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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Neil Quigley denies conflict of interest as Reserve Bank chairman amid Waikato medical school deal
The remaining funding would be provided by the university and through donations. Construction was set to begin this year and would add 120 medical training places annually from 2028. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announces the new medical school funding. Photo / Mark Mitchell National had campaigned in 2023 on a new medical school at the university but the promise was diluted through coalition negotiations with Act, which demanded a thorough cost/benefit analysis before committing funding. Established medical schools claimed funding more placements would be more cost-effective. Quigley had been heavily involved in the policy development and once described the school as being a 'present' to a National-led Government in a possible second term. Labour's health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall said questions should be asked if the deal was a 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' arrangement between Quigley and the Government, given Quigley's role with the Reserve Bank. 'That does draw the independence of the Reserve Bank decisions into question,' she said. 'Releasing the costings for the medical school and how it stacks up against alternative options is important.' Former Reserve Bank manager Michael Reddell said he wasn't certain a direct conflict existed but questioned whether it explained Quigley's presence on the board. 'It's just a loose connection that no one understands why he's still in the role, why he was reappointed last year.' Neil Quigley leads the University of Waikato. Photo / George Novak Luxon, in his post-Cabinet press conference, said he expected any conflicts to be well-managed and felt comfortable with the arrangement. Quigley's role as chairman was separate to the Monetary Policy Committee, which sets the Official Cash Rate. Speaking to the Herald, Quigley dismissed the suggestion there was a conflict of interest. 'It's been news to me that people imagined there was a conflict between my role at the Reserve Bank and the university.' He described the bank as an 'evidence-based institution' and noted he was 'only one of nine members of the board'. Donations for new school worth 10s of millions Philanthropic donations had been central to the Government agreeing to co-fund the new medical school, Health Minister Simeon Brown saying donations and university funds would cover the remaining $150m. The donations had been pledged amid the Government's deliberations with some donors putting pen to paper to commit their contributions. Quigley wouldn't name any donors, citing privacy, but acknowledged some contributions were worth tens of millions of dollars. 'At the moment, they've done it on a private basis just to support me and we've given the Government an indication of who those people are and what sorts of commitments they've made.' He said he wasn't aware of any links donors had with the National Party, saying many sought to help address the country's shortage of medical professionals. 'There's a lot of philanthropically-minded people out there and some of them have just come to me and said, 'We want to support this project', it's not as if I've had to go find them.' Quigley suspected half of the $150m would be satisfied through donations with the rest to be covered by the university. 'At the moment, we're well on the way to the 50% of donations just with a relatively small number of large trusts and very wealthy individuals so we don't see that as particularly challenging.' Acknowledging comments from Finance Minister Nicola Willis that any extra costs wouldn't be covered by the Government, Quigley said the university was able to borrow any additional funds required. Early cost estimates for the new school had been much more expensive at about $380m. Quigley, who described that estimate as 'entirely hypothetical', said costs had been saved through plans to utilise existing health infrastructure like medical centres and GP clinics which weren't at capacity. Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald's Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
Otago Daily Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
MP's View: Housing cut as homelessness up
We need more warm dry homes across Dunedin. Owning a home should be an easier option for people, and renting should be secure. Christopher Luxon has put property speculators first, handing them nearly $3billion in tax breaks while families struggle with rising bills. Housing projects under way under Labour to address the social housing waitlist in Dunedin were ruthlessly cut by the current government last month. The National-led government made the decision to cancel the builds of 40 one- to two-bedroom homes on Carroll St in Central Dunedin, along with a further 32 on Stafford St and 11 on Albertson Ave in Port Chalmers — 83 homes this city desperately needs. The Carroll St site already had extensive planning undertaken, including the demolition of 16 state homes — the site was vacant and ready to go. I wrote to Housing Minister Chris Bishop in April asking why the Carroll St development was still on hold at the time. The minister wrote back stating the government was working to deliver social housing where it was needed most. His response goes directly against the decision to cancel these builds. The units planned for Carroll St would have been the most sought-after size and close to the city centre and community services. This government also shows little to no regard for homelessness. It recently cut $1b from the emergency housing budget on the false pretence that demand for housing was reducing. Frontline housing providers know this is not the case and have frequently told politicians, including government ministers, that there are more people on the streets as a direct result of the government's policies. Changes to the criteria by a National minister about who can access emergency housing has directly led to more people sleeping rough. Changes to eligibility criteria mean fewer people are qualifying to get emergency housing. And at least a fifth of those coming off the emergency housing list are not going to warm dry homes of their own but to whanau, friends or other precarious situations. In Dunedin, this is apparent in the number of tents at the Oval increasing in recent months. Taieri MP Ingrid Leary and I are meeting a range of social services about these housing issues and will host Labour's housing spokesman, Kieran McAnulty, in Dunedin next month. Labour will put affordability first, making it easier to buy, better to rent, and building more homes. Dunedin needs not only housing but also social support. Many of the groups that provide this help have had their funding cut. Cutting funding while cancelling housing developments is a recipe for more homelessness.
