Monthly Archives: April 2022

If youre a fan of Fox News, you may be a little upset with a quote going around about its founder, media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

According to social media posts, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently said that her country doesnt have an issue with the rage of older white men because it has never allowed Murdoch to start a media company there.

Asked why New Zealand does not suffer from the rage of older white men like in other western Anglo countries, PM Jacinda Adern replied, Because weve never allowed Rupert Murdoch to set up a media outlet here. The guy has wreaked havoc on civil society in (the) US,a tweet re-shared on Instagramsays.

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.)

The tweet, which misspells Arderns name, is wrong. We could find no record of Ardern saying this in searches of news archives or inmeeting transcriptsfrom New Zealands House of Representatives.

Arderns office said the quote lacks legitimacy.

The Prime Minister did not make this statement. I have no idea who made it up, Andrew Campbell, Arderns spokesperson, told PolitiFact in an email.

The quote may have been re-appropriated from a statement about Murdoch made by David Cormack, a former policy and communications director for New Zealands Green Party.

Cormack told the Guardianin October 2020 that a huge reason that our politics is not so extremely polarised and so far out there is because we no longer have Murdoch-owned press in New Zealand, and its never taken a foothold.

The statement wasnt about the rage of older white men. And Cormack didnt claim that New Zealand never allowed Murdoch to set up shop there. The Murdoch-owned News Corphas had stakesin New Zealand media companies in the past.

Cormack acknowledged that his quote was being misattributed on Twitter several times, at one pointwriting, New Zealand, i am @jacindaardern now. Im sorry. I dont make the rules.

Social media posts claim that Ardern said New Zealand doesnt have issues with the rage of older white men because the country never allowed Rupert Murdoch to start a media outlet there.

There is no evidence that Ardern, or anyone else, said this. A similar statement about Murdoch was made by a former New Zealand Green Party communications director, but its not the same quote.

We rate these posts False.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check hereand more of their fact checkshere.

See more here:

A quote about Rupert Murdoch and white men attributed to New Zealand's prime minister is bogus - Poynter

Photo by Mark Mitchell: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during her standup at Parliament, Wellington. 05 April, 2022. NZ Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the sanctions New Zealand has put on Russia are working, and it's important for Aotearoa to play its part.

It comes after Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O'Connor announced on Wednesday the Government will apply 35 per cent tariffs to all imports from Russia.

In a press conference on Thursday, Ardern said the Government had stayed in regular contact with Ukraine about what the needs are.

She said economic sanctions were a priority and the Government had moved on that, and was also considering on a rolling basis other requests for assistance.

Ardern was also asked about the Greens call for a rent freeze and said the priority was ensuring there was enough supply because that was a big driver of rent prices. She said more house building had contributed to rental stability prices in Auckland.

She added the Government has already changed tenancy laws and restricted when landlords could increase rentals, and brought in measures to make renting easier for tenants such as the healthy home standards.

"In looking at some of these options in the past, one of the concerns is it could stifle supply and that would make things worse," she said of rent freezes.

The Prime Minister spoke to media today from Auckland as she visits businesses ahead of re-starting her international travel agenda.

She spoke soon after director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and director general of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay started the day's Covid-19 press conference in Wellington.

That will be McElnay's final press conference: her last day at the Ministry of Health is tomorrow.

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Yesterday Bloomfield also announced he was resigning and will leave at the end of July, a year before his term was due to end.

Public Health deputy director Dr Niki Stefanogiannis is also leaving on Friday she and McElnay leave a big hole at the top of the Public Health unit. One of the factors in the departures is believed to be burnout after dealing with Covid-19.

In his press conference yesterday, Bloomfield referred to the gendered nature of the negative criticism faced by the women helping lead the Covid-19 response compared to the criticism he had faced, saying it needed to be addressed.

Concerns are also rising about the number of Covid-19 cases that are being missed by rapid antigen tests, as the Omicron outbreak continues.

