“The Prime Minister has appointed six new Ministers and they’re all refusing interviews. They can’t afford to be new faces making the same mistakes as their predecessors. ACT, as always, has some helpful advice,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Last week the Prime Minister told Parliament that the Government was working on the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act. She said “We are continuing to work through some of the detail on that and any additional measures which, of course, as I said this morning, we'd be looking to put more detail out in the near future.”

“When it comes to gang problems, the future is here. We need to hit gangs where it hurts, their wallets. Labour voted against ACT’s Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) (Definition of Significant Criminal Activity) Amendment Bill just last month. New Justice Minister Kiri Allen needs to tell us where the Government’s work is up to on making gangs pay, and when legislation will be introduced to the House.

“The new Police Minister, Chris Hipkins, needs to find out the state of Youth Aid policing. In particular, he needs to assess the impact of lowering the Youth Aid budget by $10 million last year, while growing the workload by increasing the age of eligibility for Youth Aid policing to 18. Also how many Family Group Conferences were done through the COVID period, compared with prior years?

“Combined with making police guard MIQ and the Auckland Border for the past two years, this Government has created a perfect storm of neglect for youth offending. We’re seeing it play out nightly at shopfronts in every neighbourhood. The Minister needs to get on top of it.

“The new COVID-19 Response Minister, Ayesha Verrall, needs to state what the goals of the COVID response actually are. Is it to reduce cases, slow the spread, protect the hospitals from overflow, reduce deaths? It’s no longer clear why we even have the portfolio. Answering that question will make other decisions easier.

“What is the point of pre-departure testing for people entering New Zealand? Is it justified by the reduction in case numbers (if reducing case numbers is still our goal)? If not, we should dump it immediately. Doing it arbitrarily until the end of July is an insulting waste of everyone’s time. Then it would be a good idea to review if our current isolation rules are efficient.

“New Immigration Minister Michael Wood needs to put a bomb under Immigration New Zealand and ask for the reopening to all types of applications today. Then he needs to set ambitious targets for processing times. His mantra should be that Immigration New Zealand is now in the front line in the war for talent.

“The Immigration Minister needs to state that New Zealand is open for business, that we are not trying to starve the economy of skills in the hope that wages will rise. That is nuts, and we need to move on if we want to avoid a wage-price inflation spiral.

“We thought of offering advice to Willie Jackson but there is no hope. It’s difficult (though enjoyable) to imagine a less likely figure carrying out something as complex as a corporate merger. We wish all RNZ and TVNZ employees luck.”

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