‘Deeply regret': Winston Peters' writes to United Nations after David Seymour letter
'We deeply regret this breakdown in protocol and appreciate this opportunity to put the record straight,' Peters said.
It is not clear why Seymour's letter did not reach Barume.
Peters went on to say that he understood Barume's letter to the Government did not convey his or the UN's official views, but merely sought the Government's response to concerns that had been raised by others with the United Nations, implying that Seymour's initial letter misunderstood this.
The letter sets out the Government's position on the Regulatory Standards Bill and the Treaty settlement process and notes that the Government was 'committed to improving outcomes for all New Zealanders'.
'We are focused on reaching targets to improve outcomes in health, education, law and order, work and housing and on providing public services to all New Zealanders including working with iwi (tribes) and Māori to accelerate Māori economic growth and enable targeted investment in Maori social development.'
Seymour was meant to be consulted on the new letter. The Herald understands he was consulted and wanted the contents of his original letter to be sent again, this time through Peter's' letter. Seymour did not see the final copy of the letter before it was sent, which did not include any of his earlier remarks.
Peters included three appendices to his letter. One detailed New Zealand's relevant constitutional arrangements, including a section on MMP and the realities of coalition government.
It also detailed the status of the Māori seats, the Bill of Rights Act, and the Waitangi Tribunal.
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Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
Given the Wayne Brown silent treatment, Leoni finds her voice
Kerrin Leoni might not get to debate the incumbent Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown this campaign, but she's not going to stay silent on what she sees as his deficiencies as a leader. Leoni, the 45-year-old first-term councillor who is challenging Brown after others around the council table declined, has some serious questions over whether he is the best Auckland can come up with. She's already proactively outed Brown as declining to attend the first candidates' debate, and his intimation that he might not participate in any. 'I mean, it's the most important job in the city and that's the least you can do as a candidate is show up, you know. I think it's shocking. As a sitting mayor, he should be attending all debates.' As a lesser-known challenger, she would say that. But Brown's indications that he might seek to deny Leoni and the other seven candidates the oxygen of his presence at campaign events would be rare for Auckland politics. His Super City predecessors Phil Goff and Len Brown engaged in debates after their first terms in office. Leoni sees the Brown tactic as representing a wider withdrawal by the mayor from the types of duties and expectations on city leaders. She alleges he removes himself regularly to his Northland home base, leaving Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson to pick up the community appearances so assiduously attended by Goff and Len Brown. 'When I've been out in places from Pukekohe to Warkworth, in so many areas, they've said they just don't see him. 'We should be providing leadership that's actually seen. The role of the mayor is not just to be making decisions up in the ivory tower.' Leoni, who represents the Whau ward based around Avondale and the inner west, says she thinks Brown is also focused on what's wrong with the city, rather than a vision for what it could become. 'I'm focused on the long-term plan of this, because I think it's easy to come in and say, 'these are all the things that are bad about what's happening with Auckland and the council. 'We need to have someone that's actually got a balance. I'm saying, 'Sort what's wrong, but what should we be doing to plan for the future of our city'.' Her campaign's initial slogan is Kerrin Leoni – 'The new energy Auckland needs'. Auckland mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kuri Councillor, Whau ward 2022-25 Local Board member, Waitematā 2019-22 Age: 45 Mother to twins Atarangi and Kahu, aged 8 Brought up: Mt Roskill and Waiheke Island School: Waiheke High School University: AUT (MA in social services and Māori development), King's College, London (MA in economics and international politics) Worked as: social worker, property investor, own consultancy and charity organiser (UK) She also marks down Brown for his verbal treatment of councillors around the Governing Body table, his targeting of individual councillors by challenging them under his Fix Auckland banner and his suitability at age 79 to take a city like Auckland forward. Leoni questions just what Brown wants to achieve in a second term, into his 80s. 'I mean, if we were going into another term where there were clear predictions about what his policies were going to be for the next term … but I haven't seen any of his policies except for he wants to continue with reining in Auckland Transport, which, you know, I already agree with that.' In late 2024 she indicated to the mayor she might challenge him, she says, and 'he was more than happy for me to stand, not that I needed his permission. He just said 'There's a few more things that I feel I need to do'. I said 'Well, what are they that you'd need another whole term for?' But he didn't identify anything else and he hasn't.' Hat in the ring Leoni (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāi Takoto and Ngāti Kuri) served a term on the Waitematā Local Board before narrowly claiming the Ward council seat in 2022, giving her six years as an elected member of the Auckland Council set-up. She has not been a high-profile councillor regionally, is not one of the 20 who need to hear the sound of their own voices endlessly at every council meeting, and was something of a surprise when she emerged as the leading candidate for the 'left' in this election. She tells Newsroom she asked other councillors if they would stand against Brown and when none stepped up, she stepped forward. 