Ardern could also be questioned about the Government proposal to ban soft drinks and other sugary drinks in schools after Education Minister Chris Hipkins put out a consultation paper on it today.

Ardern will speak while visiting businesses in Auckland as she prepares for her first international travel in more than two years.

Her first trip will be in the Asia region, and Ardern will take a business delegation, followed by export and trade-related trips to Europe and North America.

New Zealand is still in negotiations for a free trade agreement with the European Union.

Meanwhile, the upgraded free trade agreement with China came into effect today. Trade Minister Damien O'Connor said China had continued to be an important market during Covid-19, with goods and services exports reaching $21.5 billion in 2021.

He said the UK free trade agreement would also add up to $1 billion to New Zealand's GDP.

Link:

Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: PM Jacinda Ardern to speak to media after today's Covid update and resignations of Ashley Bloomfield, Caroline McElnay -...

Ukrainian foreign minister makes a plea for support before attacks, retailers hike prices after most fail to meet targets and the number of vehicles towed from Parliament protest revealed in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

Nearly four years ago, a successful chief executive partnered with the Prime Minister to help solve some of New Zealand's economic problems like infrastructure, training and excessive regulation.

The Prime Minister was "delighted" with the executive's appointment, and the pair appeared to get on well. Four years later, that chief executive, Air New Zealand's Christopher Luxon, is vying for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's job, while she tries to argue the advice she once welcomed would, in fact, be bad for the country.

Luxon and Ardern corresponded regularly before he became a politician. In 2018, he was appointed to lead the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council, a post he resigned when he left Air New Zealand a year later, expressing an interest to enter politics.

Two years of that correspondence has been released to the Herald under the Official Information Act.

The result is mostly what you'd expect. Ardern's correspondence is warm and occasionally effusive in its praise. Luxon's is dry and to the point - at one point he attaches a 68-page report from management consultancy McKinsey on "harnessing automation for a more productive and skilled New Zealand".

Writing to Luxon in October 2018, appointing him to the council, Ardern praised him for offering his "time and energy", writing "I look forward to exchanging ideas and working together on policies that will help us transform the New Zealand economy."

Less than a year later, after Luxon left the council, Ardern wrote again, addressing Luxon with a more familiar "Dear Chris", having previously written to him as "Christopher" (a small mistake on her part, Luxon expresses no public preference against "Chris" but he's "Christopher" to his family and those close to him).

"I would like to thank you and your colleagues from Air New Zealand for the enormous effort you have put into establishing and chairing the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council in its first year of operation.

"I have very much appreciated the enthusiasm and engagement of Council members on policy issues affecting businesses both small and large in New Zealand," Ardern wrote.

She added a handwritten "Thanks again, Chris!" to her letter.

The council's concerns ran the gamut of business concerns with government, from excessive regulation to New Zealand's infrastructure deficit.

As chairman, Luxon was responsible for feeding these concerns back to the Government (writing to Ardern, he adopted the more formal "Dear Prime Minister").

On infrastructure, Luxon said the system that "sits beneath effective and sustainable infrastructure development in our country is fundamentally broken".

"We also have a proclivity as a nation to focus on the short term and on individual projects as a means of addressing our challenges rather than addressing the system itself".

Luxon told Ardern the country was at an "infrastructure crisis point", but said it "is not ... the fault of the current Government".

"These issues are multi-generational and systemic. However, we believe your Government has the opportunity to begin resetting our systems and to address this crisis."

As for fixes, Luxon said he wanted to encourage the Government to "be bolder and think bigger".

Luxon, who has been critical of growing the size of the public service since becoming leader (he told the Herald he has a "major issue with the cost that's going into our civil service at the moment. I think we're adding a huge amount of centralisation, a massive amount of bureaucracy and we're not getting better outcomes"), proposed to create a whole new ministry for planning and cities.

