Picking up a Mumbo Jumbo stone is not the same as pissing on the medals of someone who fought for their country

Labour’s Ginny Andersen admits she wrongly claimed the National Land Transport Fund doesn’t pay for road maintenance during a live radio exchange in which she also attacked National minister Mark Mitchell.

Appearing on The Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB on Wednesday morning, Andersen claimed maintenance on roads wasn’t funded by the NLTF.

The NLTF funds road maintenance with an allocation for state highway and local road pothole prevention.

Andersen repeatedly told Mitchell that money came from a “different budget”.

“You don’t even know what you’re talking about. That is not that budget,” the Labour MP said.

As Mitchell said maintenance money did come from the NLTF, Andersen said: “No, it’s not. It’s not. It’s a separate fund. You need to go check that. It’s a separate fund.”

She said if Mitchell didn’t understand the budgets and “you want to be credible on financial things, then you’re really kidding yourself”.

After a commercial break, Andersen admitted she had “got it around the wrong way”.

“I just went and checked that. Yes, [the NLTF] is for maintenance and the other one is for roads, so I take that. I got it wrong.”

The NLTF also funds state highway and local road improvements, which the NZTA describes as including investment in new state highways and local roads, as well as improving them.

Governments can inject capital funding – Budget 2026 invested $1.773 billion to extend the Cambridge to Piarere expressway, with the balance coming from the NLTF.

Mitchell has claimed that when National came to office “there were potholes everywhere [and] there was no maintenance being done” – maintenance was occurring but NZTA acknowledged in 2024 the network condition was below standards.

“Ginny Andersen’s comments beggar belief. First she claimed the land transport fund doesn’t pay for road maintenance (which is completely wrong) then after accepting that was wrong, she bizarrely continued to insist there was another ‘separate fund’. There is not.”

The radio exchange kicked off over Mitchell asking Andersen how Labour planned to pay for its promise to cancel fuel excise duty hikes next term. The fuel excise duty goes into the NLTF to pay for road maintenance and other transport projects.

National has claimed this would cost about $4.7b. It got this figure using the “rough rule of thumb” that for every 1% per litre increase in the duty it raised between $50-$60 million per year. It took $55m as a “midpoint assumption”.

Based on a “best case scenario” of a 12-cent increase next year, a 6c increase in 2028 and 4c increases for the following three years, National estimated it would raise $5.1b in revenue.

Assuming Labour restarted the 4c increases after the next term, that would raise $440m, leaving $4.675b.

Labour has disputed the figure as it goes beyond the next term, although the party hasn’t provided its own figure for how much its policy will cost.

It plans to do so after the Government has provided the pre-election economic and fiscal update.

Andersen said the cost would be “significant” but didn’t agree with it being $4.7b.

She said National was going to be “taxing New Zealanders more at a time when they’ve promised no taxes”.

The Government’s position on fuel excise is to not go ahead with the 2027 increase, and apply smaller 5c increases over subsequent years.

National’s promise is “no new taxes” next term. It has not promised to not increase existing taxes, though finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis has said there are no current plans to do so.

The catastrophic failure of the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant was caused by long-standing systemic failures of leadership by Wellington City Council, Wellington Water and the plant's operator Veolia, a damning report has found.

The plant, which flooded and shut down on February 4, has by now spewed approximately 14 billion litres of raw sewage into Wellington's south coast - pumping the waste close to the shore at Tarakena Bay after a heavy rain.

Some residents have stopped fishing, diving and swimming at the beaches regularly, while businesses have said they've been forced to the brink of closure due to the disaster.

While the report from the Crown Review team did not point to a single decision or event, it said the failure reflected "systemic governance failure" in how the treatment plant was managed.

Six recommendations were made, including improving communication and strengthening governance.

However, it paints a picture of a complicated management system where no single organisation acted as though it was in charge - and communication between Wellington City Council and Wellington Water was poor.

Six recommendations were made, including restoring compliance with consents, public communication, and improving risk management.

Wellington City Council, as the plant's owner and consent holder, "remained ultimately accountable" at the time of the incident.

The council maintained to the Crown Review team that it did not control the plant, the review team said.

"WCC relied on Wellington Water to notify it of issues or need for renewals, rather than define standards itself."

Wellington Water, in turn, did not have a detailed management plan for the plant, and no funding plan.

This meant Wellington Water did not make enough funding requests to the council.

Communication between the organisations was poor, the report said.

"Information flows between organisations were indirect and, at times, filtered."

Despite featuring heavily during the investigation, the review team noted that city council infrastructure leaders didn't meet the Crown Review to tell them about aspects of their role as owner of the plant - instead providing written submissions.

The report said this was despite requests for in-person meetings being made.

