Gordon Campbell has already posted on the strange credibility gap between Murray McCully’s nasty speech announcing the changes to NZAID and the Cabinet papers that made the decisions. It looks like McCully could not quite get the Cabinet paper he wanted because the facts and evidence did not stack up, but this has not stopped his true views shining through in the speech. Word coming out of NZAID is that in the wake of the speech staff morale is at an all time low. The speech is regarded as an assault on the professionalism and credibility of staff or as McCully so kindly referred to them in the speech “ faceless, unelected, unaccountable, aid bureaucrats“. This from a National Party who promised to respect and ‘de-politicise’ the public sector?. Any hope that McCully might have come round to the value of NZAID’s work and mission has faded fast.
Alongside McCully’s attack on NZAID itself, his barbs at the ‘self interested‘ aid community has NGOs furious. Their public response has been muted, but that is hardly surprising is it? They know they have to work with him over the next couple of years. This is, of course, the very point of the criticism of the McCully plan. If you politicise the giving of aid, those who rely on the support will feel the need to play the game.
But concern about the McCully plan is widespread. I hosted a group of church leaders for breakfast on Friday, and a number of them expressed deep concern about the impact of the changes on New Zealand’s aid programme, and our international credibility. I think National will live to regret Murray’s strange personal crusade, whatever it actually may be.
Posted in International, Public Service, Murray McCully and New Zealand in the World. |
Yesterday was a big day. It is hard to describe the feeling of delivering my maiden speech in Parliament. I felt humbled to stand in Parliament, and so grateful to the people of Wellington Central for the opportunity. It was fantastic to see so many family and friends in the gallery as well. Here is my speech and here is the Dominion Post’s story on it.
Posted in Education, Social Justice, Sustainability, New Zealand in the World, Wellington and Sport, Music and other time wasting activities. |
Our foreign policy was released yesterday, and the major new commitment is to a greater role for New Zealand in conflict resolution. We have a well deserved reputation for our peacekeeping work, and have played a key role in a number of multilateral negotiations, but the policy aims to lift our capacity to work in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. We are seeking a partnership with government agencies, NGOs, such as the Peace Trust and the academic community to give New Zealand the ability to play a leading role particularly in the Pacific. I think this is exciting stuff, and we have plenty of international examples to work from. Other highlights of the policy are
- a continued commitment to international leadership on disarmament
- progressively moving to the 0.7% target for our Official Development Assistance
- priority for work in the Pacific
- a commitment to New Zealand playing a leading role in negotiations on a post 2012 climate change agreement
- on-going work on a fair, rules based multilateral trading system and quality regional and bilateral agreements.
Posted in New Zealand in the World. |
Well, in a manner of speaking. News today that the UN has agreed that New Zealand has rights over approx 1.7 million square kilometres of seabed, outside of Exclusive Economic Zone. This is the end result of a huge amount of work by scientists and MFAT officials over a number of years (including some good friends of mine- you know who you are!).
The Continental Shelf Commission was a body set up under the auspices of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to look at the status of the shelf beyond Exclusive Economic Zones. New Zealand was the fifth country to make a submission to extend our continental shelf in 2006. The submission has been analysed by the UN for two years before agreement.
Essentially the decision gives New Zealand certainty about our rights to the shelf and, should we choose to, the ablity to use resources such as minerals and petroleum. One of the caveats on the decision is that New Zealand must pay up to 7% of any revenue obtained from exploiting the resources in the new area to the International Seabed Authority to support developing countries in working to protect their own shelf rights.
From what I have heard New Zealand’s submission was world leading, and will be used as the model by other countries. Hats off to the excellent public servants who led this work.
Posted in New Zealand in the World. |
I hear a bit of talk about excessive ‘red-tape’ for businesses from time to time but the results of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey released today, once again shows that we stack up pretty well. New Zealand is 2nd, behind Singapore and ahead of the US in 3rd place.
As the introduction to the report says
A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business.
This means issues like starting a business, construction permits, employing workers and protecting investors. All important for a functioning economy, and we are doing well. We are also managing to balance issues like workers rights, health and safety and regulatory efficiency with supporting this environment.
Of course these surveys have their limitations. This one does not look at an issue like infrastructure, but they do provide us with some benchmarks for how we are going. A creditable silver medal!
Posted in New Zealand in the World. |
