Machinion Post

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A visit to Auckland by the President of Vietnam, Tô Lâm, has produced what the Government describes as several areas of boosted cooperation between the two countries. Beyond that description, the public record is thin. What was signed, what it commits either government to, and what it costs or earns this country have not yet been set out in any detail this newspaper can find.

The stakes are real enough. Vietnam is among the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, a fellow member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and a country whose weight in the region grows as its relationship with larger powers shifts. A New Zealand that wants trade routes open and options in the Indo-Pacific beyond a single large trading partner has good reason to deepen ties with Hanoi. The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, is right to treat this relationship as worth the time of his office, and there is nothing improper in hosting a leader of Vietnam's standing.

The case for engagement does not, however, excuse silence on its terms. Vietnam remains a one party state, and any government doing business with it must be able to say plainly what values, if any, were raised alongside trade and investment. This newspaper does not know whether they were. That is precisely the trouble. A relationship built in public statements about boosted cooperation, without the underlying agreements or even a summary of them, asks the country to trust that the balance struck was the right one, without giving it the means to judge.

Good diplomacy and public accountability are not rivals. A Prime Minister who can manage both has nothing to fear from disclosure, and a country asked to welcome a closer partnership is owed the detail that would let it judge whether the welcome was warranted.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Vietnamese president, Tô Lâm, has visited Auckland, and the Government reports that several areas of cooperation between Wellington and Hanoi have been widened as a result. That much is common ground, and no one need quarrel with it.

What is at stake is larger than the visit itself. Reports of the trip have described the Vietnamese leader as the most powerful his country has had since Ho Chi Minh. Whether or not that description holds, it points to a country whose weight in Southeast Asia grows each year, and whose choices about where to align, and how far, matter to every smaller trading nation watching the contest between Washington and Beijing from the sidelines. New Zealand is one of those nations, and it has good reason to want friends beyond the usual short list.

The case for closer ties with Hanoi is not hard to make, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, will make it well. Vietnam is among the faster growing economies of the region, a fellow member of the CPTPP, and a country with every reason of its own to hedge against dependence on any single power. Closer ties serve this country's trade diversification, and add a partner to a region where New Zealand cannot afford to be thought of as belonging only to Canberra and Washington. This newspaper does not doubt the sincerity of the welcome given, nor the worth of the economic gains on offer. But cooperation of this kind ought not to be conducted as though Vietnam's one-party government and its record on press freedom and political dissent were simply not there to be mentioned. Quiet diplomacy has its place, and public sermons rarely change a government's behaviour. That is not, however, a reason for silence. It is a reason for saying, in plain terms and through the proper channels, what this country believes about how citizens ought to be treated by their governments, even while trade and cooperation proceed.

