Politics Central

Ridding New Zealand of single-use plastic items is a "personal priority" says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who this morning revealed the Government's next steps in its fight against plastics.
"There is more to do," Ardern said.
Her comments came after she announced a ban on more single-use plastic items, including meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers.
This comes six months after the official plastic bag-ban came into force.
This morning Ardern's Chief Science Adviser, Professor Juliet Gerrard, released a report called: Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand.
It made a number of recommendations but its overall message to the Government was more needs to be done to get rid of single-use plastic items.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says a lot of plastic waste doesn't need to be created in the first place.
She says the report will now go to the Ministry for the Environment.
"Will look at all the recommendations more closely, come back, and I hope within six months we'll have a really serious response to the plan." 
"Our goal must be to make Aotearoa and economy where plastic rarely becomes waste or pollution," Ardern said.
She revealed that through the Provincial Growth Fund, the Government was looking into funding "optical scanners to improve plastic recycling".
She said the Government was also eyeing out new projects which would support the conversation of plastic waste into other products.
"People want to get plastics out of our environment and live up to our image as tidy Kiwis – we just need a plan to get there."
Ardern said she gets a lot of letters from people, mainly children, concerned about the amount of plastic in the ocean.
She said she reads every letter from a child that is sent to her. One letter contained a checklist of how to save turtles – step one, stop throwing plastic in the ocean.
"Good tip," Ardern said.
Looking ahead, Ardern said any future moves on plastics would require co-ordination not just from the Government, but from business, communities and individuals.
Ardern this morning talked up the Government's plastic bag-ban, saying it has already made a significant difference in New Zealand.
However, she said New Zealand still had "enormous long-term" challenges when it comes to plastic waste.
Act Leader David Seymour called on the Government to explain how strong the evidence supporting these bans actually is. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But critics say the Government needs to front up with more evidence that this new ban is actually needed in New Zealand.
Act Leader David Seymour called on the Government to explain how strong the evidence supporting these bans actually is.
"The Government is making the lives of New Zealanders slightly more difficult when there appears to be no real evidence of the scale of the problem."
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said there was no silver bullet when it comes to reducing plastic pollution, but admitted New Zealand needed a "system change".
She said she aimed to have a full Government response to the report within six months.

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LISTEN TO SKY NEWS' ENDA BRADY TALK WITH THE WEEKEND COLLECTIVE ABOVE. TEXT BY LUKE MCGEE, CNN
The UK is finally reaching the end of a weird few weeks. On Thursday, Brits will go to the polls to vote in what might be the most important election in a generation.
Most people expected this election to be a high-energy, nasty and personal contest. Brexit has left the UK bitterly divided, as the political class has failed to reach anything resembling a consensus. Instead, it's opted to spend the past three years engaged in a screaming match over the preferred outcome to the most important issue facing the country.
However, the campaign itself has been eerily quiet. Boris Johnson has been accused of dodging media interviews, most notably with the BBC's veteran presenter Andrew Neil, and avoiding press scrutiny. Which is important, when you consider that Johnson has serious questions to answer on his own Brexit policy, Islamophobia in his Conservative Party, and the fact that his campaign stands accused of publishing deliberately misleading information more than once on its own social media platforms.
The opposition Labour Party is also far from innocent. Its manifesto is full of promises to spend huge amounts on public services and radical giveaways, such as nationalising the internet and providing free broadband. It's also promised to hold a second referendum on Brexit, should Labour win a majority.
Both men have popularity issues. Johnson also struggles with the public, particularly on the question of trust. However, if recent polling is to be believed, he is less unpopular than Corbyn, meaning that if he can reach polling day without having taken many big punches, he should still comfortably win on December 12.
This might explain why Johnson's election campaign has been so low-key, and why he's the only party leader to have dodged the Neil interview.
Bruises to punch
The accusation is that Johnson is deliberately avoiding Neil because he knows how badly it might go for him. Neil eviscerated Corbyn in his interview, asking him very difficult questions about his own Brexit position, his ambitious manifesto and the anti-Semitism scandal that has engulfed his leadership since 2015.
Only this week, a group called the Jewish Labour Movement submitted a dossier to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is investigating allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Neil's strategic demolition of Corbyn led the news agenda for days.
Johnson has also been accused of making racist statements. Last year, he wrote a newspaper column in which he said that women who wear Islamic face veils looked like "letterboxes." He'd previously described citizens of Commonwealth countries as "flag-waving piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles" and members of his own party have accused it of having a huge problem with Islamophobia.
That, coupled with the fact his party has deliberately misled the public, and that his own Brexit policy is more complicated than he's willing to let the public know, would give Neil several bruises to punch.
A senior Conservative source defended the decision, telling CNN that the "public are fed up with interviews that are all about the interviewer and endless interruptions. The format is broken and needs to change if it is to start engaging and informing the public again."
But this is bigger than one interview. Johnson has been criticized for taking relatively few questions from journalists and not appearing in as many televised debates as his rivals. His Conservative campaign team say this criticism is unfair, given he has given more than 100 interviews to local and national media, has appeared in two debates with Corbyn and has done two lengthy phone-ins with the public.
The perception that Johnson is avoiding scrutiny remains, although it doesn't seem to be damaging him. The Financial Times' poll tracker shows that since the election was...

