Invasive maneuvers: This weekend marks the second trip in two years for Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz to visit New Zealand on state business. He visited last September alongside 15 fellow Hawaiʻi lawmakers and officials. That trip, estimated to cost about $50,000, included visits to the country’s diverse facilities at ports, mail centers and biosecurity training facilities. Notably absent from the trip was anyone from the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council, an official government group.

Lawmakers, who said they learned a lot on the 2024 junket, introduced and agreed to pass legislation to completely overhaul the Department of Agriculture to include more than $26 million for biosecurity work, including roles, and new sweeping powers — all modeled on New Zealand.

Apparently they have more to learn, having booked their tickets for another visit this very week. The problem of invasive species, meantime, has only intensified statewide, as evidenced in recent news reports.

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Dela Cruz did not respond to inquiries Friday. But Sen. Sharon Moriwaki (pictured to the immediate right of Dela Cruz, who is — naturally — front and center in the photo top right during the 2024 excursion) confirmed the trip, though she is skipping it this time around. She insisted to The Blog on Friday that the visit Down Under is a good investment.

“New Zealand has a terrific biosecurity program,” she said, a model for Hawaiʻi. It includes an extensive educational campaign to get kids involved in spotting and bagging invasive bugs. Mediterranean, Queensland and Oriental fruit flies are of particularly high risk to kiwi fruit, a major export. There are even dogs sniffing bags when one enters the country.

“Even if you are carrying jerky, they pull you aside,” Moriwaki said of New Zealand security.

Visitors must complete detailed forms, and the penalty for a false declaration works out to a nearly $200 fee, based on currency exchange rates. If convicted of deliberate smuggling, people can be fined up to $60,000 and be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity (or DAB, formerly known as the DOA) is leading the current delegation of 26 people next Monday through Friday. They include DAB Chair Sharon Hurd, DAB Deputy Dean Matsukawa and four staff members.

The trip, DAB said in an email Saturday morning, is “to continue research on how the state can increase and strengthen biosecurity against invasive pests and diseases.”

Three members of the Senate and four members of the House are also in tow along with two staff members from the Senate Ways and Means Committee and two representatives from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, one from the Department of Law Enforcement (deputy director Ernest Robello at an estimated costs of $3,000), one from the Department of Health and one from the Department of Transportation (in DOT’s case, it’s Dre Kalili, deputy director for harbors.)

Also on the trip are two people from the University of Hawaiʻi, two delegates from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and a spouse of an unidentified senator. Traveling as well is Dane Wicker, deputy director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

According to DAB, the agency is paying the cost for DAB personnel, the legislators and staff. Total costs will not be available until after the trip concludes, the agency said, and executive branch delegates and the other non-government delegates are paying their own expenses.

And according to an email from DBEDT Saturday, Wicker’s estimated travel expenses are $4,056 and are being covered by DBEDT, “consistent with state policies for official business travel.”

DBEDT adds that the visit will allow the agency to “work alongside its sister departments and the Legislature to align strategies, identify best practices, and strengthen Hawai‘i’s overall biosecurity posture in a way that supports economic resilience and growth.”

As for Dela Cruz, he has been fixated on New Zealand for several years, and not just for biosecurity. The Wahiawā lawmaker has used the country’s agricultural supply chain as a blueprint for projects in his constituency, which include a $30 million-plus food processing facility to boost exports, among other things.

He also visited the country in 2022 to meet with agricultural groups. How long before our peripatetic senator and WAM chair is deemed an honorary hobbit of the Shire — a veritable Lord of the Wings?

Connecting the dots: The Blog’s favorite political data divers are out with a new report based on filings from lobbying organizations that were mandated under a reform passed by the Legislature in 2023. We’ve called it the gift that keeps on giving and that is proving to be so true.

University of Hawaiʻi Research Organization authors Trey Gordner and Colin Moore have just published another detailed look at the data collected by the State Ethics Commission requiring — for the first time — that lobbying organizations disclose the specific bills they lobbied on in the 2025 session.

Gordner and Moore’s original piece in June, “Bills, Backers and Blocs: A Data-Driven Look at Lobbying in Hawaiʻi,” looked at the strategies dozens of lobbying organizations took on 2,000 bills. The new report in the series, “Consensus and Conflict,” examines action on the bills themselves and the relationships among lobbying organizations in working to get them passed or rejected.

The report points out that some of the most heavily lobbied bills got the least attention from the news media and others who work to keep the public abreast of what’s going on in the Legislature. Those measures included proposed reforms of the Building Code Council and another involving a federal drug-pricing program and how it’s handled in Hawaiʻi.

The Blog, which follows the Legislature pretty closely, couldn’t have told you a thing about either of those so it’s great that the data is being collected and someone is actually making use of it.

The Ethics Commission data “once again offers a unique and enlightening lens on the policymaking process,” Gordner and Moore write. “It reveals not only which bills matter to which organizations, but also where political coalitions in Hawai‘i appear to align, diverge, or remain intact on specific pieces of legislation. For researchers and political observers, the data reveal major policy disagreements among powerful actors, sometimes over technical bills that generate little emotion or public discussion but have significant implications for Hawai‘i’s future. These patterns help us better understand how influence is exercised and how policy takes shape in the less visible corners of the legislative process.”

Campaign roundup: The Hawaiʻi primary is not until Aug. 8 and the deadline to file paperwork not until June 2, but some candidates are already off and running:

• Democrat Corey Rosenlee lost by just 11 voters to Republican Elijah Pierick in the 2024 contest for State House District 39 (Royal Kunia, Village Park, Honouliuli, Ho‘opili and parts of Waipahu). The former president of the Hawai’i State Teachers Association says he’s going to take on Pierick, one of the most conservative members of the Legislature, once more — assuming Rosenlee gets past the primary and assuming Pierick chooses to defend his seat.
• The Blog previously reported that Republican Gary Cordery, who finished third in the 2022 primary, was considering another run for governor. Earlier this month he made it official, saying in a press release that he was running on a platform addressing housing affordability, cost of living, energy independence, education reform and community safety. Cordery has been an outspoken critic of Covid vaccine policies and how Hawaiʻi conducts its elections.
• Tara Malia Gregory was on a proposed short list earlier this year to replace the late Gene Ward, who represented House District 18 (Portlock, Hawaiʻi Kai, Kalama Valley). But Gov. Josh Green picked Joe Gedeon instead. No word on what Gedeon might do, but Gregory — the District 18 GOP chairwoman and East Honolulu regional vice chair for the Hawaiʻi Republican Party — is already campaigning about issues like overdevelopment, community-based planning, traffic relief and school safety.