'My focus was to make sure Aucklanders had a good candidate who they could vote for. 'I did ask other councillors whether they were interested in standing – and ones that have more experience than me – and they were not interested. But obviously, you know, I don't feel you have to be in local government for 20 years or 50 years to do a good job. I think it's really important, actually, that I'm coming in with fresh eyes.' She's not flying the Labour Party banner that got her elected by 260 votes three years ago in Whau, the ward she's standing down from by standing for the mayor's chair. 'You know, as mayor, you've got to be seen as impartial to all Aucklanders. I'm definitely standing as an independent. 'So I'm just going to do the best that we can and I don't want to be seen as just the Labour candidate, or just any candidate. I want to be seen as the candidate for all of Auckland.' She has not sought formal endorsements from a political party, unions or left-wing luminaries, but cites former Labour PM Helen Clark and the late Labour figure and mayor Cath Tizard as political inspirations. She joined Labour when she returned from the UK because 'I've always wanted to look at ways that we could help people that haven't had great opportunities.' Policy platform When the Deputy Mayor, Desley Simpson, announced she would not challenge Brown, but instead act as his Fix Auckland running mate, she revealed her team had failed to identify a political platform sufficiently different to what Brown currently occupies. Leoni thinks the vision for a future Auckland is the missing link in what Brown has delivered – and something he cannot offer. 'I'll be campaigning on a 30-year plan for the city, not just short-term fixes.' She promises to announce a couple of policies a week through the key campaign weeks (postal voting opens on Tuesday September 9 ahead of the Saturday, October 11 election date). She lived for many years in the UK and believes Auckland needs to embrace some big infrastructure projects such as a rail link all the way to the airport, beyond the current train to bus interchange at the Puhinui station in Manukau, and passenger rail to both Huapai in the west, and from south to west from Southdown to Avondale to bring communities together. Leoni is not promising a showstopper policy platform like previous mayoral candidate John Tamihere, with a second tier and rail added to the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge. 'I think I'm going to be the more realistic candidate.' She favours a second bridge, side by side with the current structure, catering for mid-term needs ahead of any plan for a cross harbour tunnel. 'I know the tunnel is very expensive and I know central government does not have the money to actually pay for that. Even the cost to do the side by side raises a question mark. But we know it's more effective to get that done first if we can.' Leoni was deputy chair of the Waitematā local board in her first stint in local government. Photo: Auckland Council Leoni says as a councillor she signed up for the council's Long-term Plan and its projected average rates increase for next year of 7.9 percent (after this year's average 5.8 percent), and to keep future rises under double digits. 'Definitely be keeping them under 10 percent. 'If there are going to be any changes in that budget probably the rates won't be affected, but we know we have to keep the rates down, the feedback we're getting is that is definitely one of the top priorities as people are just struggling.' She believes the current $50 cap on public transport fares weekly might have been set too high, and there could be scope to lower it, possibly as far as $30 to encourage people to keep using buses and trains. On debt, (which despite Brown condemning the council's indebtedness before his election of around $11 billion is set to rise towards $14b) Leoni says only that she's 'not a supporter of debt going up when it doesn't need to, and we need to continue to keep the debt as low as possible. We've got to be accountable for every dollar we spend.' She promises to implement a policy that if the council encounters an 'overspend that's going to happen, then it's going to come out of the budget somewhere else. I've got a very strong view that we've got to stop overspending as a council. We've got to be clear that's not going to happen any more.' To a suggestion she's saying the same thing as her opponent, Leoni says 'I think that there would be an assumption given that I have got a left-leaning history that I wouldn't continue that. But I'm making it clear that I would.' One personal focus for her would be council contracting costs, particularly functions out-sourced to international conglomerates. 'My understanding is that a significant amount of the tier 1 contractors are actually Australian-owned businesses. That profit is going overseas and we should be bringing that profit back into Auckland, into our circular economy.' She thinks procurement contracts at the local board should be examined for potential cost savings. 'If that means we have to scale down some of the criteria and review the whole system, we should. We need to localise some of that contracting there to save money.' The counter argument would be that large contractors across the region bring economies of scale, but Leoni, who studied economics and international politics for her second master's degree, at King's College, London, says it hasn't been so in reality. 