Tech Insider: Nicola Willis offers some venture capital sugar, five go tech in Queenstown, NetComm NZ falls over
Movac general partner Mark Vivian says the Government's fresh support for Elevate "is a sensible and pragmatic approach".
Elevate gets an unexpected elevation. Technology Queenstown adds big names to boost its $1 billion push. NetComm NZ hits the wall.
A Crown-backed venture capital fund has received a top-up. It's not nearly as much as some say is needed, but it's a step up from the general Budget 2025
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NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Never mind the swear words, politicians need to raise debate quality
I don't believe people are genuinely shocked by the language we're all hearing every night on our streaming TV shows. What is shocking is the standard of argument being employed by politicians and parties as they seek to score points with silly populist arguments. On my Facebook and Instagram feeds, the Labour Party has been trying to tell me that the Government is to blame for soaring butter prices. It has posted a chart of butter prices pointing out that they have doubled since the National-led coalition came to power. That's annoyed me on a number of levels. Despite the fact it seems to enrage many Kiwis, soaring dairy prices are clearly a net gain for the economy. We sell a lot more internationally than we consume locally and the current dairy price spike is expected to bring in an additional $10 billion in export revenue over this year and next. It's exactly what our economy needed. The impact on consumers is overstated. Butter prices have doubled in two years. You used to be able to get a 500g block for about $4.50 now it's about $8.50. That's an extra $4 a week, far less than petrol prices fluctuate on a regular basis. Also, there are numerous butter substitutes and blends that haven't risen nearly that much. I understand why someone on the Labour Party team has tried to milk the dairy price story (sorry for the pun). It is a headline grabber and an easy online meme. I bet the analytics on it look great. But it makes no sense in the real world. The Government has no control over international dairy prices. There are things a government could do to reduce the cost of butter for local consumers. They could subsidise the price with taxpayer money. Or they could impose price controls on farmers and force them to sell a certain amount locally. These would be terrible policies, and there is no chance Labour is about to adopt them. So butter prices would be exactly the same right now if they had won the last election. More broadly, inflation is running rampant like it was throughout 2021 and 2022. It has edged up to 2.5% but remains within the Reserve Bank's 1-3% target band. The same Stats NZ release that included the butter price graph also pointed out that annual rent price increases haven't been below 2.8% since 2011. Of course, much lower inflation isn't all good news. The fact it is underperforming so badly is giving economists confidence that inflation will stay subdued. The economy is struggling to get any momentum and there is no doubt a lot of people are doing it tough. There's no shortage of real issues with this recovery, which the current Government ought to take some responsibility for. Labour could legitimately be attacking the Government on unemployment and job security. There are tens of thousands more people on the Jobseeker benefit now than there were when Labour was in power. I don't mean to single out Labour either. The National Party spent a lot of time in opposition attacking Labour for letting those Jobseeker numbers rise. It also drives me crazy when the Government holds press conferences after the Official Cash Rate announcement to take credit for falling interest rates. Interest rates are falling because inflation is under control and the economy is underperforming. If they go much lower, it will be because things are getting worse, not better. Meanwhile, in the past week, we've had David Seymour running 'victim of the day' social media attacks on opponents of his regulatory standards bill. Seymour says he is being 'playful' and having 'fun' with his line, suggesting opponents are suffering from 'Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome'. Surely if the bill is worth putting before Parliament, then it must have been aimed at delivering some sort of meaningful change to the status quo. Let's have a grown-up debate about what that intended change is. What's frustrating about political debate in 2025 is that politicians are so quick to build 'straw man' arguments because they seem easy to sell as memes and headlines. A 'straw man', for the record, is where you present a weak version or flawed version of your opponent's argument so you can easily dismiss it. It's lazy and doesn't do anything to boost the quality of policy-making in this country. It's probably too much to ask, but wouldn't it be nice if our politicians were confident enough in their view to employ the opposite of a 'straw man' argument? That's called a 'steel-man' argument. It requires you to consciously present the strongest and most charitable version of your opponent's argument. Then you explain why it still doesn't stack up. It requires you to do a bit of homework and think through the logical basis for your argument. I'm pretty sure all the leaders of our political parties are smart enough to do that. But we seem to be following a depressing international trend which sees social media debate reduce everything to simplistic points which appeal to an increasingly tribal political base. New Zealand has a cyclical recovery underway that would have happened, at a greater or lesser pace, regardless of who was in power. Scrapping over that is pointless. We need to be looking ahead to how we lift the economy at a structural level and enable higher levels of cyclical growth. That requires some serious work and will need a higher quality of debate than what we've been seeing this year. This column will take a two-week break as the author is on holiday with his family. Liam Dann is business editor-at-large for theNew Zealand Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined theHeraldin 2003.
