Dec 1, 2017  - Thank you to ANZ for the opportunity to speak today.  This morning I want to outline the goals and some of the key policy initiatives in the government’s economic strategy; update you on the steps we will take before Christmas including the release of the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update and Budget Policy Statement, and the implementation of our 100 Day Plan.

It is only just over a month ago that the government was formed, built on a coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First, and with the support of our confidence and supply partners, the Green Party. While these are three parties with different traditions and histories, they are bound together by a shared desire to deliver a fairer and better New Zealand.

In both these agreements, there is a common mission statement that reads “Together, we will work to provide New Zealand with a transformational government, committed to resolving the greatest long-term challenges for the country, including sustainable economic development, increased exports and decent jobs paying higher wages, a healthy environment, a fair society and good government. We will reduce inequality and poverty and improve the well-being of all New Zealanders and the environment we live in.”

The parties that make up this government have a shared belief that the status quo and the tired out former government were failing too many New Zealanders.

While the fundamentals of our economy were, and are, strong, the purpose of it had become lost. While some enjoyed the fruits of growth, many did not.

This government will change that and build an economy with the purpose of delivering shared prosperity. We are committed to removing the social and infrastructure deficits that have emerged, and to shifting the focus to improving the wellbeing of all our people.

This will be an economy fit for purpose for the 21st Century. Resilient, Adaptable, Productive and Inclusive.

One of the things that struck me over the last few years as I have moved around the country was that the message I received from workers in smoko rooms was the same one I received from Executives in board rooms – the gaps in our country have grown too large. In this year’s Mood of the Boardroom survey 70% of the CEOs said they were concerned about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Concerns about child poverty, homelessness, and inequality dominated the election.

It’s not the New Zealand way to see our fellow citizens left out and left behind. The clear message from voters was that we had to do better, to fulfil our country’s egalitarian mission.

And to do better, we have to do things differently. In crafting our plans and agreements we have had this at the forefront of our minds.

On a personal level I have had in my mind a man who last year sent me a copy of a letter he had sent to the then Prime Minister. He and his wife both worked, 60 hours a week in total, but they were not making ends meet. He was struggling to pay the bills and he said his children did not play sport because he could not afford the fees. He ended his letter saying “I am lucky. I have a house to live in and my wife and I both work. But we are poor.”

It is a not a successful economy where people in work feel poor or lucky, simply because they have a roof over their heads. A successful economy must be one where all our people can live a life of dignity, security and hope.

Economic strategy

The goal of our economic strategy is to improve the well-being and living standards of New Zealanders through sustainable and inclusive growth. This means moving beyond narrow economic indicators and measures of success, and instead puts the well-being of our people and the environment at the centre.

Budget Responsibility Rules

Underpinning our strategy are our Budget Responsibility Rules.

We set these out earlier this year to ensure that everyone understood our commitment to responsible fiscal and economic management. In government we will abide by these rules.

To recap, this means that we will deliver a sustainable operating surplus each year unless there is a significant disaster or major economic shock or crisis. We will ensure that government spending as a proportion of the economy won’t rise above the recent historical average of 30% of GDP. We will reduce net core Crown debt to 20% of GDP within five years of taking office.

In order to meet these rules, it will require discipline. We have an ambitious programme and a plan to deliver on. We will grow the economy by making it more productive and we will have greater revenue from rejecting National’s tax cuts and cracking down on multinational tax evasion and speculators in the housing market.

But that will not be enough in itself. We also need to reprioritise and seek out programmes that are good value for money.

I have directed all Ministers to assess their Budgets against the new government’s priorities. If programmes are found that do not match these priorities then Ministers should consider whether this funding can be re-invested in new, higher priority areas which match our strategy. This work is already underway and will contribute to Budget 2018 planning.

The last Labour-led government showed that it is possible to be fiscally disciplined and deliver progressive policies. We will do the same.

I want to mention two other pieces of work that underpin our strategy. We have already begun the work to modernise our monetary policy. While in general our Reserve Bank Act has served New Zealanders well, after 28 years the legislation needs to be updated.

We will continue to ensure that inflation is carefully managed within the target band. But we will expand the objectives of the Reserve Bank Act to provide monetary policy support to our goal of improving the wellbeing of New Zealanders, including focusing on maximising employment. As announced within our first two weeks in office we will review the work of the Bank in two phases, looking at the objectives and decision making first, and then other issues including the macroprudential framework in the second. The independence of the Bank remains paramount.

We have also established the terms of reference for a Tax Working Group to investigate possible changes which would make our tax system fairer and more balanced. At the moment, our system supports the speculative economy over the productive one.

The group, led by Sir Michael Cullen, has a mandate to propose changes that will make our tax system fit for a 21st Century economic plan, including the changing nature of work and commerce, and the enhancement of our environment.

Living Standards Framework

One of the things we will be doing differently is how we decide our priorities and how we measure the success of our economic strategy.

It is true to say that our GDP growth in New Zealand has been relatively impressive on a global scale. But that tells us only a fraction of the story. Firstly, it is a measure of activity, not the quality of that activity. And secondly, on a per capita basis, our performance has been significantly less impressive than many of our OECD counterparts.

Our supply and confidence agreement with the Green Party commits us to working on new sustainable development indicators. Alongside this work I have asked the Treasury to further develop and accelerate the world-leading work they have been doing on the Living Standards Framework. This focuses on measuring our success in developing four capitals – financial, physical, human and social. These give a rounded measure of success and of how government policy is improving our well-being.

This is a far better framework for judging our success. It is easy to say a policy is successful if it grows GDP, but what if that is at the expense of the physical environment? How can we be successful if the skill level of our workforce is not improving at the same time? If we do not have strong communities, any individual success can easily be undermined.

