Far North news in brief: Dog show; doctors on strike and Blood Service in town
Lifesaving season over
Surf Life Saving New Zealand has wrapped up summer patrols, and rescue numbers are reportedly down across the country, which general manager Andy Kent is putting down to an increase in preventative actions. The Northern region saw the most hours worked across all the regions. A total of 266 people were rescued, 93 searches were conducted, 366 people were assisted and 23,457 preventative actions were taken from Labour weekend 2024 until April 28. The total hours worked for volunteers was 94,806. The patrolled beaches in Northland are Ahipara, Ruakākā, Whangārei Heads, Waipu and Mangawhai.
Motor industry meet
The Motor Industry Training Organisation is inviting Northland businesses to the MITO Northland Te Tai Tokerau Business Breakfast. The event takes place on May 7 at the Cricket Pavilion, Cobham Oval, Whangārei, from 8am to 9.30am. Industries represented include light and heavy automotive, collision repairs, commercial road transport and drilling, mining and quarrying. The Motor Industry Training Organisation team will also be on hand to discuss new training opportunities designed to support business growth and help future-proof the workforce. RSVP at mito.nz/RSVP.
MetalFest 4
Tickets are still available for Saturday's Kaitāia MetalFest 4. Tonnes of heavy metal mayhem will be on display at MetalFest 4, which will be held at Collard Tavern, from 7pm on May 3. Acts include Skumlord, Captured Kings, Grym Rhymney, FNA, Fork and DJ Blank Flag. Tickets available online at eventfinda.
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Scoop
15 hours ago
- Scoop
Leadership Rumour Laughed Off As Willis And Sepuloni Clash
You can listen live to RNZ's political panel on Morning Report at 8am every Wednesday. Analysis - Finance Minister Nicola Willis' seven interruptions in 30 seconds is a targeted attack on Labour's rumoured capital gains tax policy reminiscent of Sir John Key's "show me the money" moment. But the strategy this early is not the slam dunk Key's jibe - less than a month before the 2011 election - was hailed as by columnists. Speaking on Morning Report' s political panel, opposite Labour's deputy Carmel Sepuloni, Willis interrupted her opponent to ask - six times - how Labour would pay for its promises, with a distinct seventh interruption half way through for good measure. Labour's promises at this point are, however, only promises to reveal policy at some point including a tax policy before the end of the year, which could explain how other promises would be paid for. This takes some sting out of the Finance Minister's criticism, but also leaves Labour without an effective way to combat it. The panel started with host Ingrid Hipkiss asking about Willis' recent trip to London. "If we're really quiet, Carmel, do you think we'll be able to hear the gentle whispers coming that we may be speaking with New Zealand's next prime minister?" she said, referring to a social media post by a former gossip columnist Willis had laughed off the previous day as coming from "an exuberant fan". Sepuloni was quick to emphasise the rumour of division, saying "the conversations around rolling the leadership really ramped up" during the London trip last week. Willis again laughed the suggestion off, saying a leadership spill was "not on the cards" and suggesting that while plenty were quick to criticise, "every now and then, there's a fan who's just as exuberant in the other direction, and that's all there is to it". She said the trip had been "fantastic" and allowed her to speak lenders the government was borrowing from, and "they can see that we're a sensible government, doing the right things to manage the public finances, they back our plan". Sepuloni said Willis needed to recognise "much of that debt has actually been built up under her watch". "They decided to give out tax cuts that they were told were unaffordable and give tax breaks to places like landlords, 2.9 billion to landlords, tax breaks to the tobacco industry. I think New Zealanders are questioning the priorities of this government." Hipkiss asked Sepuloni the inevitable question about what Labour would do, leading to the following exchange with Sepuloni talking over Willis' interjections: Sepuloni: Our priority would certainly be on what I've mentioned already. We need support Willis: How would you pay for it? Is the question. Sepuloni: need support for New Zealanders to get into work.... Willis: How would you pay for it? Sepuloni: Well, we certainly wouldn't be giving tax breaks.... Willis: How would you pay for it? Sepuloni: ... value of 2.9b ... Willis: so you wouldn't give tax relief to people struggling. Sepuloni: to landlords, our focus would be on work ... Willis: How would you pay for it? Sepuloni: ... and jobs. We wouldn't have been pausing and ... Willis: How would you pay for it? Sepuloni: ... and ending up with 18,000 fewer