"New Zealand should establish a Ministry of Cities, Urban Development and Population," Luxon wrote.

"This new portfolio could incentivise locally developed, long-term and tangible strategies and execution through to the administration of City Deals. This would include allowing local authorities to capture part of the value created through their own successful strategies and initiatives," Luxon told Ardern.

He also suggested the establishment of "a civil service academy for local and central government" to build "needed capacity in commissioning and managing projects of national significance".

Luxon said the Government should review the Resource Management Act (RMA), the Local Government Act (LGA) and the Land Transport Act (LTA), perhaps through a commission of inquiry. The Government did review the RMA, and has proposed rolling functions of the LGA and LTA into legislation that will replace the RMA.

When it came to just how these infrastructure projects should be paid for, Luxon hewed to the centre. His advice noted there would be a need for "debt-funded" infrastructure, but also urged a "philosophical shift" to embrace "public private partnerships" (PPPs).

"Government needs to ask itself whether there is any great social benefit in the state owning certain assets, especially when that comes at the expense of other government priorities and responsibilities," Luxon wrote.

Labour is open to the use of PPPs in transport (but not in health or education), however its experience with Transmission Gully has meant no transport PPPs have been greenlit under its watch.

Luxon suggested the Government should immediately greenlight the 12 road projects, known as Roads of National Significance the Government had iced when it shifted transport funding away from highways in 2018.

Luxon said that projects should be "opened to private investment" and progressed.

"New Zealand cannot simply rely on the market to deliver projects of scale that are of national significance," Luxon wrote, suggesting the Government should draw up a "national master plan", or "New Zealand Prospectus", of what it wanted to build.

Despite being critical of the cancelled roads, Luxon was supportive of the idea of multi-modal transport, which is where the Government decided to direct its attention after axing those 12 roads.

"... our transport infrastructure solution is not a binary choice between rail or roads, but a comprehensive scaled-up solution of rail and roads and coastal shipping and other modes," Luxon wrote.

"Our system must be totally integrated and agnostic as to mode of transport as each region will have different needs."

He suggested the Government amalgamate the way it funded road, rail, and shipping - which the Government has subsequently done in part.

He said the fund that pays for transport projects with fuel tax and road user charge revenue should be supplemented with general tax revenue "to pay for social and environmental outcomes from investment in rail, walking and cycling".

A list of ten policy priorities from Infrastructure NZ was attached to that letter. One of the priorities included was to establish national three waters entities, taking water services from councils - a policy National now firmly opposes. It is not clear from the correspondence, whether Luxon endorsed every part of the Infrastructure NZ advice he was sending to Ardern.

It is not clear either, whether the Prime Minister ever had the time to drill into the 68 page McKinsey report, however one person who did was then-Economic Development Minister David Parker, whose passion for dry economic literature, particularly Thomas Piketty, is well-known in Parliament.

In June of 2019, he wrote back to Luxon saying the Government was developing an "Industry Strategy" for 10 different sectors of the economy.

He said this was in part thanks to the advice of the Council and the McKinsey report it had sent the Government.

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Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon's letters to each other revealed - New Zealand Herald

In February, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was advised by a High Court ruling that her rigid COVID restrictions were a gross violation of human rights after workers were denied a right to work over skipping the vaccine.

By April, New Zealand lifted its vaccine mandate and urged its unvaccinated workforce, who have given decades of service to their community, to return to duty previously suspended for their personal health decision.

Since the restrictions were contested back in February, PM Ardern has changed her tune on touting the guidelines and stated that she was continually in favor of lifting the vaccine mandate.

Opponents of the PM have considered her claim baseless and a warped view of her long advocacy for the stringent procedures.

Members of the New Zealand Defence Force and police force were among the groups that lost workers over the vaccine rule, with many claiming religious or personal exemption but still subject to suspension.

The associated pressure to surrender employment involves a limit on the right to retain that employment, which the above principles suggest can be thought of as an important right or interest recognized not only in domestic law but in the international instruments, stated New Zealand Justice Francis Cooke.