Success for us will mean more than just a strong balance sheet - as important as that is. It will be marked by how we improve the well-being of all our citizens.

This framework is still being developed, but I see this approach of focusing on well-being and lifting living standards as a core element of how we will create our future Budgets and measure the success of our work.

It is too late in the process to make significant changes in this regard for the 2018 Budget, but I will have more to say when I deliver that Budget about how this approach will drive our future work.

We will, however, take the first steps in this direction as part of our 100 Day Plan. We will introduce legislation to set measures of child poverty and a requirement to set reduction targets against them. This will include amending the Public Finance Act to ensure this work is part of our Budget process.

I want to say something about the way we must work if we are to achieve the goal of our economic strategy. This will only be possible when central government partners with local government, businesses, iwi, unions and communities. There are some big challenges in front of us, which I will now turn to, but I want to be clear that we will be coming to you to solve them together.

Delivering the Economic Strategy

To deliver this strategy we will have a number of areas of focus. We will develop detailed plans over the coming months but today I want to highlight several key issues.

Lifting Productivity and Wages

Fundamental to creating a more inclusive and prosperous economy is increasing productivity, so that New Zealanders achieve more with every hour they work and our businesses become more internationally competitive. For the last five years we have had almost no labour productivity growth. Low productivity has been a cloud over the New Zealand economy for decades and previous governments have failed to tackle this issue – this government will not.

Lifting the skills of our people is critical to solving the productivity challenge. We believe that learning for life is core to the further well-being of our people and to promoting our economy. The Future of Work Commission undertaken by the Labour Party in the last two years identified this as one of the most important transitional factors in the changing world of work.

Just as the first Labour Government moved to make a full secondary education the norm for people we need to update that vision for the 21st Century. We are sending a clear signal that post-school education and training will be for all.

Let me be absolutely clear – our first-year fees-free policy will come into force from the 1st of January 2018. This is for all quality post-school training. Only about one-third of school leavers go to University. They will benefit from this policy, but so will the other two thirds - those who will go to Polytechnics, other training programmes, apprenticeships and industry training. This policy is also for those who have not studied or trained before but are in work now.

Also critical for lifting productivity is increased investment in Research, Development and Innovation. The first step in this is the introduction of an R and D Tax Credit. Beyond that we will move to work smarter, adding value to change the mix of our exports and using and creating new technologies.

We also want to see wages rise. The government can and will take action to help this happen, including through lifting the minimum wage, paying core public sector staff the living wage and improving fairness in the workplace. But it is through improving productivity and developing new technologies and approaches to work that we will see long term sustainable improvements.

Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing the world and has the potential to undermine our primary industries. But our response to it is also an opportunity to develop new high wage jobs. The government’s commitment is to sustainable development that makes the transition to a low carbon economy. Work is already underway, under James Shaw’s leadership as Minister for Climate Change Issues, to develop a Zero Carbon Act and an Independent Climate Commission. Through our $100 million Green Investment Fund we aim to stimulate $1 billion of new investment in low carbon industries by 2020. This will contribute both to New Zealand’s climate targets and to the sustainability of our economy going forward.

Supporting Regions To Thrive

It is essential that the regions of New Zealand thrive again, for the sake of the people who live there and to take the pressure off Auckland. Long-term under-investment and inter-generational poverty are undermining areas of the country that have enormous economic potential.

The cornerstone of this government’s response to this is the $1 billion Regional Development (Provincial Growth) Fund agreed with New Zealand First as part of the coalition agreement.

This fund will (among other things) invest in regional rail, supporting the planting of a billion trees over the next ten years, an investigation of the future of the upper North Island Ports, and investment in other large-scale capital projects.

The criteria for the fund are currently being finalised. But I can say that successful bids will have to have robust business cases that show long-term development potential.

There is also a strong commitment to forestry with the development of a NZ Forest Service to be located in regional New Zealand and the regionalisation of some other government services.

Infrastructure To Support Sustainable Growth

One of the biggest challenges facing the incoming government is the need to update and build the infrastructure for sustainable and inclusive growth.

We will make the necessary investments in our health and education assets to ensure that we do not have hospitals that make people sick, or schools where students cannot learn. This is the core role of any responsible government.

Beyond that, we know that at a local government level, a significant amount of infrastructure is inadequate, aging and vulnerable. Many of our local authorities are either at the limits of what they can borrow, or do not have the revenue to service more debt.

At a central government level, we have an urgent and pressing need to fund the infrastructure that will support the unlocking of growth opportunities.

The fiscal plan that we have used as the starting point for our Budget has room for significantly more capital investment than the previous government. This is as a result of a slightly slower debt repayment track that will allow us to make investments such as the capital injection to kick off KiwiBuild.

But to create the 21st Century infrastructure, New Zealand needs to be innovative. We need to unlock capital and capture the value of investments through the work of urban development agencies and innovative instruments such as infrastructure bonds.

We want to work with those who can be partners in taking forward developments that build and modernise our infrastructure. Ministers have come together to identify and co-ordinate this work.

Growing exports through a Progressive Trade and Investment Agenda

New Zealand will and must remain open to business and the global economy. We welcome foreign investment that adds value to our economy, improves productivity and grows jobs.

This does not mean, however, that anything goes. Where we have drawn the line, is to say that we will not accept that there is value in having offshore speculators buying existing residential property and keeping first home buyers out of the property market. We continue to welcome offshore investment that adds to our housing stock.

