Long Question Time today: lots of other debates, so it didn't start until about 2:40pm. - Opening prayer in another language: Tongan? Bought a scrumpy to drink along... sitting at home. ☘️ - The sound on the TV feed just cut out - 2:07pm. Rawiri and Debbie have been thrown out of the chamber. Apparently the other parties hadn't confirmed that Whaitiri was to sit with Te Pāti Māori. - The Chris's are both yammering on about the coronation. I didn't see that -- as a republican, it felt like a waste. If I hadn't been working, the Queen's Funeral would have been a snoozer; that felt like a waste of a week .. I'm sure my RNZ coworkers would agree. 🐸 - McKee yammering on for ACT about King Charles. This is boring: glad I'm at home and can snark.
She's done her research -- reminds me of my Year 13 history class (I took English History).
Not particularly surprising that ACT is heavy on the military history. I tend to think of them as a warmongering party. 🤣 - It's the Greens turn: brief and well-done. 👍 They abstained on the vote to congratulate the King, while Te Pāti Māori opposed it. - It's Whaitiri's turn: Rurawhe cut her off. Said her explanation wasn't relevant to the House. Cool jacket. 👋 - McAnulty about today's floods: Auckland is under another state of emergency. 🤯 The National Emergency Response coordinators are also working, much like the previous floods. Chris Penk from the Nats throwing in his two cents... mentioned the mental health toll from the floods. That's a good point.
Seymour ... school student trapped in Abbey Caves. Then he pivoted to stealth climate denial. 🤔 Swarbrick: she has questions about the other statements... riffing on Seymour. Labour MP's are chatting -- there's loads of sidebars during Question Time, but the TV cameras seldom show those. Challenged Labour as to whether the response is adequate. - McAnulty responds: mentioned mental health helplines, said Chloe's question was for Internal Affairs rather than Emergency Management. Chloe shot back with another question -- his answer: the resourcing is improving, but slowly. She's still pushing... third question. - Question 1: Swarbrick to the PM
Sign language for the questions: that's new. 👍 Pushing him on tax and flood response. Hipkins is giving very brief answers. snarky answer by Hipkins about CGT and wealth tax: 'yes, but perhaps less dramatically' 🤣 - Question 2: Luxon to Hipkins
Hipkins spruiking the free trade agreement with the UK. Dr Woods interjecting during a question. Rurawhe tells her to apologise. Whaitiri has supplementaries about the Māori King brouhaha .. cultural competency for officials. - Question 3: Lorck to Robertson
Cyclone recovery:
$860 million of additional support has been announced. 3,500 small business approved for grants. $73 million for rural communities. $57 million given out to date. - Question 4: Seymour to Hipkins
Same question that Luxon asked. Comparing our defense spend re: GDP to Australia. See: warmongering! 🤣 Tough on crime spruik by the PM: 1800 new cops on the beat. - Question 5: Halbert to Woods
The government is buying land and underwriting costs for some property developers. The $1 billion Infrastructure Acceleration Fund is expected to create 30-35,000 new homes over the next decade. - Question 6: Goldsmith to Kiri Allan
The OIA: Allan thinks it's fit for purpose. Goldsmith took a swipe at RNZ over Kiri's speech at her partner's leaving party. -
Question 7: McLellan to Verrall I find the soft questions from Labour-Labour are mostly boring. That's definitely not going to be the case after the 2023 Election. 🤣 - Question 8: Stanford to Tinetti
So bored with this question about the attendance data. It's been the same thing for months. - Question 9: Sosene to Little
Defence force funding: Budget 2023 will invest $419 million over three years to increase pay for defense personnel. For low-to-mid skill: it'll improve their pay by $4,000-$15,000 p.a. $85.5 million will go to renovating houses near the army bases. $90 million for a new aviation fueling facility. $59 million to keep our frigates running into the 2030's. - Question 10: Doocey to Verrall About the mental patient in seclusion, and apparently the mental health spend from 2022 hasn't really eventuated (less than $1 million of the $25 million has been spent to date). - Question 11: Chen to Webb
Soft question about shopping. The Commerce Commission is reminding people about surcharges; contactless payments are likely to incur a fee, but credit and debit cards typically shouldn't.
I use an EFTPOS card to avoid surcharges at the dairy. - Question 12: Mitchell to Andersen
33% increase in violent crime.
Safety is a stupid debate: it's a very relative statement. There's nothing empirical about 'safety' -- that's a political notion.
-
PS:
ooh.. Chloe's written a letter to debate the weather. Declined. 🤔
Comments