He added, An obligation to receive the vaccine which a person objects to because it has been tested on cells derived from a human fetus, potentially an aborted fetus, does involve a limitation on the manifestation of a religious belief.

Follow along on Twitter:@AlejandroAveela

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New Zealand PM's COVID Restrictions Ruled 'Gross Violation of Human Rights' By High Court - OutKick

Politics

4 Apr, 2022 05:00 PM3 minutes to read

New Zealand stays at red, warning as the world hurtles to the climate danger zone and why Russias retreating Ukraines capital city in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

ANALYSIS:

Yesterday's decision on traffic light settings was a first glimpse at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's appetite for risk with the Omicron peak in the rear-view mirror.

She could have reasonably moved Auckland to orange on the basis of falling case and hospital numbers, and on the back of increased protection from natural immunity following Omicron sweeping through the city's population.

It would have also sent a message that the million or so eligible Kiwis - a third of them in Auckland - who are yet to get a booster have had long enough.

She did a similar move in the Delta outbreak, when she ditched the 90 per cent double-dose bottom line because those who had bothered to get vaccinated didn't deserve to be held up by those who'd decided not to.

Instead, she delivered the opposite message.

"We do still want to ask that of people, yes," she said when asked about whether those who were yet to be boosted were still worth waiting for.

The unboosted were disproportionately represented in hospitals, she added.

"I worry that people hear the message that it's a mild to moderate illness and they think they don't need to bother. They do. Boosters make a difference."

Why? Because they meaningfully reduce the chances of serious illness, which reduces the chances of more hospitalisations.

These have dropped considerably in recent weeks, from 600-odd (out of 2700-odd ward beds across Auckland) in mid-March to 350 yesterday.

But they are still at the high end of the modelled median outbreak scenario, which topped out at just over 300. Strain on the healthcare workforce also continued to be a factor in Auckland.

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Ardern's underlying message was that restrictions needed to stay at their peak until more people were protected.

She didn't say how many more needed to be boosted, or what hospitalisation numbers needed to drop to.

Health boss Dr Ashley Bloomfield added that it wasn't about a number but the trend, which is definitely going down.

Yesterday the number of recorded cases in Auckland was 1835 (with 350 in Auckland's hospitals), down from 2300 (473 in hospitals) a week before that, 3279 (594 in hospitals) a week before that, and 4730 a week before that (605 in hospitals).

It still would have been a bold move to move Auckland to orange, given the public health advice to stay in red.

But Ardern dangled an Easter carrot - a review of traffic light settings on April 14.

By then, hospitalisation trends across the whole country might be falling. Only six DHB regions had hospitalisation numbers higher yesterday than they were a fortnight earlier - Lakes, Taranaki, Nelson Marlborough, South Canterbury, West Coast and Southern.

But the booster trend is also dropping. Yesterday there were only 866 booster doses administered, down from 1101 a week before that, 2244 the week before that, and 3199 the week before that.

Ardern will be hoping that, by the Easter D-Day, any nervousness about a potential move to orange might have moved some on the booster fence into action.

In this Covid-age of more personal responsibility, there's only so much political capital she can spend on those who are still deciding.

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Derek Cheng: Jacinda Ardern's underlying message in the decision to stay in red - New Zealand Herald

MOSCOW The Russian military says it has destroyed a shipment of air defense missile systems provided by the West.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the military used sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense missile launchers on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnipro. He said about 25 Ukrainian troops were also hit by the strike on Sunday.

Konashenkov said in a statement Monday that Ukraine had received the air defense systems from a European country that he didnt name. Konashenkovs claim couldnt be independently verified.

Last week, Slovakia said it had handed over its Soviet-designed S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, which has pleaded with the West to give it more weapons, including long-range air defense systems.