We have heard the concerns of New Zealanders that they do not want to be tenants in their own land. To this end, we have already issued a new directive to the Overseas Investment Office and legislative changes will follow, to be introduced as part of the 100 Day Plan. We recognise the importance of an efficient and effective overseas investment regime and will be working to improve the operations of the Office.

When it comes to immigration, we must have people with the right balance of skills coming to New Zealand, with a particular emphasis on closing regional skills gaps. We must ensure that those who come to study are in quality courses and are not exploited or are simply here to gain residence.

Where there are genuine skill gaps that need to be filled to drive sustainable economic growth, we will continue to support entry of the people with those skills.

Labour-led governments have a proud record of delivering high-quality trade agreements that open opportunities for our exporters. The government will build on this record.

We have made progress with the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership. This agreement now balances improved market access with preserving our right to regulate in the public interest and also builds a progressive agenda in areas such as sustainable development, labour rights and gender equality.

We will continue to pursue this style of high-quality, progressive free trade agreement, with the European Union, UK and other nations.

Supporting Maori and Pasifika Aspiration

As we move towards the end of the major Treaty settlements it is timely to reset the dial on how the Crown and Maori work together, and how to focus on maximising the strength of Iwi. Through the work of both Minister Kelvin Davis and Nanaia Mahuta the government will support Maori in this process. At the same time, our economic goals will not be met if we do not improve the outcomes of Maori in employment, education and housing where there is still a significant and ingrained disadvantage.

Next Steps: HYEFU/BPS/100 Day Plan

The first steps in delivering on this government’s new economic strategy are included in our 100-Day Plan.

Just last night the first two significant pieces of legislation were passed - twenty six weeks Paid Parental Leave (at a cost of $325m over the forecast period) and the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill that significantly increases minimum standards for rental housing.

Progress is being made on all the measures in the Plan. These include the introduction of a minimum wage of $16.50 an hour from 1 April 2018, in line with the coalition agreement with New Zealand First to lift that to $20 an hour, with effect in April 2021. Contributions to the New Zealand Super Fund will re-commence within the 100 Days. Student allowances and the living costs component of the student loan scheme will both increase by $50 per week from the 1st of January next year.

I want to highlight one part of the 100 Day Plan that will be one of the most significant policies this government will pass this term. Our Families Package. This is an ambitious programme to give low and middle-income workers a much-needed boost in incomes and address inequality and child poverty.

It is paid for by repealing the previous government’s tax cuts, which gave $400m per annum to the top ten percent of earners. Again, in the election the message on this was clear. New Zealanders knew that now was not the time for tax cuts. And that included more than half the CEOs in the Mood of the Boardroom.

This package will deliver increased targeted assistance to families through Working for Families changes, greater support for children in early years of life through Best Start, support for increased cost of living for our seniors and those on low incomes through a Winter Energy Payment and support to deal with soaring cost of rents through the Accommodation Supplement.

It is a major shift to improve families’ well-being, along with other initiatives such as the minimum wage, reducing cost of doctors’ visits and improving the quality of rental accommodation.

In less than a month of being in office, we have worked to develop the details and assess the costs of the plan. All the fiscal costs of the 100 Day Plan, which are currently being finalised, will be incorporated into the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update. This will be released, along with the Budget Policy Statement, on Thursday December the 14th.

You will see when the Half Yearly Update is released that we are meeting our Budget Responsibility Rules, in particular the commitment to reduce net core crown debt as a percentage of GDP to 20% within five years of taking office.

One of the core elements of the 100 Day Plan is the reversal of National’s tax cuts. This provides $8 billion of fiscal headroom over the forecast period. This will more-than meet the costs of the 100 Day Plan and provide further resources to invest in Budget 2018 and beyond.

The Budget Policy Statement will outline our priorities for Budget 2018 and show the level of operating and capital allowances for the next four Budgets. These allowances provide the expenditure necessary to deliver our policy plans, including the coalition and confidence and supply agreements.

All these commitments – outside the 100 Day Plan, which will already be in HYEFU – are now subject to the normal Budget process to finalise details and costings. We will, however be providing the current estimates of the costs of the policies in the coalition and confidence and supply agreements at the time of the release of the Budget Policy Statement.

The HYEFU on 14 December will also include Treasury’s latest forecasts for the economy.

There have been a range of forecasts for economic growth since the new government was formed. Some are more pessimistic than others, with both the Reserve Bank and the OECD Economic Outlook more optimistic than some of the bank economists.

In general these economists agree that over the next year there will be some softening of growth as the housing market remains flat and as net migration tapers off slightly. Then, there is a consensus of a stronger growth track through 2019 and 2020 which is expected to be supported by government policies such as increasing R&D tax credits, increased wages and export growth.

In other words, we’ll be swapping out population growth and the buying and selling houses to each other as our two main growth drivers for much more sustainable ones. That sounds like a good description of our plan.

If that means slightly lower growth for a year while the transition to a productive economy occurs, then that will be a price worth paying.

As one economist put it, we will be passing on the baton of growth.

While I understand a new government and the change that comes with it will inevitability cause some uncertainty I think there is a clear understanding that the government’s policies will ultimately be good for sustainable growth.

Relatedly it is good to note that in the Reserve Bank’s Financial Stability Report released this week the Government’s Housing Plan was highlighted as a reason the Governor felt confident to ease LVRs.

Conclusion

It is sometimes easy to forget that it is little over a month since the government was sworn in. We are making good progress to building the better and fairer New Zealand we have been charged with doing by the public.

