Latest news with #ACTParty
Scoop
4 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
MPs Caught Swearing As David Seymour Faces Questions On Regulatory Reviews
Minister for Regulation, David Seymour, has denied regulatory reviews carried out by the ministry have been for anyone's political benefit, in a tense select committee hearing at Parliament in which two Labour MPs had to apologise for swearing. Seymour appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee as part of Scrutiny Week, to face questions on the budget for the Ministry of Regulation. So far, the ministry has carried out reviews into the early childhood education, agricultural and horticultural products, and hairdressing sectors. A fourth review into telecommunications has also been announced. Labour MP Duncan Webb questioned Seymour over whether he or the ACT Party had any connections to donors or lobbyists in those sectors, who would stand to benefit from the reviews. "There's a real concern that it looks like there's an appearance of regulatory reviews being chosen to benefit parties connected politically," Webb said. "How can we have confidence that the decisions are not politically influenced, and are made entirely on the basis of where [the] best wins and values for New Zealanders are." Seymour accused Webb of being improper with his questioning. "The idea that we decided to do a review of the early childhood sector because someone may or may not, I'm not even sure, have donated to the ACT Party a long time ago is frankly fatuous," he said. "My main interaction with the dairy industry is probably through a flat white." Ministry chief executive Gráinne Moss said the review into agricultural and horticultural products was suggested by the ministry itself, to the minister. Webb said the minister should have no part to play in deciding what sectors to review. 'For f***'s sake' - MPs caught swearing The session got off to a tense start, after Labour's Deborah Russell was heard saying "for f***'s sake" during Seymour's opening remarks. National's Ryan Hamilton raised it as a point of order. While committee chair Cameron Brewer was fine to carry on, Seymour made Russell repeat herself. She then withdrew her comment and apologised. Later on, Webb accused Seymour of "making s*** up" regarding the ministry's work on flour dust standards. Seymour also bristled at Labour MP Megan Woods interrupting Moss while she gave an answer, and threatened that ACT would release a video of the Labour MPs' behaviour. After the hearing, Seymour said he was "astonished" by the swearing. "The amount of swearing from Labour MPs, I've never seen that before. Clearly, they're very angry about something, but they were just a rabble. Their various accusations were completely untrue. And really, you have to wonder if these guys are taking it seriously."
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Former ACT Party president Tim Jago appeals sexual abuse conviction and sentence
Tim Jago was found guilty of sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1990s. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro A court has heard former ACT Party president Tim Jago's appeal against his sexual abuse conviction and sentence. Jago was found guilty of sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1990s after a jury trial last year. One of the boys was under 16 years old, and the other was over 16 years old. Jago sought to have his conviction overturned as a miscarriage of justice, arguing the jury had reached an unreasonable verdict and that the judge's summary was unbalanced. Jago appeared remotely from custody at the Court of Appeal in Auckland today as he served his two and a half year sentence. His lawyer Ian Brookie explained the two-pronged appeal. Brookie first argued that Jago's conviction was unreasonable and that the jury should have entertained reasonable doubt. Central to his argument was that Paul Oliver - a survivor who waived his name suppression - was uncertain of the timing and location of the assault when questioned during the trial. "What we say is the evidence and the issues with evidence with reliability… There's just no way a jury could have fairly convicted this man," Brookie said. "Our submission is that evidence was so unreliable the jury should have entertained reasonable doubt." Brookie also took issue with the judge's summary before sending the jury to deliberate. The judge had advised the jury that the historic nature of the complaint, which came more than two decades after the assault, did not mean it was necessarily untrue. Brookie argued the judge should have balanced this statement with the defence's argument that the complaint could have been false. "The concern here is the jury is effectively being told by the judge that a delayed complaint is not untrue," he said. However, Crown lawyer Robin McCoubrey disagreed. "The very purpose [of the judge's statement] is to provide balance to correct the misconception that [a delayed complaint is more likely to be false]," McCoubrey argued. The second part of the appeal was that Jago's sentence was too harsh and that he should have been sentenced to home detention instead of imprisonment. Brookie argued it was wrong to characterise the offending on the whole as "sexual offending against children," because only one of the two complainants was under the age of sixteen at the time. He also said Jago should have been given a bigger discount for community contributions, though the Crown argued the discount he received was adequate. "The only just and considered response should have been home detention," Brookie said. "Ultimately, there was just a plain wrong decision not to impose home detention here. It was not appropriate to say deterrence required imprisonment." The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision for a later date. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Luxon's ACT Party Government Dragging NZ Workers Back In Time
Today's introduction of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill to Parliament shows that the ACT Party - a fringe libertarian party with the support of fewer than one in ten New Zealanders - is now the leading force in Christopher Luxon's "hands-off" Government and has been given a green light to drag Aotearoa backwards with a disastrous suite of anti-worker 'reforms'. "It's clear that Brooke van Velden and the ACT Party are now redefining the future of workers in New Zealand with the blessing of a negligent Prime Minister," said Dennis Maga, Workers First Union General Secretary. "These are the most significant anti-worker law changes that this country has seen in decades, and they will make life worse for every working person in the country to the benefit of exploitative employers." "This Bill 'amends' employment relations in our country in the same way that a large earthquake 'amends' a city." Mr Maga said proposed law changes intended to distinguish an 'employee' from a 'contractor' are "desperately pre-emptive" and aim to precede an appeal being heard next month by the Supreme Court of New Zealand on a 2022 Employment Court verdict that four Uber drivers were employees and not contractors. "This Government has no regard for evidence, no time for judicial process, and is in the pocket of multinational scam artists like Uber who prey on contractor misclassification to skirt around weak legislation," said Mr Maga. "Instead of strengthening our protection against exploitation, Brooke van Velden is laying out the red carpet for employers like Uber to come into New Zealand and take advantage of cheap labour with next to no rights and no ability to challenge employment status." Mr Maga said that a proposed change to remove the "30-day rule", which protects a new employee's rights by signing them up to a collective agreement automatically, was part of a deliberate effort to undermine unions and ensure "atomisation" in the workplace that would erode workers' collective strength and safety. "The ACT Party believes workers are simply cheap labour on a balance sheet, and we should be docile, productive and silent on the collective challenges we face at work like poor safety standards, exploitation and low pay," said Mr Maga. Mr Maga said that these law changes would break an "industrial peace" in Aotearoa that has been enjoyed for some time. "All options are on the table, and unions will be fighting back because we care about the future of our workplaces and we believe in self-determination and negotiation, not blind servitude to employers," said Mr Maga. "This one-term Government has been an absolute disaster already, but every week, they manage to surprise us by sinking even lower."
