As of 5 October, 38 farms in New Zealand were affected by this disease. On Wednesday, she joined Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Faafoi in Auckland to announce new crackdowns on independent lending groups. Budgeting groups welcomed the announcement by the government, saying that a fine of $600,000 would be a huge deterrent for loan sharks. On Thursday, she launched the new Strategy for Women and Girls in Sport, with Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson at Eden Park in Auckland. Friday’s Auckland agenda was a mix, with various meetings and announcements.
The Insane Fuel Prices
Jacinda dedicated most of the Press Conference clarifying to the press about the state of the fuel prices and taxes.
Fuel in New Zealand has the highest pre-tax prices in the OECD. In 2008 we were one of the lowest. This year, fuel prices have rose almost 39c a litre. The PM has said that the high fuel prices are the result of NZers being “fleeced” by fuel companies. She prioritised the passing of the government’s Commerce Amendment Bill, which is currently at the select committee stage.
The bill would require fuel companies to cooperate with the government to investigate fuel pricing. “This bill will create the ability to undertake market studies and will compel companies to produce information to the Commerce Commission to fully understand how markets are functioning.” Ardern acknowledged this bill was necessary, as fuel companies have refused to cooperate with Government before.

VicLabour

Let’s remember why the expo is happening in Palmerston North in the first place. Last year the “weapon’s expo” was held in Wellington and after the great opposition that was displayed, our Labour mayor, Justin Lester, refused to allow city council venues to be used for the industry trade fair in the future. In Palmerston North, Labour Councillor Lorna Johnson has been vocal about reviewing the policy of venue use, due to the protests against the event. Councils are allowed to restrict controversial forums if they encourage negative behaviour and enact harm onto the city. This is not dissimilar to Auckland City Council forbidding Lauren Southern and Stephen Molyneux because of their vile stances that the people of their city do not support. Wellington City Council has done it, Palmerston North City Council can do it, and any other city council can do it too.

VicNats

No. Unless the event advocates against or breaks New Zealand law, it is not the position of councils to pass judgement on the content of an event.

– Grahame Woods

GreensAtVic

Non-violence is at the core of Green politics; it is one of our party’s central charter principles. The expo is a forum for manufacturers to sell destructive capability to nations; in short, it facilitates war, and it facilitates profit from war. If Aotearoa sees itself as a peaceful, non-violent nation, then we cannot allow unethical forums to take place on our soil. Greens@Vic believes that just as we oppose nuclear weapons, we should also oppose cluster bombs, land mines, drone strikes, machine guns, and all forms of state-sanctioned violence. Kia kaha to Peace Action Manawatū, and all of the local leaders fighting for peace on the ground; kaua e mate wheke mate ururoa.

– Zachary Rose

ACT on Campus

People will always find something to protest about. ACT believes that defence is very important to our country. Private venues have the right to decide who they allow to use the space however council venues should be impartial.

ACT on Campus

While ACT supports the idea of ensuring migrants entering New Zealand share our values, we don’t believe a party like New Zealand First are the right people to draft this sort of legislation without resorting to xenophobia. We believe this could be abused by those with nefarious intent to keep entire groups of well-meaning people from entering the country. Also, considering Winston Peters has voted against homosexual law reform, civil unions, marriage equality, tolerant alcohol laws, and child abuse prevention, we don’t believe he could even pass his own “Kiwi values” test!

VicNats

The Young Nats believe that migrants, by their very nature of being immigrants, already both embody and enrich the values of New Zealand. The idea of working to better your life and embracing everyone’s views and traditions are all apart of what makes New Zealand a fantastic multicultural country. If anything we consider the remit passed by the New Zealand First conference to go against the very notion of what it means to be a New Zealander. For 25 years New Zealand First has pushed xenophobic, agest, and homophobic policies. They pushed for immigration numbers to be slashed in the last election, the increase of the drinking age, and Prime Minister Winston Peters voted against Homosexual Law Reform, Civil Unions and Gay Marriage. As such the Young Nats would like to invite New Zealand First to leave their values in the 1840s and join the 21st century.

– Grahame Woods

VicLabour

“There needs to be a question about who is deciding what “Kiwi values” are and who decided that those who are coming from elsewhere do not already hold these values. Will they make everyone sign this, or will it only be people of a certain religion or country? It feels as though it will be targeted, based on prejudice. There are many people who already live in New Zealand, who were born in New Zealand, who do not prescribe to the values listed. There are even people sitting in Parliament who don’t subscribe to these values. The current and previous leader of the National Party voted against marriage equality and the same party voted against Jan Logie’s domestic violence bill, clearly showing their stance on legal sexual preference and gender equity. There are many campaigns in New Zealand to combat our harmful drinking culture, why is it only an issue when migrants also campaign against it? This bill sounds like a justification for racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia and a discriminatory excuse to not allow refugees into the country, when they are of no threat in the slightest to New Zealand or our values.”