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Australia: Less Bang For Your Buck – NSW Budget Is Missing Key Opportunities For Everyone
We've crunched the numbers and can show that the financial cost of discrimination and exclusion is far higher than the costs associated with investing in inclusion. 'Despite repeated calls from people with disability, the NSW Government has failed to deliver a clear and sustained investment in disabled lives in the 2025-26 Budget, the outcomes of which will be felt by all,' said Trinity Ford, President, People with Disability Australia (PWDA). The key messages from PWDA's pre-budget submission are that making NSW more inclusive and accessible offers: Wellbeing benefits for people with disability. Wellbeing benefits for the wider community. Opportunities to save over $12 billion. These key benefits and opportunities have not been considered throughout the Budget. A targeted investment in Foundational Supports was clearly missing—and that's deeply concerning. "The complete omission of any specific funding for Foundational Supports is a serious missed opportunity—and one that Australia can't afford. We are increasingly concerned that this may signal a deliberate move to sideline foundational supports from the Government's agenda. We will be raising this urgently with Minister Washington and will be monitoring the Government's position closely', said Ms Ford. A commitment to accessible housing is also lacking within announcements. Although the Government has committed to improve housing for the people of NSW, PWDA is disappointed the Budget does little to directly address the housing crisis facing people with disability. Currently, 66,698 households are on the NSW social housing waiting list. The government's own data acknowledges that around one-third of these applicants are people with disability. The Government is committing billions to fast-track 465,500 new homes over the next five years through private and mixed development initiatives. However, most of these are not social or accessible housing, and there are no clear guarantees of how people with disability—especially those on low incomes—will benefit. "Making all new homes accessible by mandating the National Construction Code's minimum accessibility standards would not cost the government anything—and it would help more people with disability live independently, instead of relying on social housing', said Ms Ford. Right now, homelessness is costing NSW about $6.5 billion every year. Over 10 years, that adds up to $65 billion. If the Government invested just one-third of that amount—$26 billion over 10 years—it could stop many people from becoming homeless and save almost $4 billion each year. PWDA welcomes the NSW Government's investments toward improving access to support for victim-survivors of violence and trauma. However, there is no mention of how these funds will support people with disability—despite clear evidence people with disability are at significantly higher risk of experiencing violence and need different interventions. 'Funding responses to violence must be inclusive. Without specific measures to address the unique risks and access barriers faced by people with disability, we risk leaving behind the very communities most in need of protection,' said Ms Ford. PWDA is calling on the NSW Government to commit to the inclusion and wellbeing of people with disability. 'Continued discrimination against people with disability, and doing nothing to address it, is expensive. There are clear gaps in the 2025-26 NSW Budget. People with disability are being left out, which will end up costing the Government and taxpayers more in the future,' said Trinity Ford, President of PWDA.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Moana Pasifika's owners reject misuse of public funding claims amid investigation
The owners of Moana Pasifika have rejected allegations of inappropriate use of public funding and say no taxpayer money has been used to support the Super Rugby Pacific team. It comes after the Government's principal policy adviser on Māori wellbeing and development, Te Puni Kōkiri, announced an independent review into