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
MPs caught swearing as David Seymour faces questions on regulatory reviews
Minister for Regulation David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Minister for Regulation, David Seymour, has denied regulatory reviews carried out by the ministry have been for anyone's political benefit, in a tense select committee hearing at Parliament in which two Labour MPs had to apologise for swearing. Seymour appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee as part of Scrutiny Week, to face questions on the budget for the Ministry of Regulation. So far, the ministry has carried out reviews into the early childhood education, agricultural and horticultural products, and hairdressing sectors. A fourth review into telecommunications has also been announced. Labour MP Duncan Webb questioned Seymour over whether he or the ACT Party had any connections to donors or lobbyists in those sectors, who would stand to benefit from the reviews. "There's a real concern that it looks like there's an appearance of regulatory reviews being chosen to benefit parties connected politically," Webb said. "How can we have confidence that the decisions are not politically influenced, and are made entirely on the basis of where [the] best wins and values for New Zealanders are." Seymour accused Webb of being improper with his questioning. "The idea that we decided to do a review of the early childhood sector because someone may or may not, I'm not even sure, have donated to the ACT Party a long time ago is frankly fatuous," he said. "My main interaction with the dairy industry is probably through a flat white." Ministry chief executive Gráinne Moss said the review into agricultural and horticultural products was suggested by the ministry itself, to the minister. Webb said the minister should have no part to play in deciding what sectors to review. The session got off to a tense start, after Labour's Deborah Russell was heard saying "for f***'s sake" during Seymour's opening remarks. National's Ryan Hamilton raised it as a point of order. While committee chair Cameron Brewer was fine to carry on, Seymour made Russell repeat herself. She then withdrew her comment and apologised. Later on, Webb accused Seymour of "making s*** up" regarding the ministry's work on flour dust standards. Seymour also bristled at Labour MP Megan Woods interrupting Moss while she gave an answer, and threatened that ACT would release a video of the Labour MPs' behaviour. After the hearing, Seymour said he was "astonished" by the swearing. "The amount of swearing from Labour MPs, I've never seen that before. Clearly, they're very angry about something, but they were just a rabble. Their various accusations were completely untrue. And really, you have to wonder if these guys are taking it seriously." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Regulatory Standards Bill will stop lawmakers considering broader public health, warns cancer specialist
The Bill is part of ACT Party leader David Seymour's coalition agreement. Photo: RNZ Graphic / Nik Dirga The Regulatory Standards Bill will stop lawmakers from taking broader public health considerations into account, warns a leading cancer specialist. ACT Party leader David Seymour said the Bill - part of its coalition agreement with the National Party and New Zealand First - was about requiring governments to be more "transparent" about the financial impact of legislation. However, Auckland University associate professor George Laking, a medical oncologist and clinical Māori director in the Centre for Cancer Research, said the real intent seemed to make economic factors the only measure. "We already have transparency around lawmaking - that's why we have regulatory impact reports," he said. "This seems more like an attempt to narrow the frame for what's considered to count as being relevant in that type of decision." He joined other public health and legal experts, who have criticised the bill (in its current form) as allowing tobacco, alcohol industries or environmental polluters to seek compensation, if future legislation costs them profit. Associate professor George Laking from Auckland University. Photo: Supplied "You wouldn't want your surgeon to operate with a blunt instrument, but that's exactly the approach the Regulatory Standards Bill takes to the health needs of our society," Laking said. "I acknowledge ACT's faith in market-based solutions, but it is well known that markets fail. That's why the government should be very careful about market deregulation, when human health is at stake." The Bill also appeared to be a covert attack on the principles and articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi, he said. "The situation we have is quite inequitable in terms of distribution of wealth and power in society, and that's a big reason why government needs to be able to take into account a wider set of principles, than rather just the narrow, market-based, productivity-based ones that ACT likes to focus on. "The definition of 'liberty' begs the question of whose liberty - the ability to pollute the environment, to get people hooked on addictive substances, that's one side of the liberty coin. "The pursuit of short term economic gain is not necessarily the recipe for an harmonious society." Public submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill close at 1pm Monday, 23 June 2025. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
