This Week’s News Round-Up

As we head closer and closer to November, election informations and policy announcements from parties will begin to crowd up the news, and this is already well underway. Many major decisions have made the news this week in Aotearoa, as well as some drama happening down in the Beehive during a parliamentary session.

National Announces Ban on Screens for Schools

This morning, the National Party announced that under a new policy they are announcing, screen usage is going to banned in Early Childhood Education centres. Continuing on into primary school, children in Years 1 to 3 are also going to have a significantly limited use of screens in the classroom. 

A policy like this is unsurprising, considering that back in 2024, schools across the country began to ban phones being out during the school day, under National’s guidance. Whether this has actually worked or not remains a different story (my younger cousin texts me during school hours.. so…) 

Globally, there has been a pushback by educators towards the amount of screen time that young children are having, and studies are increasingly showing that it affects attention spans and fine motor skills. Many ECE teachers are stating that kids are showing up to the classroom not even knowing how to hold a pencil. 

Regardless of whether this policy ever goes into effect, perhaps it is a good idea for kids to be kept from Tik Tok brain rot a little while longer. 

She’s Feeling C***… Two MPs kicked out of Parliament Session

On September 17th, Parliament got a little bit of a jolt after Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer used the apparently scandalous 'c-word'.

While debating over National's Move On orders legislation, Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara used the word 'bullcrap' in her speech, after which she was told that this wasn't in line with 'parliamentary language'. It was after this that Ngarewa-Packer apparently used the word, referring to it's history of being used three times in Parliament (and causing a ruckus in the news each time apparently.)

NZ First MP Casey Costello then raised a point of order, telling Speaker Maureen Pugh that apparently Ngarewa-Packer had directed the c-word at her.

Chaos ensued with Ngarewa-Packer attempting to explain her usage of the word, Labour MP Willie Jackson trying to argue on her side, and subsequently getting into a yelling match, and then being removed.

Given the amount of things affecting this country, you'd think that other issues would be more scandalous and pressing than this situation, but... apparently not.

The Battle of the Grocery Stores... Will it Finally Happen?

If you've ever watched any form of content made overseas in the United States, or even in the U.K, you might've noticed that they have... quite a range of supermarkets to choose from. Different supermarkets often bring different products, at vastly different prices.

In New Zealand, we unfortunately haven't been as lucky.

Our grocery market is essentially a duopoly, controlled by Woolworths (formerly Countdown R.I.P) and Foodstuffs, which owns New World, Pak'nSave and also Four Square. Combined, these two giants control nearly 90% of the market.

As the cost of living crisis continues, however, many major parties have come out with policies on how they're going to break up this duopoly in order to make groceries more affordable for Kiwis.

National's plan includes breaking up New World and Four Square to become separate from Pak'nSave, while Labour plans to have the two companies run their wholesale arms independently.

The Green Party, meanwhile, have taken a different route, revealing their plan of 'KiwiMart', which would be a nationwide chain that would be publicly owned, in contrast to Foodstuffs and Woolworth's that are both private.

Well, whatever gets my eggs to be cheaper.

Is it Cold in Here? ACT wants to Freeze Minimum Wage

Ignoring the fact that we're in a cost of living crisis and many Kiwis are barely scraping by, ACT has outlined a new policy that would freeze minimum wage for three years, and would also introduce a 'training wage' for workers under the age of 20.

Laura McClure, ACT's spokesperson for small businesses said that this policy was created to take the stress off of employers. McClure also expressed her belief that the annual raising of minimum wage was unproductive.

Under this new proposed policy, the 'training wage' given to under 20s would be 60% of the minimum wage. With the current minimum wage of $23.95, that means these workers would be getting $14.37.

ACT argues that current obligations to pay the minimum wage means that young people are 'losing out on employment opportunities' because employers are hesitant to hire them.

Perhaps instead, they should think about whether their proposed 60% of the minimum wage can actually support young people, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet, even on the current minimum.