The foundations on which we are building our economic strategy are disciplined and careful fiscal and economic management, and a clear goal to see the well-being of all New Zealanders improve. We are moving at speed to implement a 100 Day Plan that will lift incomes and well-being. We are putting New Zealand back on a course of fairness, compassion and shared prosperity. It is early days, but the journey is an exciting one. I look forward to working with you all over the coming months and years.

| A Beehive release  ||  December 1  2017   |||

Dec 1, 2017 - Kia ora tatou. Good morning. Thank you to the Salvation Army for giving me the opportunity to be with you here today.

I want to acknowledge the housing NGOs, the activists, campaigners and community organisers, including the Living Wage Movement, for the work you do in our communities fighting for social justice.

This is my first opportunity to set out the direction of our housing policy, since being sworn in as Minister in our new Labour-NZ First Coalition Government supported by the Greens.

I am going to talk about the future of state housing, and the fight against homelessness.

My starting point is the importance of a home.

When people are homeless it strips them of their dignity and hope.

When families move from place to place because they cannot find somewhere to settle, it takes a terrible toll on them, especially the kids.

When people find no alternative to living in cold damp rentals the inevitable sickness shortens their lives.

When housing costs are so high, there isn’t enough to spend on healthy food or pay the power bill.

When home ownership is out of reach people are denied the opportunity build an asset and build themselves up.

The housing crisis is quite unacceptable for any New Zealander.

It offends the sense of fairness and opportunity for all our country was built on.

We have a broad housing reform agenda and we are already taking the first crucial steps towards fixing the crisis.

Central to that agenda is a reassertion of the role of state housing.

We are going to put the state back into state housing.

Our Government rejects the view that state housing is a redundant idea from the 1930s and that modernisation means selling off the houses and getting charities and the private sector to do this work instead.

Given the state of the housing market right now, it should be clear to anyone that state housing – decent, secure, income-related rental housing for the people that need it most – is needed more than ever.

Our Government will not milk Housing NZ for profits. We will reinvest any surpluses back into the building of new homes and upgrading existing ones.

We will stop the mass sell-off of state housing, and as part of our 1st 100 Days, the Prime Minister will have more to say on this shortly.

I want Housing NZ to be a world class public housing landlord:

putting a warm dry and secure roof over the heads of Kiwis who need it Playing a pastoral care role enabling tenants to have access to the support they need to sustain their tenancies and live with dignity

Housing NZ are up for this challenge, and we are working together on how to make it happen.

I have started a conversation with Housing NZ on how we can build back the tenancy management, giving better face to face engagement with tenants based on an ongoing relationship.

There is much to do. One small thing is the policy on tenants owning pets.

Given how important pets can be to people’s quality of life I favour a more accommodating approach that allows tenants to own pets – as long as they are properly looked after, not a nuisance or a danger to neighbours, and not damaging property.

We are also committed to working closely with the Community Housing Providers so they too can do more and do better.

I have never accepted there is a contradiction between a strong government provider and a vibrant and growing community sector.

I want to re-iterate my commitment to sit down with Community Housing Aotearoa and negotiate a multi-year plan for how we can work together to grow the sector in a way that is both ambitious and sustainable.

My vision is not for some quasi-market where community housing organisations are competing for subsidies, but instead a community of housing providers and advocates working in partnership with government, and where we can all benefit from the innovation and diversity the community sector brings.

We are going to build a lot of houses.

And we are going to build whole communities.

I want those communities to benefit from the range of housing types, tenures, price brackets and services that the community housing providers can deliver – and that the Government and private sector often struggle with.

The other big issue I want to address is homelessness.

While there is something deeply unsettling about our country’s current inability to house its own people, I do take courage from what I believe is a widespread view that the current situation is intolerable and has to be fixed.

I am also confident the policy responses are all there on the table. The Cross Party Inquiry on Homelessness run last year by Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party flushed them all out.

The early signs from the agencies working on Housing First are very encouraging, and build on significant evidence from overseas that this is a very good response to chronic homelessness, and is ready to be extended.

We are to looking to complete the roll out of emergency and transitional housing places around the country.

I don’t want to see people living in cars and in campgrounds.

And it not satisfactory for the taxpayer to be shelling out $90,000 a day on motels.

We need immediate solutions.

But I am mindful of advocates who told our cross party inquiry that we shouldn’t just build up the infrastructure of emergency housing.

They told us the best and most enduring solution is simply to build more houses.

Working through those trade-offs, and getting the right mix of targeted services and building more state and community homes is the task at hand.

Finally on homelessness, we remain committed to developing a NZ Strategy to End Homelessness and we will work with the sector on that.

I have talked about public housing, and our response to homelessness.

But we have a much bigger broader reform agenda that is needed to fix the housing market at a systemic level.

Through Kiwibuild we are going to build 100,000 affordable homes for first home buyers, half of them in Auckland.

We are going to set up the Housing Commission, a national urban development authority that will lead large-scale projects to build whole communities, with the jobs, and transport infrastructure and open spaces and amenities that communities need. Along with the housing types that people need at costs they can afford.

These communities will have a mix of state and community housing, affordable Kiwibuild homes for first home buyers, and open market homes.

One of the big differences between our Government and the last is that we are going to build affordable homes, and public housing, wherever we possibly can.

Because if we don’t, who will?

We are closing the door on speculators. We are introducing legislation in our first 100 Days so that only citizens and permanent residents can buy existing homes. We are pushing the bright line test out to five years so if a speculator sells a rental property within five years they will pay income tax on the capital gain.

We will also shut down the negative gearing tax breaks that give speculators an unfair advantage over first home buyers.

And our Tax Working Group is being asked to design tax reforms that will tilt the playing field away from real estate speculation and towards the productive economy that creates jobs and exports.

