Watch: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister Chris Penk announce construction changes
The Government signalled in late 2024 it was investigating options for major reform to make it easier and cheaper to build.
Penk confirmed to
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Scoop
3 hours ago
- Scoop
Rotorua Lakes Council Calls For Fair Share Of Online Gambling Profits
Rotorua Lakes Council wants communities to get a share of the profits under the Government's Online Casino Gambling Bill. The controversial bill has sparked concerns from sporting organisations, who fear it will impact existing funding models. However, the minister presenting the bill has argued there is little evidence to support the case and warned that community funding provisions could do more harm than good. New Zealanders can currently gamble on offshore websites, but it is largely unregulated. The proposed bill, which passed its first reading in July, aims to regulate offshore online casino gambling and license up to 15 international operators. At present, the bill offers no obligation for operators to provide community funding. In its submission on Friday, Rotorua Lakes Council urged the select committee to consider adding a policy requiring a percentage of profit to be returned to communities. The council also wanted a proposed 12% online gambling duty to be reinvested into local problem gambling. 'It is only right that where possible, profits generated from gambling [are] reinvested into local communities through initiatives that aim to uplift and provide long-lasting change,' the council submission said. The submission also raised significant concerns around online and social media advertising and its impact on younger and inexperienced gamblers. At present, proceeds from Class 4 gaming machines, or pokies, are managed by community gaming trusts. Legislation requires they return at least 40% of net proceeds into the community in the form of grants, with more than $300 million distributed annually to community groups, including those involved in sport, education, health and the arts. Sporting organisations believe they are particularly vulnerable to the new bill, with gaming trust funding playing a huge role in grassroots activity. Last year, sport was by far the leading recipient of such grants in Rotorua, receiving $3.25m of the $7.4m available – more than double the next highest category received. Regional sport trust Sport Bay of Plenty received nearly $360,000 in grants from the Lion Foundation and the New Zealand Community Trust in the 2024 financial year. The trust is one of more than 50 sporting organisations nationwide that have formed a 'collective sport voice' urging the Government to ensure online casino profits return to communities. Sport Bay of Plenty said the organisation opposes the current form of the bill, which 'fails to uphold the long-standing principle that gambling profits should benefit the community'. It highlighted that roughly half of the funding from sport grants goes to clubs, covering expenses such as equipment, uniforms and coaching, with none going to high performance. Sport Bay of Plenty would not comment on the ethical concerns raised regarding gambling money largely funding community sport. A 2020 white paper by the Problem Gambling Foundation, Hāpai te Hauora and the Salvation Army warned that the current model is ethically and financially unstable, with funds disproportionately sourced from vulnerable, problem-gambling populations in deprived areas. Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden expressed concern this week in Parliament over repeating the same model with online gambling. 'When community groups are reliant on funding from the proceeds of gambling, there is an incentive to increase gambling in order to increase revenue for those organisations,' van Velden said. The Department of Internal Affairs had advised the minister that this model would make it harder to reduce gambling, because 'community organisations are dependent on the funding that they receive'. Van Velden also said there is 'no evidence' that regulation of online gambling will reduce the current funding pool, but remained 'open' to the idea of community returns. She will meet representatives from the sporting community this week. Rotorua has 24 Class 4 venues. This is higher than the national average by population proportion. The current Class 4 and TAB venue policy caps gaming machines at 350, but that is currently exceeded with 362, with 74% of pokies in the district's poorest areas. Annual gambling losses in Rotorua exceed $26m and in 2022-23, 5.33% of gambling interventions were in Rotorua, ranking third nationwide, above Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga. Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell supported the council's submission but previously admitted deep concerns from the community 'around the morals' of the current model. 'Even though it benefits the community, we know it is being collected by an activity that causes significant harm in our community,' Tapsell said in a council meeting in late July. Submissions for the Online Casino Gambling Bill closed on Sunday, with a subsequent report due in November. Note: Mathew Nash was previously employed as communications manager at Sport Bay of Plenty.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
High schools close as secondary teachers go on strike
education politics 5:17 pm today Members of the secondary teachers' union swapped classrooms for picket lines today. The one-day strike closed many schools as the Post Primary Teachers Association tried to pressure the government into improving its pay offer. But the government has said the union was too quick to go to a strike, and the bargaining seats were barely warm when they called it. Education correspondent, John Gerritsen reports.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Today is a good day': Government celebrates Reserve Bank's OCR cut
