I find the idea that a position of strength for the powerful and a position of weaknesses for the vulnerable must be maintained in order for the vulnerable simply to be housed, odious.
Multiple landlord groups and now The Crusher are up in arms at the idea their benevolent blessings over the less fortunate are being scrutinised.
The amendment bill in question has been so weakened by these powerful groups in select committee process, that the final bill barely changes anything from a tenant's point of view.
Additional costs for the landlords, where? That they might have to record breaches of a tenancy agreement three times instead of once simply aligns with other master/servant relationships in the workplace, and is long overdue.
Even the provision that landlords must now do what they say when invoking a family take-over of a tenants home, while welcome, is light years too late.
It would be useful alongside these changes to have some figures on how many times the Tenancy Services think the use of the no-cause termination has been abused by landlords, and some data on how many instances of anti-social behaviour by tenants has resulted in immediate termination.
During the Covid Alert Level 4, despite the behaviour of our neighbouring tenants, the police advice came down to this:
1. Videotape them
2. Get rid of them
3. Anti-social behaviour would require them to physically assault you or your family before they would charge them.
Note: None of this advice was of any use.
We have a two page record of police visits to our property over a four month period.
The journey to the Tenancy Tribunal was a long and fraught one, despite the ongoing abuse and failure to pay rent, and in the end the adjudicator said, I'll issue a termination order for the rent arrears and don't worry about the rest. The rest was a meticulous record – proposed by the police – of all the instances – almost 200, that had taken place over three months.
When we finally got access to the property, after the tenants did not appear at their instigated Tribunal hearing, there was damage to the property that we will have to go through another Tenancy Tribunal process for – and run the risk of having to deal with the tenants in person again. The hearing took place in a Family Court situation, and the waiting room has no staff, and you are expected to arrive and sit there looking at the other party until you are called in…
So, the law does need to be fair, to both tenants and landlords – and the process could do with some streamlining, so that it takes place as efficiently as possible. The requirement for three instances of anti-social behaviour within three months, may sound appealing to some (why?), but from personal experience, living on the other side of it makes the times in between a tenterhook of anxiety.
The housing situation at present is so appallingly bad, that this focus on tenant/landlord balance seems to be a given. But the housing crisis has been created by a series of regulatory and legislative decisions that make investing in housing and flipping, a common and successful way of getting financial security, not just for some NZers, but for overseas investors. There are significant changes that can be made that will give NZers other choices, and so reduce the likelihood of irresponsible landlords being able to find tenants.
It is these regulatory, tax and legislative changes that will have the most impact – not just targeting rentals. Also, building of state and council housing will reduce the viability of rentals.
I also understood that fraudulent use of the 42 day notice to end tenancy already had existing fines for landlords of up to $6,000. To be honest, I can't be bothered going through all the Tenancy Legislation again, but I'm sure that is already in place.
“We’ve always said te reo Māori was one of the official languages of New Zealand." – well, that's big of ya! & “We also don’t think there should only be one broadcaster for Māori, which is a very bad decision the current Government has done,” Collins said.
I just found those comments quite Trumpian, first I thought this was more gotcha crap from the journalists but it was actually in context, Collins talking about supporting Te Reo then being asked to count to 10, so she supports it, but won't speak or learn it, mmmmmkay. The Nats are keeping their heads down, no new roads or shambles today!
Second to last QT of the parliament and Collins clearly thought a shotgun approach was her best shot at trying to catch the PM out. Supplementaries ranged across a wide number of subjects. The PM did well to stay ahead of ahead of them all.
Jaeezzuss! I'm in awe of anyone that can last the whole 37 minutes of the ramblings of the terracotta turdface with a used orangutan's merkin perched atop his head, without clawing out their eyes and blowtorching their ears off just to get some relief from that level of stupid.
Here are a few tasters of the wisdom of the 45th President of the United States, rifling through a sheaf of graphs that he seems to be having trouble with in so many way.
Trump: “Right here, US is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world…”
Trump again, when Swan compares death as a proportion of population in South Korea to the US: “You don’t know that.”
Swan: “You think they’re faking their statistics? South Korea?”