Yesterday we passed the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill that will set minimum standards to make sure rental properties and warm and dry. Backed up by a beefed up compliance capacity within the Ministry that will see risk-based auditing and investigations.

Next year we are going to review the Residential Tenancies Act to deliver more security of tenure for renters. Because well over a third of us renting these days we cannot continue with the current outdated law.

All this is supported by what I call our Urban Growth Agenda. It is a set of reforms designed to allow our cities to make room for growth, and bring down the high cost of urban land that is at the heart of these problems.

I know this is an ambitious agenda. But the scale of the crisis demands ambition.

I draw my inspiration from the First Labour Government who came to office after Depression and war determined to use the power of the state for good.

To intervene where necessary to make the system work for working people.

They redefined the role of Government. They made things happen by sheer force of will, and they built a lot of bloody houses.

The Sixth Labour Government’s housing reform agenda is also about nation building.

It recognises we have a crisis, and is bold and broad in response. It has the courage to tackle deeply entrenched problems that have been allowed to fester for too long.

It redefines the role of the state, and gets it back into the business of mass home building.

It will tame the out of control speculation that has been so destructive, and modernise rental laws.

In building 100,000 houses, re-inventing state housing, and building dozens of thriving modern communities around New Zealand, it will change the face of our towns and cities.

It will create the conditions for our people to thrive.

Once implemented it will amount to the biggest overhaul of housing policy since the time of the First Labour Government.

Our belief is that it is the role of Government to do the things that we can do together as a country, to ensure people have the basics: affordable secure warm and dry housing, decent work, good health and education systems.

With those things looked after people can then can get ahead in life through their own hard work and talents.

Without that platform, there is no fairness and no equality of opportunity.

Modern governments spend so much time dealing with social problems that are in large part caused or made worse by the poverty and lack of hope and distress associated with insecure housing and insecure work.

If we can restore universal access to secure, warm and dry and affordable housing for all New Zealanders, we will make this country even better than it is.

| A Beehive release   ||  December 1,  2017   |||

Nov 29, 2017  -  New Zealand’s financial system remains sound and risks to the system have reduced over the past six months, Reserve Bank Governor Grant Spencer said today when releasing the Bank’s November Financial Stability Report.  “Momentum in the global economy has continued to build over the past six months, reducing near-term risks to financial stability. However, the New Zealand financial system remains exposed to international risks related to elevated asset prices and high levels of debt in a number of countries. “Domestically, LVR policies have been in place since 2013 to address financial stability risks arising from rapid house price inflation and increasing household debt. These policies have helped improve banking system resilience by substantially reducing the share of high-LVR loans. Over the past six months, pressures in the housing market have continued to moderate due to the tightening of LVR restrictions in October 2016, a more general firming of bank lending standards and an increase in mortgage interest rates in early 2017. “Housing market policies announced by the Government are also expected to have a dampening effect on the housing market. “In light of these developments, the Reserve Bank is undertaking a modest easing of the LVR restrictions. From 1 January 2018, the LVR restrictions will require that:· No more than 15 percent (currently 10 percent) of each bank’s new mortgage lending to owner occupiers can be at LVRs of more than 80 percent.· No more than 5 percent of each bank’s new mortgage lending to residential property investors can be at LVRs of more than 65 percent (currently 60 percent). “The Bank will monitor the impact of these changes and will only make further LVR adjustments if financial stability risks remain contained. A cautious approach will reduce the risk of resurgence in the housing market or deterioration in lending standards. Deputy Governor Geoff Bascand said “Looking at the financial system more broadly, the banking system maintains adequate buffers over minimum capital requirements and appears to be performing its financial intermediation role efficiently. The recovery in dairy commodity prices since mid-2016 has supported farm profitability and has helped to reduce bank non-performing loans in the sector. Recent stress tests suggest that banks are well positioned to withstand a severe economic downturn and operational risk events. “The Bank has released two consultation papers on the review of bank capital requirements and a third paper on the measurement and aggregation of bank risk will be released shortly. The aim of the capital review is to ensure a very high level of confidence in the solvency of the banking system while minimising complexity and compliance costs. “The Bank has also completed a review of the bank directors’ attestation regime and is making good progress in implementing a new dashboard approach to quarterly bank disclosures. This is expected to go live next May,” Mr Bascand said. More information· Financial Stability Report

| A RBNZ release  ||  November 29, 2017   |||

Nov 28, 2017  -  Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker welcomed United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox today in Wellington.  “Secretary Fox and I have had an opportunity to discuss a range of issues of shared interest and to reflect on the areas of our bilateral trade relationship where we may be able to do more” says Mr Parker.

Minister Parker and Secretary Fox expressed commitment to maintaining maximum certainty and stability in bilateral trade and investment conditions as the UK prepares to leave the EU. This would include a seamless transition of the regulations governing bilateral trade and ensuring New Zealand will not be worse off in its access to the UK market as a result of the UK exiting the EU.

“The United Kingdom and New Zealand have a long-standing, deep and close relationship that is grounded in our shared history, values, institutions, and traditions.

“We are close trading partners, and maintain an ongoing dialogue to discuss trade issues, including the implications of Brexit for our existing and future trade and economic relationship” says Mr Parker.

Secretary Fox and Minister Parker discussed working closely together to identify new opportunities to advance the bilateral trade and economic relationship, including laying foundations to progress towards a comprehensive, modern, high quality free trade agreement once the UK has left the EU.

They also discussed respective approaches to ensuring all citizens share in the benefits from international trade, including by promoting regional development and providing opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

The United Kingdom is New Zealand’s fifth largest trading partner (goods and services combined), and sixth largest export market for merchandise goods.

