Full video: Christopher Luxon speaks at post-Cabinet briefing
Last week was a busy one in politics, with road-user charges foreshadowed for all light vehicles to replace petrol tax and criticism of the Government over unemployment figures.
This afternoon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced the Government was weighing up its position on the recognition of Palestine as a state.
At the weekend, Luxon also met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Queenstown. The two leaders spoke about "geopolitical tensions, issues of trade and economic relationships, and conflict in the world", Albanese said.
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NZ Herald
3 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Chris Hipkins to speak on decision to skip Covid-19 Royal Commission inquiry public hearings
Labour leader and former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is to discuss his decision not to attend the second set of public hearings for the Covid-19 Royal Commission. He is set to speak to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB at 7.07am. You can listen live below. The hearings have been called off after key witnesses, including former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, refused to appear. Those witnesses, including Hipkins and former ministers Grant Robertson and Ayesha Verrall, are still co-operating with the inquiry. In June last year, a 'phase two' of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons was established by the National-led coalition Government. It was scheduled to take place after the completion of the original inquiry set up under the previous Labour Government, which ministers have already appeared before in private. Chairman Grant Illingworth has the power to summon people to appear before the inquiry, but said he would not use it on Ardern and the other ministers as there weren't any grounds for it. 'On balance, we are of the view that a summons is undesirable, given that the former ministers continue to co-operate with the evidence-gathering of the inquiry. 'It is our opinion that the use of summonses to achieve their participation at a public hearing would be legalistic and adversarial, which our terms of reference prohibit,' Illingworth said. He said he still believed public hearings would enhance public confidence in the inquiry's processes by enabling the public to see former ministers, who have critical insights into the pandemic response, questioned in public. Hipkins, appearing on Herald NOW last month, said he had issues with the way the second phase of the Royal Commission had been set up, particularly the decision to exclude from consideration the years that NZ First was governing with Labour. 'The fact that the [Royal Commission] terms of reference specifically exclude decisions made when NZ First were part of the [Labour-led coalition] Government … I think the terms of reference have been deliberately constructed to achieve a particular outcome, particularly around providing a platform for those who have conspiracy theorist views. 'That seems to have been specifically written into the terms of reference that they get maximum airtime.' Objections of Ardern and the other ministers, published in a minute of the inquiry, included the convention that ministers and former ministers are interviewed by inquiries in private, and departing from that convention would undermine confidence. They were also concerned that the livestreaming and publication of recordings of the hearing creates a risk of those recordings being 'tampered with, manipulated or otherwise misused', a risk the inquiry 'ought to have foreseen and planned for'. Other witnesses raised concerns that providing evidence at public hearings might bring risks of abuse being directed at them and their families. Hipkins is standing firm on the witnesses' decision. 'We have shown up to the inquiry, I have shown up to the inquiry. I have been interviewed by them twice,' he told reporters yesterday. 'I have provided written evidence to the inquiry, I answered every question they had and I attended the interview they scheduled for me. 'They asked for two hours, but they ran out of questions after an hour.' Hipkins said he did not co-ordinate his approach with Ardern and would not speak on behalf of her. 'She is still a very close friend of mine. We have people representing us in common, but any suggestion we colluded with this is wrong.' 'Deserve the basic respect of accountability' National MP Chris Bishop accused Hipkins of running from his record. 'Fresh from fobbing off Treasury's report into Labour's spending, [he] is avoiding accountability by refusing to front up to the Royal Commission,' he said. 'By first dismissing Treasury's report and now refusing to front, Chris Hipkins is telling New Zealanders he does not care about the effects his decisions have had on Kiwis.' Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said Ardern, Verrall and Hipkins' refusal to publicly appear before the commission was a change from 'invading our living rooms daily'. 'Hipkins and co loved the limelight at 1pm every day. They wielded extraordinary powers over citizens' lives, dismissing those who questioned them as uncaring. Now they're refusing to even show up, what a contrast,' he said. 'Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have already engaged with the inquiry, sharing experiences of how their lives were upended. 'They deserve the basic respect of accountability,' Seymour said.