jobs in the ... Willis: How are you going to pay for it? Sepuloni: ....construction industry. It's about choices Nicola, and your government have made choices that are completely out of step with what New Zealanders want. Willis: Okay so she gave a long answer, and this is exactly Labour's problem. They want to promise everyone everything, and they will not front up with how they want to pay for it, because the way they want to pay for it is putting new taxes on an economy that is already struggling. Factual errors The discussion soon veered back to the coalition's approach, with Willis again highlighting the crackdown on local councils' spending and the government's "concerns" about keeping food prices under control. "The last government attempted some reforms in that area. It's pretty clear they're not delivering enough. So we are working hard on what the next steps are," she said. Sepuloni came in with an interjection of her own - Labour's frequent refrain that the government has been unable to find a single family receiving the maximum $250 a fortnight from the FamilyBoost scheme. Willis had to rework the scheme after it was revealed to be less effective than expected. "This was a government that promised thousands of families $250 extra a fortnight through their FamilyBoost scheme and now they can't identify one family who have received it," Sepuloni said. "I am just going to correct a factual error there," Willis said, "because there are more than 60,000 families that have received a cheque - money into their bank account." "Everyone who has applied has received their full entitlement, and actually now there's a human reality to that I saw at Parliament a couple of weeks ago, an Uber driver, he stopped me, he said 'I want a photo with you, because that family boost money has made such a difference to my family'." It was unclear what "error" Willis was referring to: many families are receiving some funding but no evidence has been forthcoming of any families being eligible for the maximum amount under National's tax policy from the last election. "I'm glad you had another exuberant fan," Hipkiss observed, "let's move on to teachers and correcting factual errors". Public Service Minister Judith Collins corrected herself on Tuesday after claiming last week striking teachers were earning an annual salary of "about $140,000", far more than what most would earn. "It's actually really disappointing that we've got a government who have been pointing the finger at our teachers and blaming them for going on strike when actually this is off the back of them having their pay equity claims pulled, and now what we're seeing is that they've been offered a 1 percent [annual] increase," Sepuloni said. "We're just saying 'look (secondary teachers' union) PPTA, represent your workforce fairly, come and do your job which is negotiate with us, let's strike a deal," Willis replied. "We value teachers very, very much. They are going to be the key to us lifting educational achievement in our schools. They're going to be the key to getting a replacement to NCEA working and we want to negotiate with them to get a fair deal." Collins last week billed the strikes - taking place today - as a "political stunt". On Tuesday she said it was a case of mixing her messages up a bit.
Techday NZ
2 days ago
- Techday NZ
Agentic AI is Australia's unrealised productivity lever
As ongoing Productivity Commission reports show, Australia's flat productivity is a persistent national challenge, so much so that the Labour government is hosting a three day industry roundtable focused on restarting our economic engine. If productivity is corrected, the Productivity Commission estimated that it would leave the average Australian worker $14,000 better off by 2035. However, simply working harder isn't the answer. The latest ABS Labour Force data highlights that Australians are working ever more hours. We collectively clocked 2 billion hours in July 2025, which is a 2.1% annual increase. Yet, our national productivity stagnates. Instead, we should be working smarter. As the Economic Reform Roundtable convenes in parliament, it's positive to see the Treasurer put more emphasis on AI as a key lever to solving Australia's productivity deficit - estimating AI could add more than $116 billion to the economy over the next decade. But the national conversation is still catching up to reality. While policy debates dwell on generative AI, the frontier has already evolved to agentic AI: systems that plan, action, and collaborate with humans across workflows. The risk isn't moving too fast; it's moving too slow and falling behind the global status quo. With Microsoft's Work Trend Index 2025 showing that 81% of business leaders globally expect AI agents to be part of their strategy in the next 12–18 months, it's crucial for Australian industry and government to recognise agentic AI as a critical asset in not only course-correcting our