Politics Central

Applications for the Small Business Loan Cashflow Scheme will be extended until the end of the year.
The deadline was previously extended to July 24, but in a speech today, Jacinda Ardern said the scheme will now run until the end of 2020. 
The Government has received 90,000 applications so far - and have paid out over $1.5 billion in loans.
Minster for small business Stuart Nash told The Weekend Collective it will help businesses going through hard times.
"It's an interest-free loan if you pay it back in your first year, but you have got five years to pay it back, and you don't have to start paying it back for two years.
"But this is in a sense to help people with their working capital requirements."
Herald Business reporter Liam Dann says small businesses play a key role in the recovery.
"We have to give the small business people enough support to shift their businesses towards where they are seeing opportunity."

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Victoria has recorded 74 new cases of coronavirus overnight as thousands of Melburnians get used to their first full day in strict quarantine lockdown across scores of public apartment blocks. Almost 30 cases were identified in the flats, just north of the CBD.    
Residents of the blocks, who won’t be able to leave home for at least five days, will get $1500 in hardship payments and rent relief for the next fortnight.
 Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said while today’s cases were a reduction on the 108 yesterday he expected “to see some big days with big numbers in the days ahead.”
However, he and his state government have been slammed as “incompetent” and “deeply unimpressive” following the COVID surge that began after inept hotel quarantine management. 
Some residents of the towers have lashed out at authorities claiming the lockdown on some of the city’s most vulnerable was not fair. 
Andrews has said that for the residents of the nine public housing blocks that are in hard lockdown, the only response to a request they should be tested is “yes”.
The government has been caught off guard by reports of up to 10,000 Melburnians refusing to be tested in hot spot suburbs.
Andrews said that wouldn’t be happening in the North Melbourne and Footscray flats. He’s told people to call out their non-testing neighbours.
The government has said it needs five days to test all 3000 residents and get their results back. The premier hinted that if people refused to test, the tough lockdown could last longer.
“I expect that everybody will consent to a test because the sooner we have the testing process concluded the sooner we will be able to make decisions based on the data about the restrictions that are appropriate for those nine towers,” he said at a press conference today.
“If someone knocks on your door to do a test the only answer you should give is yes.
“And if you see someone in your family group, in your friendship group, in your street, who is not taking this seriously, then call them out.”
Andrews said he expected only a “small number” of people to refuse a test.
“My message to those residents is content of the test, agree to the test and find out exactly how much of this virus is in these towers”.

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Washington is the latest state to pause its reopening plans after a spike in the number of new cases of coronavirus across the country.
"We all want to get back to doing all the things we love in Washington during the summer, and fully open our economy, but we aren't there yet," Gov. Jay Inslee said Saturday. "This is an evolving situation and we will continue to make decisions based on the data."
At least a dozen other states, including some of the most populous in the country, have taken similar measures in the past few days.
More than half of the states are facing a surge of coronavirus cases and it's threatening to overwhelm hospitals.
"The community's infection rate is three times higher today than it was three months ago," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters.
Texas and at least five other states -- Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Tennessee and Utah -- reported the highest single-day totals of new Covid-19 cases, according to the state's health departments. Florida, seen possibly as the next US epicenter, reported its highest one-day total of new cases on Saturday with 9,585 cases.
And it is not just those states seeing rising numbers. The national number of daily coronavirus case reports reached a new high of nearly 40,000 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and 32 states are seeing the number of new cases grow from the prior week.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Friday that "nothing has changed in the last week" and the surge was the result of a "test dump."
But the governor of Texas, the nation's second most populous state, paused his state's phased reopening plan and ordered further restrictions on businesses including bars.
More governors have announced that they are not moving ahead to their next reopening phases. Those states include Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico and North Carolina.
Metropolitan areas across the US seeing exponential growth in cases means the nation will likely see a "dramatic increase" in the virus' trajectory, Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor and dean of tropical medicine at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine told CNN.
"At least in the metro areas, we've got people wearing masks now, the bars are closed and we've got some advocacy coming out of the county judge and the mayor," Hotez said about Texas. "I don't know how much this will really slow this incredibly aggressive rise. It's like trying to stop a train coming down the tracks."
'For goodness sakes: avoid crowds'
The rise in cases for more than half of the country comes as people venture outside to enjoy summer activities and relaxed restrictions after a spring spent indoors to curb the virus' spread.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, urged Americans to go back to the basics to prevent spreading or becoming infected with the virus.
"For goodness sakes: avoid crowds, wear masks. Those are the fundamentals that -- when you look at the television clips, when you see pictures in the newspapers -- people are not doing that. That's a recipe for disaster," Fauci told CNBC.
Many institutions are taking steps to disperse large groups. A federal judge ruled Friday that the US government must release migrant children held in government family detention centers by mid-July. They must be released into the care of a parent or, if that is not an option, to "available suitable sponsors or other available COVID-free non-congregate settings" with the consent of their parents or guardians.
In Texas, the Pride Houston parade agreed to hold a virtual rally instead of an in-person event, the organization wrote Friday in a statement on Facebook.
"Pride Houston understands that we do not live in a bubble and we are also in the middle of another public health crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic," the organization wrote.
Following outbreaks after large beach gatherings,...

