Further to yesterday’s post, several green friendly groups have promoted the $20b of the Covid Recovery Fund that is currently unallocated in what looks like coordinated lobbying.
The Green Party saw the money already allocated to ‘green’ policies – about $1b – as a start of the ‘Green reset’ – from RNZ: Parties look to secure wins from $20b ahead of election
…co-leader James Shaw has a few ideas about how to spend a large chunk of cash.
“The climate crisis, the housing crisis, the crisis in our rivers and in our marine environment and in our forests. Our three waters infrastructure, you know the water that’s coming out of our taps is unsafe to drink and it does occasionally run dry. So there are a series of things that we need to fix, all of which create jobs,” he said.
Shaw said it was actually the perfect time for parties to start offering up their own visions for the rebuild.
Today’s budget announcement invests over a billion dollars in projects which will create jobs that restore our natural environment, while also investing in housing initiatives to help reduce housing inequality and ensure all New Zealanders have access to a warm, healthy home.
We’ve made it clear that New Zealand must keep sustainability at the core of its COVID-19 reset. We’re really proud to be a part of a government making long-term decisions which put us on track towards an Aotearoa where all New Zealanders, and our natural environment can thrive.
More in an email from the Green Party:
We have now officially kicked off our Green Reset from the COVID-19 crisis with the release of Budget 2020. We’ve secured massive investment in Green initiatives which will create thousands of jobs while improving life for people and protecting the natural environment.
In an email yesterday from ActionStation:
Yesterday the government announced their budget for 2020 and what we learned is that the Finance Minister has set aside $20 billion in the Covid-19 recovery fund that is yet to be allocated.
With an election coming up, those of us wanting something different out of yesterday’s budget have a clear window of opportunity to demand it.
In the last seven weeks, we’ve been challenged to reflect on our values, how we care for one another, and what’s important. The $20 billion left in the Covid-19 recovery fund is an opportunity to take what we’ve learned and use it to reshape our economy, democracy, the way we care for our environment, and the way we care for each other.
Let’s create this vision together, then work collectively to bring it to life:
- We will combine the power and wisdom of thousands of ActionStation members to choose the big ideas via this survey.
- We’ll launch the results as a people-powered community vision called The People’s Regeneration Plan .
- Together we will campaign to build the pressure and people power needed to make our vision a reality.
Now is the time for the ActionStation community to collectively decide what type of Aotearoa we want to build beyond this crisis, and that’s why we need to be clear about what we’re asking for.
An email from Greenpeace:
Did you hear yesterday’s Budget announcement? A whopping $1bn has been set aside for restoring nature, which is fantastic. But the climate missed out.
But, so far the Budget announcement doesn’t add up to the transformation we need. Opportunities to address the climate and ecological crises have been missed, so our work is far from over.
With thousands of people like you signing our Green Covid Response petition and supporting this proposal, we know New Zealanders support a greener, healthier and more resilient economy that puts people and planet first.
We couldn’t have got this far without you – so thank you. And with you on our side, I know we still have a chance to make this a reality. Around half of the funds – $20 billion worth of investment – is yet to be announced, and that is reason for hope – and action!
We will work hard to make sure that the remaining $20 billion is used to build a nation that works in harmony with nature. A society where people, not corporations, are at the heart of governance. Where the economy works within our planet’s environmental boundaries.
I think we can expect more of this. There have been links between the Green Party, Greenpeace and Action Station, and all have similar goals – and now they have similar eyes on the $20b.
Of course there will be other groups lobbying hard for some of the $29b for their favoured policies. And the Green and NZ First parties will have their own ideas on how they can benefit from using some of the $20b to further their ideals and enhance their re-election prospects.
Time will tell what the real intention of the $20b made available in the Covid Recovery Fund is actually used for. If it’s not all actually required to help New Zealand recover from the Covid epidemic than it could pay back the huge loans taken out to fund dealing with the Covid crisis.
Your NZ 
Gezza
/ 16th May 2020The Greens & their SJW component are viewed with distrust by a significant majority of the voting population, imo. Jacinda & her silent mentor are far too canny to accommodate their wishlist & not under any observable pressure to do so.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020No way Winston will let them get any vote-catchers.
Gezza
/ 16th May 2020Also true, Sir Alan.
In my view Ardern ( most likely on advice from beyond the Labour Caucus) has cleverly allowed the Greens to be credited with ownership of policies that Labour or she generally favoured but that were politically or electorally risky.
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020I know a couple of people who said they voted for Winston last time simply as a block to the Greens.
If NZFirst falter this time it will be interesting.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020Bob Jones wants blood and responsibility for crippling lockdown rules sheeted home:
https://nopunchespulled.com/2020/05/16/madness-2/
Gezza
/ 16th May 2020Taihoa, e hoa, I’ll have a look. 😐
Gezza
/ 16th May 2020By Jove, Sir Alan – Sir Robert’s certainly not tiptoing diplomatically & daintily through the tulips in there, is he?
Sir Gerald
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Did he write a similar column when the Gummit announced that Butchers could not open?
If no, then just another hindsight expert. Lots of them around these days.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020You could have checked for yourself, but here you are:
https://nopunchespulled.com/2020/04/01/madness-reigns/
https://nopunchespulled.com/2020/03/24/time-for-sanity/
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Ahh got the microscope out but I cannot find a mention of Butchers prior to the suicide.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020You’ll have to be patient then and wait for enough suicides to satisfy your demand that his general forecasts plausibly include all the specific lunacies Saint Jacinda endorsed.