Slovakias prime minister office issued a statement late Sunday calling the news that the S-300 system given to Ukraine was destroyed disinformation. It was unclear, however, whether both sides are referring to the same airstrike. The Russians have targeted missile defense systems in three different locations in recent days.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

Ukrainian defenders dig in as Russia boosts firepower

Biden, Modi to speak as US presses for hard line on Russia

Ukrainian nuns open their monastery doors to the displaced

US doubts new Russian war chief can end Moscows floundering

Analysis: War, economy could weaken Putins place as leader

Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

BRUSSELS Austrias foreign minister says Chancellor Karl Nehammer is taking very clear messages of a humanitarian and political kind to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Monday that Nehammer decided to make the trip after meeting in Kyiv on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and following contacts with the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.

Story continues

Schallenberg said ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg that we dont want to leave any opportunity unused and must seize every chance to end the humanitarian hell in Ukraine.

He added that every voice that makes clear to President Putin what reality looks like outside the walls of Kremlin is not a wasted voice.

Schallenberg said that Nehammer and Putin will meet one-on-one without media opportunities. He insisted that Austria has done everything to ensure that the visit isnt abused, and I think he (Putin) himself should have an interest in someone telling him the truth and really finding out whats going on outside."

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BRUSSELS Germanys foreign minister says Ukraine needs heavy weapons to defend itself and this is no time for excuses.

Ukraines president has warned that his country faces a crucial time and that Russian troops will step up operations in the east.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said as she arrived for a meeting with her European Union counterparts Monday: What is clear is that Ukraine needs further military material, above all heavy weapons, and now is not the time for excuses -- now is the time for creativity and pragmatism.

Germany broke with a foreign policy tradition after Russias invasion to supply arms to Ukraine but has faced criticism from Kyiv for perceived hesitancy and slowness in providing material.

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BRUSSELS European Union foreign ministers are meeting to weigh the effectiveness of the blocs response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine amid concern about Moscows preparations for a major attack in the east.

The ministers will hold talks with the International Criminal Courts Prosecutor-General Karim A.A. Khan as Western pressure mounts to hold to account those responsible for any war crimes in Ukraine.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is chairing Mondays meeting in Luxembourg, deplored what he called the brutal, brutal aggression of Russian troops.

Borrell, who was in Ukraine over the weekend, says further EU sanctions against Russia are always on the table.

He says hes afraid the Russian troops are massing on the east to launch an attack on the Donbas, region in the east after Moscow withdrew its forces from around the capital Kyiv last week.

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LONDON Britains Ministry of Defense says Ukraine has beaten back several assaults by Kremlin forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery.

In an intelligence update released Monday morning, the ministry says Russian shelling in the two eastern regions is continuing.

Russias continued reliance on unguided bombs decreases their ability to discriminate when targeting and conducting strikes, while greatly increasing the risk of civilian casualties, the ministry said.

The ministry also said Russias prior use of phosphorus munitions in the Donetsk region raises the possibility they may be used in Mariupol as the battle for the city on Ukraines south coast intensifies.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand New Zealand will send a military transport plane and a support team of 50 to Europe, as well as give money to Britain to buy weapons, as it significantly steps up its response to the war in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the C130 Hercules plane would travel throughout Europe to carry much-needed equipment and supplies to key distribution centers. She said the plane wouldnt fly directly into Ukraine as most military equipment is transported into the country by land.

Ardern said her government would also spend an additional 13 million New Zealand dollars ($9 million) on military and human rights support, including NZ$7.5 million for Britain to buy weapons and ammunition. Ardern said that brings New Zealands total contribution to the war effort to NZ$30 million ($20 million) with 67 people deployed.

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LVIV, Ukraine Ukraines president warned his nation Sunday night that the coming week would be as crucial as any in the war.

Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

He accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes.

When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters. And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them. Ukraine will stop all this, Zelenskyy said.

The day will come when they will have to admit everything. Accept the truth, he said.