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Firearms specialist Nicole McKee has become an Act Party candidate and secured No 3 spot in the party list announced today by leader David Seymour.
The party has a new deputy leader, Brooke Van Velden, who replaces Beth Houlbrooke, and will take the No 2 spot behind Seymour.
McKee is a first-time candidate.
Van Velden stood for Act in Auckland Central last election.

Act's No 3 list candidate Nicole KcKee. Photo / Supplied
On current polling, Seymour would be joined to two or three more Act MPs.
Van Velden has been a parliamentary adviser to Seymour and helped to organise to the passage of the End of Life Choice Act, which will put to voters as a referendum at the September 19 election.
Seymour said Brooke van Velden was qualified in international trade.
Her private sector experience as a corporate affairs consultant and political experience at Parliament had given her a deep understanding of the economy and the effect big government policies and rushed laws have on businesses and individuals.
Van Velden said she switched from being a Green Party voter to an Act supporter while studying economics and international trade at Auckland University.
"The ability for free markets to lift countries from hardship was a revelation for me."
Nicole McKee was a small business owner having delivered firearms safety education in rural and isolated communities for New Zealand Police.
She had a background in law, firearms component imports, was the coordinator of the nation's volunteer firearms safety instructors for the Mountain Safety Council as well as being the spokesperson for the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners and its Fair and Reasonable Campaign.
McKee said she would be campaigning to raise Act's Party vote in Rongotai.
"I do not believe that emotive and rushed legislation that adversely affects those it is intended to support is viable.
"Our laws should be rooted in policies that recognise our democratic rights to think, to speak and to behave in a legal and unobstructed way."
Chris Baillie, a secondary teacher and former police officer, is at No 4. He also owns a bar in Nelson employing 30 people.
Simon Court, an engineer, is ranked at No 5 and will stand in Te Atatu. He said his youngest son has Down Syndrome and he intended to take a disability perspective to Parliament.
Act president Tim Jago said the calibre and experience of candidates would impress people from every persuasion.
"We have candidates from all walks of life - people who have built their homes, families and businesses and who want to protect and enhance our free society. Our candidates will bring a strong dose of common sense to Parliament," he said.
Among the candidates were End of Life Choice advocates, a former police officer, two teachers, two lawyers, three farmers, four engineers, eleven business owners, and 13 licensed firearms owners.

Act's new deputy leader Brooke van Velden. Photo / Supplied
The full list, of which only 20 are ranked:
1 - David Seymour
2 - Brooke Van Velden
3 - Nicole McKee
4 - Chris Baillie
5 - Simon Court
6 - James McDowall
7 - Karen Chhour
8 - Mark Cameron
9 - Stephen Berry
10 - Toni Severin
11 - Damien Smith
12 - Miles McConway
13 - Beth Houlbrooke
14 - Carmel Claridge
15 - Bruce Carley
16 - Cameron Luxton
17 - Grae O'Sullivan
18 - Myah Deedman
19 - David Seymour
20 - David King
Richard Evans
Robert Andrews
Stu Armstrong
Sean Beamish
Shawn Blanchfield
Kartini Clarke
Jan Daffern
James Davies
Tommy Fergusson
Sean Fitzpatrick
David Fox
David Freeman
Paul Gilbert
Paul Grace
Wayne Grattan
Roger Greenslade
Abby Johnson
Chris Johnston
Judith Kendall
Pete Kirkwood
Niko Kloeten
Tim Kronfeld
Mike...