A small country that trades on its word cannot afford to be seen making that word conditional on the size of the deal in front of it. The visit should go ahead, and the cooperation with it, but the Minister should be no less willing to name what troubles this country than to welcome what pleases it.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Minister for Social Development and Minister for Disability Issues, Louise Upston, has apologised to the disabled community after a select committee found her draft bill on support services was not clear enough. That the Minister has said so plainly, without excuse, is to her credit. It does not settle the matter.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A challenge to the leadership of the National Party was mounted this week, and it failed. The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has since maintained that nothing of note has occurred. That claim will not survive contact with the public record, and the country is entitled to something better than a flat denial of events it has already read about.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A North Shore man has been charged with threatening to kill the National MP, Dan Bidois, in a message sent over social media. He faces, if convicted, up to seven years in prison. The case is now before the courts, and this newspaper says nothing here about the truth of the allegation, which is for a judge and jury to weigh in due course.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Ngāi Tahu has released a plan to remake local government across the South Island, proposing to replace the region's twenty four councils with five. That is the fact before the country. The Crown is not a party to the plan and need not adopt a single line of it, but the proposal falls within the reach of this portfolio all the same, because it is an iwi setting out, in its own right and on its own initiative, a considered view of how a large part of Aotearoa ought to be governed.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Ngāi Tahu has set out a plan to replace the South Island's twenty four councils with five. It is the iwi's plan, not the Government's, and it arrives without legislative force. But it will not be ignored, and it should not be. The proposal touches the shape of local government across half the country and, more to the point for the Minister of Internal Affairs, Brooke van Velden, it touches who answers the telephone when the next flood or quake arrives.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Disability Issues Minister has announced changes to the Disability Support Services Bill, a bill that had previously drawn strong objection from the disability community. What the changes contain has not been set out in any detail available to this newspaper, and it would be idle to pretend otherwise. The Minister for Social Development, Louise Upston, holds no formal part in this legislation, and nothing here suggests she should.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The facts reported are narrow, and this newspaper will not pretend otherwise. Superintendent Naidoo was confirmed on 8 June as a list-only candidate for Labour, ranked thirteenth, a position that all but guarantees a seat in the new Parliament. The Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, is reported to have held pre-existing concerns about a sensitive briefing Superintendent Naidoo attended. Beyond that, the public record is thin, and no more should be inferred from it. Nothing here suggests any wrongdoing by Superintendent Naidoo, who has done what the law permits in seeking a seat in the House, nor does it suggest the Minister of Police acted other than with proper caution.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Superintendent Naidoo was confirmed on the eighth of June as a list-only candidate for the Labour Party, ranked thirteenth on that list, a position that all but guarantees him a seat in Parliament. Before that confirmation, and it now appears afterward as well, he was present at a briefing described as sensitive. The Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, has said he held pre-existing concerns about that attendance. Beyond that, the record now before this newspaper is silent on what the briefing concerned, what safeguards were or were not applied, and what the Minister did with his concerns once he held them.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A Minister, Chris Penk, mounted a challenge to the Prime Minister's leadership. Christopher Luxon says he responded with what he calls decisive action, and states he has total confidence that no other member of Cabinet was involved. Beyond that, the public record is thin. What was done, and to whom, has not been set out in any detail this newspaper has seen.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Police have admitted spreading incorrect information about Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo after his announcement as a candidate for the Labour Party. An assistant commissioner has apologised. That much is not in dispute, and this newspaper takes it as the starting point.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, the document that sets the direction for the country's roading, public transport and rail spending, will not appear until after the election. The Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, has said he is frustrated that cost-benefit ratios for transport projects have fallen since the 1990s. That frustration is stated plainly enough. What follows from it, in the form of a delay, is harder to accept.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Government has announced the first tranche of its Solar in Schools programme: forty schools in the North Island, one hundred and fifty seven in the South Island and three in the Chathams will have panels installed as part of a pilot for the thirty million dollar scheme unveiled in this year's Budget. The announcement speaks of five hundred schools in total, though the figures released so far account for two hundred. Whether the remaining three hundred are to follow in a later tranche, and on what timetable, the record does not say.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Two hundred schools, the first tranche of a planned five hundred, are to have solar panels fitted under the thirty million dollar Solar in Schools programme announced in this year's Budget. Forty are in the North Island, one hundred and fifty seven in the South Island, and three in the Chathams. The pilot is now under way.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Government has named the first schools to receive solar panels under a thirty million dollar programme set out in this year's Budget. Forty schools in the North Island, one hundred and fifty seven in the South Island and three in the Chathams make up this first tranche. The announcement gives a headline figure of five hundred schools in total, though the numbers supplied for this initial group add to two hundred; the record is silent on how the remaining schools will be chosen or when.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has survived a second vote of confidence from his own caucus in four months. The challenge came from the Minister who until now has held the Defence portfolio, Chris Penk, and it failed. The result of the vote itself is being kept from the public, a matter for the party's own rules and not this newspaper's business to relitigate. What is this newspaper's business is what such a contest costs a portfolio that has no time to spare.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has survived a second confidence vote inside his own caucus in four months, after the Minister of Defence, Chris Penk, mounted a leadership challenge that did not succeed. As is the custom of the National Party, the margin has not been made public. The country therefore knows only the outcome and not its size, and is asked to take the rest on trust.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A challenge to the leadership of the National Party has failed overnight. Chris Penk, who mounted it, has been removed from Cabinet by the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon. A senior minister, Mark Mitchell, has said plainly that the bid never had the numbers behind it. These are the facts as this newspaper has them, and they are enough to be going on with.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A former defence minister, Wayne Mapp, has said publicly that a colleague, Chris Penk, was made a sacrificial lamb in the reshuffling now under way inside National. This newspaper has no view on the internal arithmetic of a governing party's caucus, and it is not the business of this column to referee who was owed what by whom. That is a matter for the party room and, in the end, for the electorate.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - On Wednesday, members of his own caucus attempted to remove the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, from the leadership of the National Party, and failed. That is the plain fact of the matter, and it is the only part of the matter on which this newspaper can speak with confidence. Who moved against him, and why, has not been made public, and this newspaper will not pretend to a knowledge it does not have.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Security Intelligence Service has told the country plainly that the environment it works in is now the most challenging of recent times. Foreign states, it says, are increasingly after non-public information: policy insights, intellectual property, and data sets. The service does not name the states concerned, and this newspaper will not do its guessing for it. That reticence is proper. A warning of this kind carries weight precisely because it is measured rather than sensational, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, would do well to answer it in the same register.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Security Intelligence Service has told the country plainly that foreign states are working harder than before to obtain what New Zealand does not intend to give them: policy advice before it is public, intellectual property developed here, and the data sets that increasingly are worth more than the institutions that hold them. The Service calls the present period among the most challenging of recent times. That is a considered judgment from the agency whose business is judging exactly this, and it should be treated as such rather than filed away with the general noise of geopolitics.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Asked on Morning Report what new taxes a re-elected National government might introduce, the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, pointed to what he called existing policy, among it a rise in the fuel excise tax, and raised the prospect of an accommodation levy. Neither idea has yet been set out in any detail. The rate, the base, who collects it and where the money would go are all, on the public record, unknown.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Asked on Morning Report what new taxes a re-elected National government might introduce, the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, pointed to what he called existing policy: a rise in the fuel excise tax, and an accommodation levy. Neither idea was set out in any detail. No figure was given, no date, and no account of where the extra revenue from either measure would go. This newspaper takes leading articles from stray answers on morning radio with some caution, but the Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, holds the portfolio into which any such change would fall, and the country is entitled to more than a passing remark before the next election.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Asked on Morning Report what new taxes a re-elected National government would introduce, the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, pointed to "existing policy": the scheduled rise in the fuel excise tax, and raised the possibility of an accommodation levy. No other new revenue measure was named. The exchange was brief, and this newspaper does not pretend it amounts to a costed policy. But it was the Prime Minister's own choice of example, and it deserves to be taken at face value rather than waved away as an aside.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - Dual citizens holding Irish passports report waits of many weeks, no word on progress, and in some cases missed weddings, funerals and jobs because the paper did not arrive in time. The cause, as reported, lies with a surge in demand for Irish passports among people entitled to them, meeting new United Kingdom border rules that make an Irish or European document more useful than it once was. Neither the demand nor the rule change originates in Wellington, and no fair reading of the record lays the queue itself at the door of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - National's caucus meets today to settle a question of leadership. The public record, at the time of writing, offers little beyond the fact that a contest is under way; this newspaper will not pretend to know its causes, its numbers, or its likely outcome, and declines to speculate about what it has not been told.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has called an urgent meeting of his caucus amid open speculation about his leadership. That a Prime Minister must summon such a meeting is itself the news. Whatever is resolved in the room, the fact that the room was needed at all will not be forgotten by the public that watches from outside it.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A defence adviser has suggested that New Zealand could benefit from an agency dedicated to identifying and countering information put about by hostile sources, on the model Sweden has built for itself. The adviser's proposal, and the Swedish example held up alongside it, deserve to be taken seriously rather than waved away as an import from a larger and more exposed part of the world.

