Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Monday, May 6
Scoops of the day; Deep-dives of the day; Op-Eds & columns of the day, plus cartoon of the day. MFAT secures Budget increase; Govt relents on strict guarantee for Watercare
TL;DR: Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission.
Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies to allow Auckland Council to carve Watercare out of its balance sheet.
Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 7:36 am on Monday, May 6:
Scoop: Nicola Willis tells National Party conference MFAT to get Budget increase, alongside Health and Education, and possibly Police. Politik-$$$ Richard Harman
Scoop: Seymour wanted Ministry of Regulation to have three times more staff than Productivity Commission NZ Herald Azaria Howell
Infrastructure: Auckland Council and Watercare are getting a financial divorce Interest.co.nz Dan Brunskill
Infrastructure: Mega Wellington water entity in the pipeline: The new entity will stretch from Seatoun to Masterton to Horowhenua and promises lower rates rises The Post-$$$ Tom Hunt
Scoop: Papers reveal Defence tried to dismantle its own watchdogCabinet papers reveal how the Defence agencies tried to kill off an independent military watchdog recommended by the Operation Burnham inquiry The Post-$$$ Thomas Manch
Analysis by Tom Pullar-Strecker for Sunday Star Times-$$$ Fast-track consents: Seven concessions the Government could make. Compromise may be on the cards, but the question is how much ground the Government might give.
(Articles with -$$$ in the publication name are paywalled. Paying subscribers can see a full collection of news and opinion links relevant to Aotearoa’s political economy, especially around housing, transport, climate, poverty and politics.)
News links from Aotearoa’s political economy today
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