Dairy prices flat, China struggles with food security; IEA sees rising C02; RBA sees no long-term pandemic damage; UST 10yr at 1.56%; oil soft and gold steady; NZ$1 = 71.8 USc; TWI-5 = 73.6

The Telegraph said Mahuta's call to not allow the intelligence alliance to dictate New Zealand's position on China put it "at odds with the other members of the Five Eyes alliance". The UK, US, and Canada have recently been outspoken against China, accusing it of committing genocide against Uighur Muslims.

Are we (NZers) in charge of our destiny?

I get a very bad feeling about Labours foreign policy.
Aligning ourselves with anything and everything politically correct.
And not heeding the massive dangers that China presents.

personally think this was a rather unusual, if not strange, option for our foreign minister in terms of previous portfolios and their heritage and direction. she is certainly admirable in both her quest and accomplishments for furthering betterment for her race but it remains to be seen if that energy and level of skill can be carried and projected for New Zealand abroad, for all New Zealanders.

I find it difficult to say that I miss Winston.

I think it's a step in the right direction.
Under the current system, unqualified board members run these bodies. I remember reading a report on the high proportion of DHB operational funding being spent on non-medical consulting fees and staff salaries.
Do we really need to have 20x (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, payroll teams, HR teams, accounting teams, IT teams, etc.) to run a health system in a country of 5 million? No point spreading the limited skills we have thinly across this country due to over-governance.

Xing, we urgently need to end our toxic relationship with Winnie the Pooh.

I understand your 'necessary' - you are stating that NZ's future will be better if we continue to trade and interact with China. The alternative being a future that is worse.
But you also say 'sufficient' which can only mean NZ's future would be better with a good Chinese relationship even if we had seriously bad relationships with Australia, USA, the EU, Japan, the UK, etc. That would put NZ in a situation like Tibet and doesn't promise a better future.

It is a dangerous situation. The US has so far failed in its attempt to foment rebellion in Hong Kong and Western China. The US economy and social system continues to fracture and decline at the same time. Along with this there has been humiliating defeat in Afghanistan and impotency in Syria.

You would have to be hopelessly naïve to believe the US want to see a free and prosperous democratic China that is five times richer than it is now. No, they want to bring it down economically, maybe to something like a large Philippines.

We cannot tip toe away, our whole economy is now based on trade with them. We have chased the highest dollar returns in the same get rich quick way the rest of the world has been doing for decades and now we are crying foul. The likes of Trump are the biggest hypocrites going, business went there to increase their profits and now they are rich and it doesn't really matter what happens, they suddenly develop a conscience.... China is bad.

You will have the exact same number of layers. Instead of a DHB board, you will have a DHB management unit. You will have new units and titles and a different authority structure. But not a different number of people involved. I expect that there will be more people in admin and governance roles than before.
ON a seperate note, i find it really alarming that Little said"I want to stress this reform is about doing better with what we have. It is not about cutting services,". This, together with his emphasis on "primary health providers" (read gatekeepers of access to public health, those responsible to keep people waiting, delay any treatment, those who just ask people to wait and see if they will get better on their own etc) gives me a very clear indication that is exactly what they are going to do. They will make it harder and harder for people to access expensive health services by stopping them at the primary health provider gate.

you sound more native than a new born.

Agriculture in NZ is based on resource draw-down (fossil energy, phosphate, elsewhere forest/land, soil (both quality and quantity).

Sustainable is therefore not a word which describes it.

To quote your own link
"There are currently 31 active exploration permits in
New Zealand, 22 of which are offshore. These permits
cover an area of 100,000 sq kms, nearly the size of the
North Island. The last of these ends in 2030. However
if a new discovery is made, a new mining permit may
have a duration of up to 40 years. There are also 27
existing producing fields, some of which could last to
2050.
Oil and gas permit holders have a number of existing
rights under law which will continue following today’s
announcement"

The ban on awarding new exploration blocks will influence things in the long term. In the meantime we should have increased our renewables, though we desperately need larger lake storage IMO.

OMG, i didn't realise your colleague had recently published an article explaining this:

"The system would probably be under the same strain if oil and gas companies were still able to get new exploration permits."
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/109993/deep-dive-whats-causing-whole…