Greens at Vic

How does Winston interpret “New Zealand values”? However Winston wants to. Plenty of Kiwis don’t have respect for gender equality, religious freedom, or New Zealand law. Maybe we should put this test to everyone, not just migrants, and exile anyone who fails? We already have a system in place to ensure that if someone violates a value that we hold to be important enough, they are punished. They’re called laws. Migrants are already required to obey them. Winston is talking about denying refugees entry into the country. Is it really worth letting people die to uphold “New Zealand Values”?

“They think student pressure is the way to go” said Ella.

“Oh like the name change. Right.” said Jack.
Lars, who is from Rostra, the Vic Politics Society magazine, asked why the non-fair trade option was still available. “We believe in choice” said Ella, and the conversation turned to jokes about slavery that made me uncomfortable.

NZUSA Structure Review
VUWSA was originally going to talk about this in committee, which would have meant we couldn’t report on it. But they changed their mind five minutes before the meeting. I call that a win for transparency, and I’m happy to share with you the goss.
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) is our “national student voice”.
Now, NZUSA is reviewing their democratic structures and their council. The “option paper” from NZUSA noted that “internally, there has been a greater desire for NZUSA to be more visible, accountable, and member-focused”.
Currently NZUSA consists of all the presidents from student unions around the country. The proposal in the option paper suggested student union representation be increased to two members.
Beth wanted to know how NZUSA plans to increase member engagement. “I just disagree with everything [about that proposal],” she said.
Rhi said she wanted the status quo, but with a revised reporting system.
Ella said the VUWSA president shouldn’t be able to vote on an issue for NZUSA unless VUWSA have voted in favour of it. The conclusion was “we don’t like any of the options, it doesn’t address our concerns”.
Name Change
VUWSA is submitting against it, and Tam said the submission “could be powerful because Chris Hipkins is a former VUWSA president”.
If the name does get changed, VUWSA is trying to decide if they should become UWSA, WUSA, SAW, or stay VUWSA.
They’re gonna ask for student feedback, so stay tuned.
The Random Student was asked to leave because the meeting went into committee. He left, saying “what am I even doing here?”
The meeting ended with a vigorous debate about the Bird of the Year. One person, who shall remain unnamed, stated their support for kerurū. Beth responded “you’re just swayed by the most well-funded media campaign”.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has expressed that he would like a bill to be introduced to the house which would insist that migrants hold NZ “values”. Some of these values include respect for gender identity, sexual orientation, freedom of religious choice, and a commitment not to campaign against alcohol consumption.
Mr Peters stated that the main reason behind his party introducing this bill is to stop the mass exploitation of migrant workers and Indian students. “If they’re coming into the country, then they should be asked before they actually sign up, ‘do you understand what it entails?’”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Labour Party would not be supporting the bill if it comes to the house.

Jacinda’s Week in the Big Apple

Jacinda Ardern arrived back in New Zealand after being away in New York for a week of bilateral meetings, speeches, and exercising a bit of diplomomatic repartee.
Monday: There was a significant amount of media fuss with Ardern’s baby Neve Te Aroha making an appearance at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit. Ardern also appeared on The Today Show, a morning news and talk show with around 5 million daily viewers.

Tuesday: Ardern engaged in a bilateral meeting with Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, whom she ended up swapping phone numbers with.
Wednesday: The youngest and oldest world leaders shared the stage at the Bloomberg Business Forum, with Jacinda Ardern and 92 year old Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad being interviewed about their leadership. She also made an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Thursday: Ardern made her formal address to the UN General Assembly. With New Zealand being so far down the list, the audience was pretty piddly, and the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was happening at the same time.
Friday: She had very little to do on Friday, most of the time was a wrap-up with final media interviews being conducted.

VicNats

“The plastic bag ban is a tokenistic policy that ultimately does more harm than good. The use of plastic bags is proven to contribute less CO2 emissions over time than the production of reusable bags. Meaning that the Government has ignored their own mandate of reducing carbon emissions. While the Young Nats accept that the banning of these bag will reduce marine pollution, in the words of Minister Sage they represent only a “small subset of all sources of marine plastics”. There are plenty of policy options proposed by MfE that would have worked to reduce marine pollution while keeping New Zealand’s emissions low. The Young Nats hope that in the future the Government will properly consider all of the possible policy options before making ideological decisions that ultimately do more harm than good to New Zealanders. However between this and the oil and gas ban we’re not confident this will ever happen.”