RNZ News
12 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Former PM Jacinda Ardern stands by decision to skip Covid-19 public hearing
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is standing by her decision to skip a public hearing for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 Pandemic. Political reporter Anneke Smith has more. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
33 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Police blame job cuts for not following Cabinet's orders to improve asset management
A police officer is seen carrying a rifle. Photo: RNZ Police admit they ate into their ability to manage their costly assets with big back-office job cuts last year. They promised at the time no impact on frontline services from axeing the 170 jobs to save $50 million, amid the government's public sector cuts . Asked by RNZ about them scoring the worst out of 16 agencies Treasury measured, police said the "reduction in corporate roles in 2024 has impacted the resource available for strategic asset management". It came at a time that some key assets, including about 900 of their 5300 Bushmaster rifles, were too old and need replacing. Police were under a 2023 Cabinet directive to improve asset management, when they cut the corporate jobs. The Treasury report said police were five-to-seven years away from fixing the systems as Cabinet demanded, and could not do it without fresh investment. As for the rifles, Treasury said, "Police must procure a vendor to supply product and services to replace, maintain and sustain its fleet of rifles. "Some current weapons are 20+ years old and well outside their life-of-type." Life-of-type usually refers to submarines past their expected lifespan. A rifles tender went out in June that said the "semi-automatic rifle stock includes a portion of aging firearms reaching end of life and needing replacement". Police said they maintained the old rifles well - "A rifle at end of life does not mean that it is no longer functioning or safe." Out of 5300 rifles, about 800 were "beyond end-of-life", and 100 at or near it. Four thousand were current; only 500 were new, police told RNZ. They also defended their overall asset management, saying they were striving to improve it. But they scored the worst out of 16 agencies in a Treasury report in February. Told by the Cabinet in 2023 to do better, 11 agencies did so. But the police instead cut back on staff doing the work, taking out 170 back-office jobs to save $50m amid the public sector cutbacks the government ordered. At the time, they promised the cuts would have no adverse impacts on frontline policing . But they had impact elsewhere. "A reduction in corporate support staff has impacted resources with expertise in resilience, sustainability and portfolio specific asset management," the police reported back in February. They repeated this four times on one page, about five "non-compliances" with what Cabinet ordered in 2023. They estimated they would not have fixes for these till 2030 and 2032 - and even then this was "dependent on securing an uplift in investment and retaining dedicated resource". Again, this line was repeated four times. The next agency with the most number of failures to comply - four - was the Defence Force. Eleven out of the 16 agencies had complied. Police told RNZ: "NZ Police strives to continuously improve asset management towards compliance with the Cabinet circular." "The Commissioner has prioritised operational asset management this financial year." RNZ asked what assurance police could give the public that they would not cut out vital back office roles in future. The Police Association union last August quoted a police employee saying, "We think this will be a scattergun headcount-reduction exercise made in a silo by people who don't understand the work people do, who they do it for, and who also won't personally be affected by the outcome of the 'realignment' exercise." A police spokesperson said the force faces considerable pressure with its capital funding and was constantly making prioritisation decisions. "Police's reduction in corporate roles in 2024 has impacted the resource available for strategic asset management, but recent changes to leadership the Commissioner introduced through his leadership realignment have also brought a range of assets, (including our property portfolio, vehicle fleet, firearms, and other operational assets such as tasers and body armour) together under single leadership and this is enabling improvements in how those assets are managed." RNZ approached Minister Mark Mitchell for comment. Mitchell has heralded putting over a billion dollars into police in the last two Budgets . Most was for the front line, with a slice for a human resources and payroll IT upgrade. Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The Cabinet directive demanded police have an asset register for "critical assets" listing their condition and risks. They now expect to have set one up by 2032, but "compliance is dependent on securing business case funding". They got the nod late last year to do a business case to replace the old Bushmasters, in a project rated "medium" risk, the document showed. Police told RNZ their rifle stocks included new ones, and others "at end of life, or beyond end of life" at the other end of the spectrum. End-of-lfe was about an asset being fully depreciated. "This is typical of asset management ... This means the asset no longer has a monetary value and can be replaced," said Inspector Jason Ross, acting director of operational capability, in a statement. "Our rifle fleet is regularly and well maintained by our National Armoury and all firearms are operationally and functionally checked before every deployment. Should any issue be identified during these checks, the rifle is removed from service and repaired or replaced." As well as new rifles, they were also looking into maybe getting an outside service to manage the rifles rather than their own armoury. They also want a digital asset tracking tool. "This will enable police to have a rifle fleet that meets current and future operating capability needs," Ross said. It aligned with how they were managing their body armour. The Treasury report covered the quarter to December 2024, but was the latest available. Along with it, the Minister of Finance Nicola Willis and her Associate Chris Bishop warned colleagues that many agencies "remain well below" their expectations on giving Cabinet accurate budget advice about projects on time; fewer than 60 percent were up to scratch. Ministers had a big role in making sure project planning, delivery and asset management got better; they should "understand the state of their agency's asset management performance and ability to manage critical replacement, renewals and maintenance within existing funding". Treasury scored Police middle of the pack of 25 agencies for planning big projects, higher for delivering them on time and on budget. They have $1.2 billion of investments planned, and $2.1b being delivered - the largest project is the $1.8b Public Safety Network. Along with a nod on rifles, Police won the nod to do more planning on public order policing improvements, sparked by the 2022 occupation of Parliament grounds. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