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Health experts are predicting the death toll in Samoa's escalating measles epidemic will reach 70.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 3,100 people in the island nation were infected with the disease, and 42 had died.
The death toll figure was calculated by Auckland University scientists, based on the number of reported cases and percentage of population currently immunised.
Immunologist Dr Helen Petousis-Harris says it's "absolutely devastating" and highlights how important it is for people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
She says a distrust in the Samoan health system is partly behind the country's low vaccination rate.
LISTEN TO REPORTER BARBARA DREAVER TALK WITH THE WEEKEND COLLECTIVE ABOVE

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New Zealand First is accusing the Government of gouging the poor with plans to increase tobacco excise.
Winston Peters has invoked the Coalition clause of agree to disagree over the 11 and a half percent hike for January.
Peters says tax rises have little effect on smoking, particularly among Maori and Pasifika.
He says cigarette smuggling has increased more than 350 percent since 2015.
He says our prices, which are among the highest in the world, have provided an opportunity for organised crime.
Peters says the increase is punitive for the Kiwis who can least afford it.
It's a way supported by former Chairman of the Tax Working Group Sir Michael Cullen. He told The Weekend Collective upping the price is not effective.
"The initial increase had a big effect in reducing smoker, but we seem to be getting down t the residual group of smokers who are becoming less sensitive to the price, even though they are on low income."
His working group recommended that this year's excise should be the last. 
 

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A battler for prisoner voting rights says it was inevitable the government would reverse the law.
The Government is reversing the ban, which was brought in by National in 2010. 
It means those serving sentences of less than three years will be able to vote - before next year's General Election.
The decision comes after a ruling from both the Supreme Court the ban breached the bill of rights.
Human rights lawyer Richard Francois has been working with Arthur Taylor end the ban, since 2013.
He told the Weekend Collective it's a very satisfying result.
"It really was inevitable that the Government of the day, having faced a Supreme Court judgement, would go and revert that to the 2010 position." 
National leader Simon Bridges says he will reintroduce the bank if he gets into government, but Francois says it might not be that simple. 
He says he has a case before the UN at the moment which he believes will go in prisoners' favour.
"In which case there would be quite a damning statement to any other political party that's got an idea of reverting back."

