1[The House] Budget Day: A Photo Essay Budget Day in photos: Facts, attacks, stories, protests, pantomime and proclamations. The Sunday radio feature from The House surveyed the party leaders' speeches in the Budget Debate - the facts and attacks, the stories, the pantomime and proclamations. You can listen to that audio at the link below. But rather than a written version of the radio show, here is a photo essay of Budget Day at Parliament. Inside Parliament it's an unusually quiet day. The parliamentary press gallery (political journalists) are all 'locked away' being briefed on the numbers before the Budget announcement. But just outside there is a huge Budget Day hīkoi protest initiated by Te Pāti Māori, against government policies affecting Māori. As 2pm nears, the government's main players cross the bridge from the Executive Wing (the Beehive) to Parliament House. Staking out that arrival are a few press photographers and, above them, staffers (mostly from the governing side) who ring the lower atria for a view. Inside the debating chamber, before the minister of finance can give the Budget Statement, the Budget documents need to be tabled, including the volumes of appropriations estimates that are details of the Budget. The introduction of the documents is made by Nicola Willis, but it is House and chamber staff who must lug and organise the piles of tomes on the table. Each party leader and the speaker each get copies of the Budget Statement about to be read. This year, the on-duty Hansard reporter and the clerk of the House of Representatives missed out on copies for some reason. "For the first time in 14 years, hard-working New Zealanders will get to keep more of their own money through our government's tax relief." – Nicola Willis Cue 42 minutes of almost uninterrupted speechifying. That's got to be tiring. Ministers of finance seldom make mistakes despite all the taxing detail, so I presume there's a fair bit of practice beforehand. The debating chamber seen from the press gallery. Few journalists are in physical attendance. They've been locked away since morning tea, being briefed and pre-writing embargoed content. Now most are downstairs in their offices creating an avalanche of content, coverage, and commentary. The public turnout is also noticeably poor and possibly affected by the protest outside. By the way, that glorious glass roof topping the chamber's multi-layered wedding cake is false. It’s a glass ceiling with lights above. The actual chamber roof is much more prosaic. The huge white tubes hanging between the lights are massive multidirectional speakers. "Ten billion dollars' worth of tax cuts; $12 billion worth of borrowing. You don't need an abacus to figure out that this is a government borrowing to pay for tax cuts." – Chris Hipkins Once the Budget Statement is finished, the Budget debate begins with the leader of the opposition. Traditionally, they open with a motion of no-confidence in the government. Every leader gets 20 minutes - that's a lot of speech to write with only an hour of advance warning (for the opposition) of what's in the Budget. The Labour caucus stands to applaud their leader Chris Hipkins at the end of his speech. I've included this shot because it reminds me vaguely of a renaissance painting. Imagine ranks of wise men and flights of angels hovering around a baby Jesus. "This is great news. It's great news for the squeezed middle, those low- and middle-income working families - the folk that Labour purported to care about, but don't anymore." – Christopher Luxon. Next up, the prime minister. Here, Christopher Luxon is focused on the opposition across the chamber, but he spent a lot of his speech talking to his own caucus. Who doesn't like a receptive crowd? There is also the less receptive audience. New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones has the stentorian voice of a circus ringmaster, and regularly bellows across the chamber. His frequent interjections are almost more felt than heard. "Dig it up!" "Star Chamber!" "Irrelevant!" "Democracy!" "The government has chosen to preserve poverty and remain a not-so-innocent bystander to the unfolding climate crisis with an incredibly unambitious Budget for Aotearoa." – Marama Davidson. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson does the debating duties for the Greens. “I know you're not supposed to speak this way—it sounds a bit Venezuelan—but I think that people who voted for ACT got a fantastic value for money. It's actually free to vote for us, and we've already saved you hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. Is that a good deal or what?” – David Seymour ACT Party leader David Seymour is next. This photo catches an inaccurate but fun moment. Seymour is actually counting off debating points, not gesticulating in the direction of his bench-mate, National's Louise Upston. "We speak English in this country - a language that came from a small village in Germany all those centuries ago." – Winston Peters. Luxon reacts as Peters counterattacks an interjection from Green MP Scott Willis. "I find it very interesting that one person in this Parliament is so triggered - so triggered - by me, so intimidated by me! Not once did I mention, not once did I say anything over here. I sat. So, if we want to go there, let's go there." - Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has sat quietly while Peters attacks her, but she is up next and gets to counter. She does. "Today, we made a declaration in the name of our mokopuna that we would no longer allow the assumption of this Parliament to have superiority or sovereignty over te iwi Māori... I challenge you to be patient while te iwi Māori organises itself and upholds our part of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, because we've honoured kāwanatanga, but we've allowed you to assume that you have mana over us, and you do not." - Rawiri Waititi. Te Pāti Māori split their time between two MPs, so co-leader Rawiri Waititi speaks as well. He spends time outlining the difference between kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga and what he sees as the proper interpretation of the Treaty relationship between Māori, Parliament and government. [Sunday 02 June 2024, 07:30]