Wellington, Aug. 13 - A defence adviser has told the Government that New Zealand could benefit from an agency dedicated to identifying and countering information from hostile sources, and has held up Sweden as a working model. The suggestion arrives without much detail as to cost, staffing, or the precise scope such a body would take on. That the idea has reached the desk of the Minister of Defence, Judith Collins, at all is a sign of how far the meaning of defence has moved in a generation.

Wellington, Aug. 12 - A transport subsidy relied upon by people with disabilities has been cut, and those affected say the change feels less like housekeeping than like being singled out. That is a serious complaint, and it deserves a serious answer.

Wellington, Aug. 12 - A subsidy that helped people with disabilities meet the cost of getting about has been cut. Those who relied on it say the change feels less like a budget decision than a decision aimed at them. This newspaper does not know the exact sum involved, nor the internal reasoning behind the change, because neither has been set out with any clarity. That silence is itself part of the story.

Wellington, Aug. 12 - A poll now shows the party Opportunity holding the balance between the two governing blocs, with neither able to form a Government without its support. That is the fact of the matter, and it is worth stating plainly before anything else is said: a single poll, taken well ahead of any election, has found a smaller party in a position of leverage that neither the Government nor the Opposition currently enjoys on its own.

Wellington, Aug. 12 - A new poll has found that the Opportunity Party could hold the balance in forming the next government, and that both the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, and the Leader of the Opposition, Chris Hipkins, have slipped in the preferred Prime Minister rankings. Neither fact, taken alone, is a small thing. A Parliament in which a third or fourth party decides who governs is a different Parliament from the one most voters imagine when they cast a vote, and it changes how a Cabinet is formed, how policy is bargained, and how firmly a government can speak, at home or abroad, on matters that admit no half measures.

Wellington, Aug. 12 - An emergency meeting of the governing caucus was called this week, in the middle of a parliamentary recess. This is a fact, and it is not a small one. Recess weeks exist so that members may return to their electorates; a caucus does not interrupt that week to confirm what everyone already accepts. Reporting on the meeting has suggested that the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, faces a caucus whose public statements of confidence do not match what was said behind the doors of that meeting. This newspaper does not know, and the public record does not yet show, what precisely was said in that room, and it would be wrong to claim more certainty than the facts allow.