Below the Beltway

Here’s who is up and down in politics

UP

Despite the KiwiBuild failure and the heat being on Housing Minister

Megan Woods, she held her own and stared down the cameras during an hour-long ‘‘reset’’ press conference. She refused to leave until journalists ran out of questions. Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien

O’Connor announced a raft of proposals to remedy New Zealand’s polluted waterways and vowed to clean up summer swimming spots within five years.

Consumer Affairs Minister Kris

Faafoi continued to limit the damage done by loan sharks, and has tightened up the measures contained in a new bill to do just that.

DOWN

The Labour Party campaigned to

build 100,000 homes in 10 years but finally admitted that KiwiBuild plan was unachievable and has now scrapped the target.

Heather Simpson’s interim report on the public health system said the system was overly complicated, very fragmented, lacked leadership and required a change in attitude and culture to restore consumer confidence and trust. However, she did not offer any recommendations in her 300-page ‘‘no surprises’’ report.

Lance O’Sullivan has called for the country to adopt Australia’s ‘‘No Jab, No Pay’’ policy, cutting benefits and introducing a higher tax rate for those who do not vaccinate their children. Meanwhile, Associate Health Minister

Julie Anne Genter and Health Minister David Clark have come under fire for not moving fast enough on the measles outbreak.