Link to Joint Statement https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/Trade/UK-NZ-Trade-Joint-Statement.pdf

| A Beehive release  ||  November 27, 2017   |||

Nov 28, 2017  -  The next four weeks will mark further significant progress for the Labour-led Government on our 100 Day Plan, says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“When my government was sworn in just over four weeks ago we promised action and we’ve made huge strides on many issues already.

“By Christmas we’ll make further important progress, putting families at the heart of everything this government does.

“On Thursday we will pass legislation extending Paid Parental Leave – lifting it to 26 weeks by July 2020. This will be of huge benefit to working families and the well-being of their young children.

“The Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill will be passed by the House in the next two weeks, underlining our commitment to ensure all New Zealanders can live in warm, dry homes.

“On Friday Finance Minister Grant Robertson will deliver his first major speech where he will announce the date of the Half Year Fiscal Update and Budget Policy Statement. This will incorporate our 100 Day Plan and set us on the road towards Budget 2018. It will show our investment and spending plans are responsible, affordable and in line with our Budget Responsibility Rules.

“The update will also spell out the renewed contribution to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund after nine years of a contribution freeze. This is all about safeguarding super for future generations.

“We will also shortly be introducing legislation to give effect to the Families Package. This includes Best Start, the Winter Energy Payment and increased payments to parents with children under Working for Families. This package will make a huge difference to low and middle income earners.

“We promised to make post-secondary school education and training more affordable and accessible. Last week’s increase of $50 to student allowances was the first stage of that plan. In the next weeks we will outline our policy on making the first year of post-secondary school education and training free from 1 January, 2018.

“There’s much more for this government to do, but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made and the difference we’re making to the lives of many New Zealanders,” says Prime Minister Ardern.

|  Note: Progress to date on 100 Day Plan

• Minimum wage to rise to $16.50 to take effect from April 2018
• Student allowances and living cost loans to increase by $50 from 1 January 2018
• Extension of Paid Parental Leave – legislation introduced and to be passed this week
• Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill – legislation introduced and to be passed shortly
• Ban on overseas speculators buying existing houses – legislation to be introduced shortly
• Tax Working Group - establishment underway
• Pike River Recovery Agency – establishment underway

 | A Beehive release  ||  November 27,  2017   |||

Nov 28, 2017  -  Political scientist Bryce Edwards calls on public servants, academics and journalists to form a coalition to fix the Official Information Act.  Calling all journalists, academics, public servants, political activists, and members of the public who believe in the need for government to be more open with its information. We need to form a coalition to fix the Official Information Act (OIA).

It’s time for everyone who believes in reforming the OIA processes to join together and campaign to make that actually happen. Such a coalition could guide the new government in making the necessary changes so that New Zealand is once again a world leader in open government, the way we were in 1982 when the extraordinary act was introduced.

The OIA itself may still be fit for purpose, but the wider official information system desperately needs review, especially in the way that the act is adhered to by government. At the moment, it often functions more as the Closed Government Act. See more from Sam Sachdeva earlier today on the Government's refusal to release a 38 page agreement signed when the coalition Government was formed.

Now is the perfect time to act. Whenever a new government is formed, it’s normally enthusiastic and idealistic about fixing problems in the system. And when it comes to problems with the OIA, the parties coming in from opposition are highly sensitive to its faults because they’ve been on the receiving end of governments keeping an overly-tight grip on information.

The parties making up the new coalition government have protested strongly against abuses of the OIA that occurred under National. So, hopefully they’ll want to prioritise some sort of review aimed at fixing the problems.

Clare Curran is the minister with responsibility for “Open Government”, as part of her role as Associate Minister for State Services. She has already committed her government to doing much better than the last government in terms of releasing information. But in a recent interview with the Otago Daily Times’ Eileen Goodwin, Curran wasn’t very clear about whether any reform of the OIA would be forthcoming.

Instead, journalists are now leading the way in calls for reform. Newsroom’s Shane Cowlishaw has recently explored all of these issues in his must-read article, The OIA is broken, can it be fixed? He says, “the spirit of this law has dissolved in an air of contempt that has spread, like a stain, from the top down”.

Cowlishaw reflects on his own experiences as a journalist, noting the growth of government department spin-doctors, and saying that the “ever-growing mighty wall of 'comms staff' has seemingly forgotten its obligation to the public in a desire to protect its Ministers from embarrassment."

"The effect on the OIA has been chilling. I started my first journalism job in 2008, the same year that the John-Key led National stormed to power. Since then I have witnessed the slow erosion of good-faith as more and more information is withheld, for more and more dubious reasons. By all accounts, this problem had begun escalating before 2008 under the previous Labour government, but it gathered steam under National.”

The window of opportunity on OIA reform is particularly narrow because, by its very nature, the Act is generally much more useful to opposition parties than governments. Even the most democratically-minded MPs, who come into government with a fresh memory of how damaging OIA abuse is to democracy, quickly find themselves less keen on a properly-observed OIA and more comfortable with the advantages that such abuse now affords them.

On becoming Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern announced “I also want this government to feel different, I want people to feel that it’s open, that it’s listening and that it’s going to bring kindness back.”

Researcher and journalist Max Rashbrooke pointed out “This sounds very promising. It is, though, the sort of thing that new leaders often say but which is much harder to sustain when they are under full attack from an Opposition searching for dirt, embarrassing official information act requests are landing, and so on.”

Matthew Hooton wrote in Friday’s NBR on the urgent need to encourage reforms right now: “Let us therefore give Ms Curran the benefit of the doubt and encourage her in her work. A functioning official information regime is absolutely essential to our democracy. For that reason, let us hope she also acts speedily in her work – and also because the Ms Curran facing re-election in 2020 will inevitably no longer have the same honourable attitude toward government transparency as the enthusiastic new minister we see in November 2017.”