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Prisoners have won some voting rights, but the Opposition isn't happy about it. 
Justice Minister Andrew Little has announced those sentenced to less than three years behind bars will be able to vote before next year's General Election.
But National leader Simon Bridges says he'll reverse the move if he ends up in government.
He says the move shows the Government's soft on crime.
"You look at these parties. Labour is out of touch, and NZ First if they do this, it will be their death knell."
A Colmar Brunton poll last month showed 53 per cent of the population supported the move, but Bridges disputes those figures.
"I think the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders actually know that if you've gone to jail, you've gone for something serious. While your there it's proportionate and a right that you don't get to vote."
Former jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor, who has campaigned against the ban, says Bridges' judgement is off.
"Simon's a bit behind. Being a lawyer, you should know the law a bit better than this. Things have moved on since that ban was passed in 2010."
Human rights lawyer Richard Francois says it might not be that simple for the ban to be overturned.
He told The Weekend Collective he has a case before the UN at the moment which he believes will go in prisoners' favour.
"In which case there would be quite a damning statement to any other political party that's got an idea of reverting back." 
Bridges says that it is a question of values for Parliament to decide, and they are not required to do what the Waitangi Tribunal rules on.

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The biggest story of the week has been the scandal surrounding the New Zealand First Foundation, but what happens next? 
The Electoral Commission is seeking information from the party and its foundation, following claims of undisclosed donations.
Some donors have told Stuff they weren't aware donations were going to the foundation, and not the political party.
Party leader Winston Peters says the foundation is to help promote democracy in New Zealand.
He says there's nothing illegal or secret about the New Zealand First Foundation and says the idea his lawyer and others were seeking to do something illegal is preposterous.
If any irregularities are found, it could be passed on to the Serious Fraud Office, with politicians such as David Seymour already threatening to do that.
Political commentator Shane Te Pou told The Weekend Collective that if the foundation is behaving illegally, why would the party have called it the New Zealand First Foundation?
"Brian Henry's got a 20 plus year history with Winston Peters, I think it looks transparent with me."
He says one of the big consequences of this could be changes to electoral law and donations, with a greater level of transparency.
"Our laws really were designed in a simpler time. Politics is complex, and there's a lot more money in the political system than there was 10 to 15 years ago."

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Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes says the pace of change in the current Government is not fast enough for his liking but that is not the reason he is quitting politics.
"It is not transformational on the scale of some of the big turning points in our country's history from the 1930s to the 1980s.
"There have been pockets of transformation but for me it has been a frustration that the pace of change hasn't been as fast as I'd like to see or in fact the Green Party would like to see."
He said he was retiring next election because 10 years was long enough and he and his wife wanted to travel the world with their two kids – aged 12 and nine - for a year.
"Talking to my wife, we feel it is the right time our life to spend some real solid quality time together and actually going travelling as a family would be a great way to do that and home-school the kids for a year."
He said he would possibly be making the same decision to leave had he been made a minister.
"I've been reflecting that my eldest is going to be 16 by the end of the next term and I have found it more difficult the older my kids have got because they are more aware of what's going on and dad's absence.
"My kids have grown up knowing nothing but a parliamentary life so I'm quite excited about spending more quality time with them.
"I always said that 10 years was about right and it feels right."
Hughes is one of only two men in the Green caucus of eight MPs and unsuccessfully contested the male co-leadership role in 2015 to fill Russel Norman's vacancy.
He rejected speculation that he may not have secured a winnable list position for next year's election.
"To be frank, it's going to be a guy's election for the Green Party, given the gender imbalance. I was confident that I would have been returned."
Green caucus from left: Jan Logie, Chloe Swarbrick, Gareth Hughes, James Shaw, Marama Davidson, Julie Anne Genter, Eugenie Sage and Golriz Gharahman.
Any prospect of promotion to a minister would have meant more time away from his children "and that would have broken my heart."
He has 10 areas of responsibility including energy and resources but has struggled for profile since the Greens entered Government for the first time in 2017.
In terms of lack of progress, he cited the capital gains tax – which did not have the numbers to pass in Parliament - and the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits – but he also cited the ban as a high point.
"To push that in the confidence and supply negotiation [with Labour] but be unsuccessful but then to be able to achieve that afterwards was a real highlight."
The announcement of the ban in April 2018 was a shock because it had not been promised by Labour before the 2017 election, nor had it been in the confidence and supply agreement with the Greens - and officials had argued it would increase greenhouse gas emissions because of reliance on less efficiently produced imported fuel.
Hughes believed it was agreed in the end because of a confluence of factors – "good timing, groups such as Greenpeace were pushing incredibly hard at the same time and we made a very strong pitch to the Government that here was an opportunity to draw a line in the sand on what was our country's nuclear-free moment."
Hughes said a low point was losing colleagues along the way such as Russel Norman, whom he had been close to, and Catherine Delahunty.
He believed the party has done as well as it could have in Government.
"We've tried our best. We've got a tiny team that has worked their arses off for our policies and values.
"We've had some incredible wins; we've also had to compromise. We haven't always got our way. That was always going to be the nature of being in Government. I think we've as good a go as we possible could have."
Some of the wins were achieved behind the scenes in changes to Cabinet papers or proposals that cold not...