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Nothing of the sort. Just another hindsight expert who made no comment when the Gummitt excluded butchers.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020Don’t be stupid. He was deploring the lockdown and the impact of it long ago and even before the rules were promulgated. Now he is rightly saying it is having the forecast impacts. There will be a lot of your mates shifting their ground over the next few months but he won’t be one of them.
Duker
/ 16th May 2020Suicides in general will have reduced over the 2 month period.
That Butcher had pre existing conditions AND the Mad Butcher franchise model has been declining for some time
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020The lockdown was an artificial situation so I think its immediate impacts are unpredictable but the havoc its longer term impacts will have is not. The decision to give supermarkets sole ownership of their markets was an extraordinary Government savaging of all their competitors marked by total silence from our supposedly tough competition regulators.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020And in the UK:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/16/uk-lockdown-causing-serious-mental-illness-in-first-time-patients
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020Nope. He’s handing out some well-deserved uppercuts. And showing up the press gallery for the grovelling lickspittles they have been.
Pink David
/ 16th May 2020“Given your position you were surely aware of the numerous existing studies of the effect of economic recessions on people, specifically despair and suicides. How much consideration did you give to those in the economy-destroying actions you demanded?”
I would love to hear the answer to this question.
Pink David
/ 16th May 2020Actually, I’d like to see the model they created to compare the outcomes. They had a model for the number of deaths from Covid, therefor they must have had a model for the impacts of the lockdown to compare outcomes.
Would be good to see it.
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th May 2020I read one ages ago that said how much domestic violence and suicide had gone up per capita somewhere in lockdown, but can’t remember where it was.
But if I have heard of 5 suicides, there must have been a lot of them here. It’s not credible that the 5 I know of are the only ones.
The rule that butchers had to dump their meat and close up shop was senseless, one of many senseless rules.That young man’s blood is on the PM and Blomfield’s hands.
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Kitty, another hindsight expert. Join the multitude.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020The multitude are the apologists with you, NOEL.
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th May 2020No, I said at the beginning that the country couldn’t afford to be locked down for any length of time. One doesn’t have to be a great economist to work that out.
I could see no sense in the order to dump all that meat, millions worth…and I am a confirmed vegetarian who finds the meat trade repulsive. But it was a legal product and to dump millions of dollars worth of existing stock is insane.
Pink David
/ 16th May 2020“Kitty, another hindsight expert. Join the multitude.”
This is not hindsight. Anyone who was not griped by fear could see the costs of a lockdown.
It will be remembered as the worst policy decision for a hundred years. No one will remember the virus as anything more than the dozens before and after it.
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Peddle facts not conjecture Kitty. Makes for informed debate.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12329202
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020No facts because your bureaucracy is suppressing the data. As they also are re GDP falls and unemployment as Michael Reddell has frequently noted.
Clearly informed debate is the last thing they want. Maybe in 12 months time we will be allowed to know what was happening now.
Duker
/ 16th May 2020Suppressing the data ?…. following the Trumpanzees now . When the numbers dont agree, its because they have been faked. Did you forget to mention your Freedumbs
NOEL
/ 16th May 2020Suppressing the data…you take your meds?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th May 2020Do you read your own links?
Duker
/ 16th May 2020“Even without a full lockdown, Sweden’s economy has not been unscathed. Preliminary evidence shows Sweden has suffered similar economic effects as its neighbors: The Swedish Central Bank projects the country’s G.D.P. will contract by 7 to 10 percent this year, an estimate on par with the rest of Europe. (The European Commission projects the E.U. economy will contract by 7.5 percent.)”
In our country the pain wont be felt evenly, the Tourism sector is frozen and as its a large part those numbers will drag down the nationwide economic totals. The end of foreign flights would have happened regardless of the degree of lockdown. The $2.5 bill kiwis spend overseas on travel can come home along with possible Aussie invasion.
After WW1 and 2 it was the nations who were losers who changed most, the victors changed very little. The paradigm is when a country feels its ‘won against all odds’ that the confidence to go back to normal is there.
The economic changes in nz because of the depression were because the government policies had failed. The previous government had even delayed the vote till 1935
Pink David
/ 16th May 2020” it has also seen an extraordinary increase in deaths, ”
This simply isn’t true.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYFPDriXYAAlmHf?format=jpg&name=medium
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th May 2020I have heard of five that were the result of the lockdown. Is it likely that they are the only ones? These are cases where it was known that it was the cause.
The article said that suicide could go up or down…having a bob each way.
Duker
/ 16th May 2020“In the 2018-19 year there were 685 suicides, or just over 13 each week.”
Just 5 , thats great news for 6 weeks.
Road deaths down, homicides down, work accidents/deaths down, drownings down ? …whats not to like . As the flu deaths this winter will be down because of social distancing, increased hand washing, vaccinations. That alone could save 200 lives
Pink David
/ 16th May 2020“whats not to like”
Your right! This should be the new normal. No one will ever die again.
duperez
/ 17th May 2020“I’ve heard?” I’ve heard that hydroxychloroquine and disinfectants are good for dealing to Covid-19 too. 🙃