The new government – as well as the opposition – need some constructive encouragement to take this key area of democracy very seriously and make sure it’s fit for purpose.

I’m keen to bring together participants, set up forums, and help establish a way for interested parties to come up with ideas about how to move ahead. At the very least, such a campaign could compile all the complaints and examples of how the OIA isn’t working, or is being thwarted and put everyone in touch who has an interest in OIA reform.

There’s a lot to consider. For example: Does the legislation need fixing, or just the way that the OIA is observed? Is there a need for a new Information Authority that would be responsible for overseeing the operation of the OIA, and teach government departments and the public how to use and adhere to it? Or is the Ombudsman’s Office best placed to carry out these functions? And is it resourced and empowered enough to fulfil such a role? Should there be stronger penalties for abuse of the OIA? Does the OIA need to be extended to Parliament, or at least to some of its agencies such as the Parliamentary Service?

The new coalition government has specifically made a commitment to “strengthen New Zealand’s democracy by increasing public participation, openness, and transparency around official information”. This wording is in the confidence and supply coalition agreement between Labour the Greens, and it could quite easily also be the stated focus of a new Campaign for Open Government.

If you’re interested, please get in touch. Contact me: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

| A Newsroom release  ||  November 28,  2017   |||

Nov 27, 2017  -  The Minister of Police, Stuart Nash, today joined New Zealand Police in launching a new recruitment campaign aimed at attracting hundreds of new cops to join next year.

The eye-catching new video campaign is aimed at recruiting officers from a range of backgrounds and ethnicities to help serve their communities and keep the country safe.

“The Government has a vision of improving the wellbeing of all New Zealanders and I believe Police can play a big part in this.”

That is why the Labour and NZ First coalition government is striving towards hiring 1,800 sworn officers.

The details of this package are still being worked through, however Police are already aiming to recruit an additional 220 officers this financial year.

“I know Police staff do a great job, often in what can only be described as trying circumstances. They deal with New Zealanders when they’re at their most vulnerable and protect us all from harm.

“This video, starring more than 70 real staff, is an effective way to showcase there is much more to working for Police than a lot of people realise, and that the organisation needs people who represent all of the communities in New Zealand.”

New Zealand Police have launched the video via its strong social media channels as this is the best way to engage with the 18-24 age group who are the ideal candidates to become new cops.

“I commend the Police on their recent efforts to attract more women and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds to the job. Since 2010 the number of female constabulary members has increased and now stands at nearly 20%. 2015 was the first year where a third of recruits were women and Police are aiming for 50% in the future.

“Various initiatives such as Te Wānanga O Aotearoa and Unitec pre-Police courses are underway at a district level and supported at a national level to increase the diversity of Police applicants. Last month Rotorua Boys' High School and Rotorua Girls' High School were the first schools in the country to add a NCEA-accredited police studies subject to their curriculum. These are great steps.

“New Zealand Police staff are already doing fantastic work. Now the organisation just needs to recruit more people to help make even more of an impact and this new campaign will help them do just that,” says Mr Nash.

| From the Beehive  ||  November 27,  2017   |||

Nov 27, 2017  -  The Government is refusing to release a secret document with directives for new ministers, despite Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters promising it would be made public.

National leader Bill English has called for the agreement to be made public, saying it is "at the heart of the governing arrangements" for the new Government writes Sam Sachdeva for Newsroom.

The existence of the 38-page document was first revealed by Peters the day after Labour and New Zealand First signed a more slender eight-page public coalition agreement.

Speaking to media after the allocation of ministerial portfolios, he described it as “a document of precision on various areas of policy commitment and development”.

“These are directives to ministers with accountability and media strategies to ensure that the coalition works, not in a jealous, envious way, ‘We got this and they got that’, but as a government successively, cohesively working.

“We’ve put a lot of thought into it, in fact day one of our negotiations that was the first subject we raised, how are we going to handle a cohesive coalition arrangement?”

At the time, he said the document was still being finalised, but would cover the appointment process for diplomats.

Peters said then the document would be made public, saying it was “for the province of the Prime Minister to release”.

However, in response to an Official Information Act request from Newsroom seeking the document’s release, Jacinda Ardern’s adviser Heather Simpson claimed “the Prime Minister does not hold any such official information”.

Simpson’s letter referred to Section 2 of the Act, saying official information covered only information held by “a Minister of the Crown in his official capacity”.

The Ombudsman’s OIA guidelines for ministers state that while official information does not include information held by a minister in their role as a member of a political party, “such information may become official information if it is subsequently used for official ministerial purposes”.

Newsroom has appealed the Government’s decision to the Ombudsman.

"It has to be made public because it's at the heart of the governing arrangements that New Zealand's just signed up to."

Wellington lawyer Graeme Edgeler said the document appeared to qualify as official information based on Peters’ description of it.

“It’s going to govern how he technically appoints ambassadors and other people overseas, which would be the Cabinet committee on honours and appointments, well that’s something they’d be using if it’s correctly described.”

While an agreement that covered the parties’ political or parliamentary roles would be exempt from the OIA, that did not appear to be the case here, Edgeler said.

“If ... it is going to cover things that the Government is doing as the Government, not as MPs in the House, then I can’t see how this could be refused on the basis it’s not about ministers.”

English said the document was "clearly official information" and should be released, given the public's need to understand how the new coalition would be run.

"It has to be made public because it's at the heart of the governing arrangements that New Zealand's just signed up to...