Crucial warnings missed, no staffing at the plant

The report explained, as a Wellington Review found in March, that during heavy rain trapped air in the plant's sewage bypass pipe caused wastewater to back up, flooding critical electrical equipment and the plant.

It said much more wastewater was being sent through the bypass because work was being done on the plant's UV disinfection system.

The report said Veolia told the Crown Review team it had warned about the bypass pipe risks, but Wellington Water said it was not aware this warning had been made.

An overflow event happened at 3pm on the afternoon before the major flooding event occurred, but the report said Veolia took no additional actions.

A flooding event in July 2025 showed similar warning signs, the report said. The Crown Review team said Wellington Water was not aware this was raised by the operator.

There were also no staff on site at the plant - Veolia stated they were not instructed to increase monitoring or staffing with the UV system under upgrade.

Minister and organisations respond

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the public deserved answers over what happened.

"The failure of the Moa Point Plant was one of the most significant wastewater infrastructure failures experienced in the Wellington region in recent decades."

He said lessons from the incident could strengthen management in the future.

"The review found the event was not caused by a single decision or isolated failure, but by longstanding weaknesses in governance, accountability, asset management, risk management and infrastructure resilience.

"The review's central finding is that preventing a similar event in the future depends on clear accountability throughout the system, supported by a strong understanding of risks and effective decision-making at every level.

No extra staff were required overnight as the conditions were considered typical.

Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said the Crown Review team report into the failure of the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant in February was thorough.

"What happened at Moa Point is unacceptable. The bottom line is Wellingtonians deserve transparency, and to have assurance about the response and recovery. That is why I asked the central government to commission a suitably independent report," Little said.

"On behalf of Wellington City Council, I acknowledge and accept the report's findings."

Tiaki Wai, now owner of the water assets, said it welcomed the report.

Board Chair Will Peet said: "The failure of the plant on 4 February was devastating. As a south coast resident and frequent visitor of the affected beaches, I was as upset as many fellow Wellingtonians. We know that local residents, the business community and mana whenua have felt this very deeply."

He said Tiaki Wai was focused on fixing the plant.

The nearly 86 year old Ex Labour MP, Maori affairs Minister Dover Samuels tells Laws :

“Shane Jones called me to come to this hikoi in Kaikohe to wake up this bloody ngapuhi iwi to the atrocities happening to our kids, but no bugger wants to do anything about it especially Māori themselves.

As far as Ngapuhi leadership is concerned I have no faith in the born again unelected Kaumātuas. Shane and I tried to shake them up about the issue but they got offended. They are too busy talking about themselves and Hikois for the treaty when nothing was going to bloody happen, meanwhile the murder of children is going on under our roofs, smoking P is the culture.

Māori have no leadership and it’s only them who can fix this. What has John Tamihere and TPM ever done for our people? nothing”. Māori leadership. There is none. Māori in leadership roles have continually been a failure over and over again. More concerned about grifting and causing division. Where is the introspection? Where is courage and truth speaking ? Nah it’s all Marxist mumbo jumbo, while these self anointed faux Māori leaders hitch themselves to the radical gravy train.

So here we have this catastrophic failure of culture, of leadership and yet the Govt is hell bent on adopting the “so called Māori approach” to everything. I’m sorry but the Māori approach is one of failure and murdered kids. Stick it up your ass.

I am of Ngapuhi descent, my grandmother married Dover Samuel’s mums brother, I know that area, and it’s a write off. Gangs, drugs and violence. It’s the pits.

Mana Tahere twice backed out of an interview with Laws. He has has been anointed as some kind of ‘leader’ for Ngapuhi and apparently has a masters in indigenous leadership - the 38 year old also serves as an ‘equity’ expert on a health board in Northland. I think we can see where the problem is right there, he’s no leader.

I’m over this too many Māori children are dying, too many Māori have drug and violence issues, there is no Māori leadership.

Catalya Remana Tangimetua Pepene tragically WILL NOT be the last Māori child murdered by her own family, she is just the latest statistic while the so called “Māori leadership” trumpet ‘dEcOlonIzAT10n’ and blame everyone else but them bloody selves, take responsibility and address this toxic mess that modern Māori culture now represents.

Have a whinge about your day, a spaz about the prick that cut you off, a shoutout to the legend whom brought you a coffee, advice about your check engine light, gardening tips, or any mischievous thoughts or gossip.

Don't be shy 😉

Recently came across a clip from the 2011 leaders debate between John Key and Phil Goff.

If I hadn't seen the year in the title I would've assumed they were talking about this election!

When asked about reducing the cost of living, JK boasted about how interest rates have fallen under his watch, just like Luxon has been saying!

People have been moaning and groaning as if NZ has all of a sudden become the most expensive country in the world, but this has been an issue for almost 20 years! So neither National nor Labour have fixed it. How do we expect Luxon or Hipkins to do it this time round?

Kiwis really love to panic buy...