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The future king, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, have arrived in New Zealand for their third official visit - the first in four years.
The royal couple's whirlwind tour will include visits to both the North and South Island before the prince is spirited away to Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands on his way home.
The six-day jaunt of Aotearoa starts today in the City of Sails after the couple arrived at the RNZAF base in Whenuapai this afternoon.
Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy was among those who greeted the royal couple as they stepped onto New Zealand soil.
Pleasantries and handshakes were exchanged on the tarmac as a line of neatly dressed dignitaries welcomed the pair.
Prince Charles waved to the onlookers before leaving in a waiting car.
New Zealand Herald Focus reporter Will Trafford says there wasn't a big turn out from the public, but there's a reason for that.
"They keep it really locked down n terms of how much they tell the public. It wasn't heavily promoted. There were people there and they were waving."
While in Auckland the pair will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at Mt Roskill War Memorial Park tomorrow morning before enjoying the central city's waterfront the following afternoon.
The couple will then visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on Wednesday.
Charles & Camilla: Royal tour itinerary 2019

Monday - Auckland
Tuesday - Auckland
Wednesday - Bay of Islands
Friday- Christchurch
Saturday - Christchurch, Kaikōura

Best chances to glimpse the royal couple

Monday - The wreath-laying ceremony at Mt Roskill War Memorial Park
Tuesday - The public walkabout at Auckland Viaduct in the afternoon
Friday - The public walkabout at Christchurch's Cathedral Square in the afternoon
Saturday - The Prince of Wales will take part in a public walk in Kaikōura

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Landlords will no longer be able to get rid of tenants without reason, under law changes due to be announced today.
At present, landlords can give a tenant 90 days' notice without having to provide a reason and 42 days' notice in some circumstances, such as landlords or their family wanting to move in, or if the property has been sold.
Tenants have to give only 21 days' notice.
The Government plans to remove the right of landlords to end a tenancy for no cause and to increase notice periods for some specified reasons.
Landlords will have to give tenants 63 days' notice if the property is to be vacated for family use, and 90 days if the property has been sold – both an increase on the current 42 days' notice.
Anti-social behavior and rent arrears will still be cause for eviction notices but the Government is proposing to require the landlord to apply to the Tenancy Tribunal in such cases with three notices of such behaviour or arrears within a 90-day period.
Landlords will also be limited to one rent increase a year instead of the current law which allows rents to rise every six months.
Associate Housing Minister Kris Faafoi is planning to hold a press conference this afternoon to announce a raft of changes to the Residential Tenancies Act.
The changes are being promoted as giving tenants greater security as the number of households renting increases – about 32 per cent now compared with 25 per cent about 20 years ago.
Former Housing Minister Phil Twyford pushed through a ban on letting fees.

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