"It's a bad start for a Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who have promised to be a more transparent and open Government."

The Opposition has already lodged over 6000 written questions with the Government, "setting a baseline against which we can hold them to account", and had already found it difficult to get a response to some questions, English said.

"We're finding they are not taking the business of government seriously, they don't seem to understand that part of being a Government is being sufficiently organised to provide the information, so right now I think you'd say they're just too disorganised to do it - I hope it's not an indication of how they're going to run the Government."

English said the Government would struggle with the new level of transparency that he argued the last National Government had implemented.

"We pushed hard on data and transparency and public servants having to be open...now we weren't perfect, and you guys didn't give us any credit for it, but we did shift the ground a long way."

A spokesman for Ardern said the coalition agreement which had been publicly released was "the only official document that guides the agreed work programme of Labour and New Zealand First in Government".

| Read the originale article by Sam Sachdeva on Newsroom here  || November 27,  2017   |||

Nov 23, 2017  -  Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Revenue Minister Stuart Nash today announced the Terms of Reference for the Tax Working Group and that the Group will be chaired by Sir Michael Cullen.  “Our 100 Day Plan includes the establishment of a Tax Working Group. The Working Group will consider changes that would improve the structure, fairness and balance of the tax system,” says Grant Robertson.  “This Government is committed to a fair and progressive tax system. It is important that New Zealanders have confidence in their tax system and know that everyone is paying their fair share.”

“At the moment the tax system appears unfair – for example, it doesn’t treat income from speculation in housing as it does income from work. We want to consider how we can create a better balanced system and can encourage a shift to investment in the productive economy.

“Individual wage-earners, businesses, asset owners and speculators should pay their fair share of tax. Right now we don’t think that is happening. This working group is not about increasing income tax or the rate of GST, but rather introducing more fairness across all taxpayers.

“The Working Group will also consider how the tax system can contribute to positive environmental outcomes and the impact of likely changes to the economic environment, demographics, technology and employment practices over the next decade.

“As former Minister of Finance from 1999 to 2008, Sir Michael’s credentials are impeccable and he will be a huge asset to the Working Group.”

“The other members of the Working Group will be announced before Christmas. They will include a diverse range of tax and finance experts and representatives of the business and wider community. The Working Group will be supported by a secretariat of officials from Treasury and Inland Revenue and have an independent advisor to analyse the various sources of advice received,” says Stuart Nash.

“Final recommendations to Ministers are expected by February 2019. As promised before the election, any significant changes legislated for from the Group’s final report will not come into force until the 2021 tax year.

“It is important to ensure that all sectors of the New Zealand economy can feed into the Working Group’s processes and that all relevant perspectives are considered.”

“As we promised during the election campaign, certain areas will be outside the scope of the review, including increasing any income tax rate, the rate of GST, inheritance tax and changes that would apply to the family home or land beneath it,” Grant Robertson says.

“We also want to thank our government partners, the New Zealand First and Green parties, for their input and support of the Terms of Reference for this important piece of work on the future of our tax system.

"This review is a core part of the government’s programme and I’m confident it will deliver recommendations that will enable us to put in place a tax system that is fair for all New Zealanders,” says Grant Robertson.

| A Beehive release  ||  November 24, 2017   |||

| Related Documents:

Tax Working Group Q&A.docxTax Working Group Terms of Reference.docx

Nov 23, 2017  -  Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Revenue Minister Stuart Nash today announced the Terms of Reference for the Tax Working Group and that the Group will be chaired by Sir Michael Cullen.

“Our 100 Day Plan includes the establishment of a Tax Working Group. The Working Group will consider changes that would improve the structure, fairness and balance of the tax system,” says Grant Robertson.

“This Government is committed to a fair and progressive tax system. It is important that New Zealanders have confidence in their tax system and know that everyone is paying their fair share.”

“At the moment the tax system appears unfair – for example, it doesn’t treat income from speculation in housing as it does income from work. We want to consider how we can create a better balanced system and can encourage a shift to investment in the productive economy.

“Individual wage-earners, businesses, asset owners and speculators should pay their fair share of tax. Right now we don’t think that is happening. This working group is not about increasing income tax or the rate of GST, but rather introducing more fairness across all taxpayers.

“The Working Group will also consider how the tax system can contribute to positive environmental outcomes and the impact of likely changes to the economic environment, demographics, technology and employment practices over the next decade.

“As former Minister of Finance from 1999 to 2008, Sir Michael’s credentials are impeccable and he will be a huge asset to the Working Group.”

“The other members of the Working Group will be announced before Christmas. They will include a diverse range of tax and finance experts and representatives of the business and wider community. The Working Group will be supported by a secretariat of officials from Treasury and Inland Revenue and have an independent advisor to analyse the various sources of advice received,” says Stuart Nash.

“Final recommendations to Ministers are expected by February 2019. As promised before the election, any significant changes legislated for from the Group’s final report will not come into force until the 2021 tax year.

“It is important to ensure that all sectors of the New Zealand economy can feed into the Working Group’s processes and that all relevant perspectives are considered.”

“As we promised during the election campaign, certain areas will be outside the scope of the review, including increasing any income tax rate, the rate of GST, inheritance tax and changes that would apply to the family home or land beneath it,” Grant Robertson says.

“We also want to thank our government partners, the New Zealand First and Green parties, for their input and support of the Terms of Reference for this important piece of work on the future of our tax system.

"This review is a core part of the government’s programme and I’m confident it will deliver recommendations that will enable us to put in place a tax system that is fair for all New Zealanders,” says Grant Robertson.

| A Beehive release  ||   November 23,  2017   |||