Greens launch petition to restore Te Reo electorate names
The Green Party's Wellington MPs have launched a petition calling for Maori place names to be restored to the capital's electorates. Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter spoke to Charlotte Cook.
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RNZ News
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- RNZ News
National and Labour deputy leaders go head-to-head on Morning Report
Carmel Sepuloni and Nicola Willis go head-to-head on Morning Report's weekly political panel. Photo: RNZ The National and Labour deputy leaders are set to go head-to-head on Morning Report's weekly political panel. You can listen live above, on our app or on the radio . So far this week, there has been plenty to discuss, including buildings, ferries, and a tit-for-tat on the economy. The government has kept its AA+ credit rating, with ratings agency Fitch praising both National and Labour's emphasis on fiscal responsibility . But on Tuesday, Nicola Willis said the reminder of fiscal responsibility was a "warning shot" to Labour. She accused Labour leader Chris Hipkins of pretending the country's debt servicing costs were not something to worry about, despite the bill reaching almost $9 billion a year. "This kind of fiscal innumeracy is dangerous for New Zealand," she said. "Every New Zealander will pay the price if a Labour-Greens government puts our fiscal reputation at risk." In return, Hipkins scoffed at Willis' assessment, noting Labour had not yet released its full fiscal plan. "Nicola Willis is speculating on what our policy may or may not be. We haven't set out a policy yet," he said. "We've got to see how much more damage she'll do in the next 12 months before we can do that." The government began the week with an announcement it will change the liability settings in the Building Act to a proportionate system, in which parties are only liable for the work they carry out. It is a change from the 'joint and several' system, where liability is shared between all parties, regardless of cost or responsibility. Details on consumer protections, including whether the government will require mandatory professional indemnity insurance or warranties, are still to be worked through ahead of the legislation's introduction. Labour has said it is broadly supportive of the changes, but wants to see more work around those consumer protections so homeowners are not left out of pocket. Also recently in the news has been the money spent on cancelling the Cook Strait ferry contracts . A final $144 million payout to Hyundai Mipo shipyards in South Korea brought the total cost to $671m. Willis cancelled the iReX project shortly after the coalition came into power, saying the budget had blown out. New ferries are not due until 2029, with the Aratere sailing its final journey. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
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Invercargill's eight mayoral candidates debate
Eight candidates vying for Invercargill's top job stepped up during a mayoral debate in the city on Tuesday night. Reporter Tess Brunton was there. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
The Spinoff
3 hours ago
- The Spinoff
David Seymour was right to question our compulsory helmet laws
There's little evidence our mandatory cycle laws improve overall safety, and quite a lot of evidence suggesting they're doing more harm than good. A jeering crowd quickly gathered in its usual meeting place, the internet, after news broke that David Seymour had asked his pet ministry to look at reversing mandatory cycle helmet laws. 'David might be brain damaged, but others shouldn't be!' said one taunter. 'How many taxpayer dollars were wasted using his overpaid pet staff to investigate this rubbish?' said another. The response could be statistically distilled into the sentence 'ha ha, you dip shit'. But Seymour's suggestion was neither dip nor shit. The Act leader's mistake wasn't in asking the Ministry of Regulation whether we should make helmets optional, as was once proposed by his fellow right-wing firebrand, Green leader Chlöe Swarbrick. Instead it was in abandoning his tentative efforts at the first sign of resistance from its anti-bureaucracy bureaucrats, who responded with advice noting serious injuries and fatalities have declined since a regulatory helmet mandate was introduced in New Zealand, and added 'removing the helmet mandate would likely lead to an increase in serious injuries and fatalities as a result of cycling accidents'. It's true, since we made wearing a bike helmet compulsory in 1994, cycling injuries have steadily trended downward. Research indicates that wearing a helmet significantly reduces your risk of getting a traumatic brain injury or otherwise bunging your body in a crash. On the face of it, the figures are compelling. Case closed, motion to appeal denied, say helmet law defenders. Squint at the data though, and troubling trends swim into focus. Cycling deaths and serious injuries may have reduced since mandatory helmet laws were passed, but only roughly in line with similar improvements for drivers and pedestrians. A 2023 meta-analysis of studies found no clear evidence that making helmet wearing compulsory for everyone improved safety overall. That's not ideal on its own. It's worse when you consider the laws corresponded with a precipitous dropoff in cycling numbers. Put the two figures together, and the number of injuries sustained per 100,000 cyclists has risen steeply since we started legally mandating headwear. The swan dive in our cycling numbers likely has a host of causes. We've catered our transport infrastructure exclusively to the needs of an enraged white collar worker speeding past a school in a Ford Ranger. Our streets are busier than ever, and the bike lanes hallucinated by talkback hosts remain stubbornly non-existent in many areas. But plenty of research has shown mandatory helmet laws kill bike share schemes and generally make people less willing to cycle. That impacts safety. Studies show a strong correlation between higher cycle numbers and reduced risk. The more cyclists on the road, the more likely motorists are to look out for them. Reducing the number of cycle trips also has a wider effect on population health. Helmets may alleviate the damage for the unlucky few riders who manage to crash their e-bike into a street sign, but more sedentary lives put all of us at risk of heart attacks, strokes, and worse, gout. The research persists. One troubling study found many motorists see cyclists as less than human, and that mindset is reinforced when those cyclists are wearing helmets and protective gear. Though we tend to think our mandatory helmet laws are a no-brainer, they're an international outlier. New Zealand is one of only three countries worldwide that makes helmets compulsory for riders of all ages. One of the others is Australia, a place we notoriously hate. But the laws make sense to us intuitively, partly because we've made our roads so unsafe. They individualise risk management, plonking the burden of keeping cyclists out of the ER on their flimsy fiberglass hats, and in the process absolving our politicians of making more impactful policy interventions. Greater Auckland's Matt Lowrie says shrugging off unnecessary and potentially counterproductive helmet regulation would be a good first step toward improving our cycling numbers. But to meaningfully improve safety and give people choice in the transport free market, he says Seymour needs to do the unthinkable and back the most effective, well-researched intervention on offer: protected cycle lanes. 'Helmet laws are a distraction from the more important question for a self-avowed libertarian like Seymour: why isn't he doing everything in his power to give people a meaningful choice to have the freedom to ride a bike for transport, and unshackle ourselves from relying on cars for every trip?'