Otago Daily Times
13-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Call to move health staff ‘bizarre'
Ingrid Learyy. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH A call to transfer mental health workers from Dunedin to Central Otago is "bizarre", Taieri MP Ingrid Leary says. The Labour Party MP responded to a provocative stance taken by Waitaki MP Miles Anderson, of the National Party, who suggested Dunedin's mental health staffing should be slashed by 100, and also that too much money was being poured into the $1.88billion regional hospital in Dunedin. Money should instead have been directed to the growing Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts, he said. Ms Leary said Mr Anderson had looked to pit Dunedin against Wānaka and his proposed solution to health shortages in Wānaka and surrounding areas was bizarre. "It is no secret that the lower South suffers from a shortage of mental health workers across the board and some of the longest specialist wait times, including in Dunedin," she said. "Moving health workers from one location to another resolves nothing." Ms Leary, Labour's mental health spokesperson, said the government appeared to be taking "a Queenstown-centric approach" to healthcare, including mental health. Mr Anderson had spoken of inequities between Dunedin and the rest of the region. "Those employed in the mental health side of things — Dunedin has 300-plus staff, and only another 100 are spread throughout the entire Otago-Southland area, so Wānaka have very few," he said. "So for it to be equitable, 100 need to be taken out of Dunedin and put into other areas." Ms Leary suggested the government ought to be more constructive. "Cutting pay equity claims for burned-out mental health workers will only exacerbate the mental healthcare shortage, so why doesn't Miles Anderson instead tell his Cabinet colleagues to reverse that short-sighted decision?" Construction of the new hospital in Dunedin started under Labour and the project was reviewed by the National-led government once it gained power in the 2023 general election. After delays, the government ended up approving continuation of the build and the project was not altered substantially. Mr Anderson said the people who planned the hospital "didn't give much thought to the outlying areas of North Otago and Central Otago". "The Dunedin hospital makes sense with the med school and specialists, but if they thought about it, did it really need to be as big?" Ms Leary said Mr Anderson seemed to lack understanding of the project. He appeared to have "no depth of knowledge regarding the Dunedin hospital and its role in the wider region, including the need for tertiary-level care and a medical training facility".