-Graeme Woods

ACT on Campus

“Yes it is a tokenistic gesture. While it’s a nice idea in theory it may be doing more harm than good. Banning the bags can lead to worse economic outcomes such as jobs lost and Kiwis having to buy more expensive bags. That aside, while the principal of the bag ban is good, it has the potential for further negative environmental impacts as producing thicker plastic bags and reusable bags are more environmentally damaging to make and dispose of than single use bags. Plastic bags only damage the environment because of the incorrect way people use/dispose of them and only make up 0.01% of landfill waste.
We should be looking at innovative solutions to help the environment and economy, such as bio-degradable bags and the proper recycling methods in place rather than just stepping in with a ban for virtue-signalling purposes. The government needs to start taking some real action and look for smarter ways to deal with the plastic problem rather than tokenistic gestures.”

– James Allan

Greens at Vic

“It is not tokenistic at all. While plastic waste is a much bigger problem than just plastic bags, we have to start reducing our reliance on plastics somewhere.

Aotearoa collectively uses over a billion plastic bags every year. When plastic bags enter our oceans and break down, fish eat them and the plastic enters our food chain. I’d enjoy my tuna sushi a lot more if I knew there wasn’t any plastic in it! All it requires is a simple change of our habits. I just grab my school bag before I do my shopping, and I have reusable bags right by the door so I can grab them if I’m doing a bigger trip. A minor change to our routines like this really does have a great impact on the environment. If we got rid of plastic bags all together, it would have the same impact on emissions as removing 3000 cars from our roads. This is only just the beginning.”

– Mark Metcalfe

VicLabour

“Depends on who you ask! If you’re the National Party, maybe you’d think it is virtue signalling commie bullshit. But if you’re a sea turtle, you probably would want to do whatever you could to avoid swallowing and choking on a plastic bag thinking that it’s a jellyfish! The phasing-out of plastic bags is only part of the government’s wider agenda with respect to climate change and conservation. No one is saying plastic bag pollution is the only waste management issue we are facing – but you have to start somewhere.
In recent years there has been growing public pressure via letters and petitions urging consecutive governments to phase-out plastic bags. As a result of this activism, the plastic bag phase-out is the first step the government has made towards changing NZ’s attitude towards and consumption of harmful plastics.”

Cabinet Minutes Condensed
Winston Peters started off the press conference by confirming that the “Waka-Jumping” Bill, is expected to pass through the House of Representatives in all its readings. This bill would supposedly allow people to have more confidence in the electoral system. The same is expected of the Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill, which would freeze MP’s pay for a year. The government recognised that most New Zealanders’ pay growths have been out of proportion with MPs since changes were made by the Remuneration Authority in 2015. The bill was introduced to allow for the government to focus on lifting the wages for ordinary Kiwis.

Media Questions
They really don’t exaggerate it in the media, Winnie likes to keep his dealings with the media short and sweet. I didn’t have time to slip my question about the Treaty settlement process into the mix, but other reporters asked questions about the meth houses and Iranian terrorist attacks.
Peters addressed multiple questions about needle-ridden strawberries being stocked on Countdown shelves in Auckland. He stated that media coverage could encourage further fruit-tampering.

“In terms of exporting into this country, we will be screening every strawberry punnet.” Screenings will be conducted through a proposed metal detector that authorities will use to pick up any metal that is found within the punnets.
Multiple questions were thrown about the Victoria University name change, with Winston Peters refusing to comment because he did not want to “compromise” Education Minister Chris Hipkins.

VicLabour 

No. It’s called MMP sweetie, look it up.

Greens on Campus

No. It’s called MMP sweetie, look it up.

– Mark Metcalfe

VicNats

Not only have cracks shown in this New Zealand First-led Government, but the dam has burst. Since the end of the Labour party’s 100 day plan, the coalition has sat around to-ing and fro-ing on the minor points of policies and pushing through the unconstitutional waka jumping legislation. All the while debating bills proposed by the past National Government and holding an excess of members days. Not only this, but key election promises made by the Labour party have been vetoed by Prime Minister Peters. Policies such as increasing the refugee quota and the repeal of the three strikes law (while flawed) have been presented by Labour MPs, only to be vetoed by a minority party. Even last week, the Green party attacked the Government for failing to withdraw troops from Iraq. A policy near and dear to the Green party’s heart. Proving that out of the 63 MPs on the Government benches, only Winston Peters’ vote matters. New Zealand deserves a strong and stable government, not one divided across the Cabinet table.

– Grahame Woods

ACT on Campus

This coalition government is a shambles. They can’t agree and don’t communicate well. It’s clear to see that Winston wears the pants and Jacinda is just a show prime minister. However it’s a good job that she isn’t running the country because as we have seen this week, she doesn’t even know what GDP is!
These cracks that are showing in the coalition are just the beginning of a larger fallout. Winston has dismantled every government that he’s been a part of previously. It’s only a matter of time before this coalition comes crashing down.

– James Allan