'Why have we continued to have overspends?' Leoni with her children Atarangi and Kahu at a Blues match at Eden Park this year. Photo: Supplied Social media and women in politics As a relatively new figure in city politics, a woman, of Māori and Italian/Irish descent, Leoni perhaps surprisingly hasn't yet been a serious target of social media trolling or abuse that afflicts so many in her position. 'I'm not getting it yet. I've been waiting for it, actually, but the reality is people are probably not going to put it onto my page anyway. 'But, I'm mentally prepared for it and I'm practising my responses and not to be too reactive, because you've got to expect it is likely to happen. 'I mean, to any male who would say, well 'You can't run a city', I'm like 'Well, we're already running the city. I'm a regional councillor, I'm already making decisions,' she says. 'The only difference between our job and the mayor is that he sets a budget, which we get to sign off anyway and he's got to get a majority of the vote for. 'And he's supposed to be the leader and a visionary for the city, which I don't think he does that well.' She says she's been relatively un-targeted by the mayor in council meetings because she has been 'quite direct' with him since the start of the term. 'He probably hasn't singled me out as much as I've seen him single out others. 'But he's made inappropriate comments to me; like, I think one was that if I was going to vote for the sale of the airport shares, I'd never be an MP [Leoni stood for Labour in 2020 in the blue-riband National seat of Waikato]. And I thought, 'You don't have control over that'.' From the moment she announced her candidacy, Leoni has heard and seen comments likening her to another single Māori woman mayor, Wellington's outgoing leader Tory Whanau, who faced intense personal criticism over her private and political conduct. 'I think it is quite sad that our country and our city might think like that,' the councillor says. 'But I guess that was my frustration when I came back from living in the UK, [in 2015] it felt like I'd come back to the 1950s in terms of our thinking and those things around racism and sexism and everything else – and the expectation that you have to be an old white male to be able to make decisions for the city. I mean, it's just appalling.' She spoke to Whanau about the pressures directly. 'She admits, and I think she's said this in media elsewhere, that it would have been helpful for her to do a term first [as a councillor] before becoming mayor. We had that conversation and I said to her, well, I've done two terms in local government. It was helpful.' Five years ago Leoni took on the un-winnable National Waikato seat for Labour at the general election, narrowing National's majority from 15,000 to 5000 as part of the Labour landslide. Grander ambitions Because of her candidacy for Parliament in 2020, Leoni also faces repeated quips about her stand for the mayoralty being driven by seeking profile towards a decent spot on the Labour Party's list for the 2026 general election. She shrugs that off, focusing on Brown's job. 'I actually love local government and the experiences I've had have been very positive. Local government is where it's at for our communities. 'I mean, central government is always going to be there and I'm only 45 years old. Look at Wayne, he's 78 or 79. So I've got many years ahead of me in politics. You look at Winston Peters, and you know, Shane Jones. I'm not in any rush to get into central government. 'My concern is doing the best for Auckland and providing the best leadership.' Nine weeks to go Winning the Auckland mayoralty is a high-cost exercise, with Brown using a considerable sum from his own funds in 2022. Without union or party backing explicitly, how does Leoni see a path to increasing her name, face and vote recognition? 'The fundraising has been a bit of a challenge, and I think that's more of a cultural thing for me. In the past I've been able to fund some of it and done some fundraising.' For the mayoralty, region-wide and trying to grab profile on motorway billboards and the like, 'we do need to take it up a level. But we've got the basics of the campaign, the billboards, the people who are happy to give out the leaflets and door knock, which I think is great.' She is a confident figure, right back to her high school days winning an award from then-Auckland mayor Les Mills, through to buying her first home from age 21 and trading property ever since, studying in the UK and forming her own consultancy and charity. She's raising her eight-year-old twins while a councillor and acting as landlord for three properties. But she is not sounding over-confident of being able to knock off a well-heeled incumbent mayor. She knows, like the late Efeso Collins at the last election, she'll need votes from beyond traditional left-leaning districts. The voting-heavy districts of north and east Auckland will need special attention. Leoni says she learned during her bid for Parliament in the National stronghold of Waikato that: 'Make sure you don't assume that the people that you think aren't going to vote for you won't actually vote for you. You've got to put yourself in front of everyone.' Asked what success would look like for her in nine weeks, when the polling is done, Leoni does not mention the word 'winning'. 'Success is making sure that we do get right across the city and that we have policies that are clear for Aucklanders. 'It's about having good policies that Aucklanders see as good for them, having good leadership for every single group. 'So yeah, looking back at it at the end and saying that regardless of whatever the outcome that we've had a good campaign and that we've done a great job and I think that's all we can expect, you know. Given that I don't have $50 million.'
Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
Scrapping petrol tax could be transformative. But will it?
Comment: The way we currently get around is unfair, and unhealthy. Some people travel a lot, creating disproportionate harms on people and the planet, such as pollution, injury risk and physical inactivity. Others cannot afford to travel enough, missing out on things that are important, such as catching up with loved ones or healthcare appointments, or end up having to forego expenditure on other important things, such as food. Replacing fuel excise duty (or petrol tax) with electronic road user charges for all vehicles – as announced by Transport Minister Chris Bishop last week, offers an opportunity to transform the way we fund and pay for our transport system in a way that works for people and the planet – by reflecting the true costs imposed when we use the roads. Bishop said 'it isn't fair to have Kiwis who drive less and can't afford a fuel-efficient car paying more than people who can afford one and drive more often'. And on the whole, we agree. We know that those households with the lowest income drive far less (about 100km a week less) but also have to spend a much greater proportion of their income on getting around (16 percent of income compared with 9 percent or higher-income households). Those on lower incomes are also far less likely to be able to afford an electric vehicle with cheaper running costs, instead paying the relatively more expensive petrol tax. However, Bishop's proposal represents a narrow view of the harms, or wider costs, of driving to society. It is largely based on the assumption all vehicles should contribute 'fairly' (based on weight and distance travelled) towards road maintenance, operations and improvements. But a pricing structure that also accounts for the costs to our health system of injuries, pollution and physical inactivity caused by the transport system, might also include differential charging for different types of vehicles. For example, we know that SUVs cause more severe injuries to those outside of the vehicle, and while EVs reduce tailpipe emissions, they still contribute to congestion and injury risk. The proposal does suggest that weight, as well as distance travelled, will be factored into pricing; however, it should also consider the damage that heavier and larger vehicles do to people and the environment. A change in the way we are charged for using the roads offers a real opportunity to design a progressive charge that alleviates costs pressures for those already struggling to pay for the driving they need to do, while reducing levels of driving overall. One way to achieve this would be through increasing the rate per km, above a certain amount of kilometres driven. Given the costs involved in running and operating the scheme, and that this needs to be revenue generating for Government, it seems unlikely there will be a reduction in the cost of travel in real terms for everyone. However, if the Government is committed to fairness, it needs to ensure costs don't escalate for those who can least afford it and who have few alternatives. The proposed changes to road user charges are most likely to be successful and acceptable if they are accompanied by investment in public transport, walking and cycling and alongside strategic urban planning that supports local access to the things we all need such as shops, schools and sports grounds. The most straightforward way to ensure that charging for using the roads doesn't force people into situations where they have to forego other essentials, is to ensure that it's easy and safe to get around in other ways, or that we don't need to travel as much. For both fairness and health and wellbeing we need to continue to improve travel options other than driving. Bishop presented this as a new way to fund our roads, but we should be taking a more holistic view – this is an opportunity to think about how we fund our transport system. Using revenue raised to reduce the need to drive can make charging for driving more acceptable. Bishop said, 'This is a once-in-a-generation change. It's the right thing to do, it's the fair thing to do, and it will future proof how we fund our roads for decades to come'. This policy has the potential to be truly transformative and be part of creating a transport system (not just roads) that is fairer, and healthier for everyone. It can be done. The question is, will it?
Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
‘Turning women's wages into a political piggy bank'
It's a short walk from Parliament to the National Library – barely two minutes – but the journey comes with several reminders of the history of women's rights in New Zealand. Navigate a pedestrian crossing with a signal in the shape of famous suffragist Kate Sheppard, and you're greeted with a sign for the library's exhibition on the 1893 petition (spearheaded by Sheppard) that helped secure Kiwi women the right to vote. Little wonder then that the venue was chosen for the opening day of the People's Select Committee on Pay Equity. Made up of 10 female ex-MPs from four different parties, the group has come together to scrutinise the pay-equity changes rushed through under urgency by the coalition without any public input. As former Labour minister Nanaia Mahuta put it as she opened proceedings: 'We are here to do what the Government did not.' Perhaps wary of the wrath generated by the controversial changes, Mahuta asked submitters to refrain from making comments that 'may be defamatory of any individual'. She and the committee didn't need to worry, at least for the first day, with a surprisingly good-humoured mood among those gathered. Hugs, kisses and selfies were in plentiful supply as the (overwhelmingly female) crowd filtered into the room, while there were light moments throughout: 'These days, I pretend I'm retired,' former National MP and feminist scholar Marilyn Waring quipped as she introduced herself. Yet the subject at hand was undeniably heavy, with submitters expressing frustration at both the secretive and hasty nature of the Government's reforms and the real-world consequences for women being paid unfairly low wages. 'What was once a relatively straightforward, albeit occasionally lengthy road is now one filled with various potholes and roadblocks. The Government continues to insist it's a road, but it's not one that anyone can travel along anymore,' NZ Council of Trade Unions national secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges said. Ansell-Bridges said moving the threshold for claims from arguability to merit meant some would never get started – not because they lacked merit, but because the requirements could not be met unless the process was already underway, creating a Catch-22 situation. A workable and sustainable alternative to the existing pay-equity regime would have been celebrated by the Government, she said, the subject of public consultation and a full parliamentary process rather than rammed through overnight with no advance warning. 'It speaks to the shame felt by this Government, whose job it is to look after the interests of all New Zealanders, as they strip away half our population's access to the fundamental rights.' The financial cost of the changes goes beyond hypothetical foregone income in the future, too. Aged Care Association chief executive and former New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin said the sector had spent close to $500,000 in the last year gathering information for a care and support workers' pay equity claim, with much of the work done at the Government's request – even as it was working in secret to overhaul the regime. 'We invested significant time and resources only to find those efforts wasted – this breach of good faith will take some time and genuine effort on behalf of governments to repair,' Martin said. She painstakingly laid out the complex range of duties carried out by aged-care workers: clinical support and medical assistance, the administration of medication, nutritional care, using de-escalation techniques to manage agitation, providing companionship, and maintaining 'warmth and patience' even in challenging moments, to name just a few. 'It is complex, skilled, and physically and emotionally demanding work that requires ongoing training, professional resilience and unwavering commitment to quality of life for some of New Zealand's most vulnerable citizens … 'If you listen to the jobs that they do, the skills that they have, you could immediately go out yourself and find a male-dominated sector that is required to have the same skills and that could not be employed at the price that we are currently paying our carers – but we cannot do it if the Government washes its hands of its responsibilities.' Former Governor-General and High Court judge Dame Silvia Cartwright provided a legal view of the Government's changes, noting the retrospective nature of shutting down claims already underway went against principles of good law-making and could damage New Zealand's international reputation. Cartwright predicted 'significant amounts of litigation' related to the new law, while noting a number of appeal rights had been narrowed by the changes. 'I think that the courts, if they can get a case before them after getting through all the very many barriers, will do their best to make things fairer, but it's going to be very difficult.' Tony McCombs, the great-grandson of New Zealand's first woman MP Elizabeth McCombs. Photo: Sam Sachdeva Somewhat ironically, the loudest applause of the day went to one of the few men in the audience. Tony McCombs, the great-grandson of New Zealand's first woman MP Elizabeth McCombs, offered a scathing criticism of the Government as he reflected on his ancestor's legacy. 'In her maiden speech way back in 1933 she said, 'I wish to work for the women and children of this country, and I hope to see the day when women will receive equal pay for equal work' … 'If Elizabeth McCombs were here, she would rise with righteous rage and ask, 'How dare you? How dare you erase progress with the stroke of a pen? How dare you undo a century of struggle in a single vote? How dare you silence the voices of working women and call it reform?'' McCombs said he wanted his own daughter (also named Elizabeth, and working as an early childhood teacher) and granddaughters to live in a country where they were treated fairly and equally, 'not fighting the same battles over and over again'. 'These changes are not about fairness. They are not about sustainability. They are about saving money at the expense of those already underpaid, turning women's wages into a political piggy bank.' With the committee's hearings continuing until October, and over 1500 submissions received, such expressions of anger will hardly be unique – but will they change anything? Asked about the hearings on Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon indicated he had no regrets about the Government's decision, and no intention of reversing the changes. 'Look, I mean, I think we have canvassed this area at the time when we first talked about it, which is that we fundamentally feel the system got too broad, too loose, and, frankly, unworkable.' Asked by Newsroom what she hoped would come of the committee's work, Mahuta was non-committal. 'I think the Government's already reflecting on a process that has fallen short of keeping faith with women in the workforce – women who are doing very, very valuable work as teachers, as carers under some of the hardest conditions. 'So if they're not already reflecting on the process and what they might do, we're certainly listening to the people.' Barring a change of government at next year's election – and a change in law following it – providing the public with a sense of comfort in being heard may be all the group can hope for.