He again called on Western countries, including Germany, to provide more assistance to Ukraine. During talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelenskyy said he discussed how to strengthen sanctions against Russia and how to force Russia to seek peace.

I am glad to note that the German position has recently changed in favor of Ukraine. I consider it absolutely logical, Zelenskyy said.

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BERLIN -- Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

The Austria Press Agency reported that Nehammer told reporters in Vienna on Sunday that he plans to make the journey. It follows a trip on Saturday to Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

APA reported that Nehammer aims to encourage dialogue between Ukraine and Russia and also address war crimes in his meeting with Putin.

Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation blocs sanctions against Russia, though it so far has opposed cutting off deliveries of Russian gas. The country is militarily neutral and is not a member of NATO.

Nehammer said he was taking the trip on his own initiative, and that he had consulted with the European Unions top officials. He said that he also informed Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

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Live Updates | EU ministers assessing bloc's response to war - Yahoo! Voices

Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern have been very mean to the worlds Covid Cinderella, New Zealand. Just when we thought we were off to the Ball of Normality with the rest of the world, the wicked stepmother (in the form of the World Health Organisations General Tedros) has waved his wand.

His advisor, Helen Clark, wants lockdowns. Masks. Social distancing. Contact tracing. Testing. Isolation. Quarantines. Greater surveillance powers for the WHO. A one size fits all for global health architecture costing $31 billion per year.

The World Health Organisation which youd think by now would be an international laughing stock but apparently not intends to take complete control of world health spending, funded by the G7 countries, to the tune of $US19 billion for the strengthening of health systems. This means more power to Dr Doomfield/Bloomfield/Gloomfield and Arderns apparatchiks it is their moment to swoop down on the nation with the infamous COVID-19 Response Act, lock us all up, and jab the lot of us to their hearts content.

Tedros reckons the world needs stronger government (aaargh! Ardern et al. even stronger?) and a common approach. It is integral to The Great Reset.

According to Helen Clark, we have a proven menu to stop transmission. Could she possibly be referring to the clueless, catastrophic carry-on conducted by Dr Bloomfield/Doomfield et al? Yep, yep She is.

Clark wants the WHO to have authority (weve got the chills already) to publish information on outbreaks with pandemic potential immediately, without the approval of governments. As Ardern probably wants Clarks job at the WHO or something similar, she wont be making any objection. The WHO should be given authority (that word again) to set benchmarks for healthcare around the world.

Imagine it. Tedros in charge of your healthcare

Clarks wishlist is a long one. A universal health and preparedness review to control healthcare in countries. She means all countries.

The WHO has failed to address the side effects of the approved drugs Remdesivir and Midazolam. Not to mention the statistically unusual sudden-death and/or collapse of sports players worldwide.

What happened to freedom of medical choice? Just where are all the fems and their chorus of My body, my choice?

Where are they?

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

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Ardern and Clark's next pandemic will be horrid - The Spectator Australia

OPINION: Its 18 months in and, as we near the likely halfway point for this majority Labour Government, the issues of the election are tentatively taking shape as parties begin to jostle for position.

The Government has now almost cleared the decks of its major Covid-19 policies. Mondays announcement that the traffic light settings would remain in red seemed a bit out-of-step with where the country was at. You can argue over whether the settings should already have changed, but the likelihood is that they will near the end of the coming week.

Besides, a mixture of the big sick and self-imposed restrictions are hitting business activity. Ask anyone in a central city.

Ministerial staffers who previously spent their days doing Covid-related work are now finding that, all of a sudden, they are back to doing what they were previously getting on with work that their bosses are actually in charge of. This as director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield announced that he was leaving.

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David Seymours ACT is pushing National from the right, claiming to have been the more effective opposition party over the past year.