productivity, but moving us ahead economically too. However, like any transformational technology, the fundamental challenge is skills; agentic AI requires new skills and a rethink to how we approach work. Fortunately, there's already a lot the white collar workforce can learn from how the software development world has reinvented itself with agentic AI. Software development's blueprint for agentic AI success The software development industry provides a powerful blueprint for agentic AI adoption, particularly for a market like Australia that suffers a perpetual tech skills shortage which puts consistent pressure on developers to deliver more and more. AI coding agents are opening up doors for human developers to have their own agent-driven team, all working in parallel to amplify their work. Technical teams are now able to assign tasks that would typically detract from deeper, more complex work, allowing developers to focus on high-value coding tasks that have the most impact. We've seen a profound impact on the use of GitHub Copilot's agentic capabilities, with many now using the tool in their day-to-day work. Australian industry leaders like Commonwealth Bank, EY, and MYOBhave embraced AI-assisted software development, leading to surging productivity gains. More broadly, between 60-75% of developers report feeling more fulfilled and less frustrated when using GitHub Copilot - a metric businesses shouldn't take for granted when striving to maximise productivity. By taking on repetitive, time-consuming tasks asynchronously, AI agents free developers to focus on what matters: solving problems, delivering value, and building products at scale. What once took days now takes hours, turning release cycles from marathons into sprints, offering up a surefire way to reshape the productivity puzzle. What can businesses learn from this? Employees who are empowered with AI,integrating it deeply into their workflow, emerge with greater ambition, sharper technical fluency, and higher job satisfaction. The evidence shows that developers aren't writing less code; they're orchestrating more complex, system‑level work, and this should provide an exciting example for businesses to follow. It will take a lot of 'unlearning' at the senior manager level (and a lot of trust in employees) but a 'reimagining of work' across a business' workforce will open creative and innovative doors that have probably not been conceived of yet. For this opportunity to be harnessed across Australia's economy however, we need to instill these skills in future generations; 'managing AI' should be a fundamental skill every citizen learns. AI education is the key to empowering an innovative society We can't expect graduates to thrive in an AI-driven economy if they haven't learned with AI. It's the equivalent of trying to prepare the future workforce to work with computers, apps, and other modern digital means, and then handing them a pencil. Australia has taken an important first step with the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools, recently endorsed by education ministers in June 2025. But a framework centered on GenAI alone is already being outpaced by the next frontier with agentic AI. Students should be given the opportunity to learn about AI as a dedicated subject in school curriculums. They should be taught to brief, supervise, and evaluate autonomous systems: the very skills that will be critical to their future jobs on day one. Never before has technology been so ubiquitous and instrumental in the future of the economy - leaving it out of early learning would not only do a disservice to students, it's also not conducive to a competitive economy. This isn't a theoretical risk either. Australia is already struggling to attract and retain AI talent. We lean heavily on skilled migration for advanced roles; we punch above our weight in research output but capture only a sliver of AI patents, a clear sign of a commercialisation gap. Too many talented graduates, including those who've helped build world-class systems, are taking their skills offshore. The fix is straightforward: create clear, supported pathways from classroom to career so students can learn, build, live, and work in Australia. As we await tangible policy following the Economic Reform Roundtable, it's imperative that both government and industry understand one thing: productivity is intrinsically linked to economic growth - and AI sits at the heart of this. If Australia wants to compete, the choice is simple: reinforce agentic AI as a productivity lever and reinvest in the human capability that unlocks it. While the Roundtable can set the direction, what remains is the will to link policy with practice so investment and education moves together toward reversing the trend of declining national productivity, and making our economy world-leading with AI.
The Spinoff
2 days ago
- The Spinoff
Echo Chamber: Wait, who's keeping track of the rules around here?