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From tomorrow, Victorians were set to enjoy some of the benefits of eased coronavirus restrictions that many other Australians have been revelling in for weeks.
Cafes, restaurants and pubs were set to increase capacity from 20 people to 50, for instance.
But that won’t be happening. In fact, from midnight tonight, Victorians will have some COVID-19 restrictions reimposed – and they will be enforced by police. A state of emergency will remain in place for the next month.
Household gatherings will be restricted to a maximum of five guests, and public gatherings will have a limit of 10 people. And getting pubs and cafes back to some semblance of normality – well that's going to have to wait too.
Gyms, cinemas, indoor sports centres and concert venues will be allowed to reopen, but with only 20 patrons.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said she knew it was “frustrating” to have restrictions reimposed.
“We are all getting tired, we are getting fatigued by all of the restrictions that have been in place, but unless we all take this seriously, unless we all exercise a degree of responsibility here, we will have more cases and we will have more people end up in hospitals,” she said this morning.
Victorians are having to digest the reality that in some suburbs, that have become hot spots for community transmission, those restrictions could be amped up even further.
Across the border in New South Wales is the state that’s seen the most coronavirus cases. In comparison to its northern neighbour, Victoria was doing pretty well. Yet, while Sydneysiders are sinking beers with mates in the pubs and getting back to the gym, Melburnians will end up spending most of their time indoors.
They must be wondering how it all went so wrong, so quickly.
The reason is community transmission. NSW’s five cases on Sunday were all returned travellers. But a substantial chunk of Sunday’s 19 new cases in Victoria and 25 on Saturday are from person to person transmission outside of quarantine.
There are real concerns that a second wave of COVID-19 is possible.
Yesterday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pointed the finger at people with the virus blithely going about their daily lives regardless.
He said the new cases included “large family outbreaks” where the virus was spread among people in a household, and then to others in the community.
In some cases, those people knew they were infected but went to work or social gatherings anyway, he said.
“If you are sick, do not go out. If you are sick, do not go out,” Mr Andrews said. “You’re putting the rest of Victoria at risk. That is not right.”
The new rules will come into place from midnight and stay in place until midnight on July 12. He said the restrictions were imposed to try and “break the cycle” of people who are unwell continuing to socialise.
He said authorities would go door-to-door to ensure the new rules are being adhered to.
“I want to make it really clear that we have seen some families who have not done as they have been asked,” he said.
“We have seen some families who perhaps through a sense of frustration and their hope that this is over, they have pretended that it is.
“I am not happy to have to confirm this but we will go door-to-door getting the message out there to communities across the state and that these restrictions are there for everyone.
“We will also go door-to-door not just in getting good public health advice out to people, we’ll go door-to-door if we have to make sure people are doing the right thing.”
Those restrictions could include going back to restricting the reasons why people can go outside.
Yesterday, the state’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria is at a “crossroads” after the latest spike in cases.
“We are indeed at a crossroads,” Dr Sutton said.
“The increase in numbers just in the last few days, in absolute terms, doesn’t look like...