NZ Herald
07-07-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Labour's Chris Hipkins says Covid inquiry terms platform conspiracy theorists
The terms of reference in the new Covid-19 inquiry have been constructed to provide a platform for those with conspiracy theorist views, Labour leader Chris Hipkins says. The National-led coalition Government decided in June last year to establish a 'phase 2' of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons,
The Spinoff
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Appeasing Trump in the Middle East is not cost-free for New Zealand
The government's responses to recent events in the Middle East indicate that its desire not to offend the Trump administration has compromised New Zealand's commitment to uphold an international rules-based order, argues Robert Patman. While distant in geographic terms, brutal violence in Gaza, the West Bank and Iran marks the latest stage in the unravelling of an international rules-based order on which New Zealand depends for its prosperity and security. It should be emphasised that New Zealand's founding document, the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, emphasises partnership and cooperation at home, and, after 1945, helped inspire a New Zealand worldview enshrined in institutions such as the United Nations and norms such as multilateralism. In the wake of Hamas' terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, the National-led coalition government has in principle emphasised its support for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. However, in practice, this New Zealand stance has not translated into firm diplomatic opposition to the Netanyahu government's quest to control Gaza and annex the West Bank. Nor has it been a condemnation of the Trump administration for prioritising its support for Israel's security goals over international law. Foreign minister Winston Peters has described the situation in Gaza as 'simply intolerable' but the National-led coalition had little specific to say as the Netanyahu government resumed its cruel blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza in March and restarted military operations there. Even more striking was the government's silence on president Trump's proposal to own Gaza with a view to evicting two million Palestinian residents from the territory and the US-Israeli venture to start the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in late May in a move which sidelined the UN in aid distribution and has led to the killing of more than 600 Palestinians while seeking food aid. While New Zealand, along with the UK, Australia, Canada and Norway, imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar ben Gvir, in June for 'inciting extremist violence' against Palestinians – a move that was criticised by the Trump administration – it was arguably a case of very little very late. The Hamas terror attacks on October 7 killed around 1,200 Israelis, but the Netanyahu government's retaliation by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) against Hamas has resulted in the deaths of more than 56,000 Palestinians – nearly 70% of whom were women or children – in Gaza. Over the same period, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank as Israel accelerated its programme of illegal settlements there. In addition, the responses of the New Zealand government to pre-emptive attacks by Israel (13-25 June) and Trump's America (June 22) against Iran to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities were strangely ambivalent. Despite indications from US intelligence and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had not produced nuclear weapons, foreign minister Peters said New Zealand was not prepared to take a position on that issue. Citing provocative behaviour by both Iran and Israel, Peters adopted a neutral stance toward the 12-day war between the two nations. With respect to the attacks by the US on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the current New Zealand government seems to have echoed the view of Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of NATO, that such actions were consistent with international law. Peters and deputy PM David Seymour reiterated Iran could not be allowed to have nuclear weapons and tacitly supported the US decision to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran. Peters noted that the Trump administration's targeted attacks were aimed at 'degrading Iran's nuclear capabilities' and acknowledged the US statement to the UNSC claiming these attacks were taken 'in collective self-defence consistent with the UN charter'. Taken together, the coalition government's responses to recent events in the Middle East indicate that its desire not to offend the Trump administration has compromised New Zealand's commitment to uphold an international rules-based order. To be clear, Israel's conduct in Gaza is clearly at odds with its legal responsibilities as an occupying power, and the pre-emptive attacks by nuclear armed Israel and America on Iran cannot be justified legally when the clerical regime in Teheran does not have nuclear weapons and the diplomatic process had not been exhausted. Of course, some observers maintain that a relatively small state like New Zealand has no choice but to tacitly accept flagrant violations of international law when they are committed by big powerful friends like Trump's America. However, such a perspective understates the capacity of small and middle powers to shape what is an increasingly interconnected world. In 2003, then prime minister Helen Clark bravely refused to support an illegal US invasion of Iraq and the wisdom of that stance was subsequently confirmed in what was a disastrous military adventure for the George W. Bush administration. Moreover, New Zealand's leadership in promoting the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) – which has been ratified by 73 states – means it should have a strong voice on the military actions by Israel and the Trump team that have effectively incentivised Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Confronted with Trump's 'might is right' approach, the National-led coalition faces stark choices. The government can continue to fudge fundamental moral and legal issues in the Middle East and risk complicity in the further weakening of an international rules-based order it purportedly supports, or it can get off the fence, stand up for the country's values, and insist that respect for international law must be observed in the region and elsewhere without exception.
