NZ: A Glut of Reforms, and their Critics

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■ Tax  
■ Oil Drilling 
■ Social Welfare
■ Employment Relations
■ Climate Change responses
■ Cannabis

It's taken a while, with so many advisory experts and commissions deliberating, but we're now being inundated with so many actual and proposed law changes that it's difficult to assess their likely impacts  and the  arguments of their critics.

First, we had the report of the Tax Advisory Working Group when government rejected its main proposal, the introduction of a capital gains tax,  and the ban on new oil exploration, and government's later controversial extension of lease dates.

Left-leaning Martyn Bradbury in The Daily Blog calls much of the latest proposed changes "window dressing exercises to look like progress is being made when sweet bugger all is actually being progressed." He may be right but government's response that some changes will be progressively introduced makes sense. It gives people time to adjust to the changes, and avoids increasing the national debt.

Let's take them one at a time.

Social Welfare System Changes

The Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG), Whakamana Tāngata: Restoring Dignity to Social Security in New Zealand, has had a mixed reception, applauded by Labour and the Greens (it is part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement between Labour and the Greens) , and disappointment by some on the Labour/Green's Left. To read the full 216 page report, click here, or store the link for later reading.

These are their key recommendations:

• Increase main benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent
• Remove some benefit obligations and sanctions
• Fully index all income support payments and thresholds annually to movements in average wages of prices, whichever is the greater
• Index accommodation supplement rates to movements in housing costs
• Consider introducing a living alone payment that contributes to the additional costs of adults living alone
• Reform Working for Families
• Reform supplementary assistance and hardship assistance so they are adequate
• Ensure sufficient resourcing for frontline services
• Help recipients of sole parent support return to part-time work when their youngest child is six years old
• Prioritise a reduction in outstanding benefit debt through sustainable repayments and minimise the creation of overpayments, including reviewing recoverable hardship assistance grants
• Instigate a cross-government approach to managing debt to government agencies

Minister Carmel Sepuloni says government is taking a "staged approach" to the report, with most changes being introduced over time.

Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson says the report "creates a vital roadmap for significant change and the new budget initiatives our Government is implementing will provide a solid start on that journey".

Only two of the 42 key recommendations will be introduced from April next year: (1) the repeal of the requirement to reduce the sole parent benefit of people who do not name the other parent of their child, and (2) an increase in how much a person getting a main benefit can earn up to each week (abatement threshold) before their benefit begins to reduce.

This tardiness has been attacked by former Greens MP Sue Bradford who writes:

"We are seeing the weakest possible response to the WEAG's stgerling efforts. There is no commitment to any significant change during this parliamentary term. To talk about transforming welfare in 3, 5 or 10 years as Sepuloni does is simply meaningless."

She calls for the immediate implementation of the two changes, and (3) "an independent review and appeal process; (4) the removal of all the nitpicking and oppressive sanctions which adversely affect the health and wellbeing of many, including the 13-week stand-down inflicted on those who are sacked or leave their job voluntarily, drug testing, and the work assessment for people who are sick, injured and/or living with impairments; (4) the immediate abolition of the requirement for women who have further children while on a benefit from the obligation to be work tested from the time their baby is one year old; (5) the removal of the requirement that people in what are termed ‘remote locations’ are forced to move elsewhere for work on pain of losing income support, a measure which disproportionately impacts Māori living in their home communities." concluding, "If we're ever going to hope for transformative and progressive welfare reform, it is now clear it will need to be championed by a party that is not yet in Parliament."

Martyn Bradbury in The Daily Blog in The Daily Blog welcomes the two changes  that will be introduced in April next year ("Finally ... something to cheer about") but says, "What is fucking woeful however is that so many of the other recommendations have simply been ignored or put off…"

Gordon Campbell also writes of Government "timidity" in my next posting (pn377)

Employment Relations law changes

On Monday the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2018 came into full effect, with the exception of changes relating to discrimination in relation to union membership and involvement in union activities (effective from 12 June 2019).

The Act aims to improve fairness in the workplace and deliver decent work conditions and fair wages by giving more protections for employees, especially vulnerable workers, and strengthens collective bargaining and union rights in the workplace. Many of the changes are familiar to employers, as they roll the law back to how it was as recently as 2015.

The key changes include reinstating set rest and meal breaks; limiting 90-day trial periods to businesses with 19 or fewer employees; restoring protections for vulnerable workers, such as those in the cleaning and catering industries, regardless of the size of their employer; and strengthening collective bargaining and union rights.

Everyone seems to be happy about these changes. Phew!!!

Climate Change Law

Generation Zero youth campaigners who organized the recent school strikes have welcomed the long-awaited Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill that was introduced in Parliament today. 

The targets set could mean huge changes to New Zealand's agriculture sector.

It commits to what is called a "split target" – aiming to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions, aside from biogenic methane, to net zero by 2050. Biogenic methane – the emissions created from livestock such as sheep and cattle – is not completely exempt as the bill commits to reducing it to 10 per cent below the 2017 levels by 2030.The bill also commits to reducing gross emissions of biogenic methane to between 24-47 per cent below the 2017 levels, by 2050.

As well as setting the greenhouse gas targets, the bill would see the establishment of an independent 7-member Climate Change Commission, tasked with providing the Government with expert advice.

The bill has been well thrashed out with the three governing parties – Labour, NZ First and the Greens, and in discussions with National. It is hoped the Bill will have the support of all parties in Parliament.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the Bill makes it legally binding for New Zealand to meet its Paris commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. "We have over 80 per cent renewable electricity generation and will have more by 2035."

Greenpeace Executive Director and former Greens co-leader Russel Norman, however,  calls the Bill "toothless.. .all bark and no bite."

Cannabis Law Reform
There will be a referendum on the use of recreational cannabis coinciding with the next election, but its results will not be legally binding.

An American anti-cannabis activist says we are 'very, very unprepared' for the legalisation of cannabis.

The third reading of a Bill making it legal to use cannabis for medical purposes was passed in December last year. National voted against the Bill.

-- ACW