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Welcome to Inside Politics. How extraordinary that former Speaker Sir Trevor Mallard can keep his head down and diligently get on with his work as ambassador to Ireland, but still be making headlines back home. Last week it was about the intentions of a girl to sue him for actions he authorised against the illegal occupants of Parliament grounds in February 2022. They included turning on the lawn sprinklers and playing Baby Shark through loudspeakers.
This week, it is for being the Alvin Tofler of his time in having predicted the de-extinction of moa well before it looks set to become a reality. Mallard thought the native bush above Wainuiomata would make a great home for them, although he was ridiculed at the time. His then leader, David Cunliffe, said: “I don’t think this one’s going to fly ... the moa is not a goer.”
Steven Joyce, a senior minister at the time, facetiously encouraged him to go further. “Why stop there?” said Joyce. “Why not bring back some old Labour Party Prime Ministers ... some extra talent for their caucus.”
Mallard was adamant it would happen, but in 50 to 100 years – a bit longer than the 10 years estimated by Sir Peter Jackson and his science collaborators at Colossal. Geniuses, all of them.
It is a shame that Labour’s Deborah Russell got so prickly with former Judge David Harvey about political philosophy when he was presenting to the select committee this week on the Regulatory Standards Bill. She accused Harvey of patronising her. “I have a PhD in political theory, so I’m familiar with [Thomas] Hobbes,” she said when he asked if she was aware of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the German Enlightenment philosopher.
She got waylaid by whose theory on liberty was best and wasted an opportunity to quiz perhaps the only supporter of the bill who also believes any reference to the Treaty of Waitangi should be included in it – at least Articles 1 and 3 of the Treaty, about governance and equal application of the law.
Act’s Cameron Luxton tried to draw him out further about how that would be done, but by then Harvey’s five minutes were up. “I’m still recovering from my academic dispute with Dr Russell,” he said.
Political reporter Jamie Ensor covered submissions this week, including from Rahui Papa, representing the Pou Tangata National Iwi Chairs Forum, who was concerned the Treaty was being sidelined: “We think this is about individual rights as opposed to the collective property rights that Māori have at the core function of ourselves.”
Later that day, Minister for Regulation David Seymour repeated his suggestion that if his bill had been around in the 1860s, it might have protected Māori against some of the Crown actions against them.
Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer said it was the strangest bill he had ever seen and the proposed Regulatory Standards Council would “drop reports like leaves in autumn” demanding justification for various regulations.
Seymour: “If he thinks it’s too hard for the Government to keep tabs on all the rules it’s making, he should be worried about all the poor buggers out there that have to follow the Government rules.”
By sheer coincidence, Les Bleus are touring New Zealand on the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior protest vessel in Auckland 1985 by French spies. They’ll be at Parliament tomorrow for an early celebration of Bastille Day, ahead of Saturday’s test.
The chances are that most of the young players have never heard of the bombing. Notwithstanding the manslaughter of a photographer on the ship, the act of state terrorism helped to cement New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policies. A meeting of the tripartite security alliance, Anzus, had been cancelled in March and the Australian PM, Bob Hawke, had declared it “a treaty in name only”. But debate over the policy continued. As David Lange said in a recently republished interview, three things strengthened the policy: the persistence of French nuclear testing in the Pacific, reprisals by the United States, “but the Rainbow Warrior certainly engraved it in platinum”.
To learn the story of the capture of the spies and the unravelling of their mission, Les Bleus couldn’t do any better than to listen to the new podcast, Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History, by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy.
• Te Pāti Māori will select its candidate tonight for the byelection in Tāmaki Makaurau following the death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
• Scott Brown, former US ambassador to New Zealand and former Republican Massachusetts Senator, is planning to run again for the Senate next year in New Hampshire.
• MPs overseas: Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Kuala Lumpur for meetings with Asean, the Association of South East Asian Nations. Shane Jones has been at resources meetings in Sydney. Chris Bishop has been in Texas and New York for infrastructure, transport and housing meetings, and Casey Costello has been in Tonga for Customs and police meetings. Speaker Gerry Brownlee has been leading a delegation to New York and Washington DC.
“There’s a lot of meat on a moa. They could feed a lot of people” – Act’s Nicole McKee, an experienced hunter, jokes about the return of the moa with Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW.
Which country’s leader is currently on the first state visit that Britain has hosted since it voted to leave the EU in 2016? (Answer at the bottom of this article.)
Goes to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It was about to be awarded the Bouquet for conducting hearings on the Regulatory Standards Bill when most other MPs were on holiday, until it become clear that some submitters had flown to Wellington for a face-to-face hearing with MPs, but ended up disappointed in the select committee room to be presenting to the MPs Zooming in from home (or perhaps their holiday houses). We’re not in a pandemic. Do it properly or not at all.
Goes to Finance Minister Nicola Willis for planning to discuss the price of cheese, butter and milk with Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell, and why they are often cheaper overseas than at home.
Regulatory Standards Bill: A select committee hearing on David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill turned into “academic jousting” on Tuesday morning as Labour’s Dr Deborah Russell went head-to-head with a retired District Court judge.
Regulatory Standards Bill: Opponents have lashed David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill at select committee hearings in Parliament.
FamilyBoost changes: The Government is tweaking its flagship family tax policy by increasing the maximum refund amount and lifting the income threshold.
Covid inquiry: Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern has not been formally asked to appear before stage 2 of the Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19.
OPINION – Labour Party: New York is on track to elect a self-proclaimed democratic-socialist and Muslim mayor. Is there a lesson for Labour and Chris Hipkins? You bet, writes Simon Wilson.
Quiz answer: The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte.
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