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Thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump showed up in an indoor arena Saturday night for a rally that some fear could help fuel nascent spikes of coronavirus cases in some places, concerns that were amplified after six staffers helping to set up the event tested positive for the virus.
State and city health department officials were already bracing for a possible surge in COVID-19 cases from large outdoor demonstrations against police brutality held across the country. Now the Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shaped up to be the first indoor event of such a massive scale since the coronavirus pandemic took hold and many states issued stay-at-home orders.
More than 120,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.
During Saturday's rally, Trump told his supporters the United States has tested 25 million people, far more than any other country. He also told the crowd that more testing leads to finding more positive cases.
Trump said that "so I said to my people slow the testing down, please."
Officials said they expected 100,000 people from many states to converge on Tulsa for the rally and other events, but thousands of the BOK Center's 19,000 seats were empty for the rally. Supporters — most without masks — and hundreds of protesters filled streets Saturday around the stadium.
The Trump campaign's communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said in a statement that "quarantine procedures" were immediately initiated and no staff member who tested positive would attend the event. Those who had immediate contact with them would also abstain.
Brian Bernard sported a Trump 2020 hat on Saturday in downtown Tulsa, but no face covering. He said the numbers and media attention on coronavirus are artificially inflated, and that didn't stop him from making a nine-hour drive from his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to attend his second Trump rally.
"I haven't caught a cold or a flu in probably 15 years, and if I haven't caught a cold or flu yet, I don't think I'm gonna catch COVID," said the 54-year-old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "I don't think it's anything worse than the flu."
The map of the outbreak in the U.S., and elsewhere, has become a patchwork, with infections falling in some areas and surging in others. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn't hold a televised coronavirus briefing for the first time in months Saturday — a sign of progress in the state that was home to the epicenter of the outbreak — though he did convene a conference call to make an announcement about baseball spring training.
Other states are seeing increases, and Nevada and Arizona, for instance, have reported record single-day jumps in new cases in recent days.
In Tulsa, health department officials have said two large indoor gatherings recently contributed to a spike in new cases. They declined to name the events or say how big they were, but the city has seen the largest increase in infections in Oklahoma in recent days. Several bordering states, including Arkansas, have also seen spikes in community spread of the virus in recent weeks.
That is worrying some experts as Tulsa prepares again for Trump's large indoor gathering.
"I think there's no question that indoor events are more risky than outdoor events. But we don't really know how big that difference is. And certainly other aspects, like how tightly packed things are ... will make a big difference," said Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Lessler said large events like the rally or the protests have the "potential to be super spreader events," but their potential to drive the pandemic is short-lived.
"The larger factor is what happens when people go home," he said. "If everybody goes home and doesn't respect the social distancing factors and goes out into the community, then they could push the spread."
On its website, the Centers for Disease...

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A leading epidemiologist says we could stay at Level 1 indefinitely if we prevent outbreaks of Covid-19 on our shores.
New Zealand has two new cases today, taking the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 1,511.
Both are recent arrivals from overseas who were detected within managed isolation facilities.
It comes after a week where two British women tested positive for Covid-19 after being let out of Auckland's Novotel on compassionate exemptions.
Professor Michael Baker told the Weekend Collective it would be worrying if we had a case come from out of the blue.
"What would be really alarming would be if you saw a case that had no connection with someone who had been through quarantine, as then you'd be concerned about community transmission again."
He says that it is concerning how many people were let out of quarantine without being tested, but we will need to wait to see if they have spread anything. 
Baker says we should know the numbers of how many were released.
However, despite the pain and reputational damage this blunder has caused, he says that it was a necessary event. 
"You cans ee from the Government's response, additional ministerial scrutiny, the additional staff to oversee the process, in some way, this is the wake-up call we really needed."

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A National-led Government would not increase taxes or cut benefits, its leader Todd Muller has promised.
In fact, the new opposition leader today revealed that if he is Prime Minister, National would spend more money on the "welfare safety net".
He also said the previous National Government did not move fast or boldly enough on issues such as climate change and addressing New Zealand's social deficit.
Muller made the commitments in a wide-ranging speech in his home town of Te Puna this afternoon.
The National leader touched on many topics, including his family, his early life and his private-sector experience.
But a major element of his speech was setting out the priorities of a National-led Government.
Chief among those was "the welfare of every New Zealander" and rebuilding the economy in the wake of the Covid-19 recession.
"National will not increase the taxes New Zealanders pay. Nor will we ever cut benefits, and we will continue to increase New Zealand's investment in hospitals, schools and the welfare safety net," he said.
And he revealed he has been getting advice from some National Party heavy-hitters of old."I have taken advice in the last few weeks from my friends, colleagues and mentors John Key, Bill English and Steven Joyce."
Muller praised former Prime Minister Bill English's Living Standards Framework and confirmed that the metrics would be at the heart of any budget put together by a National Government he leads.
Although full of praise for English – a political mentor of Muller's – the National leader was somewhat critical of his party when it was last in Government.

