the occupation protest at Shelly Bay. As Stuff reports, the protest is directly against a Council decision, and so therefore if there’s any sense of the mayor joining in, it means he’s effectively protesting his colleagues. Foster is also the subject of a formal complaint at the moment, brought by councillor Jenny Condie. Meanwhile in Invercargill, councillors are vowing to go on with major projects with or without recalcitrant mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt, reports the ODT.

The pork industry is worried pig farmers will be wiped out by a High Court decision on farrowing crates, reports Newshub. The industry’s reps say installing new systems will be expensive, and won’t necessarily improve animal welfare outcomes. That latter point is heavily disputed, and for more, I’d encourage you to go back and read Otago law lecturer Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere on the topic.

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: Matthew McAuley introduces the latest episode of Conversations that Count, about mental wellbeing and systems of support. Emily Writes covers a new study on C-section births, and writes about the shaming so often directed at mothers who take that option. Jonathan Cotton finds out just how fast the internet will be on hyperfibre. Emily Writes offers a stirring and accurate defence of Wellington after a recent critical column. Teuila Fuatai writes about Whaea Michelle Kidd, a navigator of the Family Violence Court. Chris Schulz looks back on a bizarre programming decision from TVNZ around The Sopranos, and what it said about the changing TV industry. There’s a brand new episode of Gone By Lunchtime, and everyone in it sounds weirdly fresh and not totally exhausted. And Danyl Mclauchlan has written one of the all-time great pieces of political commentary, about the government of caring and kindness.

For a feature today, a story about someone who made a bad mistake redeeming themselves. Cricketer Lou Vincent got a life ban from the sport for match-fixing, and has been trying to turn his life around ever since, working as a builder in Raglan and offering cricket facilities for players and families in the area. As the NZ Herald’s (paywalled) Andrew Alderson reports, he’s also trying to get that ban overturned. Here’s an excerpt about some of the educational work he’s been doing:

Vincent says speaking to groups about his experiences has been enlightening after some “pretty dark years”.

“I’ve been blown away with the direction it’s taken me, from government agencies to the police to sports integrity units to the Olympic Committee, rugby, soccer, hockey and cricket. I’ll always regret going down the route I did, but you’ve got to learn from your mistakes.

“It took a bit of confidence to face groups of 20-30 and talk about it. They want to know the details of the honeytraps, the changing of the [batting] grips as a signal to the bookies, and the general game within the game.

“When I’m up there it’s like you’re talking about someone else, then I sit in the car afterwards and have to remind myself that was actually me and what a mental time that was in my life. My purpose is that I hope that no other sportsperson has to go through that.”

The new look Moana Pasifika rugby team will be a stern test for the Māori All Blacks, if the team they’ve selected is anything to go by. Stuff reports it includes some of the form backs of the Mitre 10 Cup, and will have Josh Ioane playing 10 – probably the best first five in New Zealand who isn’t currently part of the All Blacks. The game will be played on December 5 in Hamilton. Meanwhile, there’s a bit of intrigue about coach Tana Umaga – he’s booked in to lead the team for this game, but he won’t necessarily take over the team when they (likely) join Super Rugby in 2022.

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