Cabinet Minister Louise Upston. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Cries of celebration from the government benches were heard at Parliament today, following the Reserve Bank's cut to the Official Cash Rate (OCR). "Today is a good day," Cabinet Minister Louise Upston exclaimed during General Debate. "We have good news for every New Zealand household and business that their mortgage rates are coming down." "Good news today," her colleague Chris Penk echoed. "Interest rates are coming down. The stimulatory effect for our New Zealand economy is going to be great." As expected, on Wednesday, the Reserve Bank cut its benchmark cash rate by 25 basis points to a three-year low of 3 percent and left the door open for further moves lower. The central bank said the economy had stalled in the past few months with households and businesses cautious because of rising prices, a soft labour market, and global uncertainty. It said underlying inflation pressures were expected to reach its target of around 2 percent, even though headline consumer inflation was edging higher to the top of its broader 1-3 percent band. The Prime Minister and Finance Minister called a media conference at Parliament to respond to the news on Wednesday afternoon, telling media the decision would provide more stimulus to the economy. Christopher Luxon said New Zealand had been through a difficult period, but the "road to recovery looks good." He said homeowners would have more money in their back pocket, and therefore, more money to spend. "We have about 40 percent of people in New Zealand that will be refinancing their mortgages in the next six months, so they will really start to feel the benefits of those lower interest rates transmitting through the economy, which is really fantastic news." Nicola Willis echoed the sentiment, saying: "what we want to see is people having the confidence to be spending in the economy and lower interest rates certainly support that." Willis said the Bank had also forecast more cuts to come. She acknowledged households would make their own decisions when it came to spending or saving, but both her and Luxon thought confidence would increase over time. "It's true that as unemployment is forecast to reduce and as growth is forecast to recover, that will support greater levels of confidence in the economy, and therefore it is likely that many households and businesses will think, yep, this is the time to start spending." Willis said it was "objective data" that said things are "absolutely getting better, and you should feel confident about that." She acknowledged people were still facing high prices at the supermarket, but said Foodstuffs and Woolworths had the "power in their hands" to ensure New Zealanders faced lower prices. "They can exercise it any day they like." Willis also took a swipe at the opposition and those who were critical of the state of the economy, saying "there's a choice" when it came to how the country spoke about the economy. "Do we talk ourselves into an ongoing funk, or do we look ahead and recognize that things will get better?" she said. She said she was conscious households listened to "merchants of misery" and opposition "doomsayers" every day who talked down the New Zealand economy. "Now is not the time to be talking down the New Zealand economy," Willis said. "The data doesn't lie. The Reserve Bank are independent. They are not political." Following the OCR cut, the right-leaning Taxpayers' Union warned the coalition government not to rest on its laurels and to cut in its "reckless spending". Willis shot back, pointing to the Reserve Bank's indication that the government's decisions were making a difference. "I'd encourage the Taxpayers' Union to read the monetary policy statement report, because it explicitly calls out ... that in the medium term, the fact that the government is reducing spending as a share of GDP will reduce inflation pressure. "So it's not just us saying, guys, that our fiscal choices are reducing inflationary pressure and supporting lower interest rates. The Reserve Bank are explicitly calling that out." She said the Taxpayers' Union might think it's a good idea to cut support to Kiwi families who need it, to stop investing in schools and hospitals: "I disagree." ACT leader and Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said the cut would help mortgage holders, borrowers and businesses. "There are lots of people who want this whole thing just to go faster but there are no shortcuts." ACT would have gone further in cutting public expenditure, he said. Seymour said that could amount to $7b or $8b in cuts every year, in line with the alternative budgets ACT released while in opposition. "That sounds like a lot of money, when you consider that the government's currently spending $142b what we're really talking about is about a 5 percent reduction and I still think that's necessary." Unemployment was about where it was forecast to be a couple of years ago, he said, and if the government stayed the course with keeping spending under control the situation would improve. The Greens said some people would welcome the cut, but the Reserve Bank's decision wouldn't help those people being left behind by government decisions, which were leading to an increase in poverty and homelessness. "While the OCR cut will provide some relief for those with a mortgage, the number of New Zealanders left out in the cold continues to grow under Luxon's decisions. "Reports out today show families being forced to choose between unsafe boarding houses, or living on the street," said Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. Swarbrick said monetary policy was a blunt instrument, "it is fiscal policy - that is, the government's choices on tax and spend - which dictates who wins and who loses in our economy." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