Welcome to the House of Representatives, where the standing orders one week aren't the same the next week. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff's dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Do you ever get tired of people beating the same old drum? Some are worn down from so much use that what once were crashing bangs are now dull thuds. In the House of Representatives, for example, the cost-of-living drum once beat loudly and now sounds more like a low hum. But most thrashed is the standing orders drum, whose cymbals are so coated in patina it's hard to know what the writing underneath says – so you might as well just make it up as you go along. For Tuesday's question time session, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and prime minister Christopher Luxon beat their same old drum ('does he stand by all his government's statements and actions?', 'yes') and landed on the same old notes that the government swears are still in tune. But when Hipkins tried to press Luxon on why the average Hohepa should cough up nearly $100 to see their doctor while tobacco companies have enjoyed a massive tax cut, he pressed someone else's buttons instead. 'Point of order.' Winston Peters rose to his feet. No one should be able to come into this House and base a question on a supposed $300m tax cut – 'and it was $200m', he clarified – which came from a reduction in the sales of cigarettes and tobacco, and amount it to what he's saying. 'And they've done it for the umpteenth time.' Finance minister Nicola Willis, perhaps in audition mode for the role of future prime minister, egged the show on: 'Give him some advice! Surely you get it?' And the voice of Labour MP Megan Woods cooed back, 'ooohh, Nicola!' The speaker and the Chrises moved on, but Peters couldn't let go of the tobacco conversation. While Chippy now wanted to talk about tax breaks for tech companies, Peters wanted to clear up the record for the misunderstood tobacconists bravely and boldly trying to operate in an increasingly pro-health world. 'Point of order, Mr Speaker,' he began. 'We have sat here for month after month while those members have repeated that lie in the House.' He carried on, but there was something flapping around in his periphery, the arms of Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick trying to get the speaker's attention. 'Seriously?' Swarbrick – back from a week-long ban from the House for encouraging her fellow MPs across the aisle to look into the benefits of growth in the vertebrae – cried out. Longtime fans of parliament's standing orders may remember the fact that 'reflecting on a member's character' – in this case, implying or straight up saying they're lying/are a liar – is a punishable enough offence to get kicked out of the House, like when Labour's Willie Jackson was ejected from the chambers last year for calling David Seymour a 'liar'. Hipkins rose for a point of order. Mr Speaker, just last week you named and ejected a member for saying they were struggling to find members with a backbone – 'how is accusing members of lying any different?' Well, Brownlee replied, 'it is quite different in my head' – because one of those comments was directed 'very personally at members of parliament', and the other was a question about repeating a lie. Interesting point – no two days are ever truly the same in this building, so why should the way the rules are applied be the same every day? 'Wait on, what I'd say to you is,' Brownlee began, and quickly corrected himself. 'Oh, I don't like that saying. The member knows there is a remedy by way of the standing orders to have that corrected.' Raising a privilege complaint would be 'pushing it too far', Brownlee told Hipkins, and all the while, Peters grinned away in his seat. Trying to turn the tide back into the left bloc's favour, Hipkins channelled his inner gen Z to let the nation know he's still cool and with the kids, unlike that other Chris across the aisle. 'When he says that the economy and the country are turning the corner, while food prices continue to skyrocket, unemployment continues to go up,' Hipkins began, 'why won't he simply admit that his government is all 'delulu' and no 'solulu'?' 'Sorry, could he repeat the question?' Luxon asked. 'I didn't understand it.' No, we don't need that repeated, Brownlee decided – we'll move on. It didn't take long for Peters to resume the defensive position, after Labour's finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds questioned Willis over the dead-in-the-water iRex ferry project, which cost $671m and returned no new ferries. Peters was keen to rectify another 'lie' – actually, the previous Labour government had already spent $471m on the project before we even came to power, he told the House. Peters sought leave from Brownlee to 'table an article' – which was actually commentary to the select committee – from February 2024, when KiwiRail confirmed the price tag from the Labour side. Brownlee let him, but not correcting Peters' use of 'article' came back to bite him when Labour's Kieran McAnulty stood up, and asked to 'table a document which shows Christopher Luxon is the least popular prime minister in 30 years'. 'Check yourself before you wreck yourself,' Peters called. What ensued was a small back and forth, where Brownlee conceded he had made a rare misstep, but now it was time to get on with it. 'You can disrupt the House all you like, I'm not changing my mind,' Brownlee told McAnulty. 'Stop trifling in my direction.'
