steven joyce Archive

  • frog

    John Key’s new Cabinet announced - by frog



    Prime Minister John Key announced his new Cabinet this morning. The line-up is pretty predictable, but some of the portfolio allocations and rankings are interesting: The big winners are Steven Joyce and Hekia Parata, moving up 10 and 13 places respectively in the Cabinet ranking. Parata replaces Anne Tolley as Minister of Education. Paula Bennett’s [...] read more
    December 12, 2011 1:02 pm - 10 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Transport funding CONsultation - by Gareth Hughes



    A few months ago I wrote a draft submission on the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport funding and encouraged members of the public to send it in. Normally, I generally don’t encourage people to make form submissions on a topic but because the issue of land transport funding is pretty technical I wanted to [...] read more
    October 18, 2011 1:55 pm - 5 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Joyce caught lying about Rena - by Gareth Hughes



    Last night Steven Joyce was caught out lying about whether the Green Party had requested a briefing from him about the status of the reefed ship Rena and the environmental situation in Tauranga. On Close Up last night, Joyce vehemently denied that any opposition party had approached his office asking for a briefing. Here is [...] read more
    October 11, 2011 11:44 am - 33 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Steven Joyce: defiler of democracy - by Gareth Hughes



    Just like it did with Auckland’s waterfront, the Government is intruding into university and polytech operations by proposing stringent regulations limiting what can and can’t be done to support students. Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has taken it upon himself to draft a list (see page 3939) that dictates what institutions can spend their student [...] read more
    September 14, 2011 10:33 am - 14 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Dropping the ball on Auckland transport - by Gareth Hughes



    Friday was a pretty important night for the country. It’s great that the opening ceremony was a success and that the All Blacks won against Tonga, but the ball was dropped getting people to and from the venues. It’s unacceptable that 2,000 ticket-holders missed kick-off and thousands of others were seriously inconvenienced by the over-sold [...] read more
    September 12, 2011 2:52 pm - 62 Comments
  • frog

    Many questions, but no answers on Telecommunications bill - by frog



    Green MP Gareth Hughes had some questions for Communications Minister Steven Joyce in Parliament yesterday: Here was Steven Joyce’s reply: Nothing to say here. Nothing to say here. Nothing to say here. Nothing to say here. So Gareth tried again: Steven Joyce still wouldn’t take a call to respond. As Toad, one of our regular [...] read more
    June 17, 2011 6:46 pm - 10 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Government policies lead to reduced access to tertiary education - by Gareth Hughes



    Last year, Massey University cut enrolments to summer school without telling students. Hundreds were shut out of a summer education. Massey did this as it was fearful of exceeding Government-imposed enrolment caps. Now Massey is to drastically reduce student numbers by 15 per cent over the next three years directly as a result of the [...] read more
    May 10, 2011 5:19 pm - 8 Comments
  • frog

    National is failing the people of Christchurch, and everyone else for that matter - by frog



    This is really sad.  I would have thought that the National Party would care about rebuilding Christchurch following the devastation of their earthquakes.  And I would have thought that a compassionate, albeit conservative, major Government party would have agreed that a temporary levy on higher earning taxpayers living outside Christchurch is a good idea.  After [...] read more
    April 5, 2011 7:57 pm - 26 Comments
  • Sue Kedgley

    The Government’s generosity to private broadcasters - by Sue Kedgley



    Interesting to see that the Cabinet Minister most closely aligned with Media Works, Stephen Joyce, has apparently approved a generous deferral of payments worth $43 million to Media Works to enable it to renew its license fee for the next twenty years. Mr Joyce was the founder and owner for 18 years of Radio Works [...] read more
    March 9, 2011 11:18 am - 35 Comments
  • frog

    Support for CBD Rail link strong and growing - by frog



    There’s a poll on the Herald site asking if you think the Government should contribute to the CBD Rail tunnel. At nearly 15,000 votes, the vast majority (77%) say yes. Given that the Herald readership and online poll results tend towards conservative and business-oriented, there’s no reason to think that the popular support for this [...] read more
    November 30, 2010 9:56 am - 12 Comments
  • frog