READ MORE:* Green Party co-leaders keen to stay on through next election* Election 2020: Crunch time as referendum results come in and Labour concludes talks with the Greens * Election 2020: Decision on Government to come on Friday, with Greens given one chance to agree on deal

One of the more interesting dynamics playing out now is the relationship between the two major parties and their smaller, more ideologically pure, fellow travellers.

So, while Labour was busy making diesel vehicles cheaper to run this week by reducing road-user charges following on from petrol tax cuts a couple of weeks ago the Greens have been aggressively accusing Labour of subsidising fossil fuels, something on which it spent a fair bit of its Apec agenda trying to reach a deal.

Of course, reducing road-user charges isnt a subsidy for diesel, but it does make the fossil fuel cheaper.

Similarly, the Greens are also now pushing hard on rent controls. Its a good retail politics issue for the Greens: superficially, rent controls look like a good idea especially to those paying through the nose for often dank accommodation.

Under co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw, the Greens hit a remarkable political achievement in 2020 increasing the partys vote at the same time that Labour massively increased its. The centre-left vote was grown, rather than Labour or the Greens cannibalising each other for the same votes.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stops to answer questions from reporters in the halls of Parliament.

But now the Greens see renewed opportunity. Despite being sort of in government with Labour, providing two ministers in Shaw and Davidson, they are chafing against what they view as Labour arrogance and high-handedness.

Jacinda Ardern came to power promising that she was going to sort housing, poverty, inequality and climate change. The issues remain decidedly unsorted. For those on the left who would like to see Labour crank out a fiscal cannon and spray the joint with money, the Government has been a disappointment. There have been big increases in spending, but not the sorts of direct intervention in the economy the Greens favour. Next election, you would expect the far-left party to pick off some of Labours vote.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson is pushing the Government hard from the left about rent controls, while the party is also accusing it of subsidising fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, on the right, a quite different thing is going on. In the House this week, National shifted from talking about the cost of living to lack of delivery. The party thinks there is fertile ground here, in the same way that the cost of living crisis seemed little more than just a repetitive and slightly quixotic campaign before inflation ticked up and it really took off.

National figures reckon that this will become a weak point for Labour, because of its tendency to present inputs (money) as an outcome or achievement. On this basis, National thinks it will be able to identify a lot of waste where the Government has announced money for something that doesn't seem to have delivered much by way of outcomes. Mental health is a good example: despite more money being announced, little has been achieved and, in some cases, there is little evidence the money has even been spent.

Time will tell.

National is also firmly getting back into law and order, specifically crime in Auckland. Police Minister Poto Williams is certainly a weak link in the Governments front bench, and National is honing in on her. Crime is an issue, like inflation, where politics usually follows real life: if there is a problem with crime, voters know it they also know if there isnt. Gangs are a slightly different issue, but law and order is potent.

ACT, meanwhile, is doing its best to hold up its vote by putting daylight between itself and National on key issues. Climate and co-governance are two on which it is trying to win votes by having a clearer, more free-market and less costly position than National. Its policy on co-governance is simple: it is against it.

The party released a poll it conducted in Tauranga, showing that half of all voters think ACT, not National, has been the most effective opposition party over the past year. For ACT, retaining its vote in the 8 per cent to 10 per cent range into the next election is about cementing itself as a consistent and credible party to the right of National.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

The Budget is fast approaching.

The Government keeps on. A Budget is fast approaching on May 19, when we will get a sense of what is coming over the next few months. It will be what sets Labour up for next year and reveals how politically bold it is including on climate change.

There are a bunch of changes still to come this term: fair pay agreements, the new Three Waters legislation and reform, the emissions reduction plan, centralising the health system, and possibly reforming the Resource Management Act.

Whether a National/ACT government would repeal some, all, or any of these changes is an open question. When it comes to Three Waters, just about every opposition party professes to be into localism before it gets into government.

Balancing the politics of the now, while successfully clearing the decks of the big changes, will be crucial to Labours re-election chances.

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Nearly halfway through the term, parties start to stake out territory - Stuff