Todd Muller, centre, with former prime minister John Key, left, and Simon Bridges. Photo / File
He said successive governments should have acted "faster and more boldly" on issues such as water management and climate change.
On the latter, Muller said he was proud of the work he had done on getting National to support the first reading of the Zero Carbon bill.
He cited the work done by Greens Co-Leader James Shaw on that piece of legislation.
Muller also said the previous government had not moved fast enough, or boldly enough, to address New Zealand's social deficit, help the underclass, or "however you describe the deep-seated social problems we continue to see all around us".
Although critical of previous governments, Muller was at times complimentary of past Labour governments.
"Credit where due: Helen Clark and Michael Cullen also ran strong surpluses for most of their time in office."
But that was where the credit for Labour began, and ended in his speech.
He took aim at today's Government, accusing it of using "wellbeing" as a "cheap slogan".
"The Government speaks of 'wellbeing' but I struggle to see 'wellbeing' embedded in anything it is doing. For the Government, I think 'wellbeing' means no more in practice than 'KiwiBuild' did."
He lambasted the Government for failing to deliver in a number of areas, including mental health, tertiary education, the economy and child poverty.
"The Prime Minister put herself in charge of child poverty reduction, but her clumsy and incompetent ministers have made it worse," he said.
"It's KiwiBuild, but this time it's more of our children living in poverty, much to the Government's shame."
He said New Zealand could not risk a Labour Government being in charge of the economic and unemployment crisis ahead.
"Someone once said: 'Let's do this,'" he said in reference to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's 2017 campaign slogan.
"I say: 'Sure. But you need a National Government to get it done'.

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Martin Luther King's son says there is a clear racial problem within the US police.
It follows weeks of unrest after the killing of African-American man George Floyd by a police officer, and more recently the death of Rayshard Brooks, who was shot by police in Atlanta.
It's sparked protests both in the US and around the world, with demonstrators calling for an end to racism.
The protests have made their way to New Zealand, with two happening today in Auckland and Wellington.
Martin Luther King lll told The Weekend Collective both incidents are truly tragic.
“Policeman know how to apprehend – or at least used to – without killing. When it comes to apprehending black suspects, it always ends up fatal.
“There’s something drastically wrong with that.”
However, he says it is great to see so many people protesting for human rights.
King threw his support behind New Zealand protesters.
“My dad used to say that the greatness of democracy or the democratic system is the right to protest for rights. People are protesting for justice, for righteousness, for equality, all over the world.”

Protesters wait for the start of the Black Lives Matter rally in Aotea Square in Auckland. Photo / RNZ
The Auckland march, which started at Aotea Square, headed down Queen St and ended at the US consulate, where protesters took a knee and observed a minute of silence for George Floyd.
The Auckland rally opened with a karakia at Aotea Square and a mihi whakatau by Graham Tipene, of Ngāti Whātua, who told the crowd to "keep it peaceful".
"Our kids are here, so let's do it right and fight for what's right."
There were some counter-protesters, including some who yelled out "all lives matter" during speeches, but those there for the BLM gathering were told to ignore them, or to take a knee if they saw them.
In Wellington, close to 3000 protesters are marching from Civic Square to Parliament.
Lambton Quay is flooded with those showing solidarity.
Traffic is being diverted away from the street as the march arrives at Parliament.
"This is not a moment, this a movement," one speaker said outside Parliament.
The crowd of thousands erupted into applause and cheers.
"The future is us," the crowd said back.
"The future is change, the future is us, the future is freedom," the crowd can be heard chanting.

The Black Lives Matter march at Parliament. Photo / Jason Walls

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Shane Jones has been announced as New Zealand First's candidate for Northland.
Jones is set to go up against National MP Matt King who currently holds the seat, a battle that is tipped to decide this year's election.
Political commentator Shane Te Pou gives Jones a fair go.
"I think there might not be a dead deal on the table, but Willow-Jean Prime is likely to be the Labour candidate, might just tone it down a bit.
"I think he's in with a shot."
Mr Te Pou believes, like Party leader Winston Peters, Jones has enough of an image to win over the public.
"No he's not a Winston, but he is a high-profile in his own right - born and bred in the far North."

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