    Joyce thinks importing cars, trucks & fuel is good for our trade balance - by frog



    In today’s Sunday Star Times, Joyce has an unsurprising reply to Rod Oram’s excellent piece last week (which critiqued the NZTA’s dodgy business cases for the Roads of National Party Significance).  It’s a bit ironic because Joyce starts off making the case that we are in debt and we need to get out of debt. [...] read more
    November 29, 2010 12:02 am - 24 Comments
  • frog

    Auckland CBD rail loop business case stacks up - by frog



    The long awaited Business Case for the CBD Rail Link was finally released on Wednesday this week, and it makes a compelling case for central government investment in the project. Just through traditional analysis of transport benefits, which usually underestimate the long term benefits of public transport projects, the economic case does stack up. But [...] read more
    November 26, 2010 3:10 pm - 27 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Joyce’s road and rail double standard - by Gareth Hughes



    The Herald reported today that the business case for the Auckland CBD rail loop will not be released until December. This suggests that the government may be planning not to fund the loop and so they’re holding the news back until the silly season. Dropping a big piece of bad news just before Christmas is [...] read more
    November 9, 2010 3:36 pm - 2 Comments
  • frog

    Govt celebrates World Statistics Day by ignoring statistics on transport - by frog



    Today is the first ever World Statistics Day, and Statistics Minister Maurice Williamson is celebrating. So how does he explain his colleague Steven Joyce’s determination to proceed with funding roading projects that the statistics show have significantly greater costs than benefits and the statistics show the majority of Aucklanders and Wellingtonians don’t consider priorities? read more
    October 20, 2010 9:39 am - 22 Comments
  • frog

    Puhoi: This town is becoming like a ghost town - by frog



    Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s uneconomic Puhoi-Wellsford Holiday Highway is facing some unanticipated difficulties – from the Speaker of the House and National MP whom Joyce hopes to succeed as the MP for the Rodney electorate, Lockwood Smith. “No off-ramp for Puhoi”, read the innocuous headline on a brief story buried in [the NZ Herald]. No [...] read more
    August 29, 2010 6:54 am - 19 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    We don’t need a Minister of Trucking Motorways - by Gareth Hughes



    This blog is a bit of a public transport omnibus, because there’s so much happening. Firstly, the CBD Rail Loop is attracting plenty of high level support across Auckland’s political spectrum. However, Transport Minister Steven Joyce is saying maybe, while Finance Minister Bill English has said it’s horrendously expensive. I think the Government’s $1.7 billion [...] read more
    August 19, 2010 10:19 am - 36 Comments
  • frog

    Auckland rail about to overtake Wellington? - by frog



    Rail service management in Wellington and Auckland seem to be experiencing a bit of a role-reversal lately. Wellington has a long history of (relatively) good public transport, starting with electrification of the regional rail line in the 1950s, and the highest bus and train mode share in the country.  This has no doubt contributed to [...] read more
    August 13, 2010 5:42 pm - 8 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    What do you think about the Holiday Highway? - by Gareth Hughes



    The New Zealand Transport Agency is consulting on the proposed Puhoi to Wellsford “Holiday Highway.” It got that affectionate name because Transport Minister Steven Joyce has his holiday home up there and it’s only really busy on public holidays, when Aucklanders flee the city north. I urge you to make a submission, because if there [...] read more
    June 29, 2010 8:34 pm - 23 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Don’t mess with university entrance - by David Clendon



    You might have heard on this story on Morning Report yesterday that a standardised entry requirement for all degree level courses could be in place by 2013. At the moment, university entrance requirements apply to anyone enrolling for a degree at university, while polytechnics and other tertiary institutions are not bound to use UE (though many do). read more
    April 13, 2010 3:24 pm - 11 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Govt understanding of the Tertiary sector: FAIL - by David Clendon



    Oh dear. Anyone who felt a wee bit nervous when Steven Joyce became Tertiary Education Minister has a right to feel justified in their fears after his last couple of annoucements. First, we hear there are plans to link funding for tertiary institutions to the pass rates of their students from 2012. This is a [...] read more
    March 10, 2010 3:19 pm - 26 Comments
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