2[The Detail] Seabed mining's hazards | Destroying the seabed for green reasons New Zealand has three live seabed mining issues right now, and what they have in common is a startling lack of information on how damaging their activities will be. We need the ocean's riches to make concrete, fertilise pastures and create batteries for solar panels and EVs. But how do we dig them up without wrecking the environment? It won't be a surprise that two of the companies on Chris Bishop's Fast Track email list were in the business of mining the seabed. A third seabed miner has a keen interest in the scheme that would enable developers to cut through mountains of red tape and court cases without pesky objections from locals and green groups. But one of the big reasons that permission to vacuum up seabeds off Pākiri, Taranaki and north Canterbury have been held up by various authorities is uncertainty - a lack of information on what such activity will do to the environment. Those authorities have pointed out that it's not up to locals and concerned environmentalists to prove the mining will be damaging - the companies should be doing the work to prove it's not. Today on The Detail we look at three companies searching for profit deep under water off New Zealand, and why they've suddenly started withdrawing from the consents process. "That's the Fast Track," says David Williams, Newsroom's environment and climate editor. "If you don't get in through one door another may open, and this government has opened the door to what they call regionally or nationally significant projects. And the way that they can get past these kind of restraints - some would say environmental protections - to development is to apply to the government and be considered for their Fast Track. "That would be their one-stop-shop as they call it, and you're deemed significant then you get into the process and then there is a committee that considers your application, and makes recommendations to the ministers who make the final say." At least that's the proposal as it stands, but it's drawn so much flak that the details may change slightly. But mining companies appear to be betting on there being an easier path for them in the not-so-distant future to push their applications through - and companies such as Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) which wants to embark on a 35 year offshore Iron Ore project to mine a 3.2 billion tonne vanadium-rich titanomagnetite resource in the South Taranaki Bight - are withdrawing from the legal process, in this case a re-hearing in front of the EPA. "Its eggs seem to be in the one basket now," says Williams. "I don't know whether you could see that as an admission that they think that they weren't going to get this EPA reconsideration off the line... but it does appear now that its fate is in the hands of ministers, and that certainly seems what they say would be a cheaper and less risky way of getting approval, because the process is shorter, [and] there seems to be fewer environmental constraints." Forest & Bird says the proposed mining site is where creatures including the endangered blue pygmy whale live, and TTR's plan to dig up the top 11 metres of the seabed will cause catastrophic damage. TRR admits the mining will 'totally destroy' the marine ecosystem, but says within a very short time of mining ceasing the area will recover, and within a couple of years it will be back to how it was. "I don't know that everyone would agree with that assessment," says Williams. "If you destroy things, including living things, that's the end of that, and recovery is not the same, especially if you're changing what happens on the seabed. I think there's a lot of questions about that kind of assessment." NZX-listed Chatham Rock Phosphate is another company that is on Bishop's list - it also claims green credentials, saying New Zealand rock phosphate is known for its environmental qualities, and low in heavy metals such as cadmium which causes cancer in humans. Its product is used for fertiliser. It plans to mine much further out to sea, at deeper levels - but the fishing industry is among the objectors. The World Resources Institute has pointed out that in the race to cut greenhouse gas emissions and rein in climate change, the demand for critical minerals such as vanadium is surging. However little is known about the deep ocean. One area of interest in the Pacific Ocean, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, hosts exploration contracts for 17 deep-sea mining contractors. And yet researchers going deeper than before in that zone have recently discovered more than 5,000 species that were entirely new to science. The great irony is that the materials being dug up are used for EV batteries, wind turbines, solar panels and other low carbon technologies. Williams says when it comes to energy it's often "the environment versus the environment". For example, big solar farms have an effect on the land underneath. "You could say seabed mining is the same kind of thing. You're chewing up one part of the environment to apparently save another. "You have to wonder where all this ends. When you're looking at reducing emissions, maybe actually you should drive a bit less... or fly less often. Maybe the answer is not just to keep the status quo going and grow and grow and grow." The Detail also talks to RNZ data journalist Farah Hancock, who has written thousands of words about Pākiri sand. It's used for high-strength concrete, including in projects like the Auckland Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, and City Rail Link. That particular sand has special qualities that make it ideal for good quality concrete. But locals say it's destroying the shore line and threatening the country's most endangered bird, the fairy tern. The company that's been digging it up for the last 80 years has run into stern opposition and unfavourable permitting authorities, and hopes getting 'sand extraction' included on the government's list of Fast Track activities will enable it to continue dredging. [Tuesday 28 May 2024, 05:00]

3[Sporting Witness] Manchester United's record-breaking treble How Manchester United became the first team to win the treble. Former midfielder Jesper Blomqvist on the dramatic European Cup final that secured the treble for Manchester United, having already won the English Premier League and the FA Cup. Ten days at the end of Manchester United's 98/99 season would define the club as one of the greatest teams in the world. They won the English Premier League, followed by the FA Cup. It had been 31 years since they last won the European Cup, with Bayern Munich determined to end their bid for the record-breaking treble. Former United midfielder Jesper Blomqvist speaks to Uma Doraiswamy about the pressure of trying to get the treble when everybody expects you to win, and how being substituted led to United equalising when they needed it most. Released on: Saturday 25 May 2024