Trump: “Errrr. I won’t get into that because I have a very good relationship with the country. But you don’t know that.“
And again: “Death is way down from where it was…It’s going in Arizona. It’s going down in Florida. It’s going down in Texas.”
Swan. “It’s going down in Florida?”
Trump: “Yeah. It levelled out and now it’s going down. That’s my report as of yesterday.”
(As ever, it’s not clear where Trump is getting his info but the Worldometers.info seems pretty clear that deaths in Florida have been increasing – slowly since March but steeply since June 15th. As of today, there have been 7,157 deaths across Florida.)
The man is not only a buffoon, he is a complete and utter ignoramus, a liar and a cheat. He is not fit to even clean the boots of a ditch digger. Remember he is supposed to be the President of his country; but over the past 30 days when the number of people in his country infected with covid -19 increased by 1.9 million – nearly 42% of the more than 4.5 million cases reported since the pandemic began, and more than double the number documented in any other month, (he has spent 10 of them (1/3 of his time) playing golf.
I thought you would have learnt by now that you can't take everything he says literally.
Depending on how you look at it Florida deaths were trending down when he said it.
The interviewers comparison between the US and South Korea was completely disingenuous and got the treatment it deserved. Trump came up with a more relevant point that the US has a low Case Fatality Rate.
🙄 Um, it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country. But to compare death rates between countries where there's so many different variables at play is absurd.
Yet if one is smart enough to not just look at a single figure, the lowest death days have been trending down, and new cases have continued to reduce.
If one is smart enough one would realise that 5 days is hardly enough to feel confident that there is a reduction in cases – particularly where one is dealing with a disease that has an incubation period of up to 14 days. – The 3 day testing at NZ's Managed Isolation is precisely because that is around the 5 days that most returnees would be at having left their previous country of residence ( ie 2 days travel). The 12 days is there to pick up the cases that are slow to incubate. (ie 14 days after departure from their previous place of residence.)
it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country. But to compare death rates between countries where there's so many different variables at play is absurd.
Except under Trump the US has done precisely nothing to deal with the pandemic What information is available is at best sketchy and varies from state to state. Even so the meta data tells us that the US in comparison to almost every other developed Nation is in a parlous state wrt its handling of Covid-19.
Here is a pretty full analysis of the fractured state of the US's response to the pandemic :
We aren’t tracking the public health equivalent of vital signs. That’s one big reason the United States is losing the battle against Covid-19.
We have a per capita death rate five times the global average, cases are increasing, and our economy and educational systems will not recover until we get the virus under control. Last week’s abrupt decision by the Trump administration to stop sending information on Covid-19 patients to the C.D.C. and instead to send it to the Department of Health and Human Services reflects this lack of national coordination.
Over the past three weeks, researchers in our initiative, Resolve to Save Lives, searched all the data they could find on publicly available websites from all 50 states. They found it to be shockingly inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible.
Not a single state published turnaround time for testing, nor how promptly patients are isolated, nor the proportion of cases diagnosed among people who had contact with a Covid-19 patient. In most states, there is no way to track the trend of Black and Hispanic people suffering hospitalizations and deaths at greater rates than white people.
Only two states — Oregon and Virginia — even reported information on whether patients were interviewed promptly for contact tracing. Indicators such as these are essential to know how well we are fighting the virus so that we can do better.
The fault does not lie with the states — it’s a federal failing. Although getting the data quickly and accurately is hard, the underlying problem is the lack of common standards, definitions and accountability. This reflects the absence of national strategy and leadership. Unless we get onto the same page, we will face continued and preventable disorganization, economic decay and death.
There is a better way. Our group — along with a coalition of national, state and academic partners including the American Public Health Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security — has developed a list of 15 indicators 1. Every state and county should be able to collect and publish nine of these immediately and the other six within a few weeks.
The basics are early signals from emergency departments that could warn us if cases are spiking; information about cases, tests and deaths over time by age, sex, and race and ethnicity; and information about outbreaks in nursing homes and elsewhere, as well as epidemiological links among cases.
Indicators that could be published in a few weeks include performance measures for testing, case interviews and contact tracing; health care worker infections; and objective assessment of the proportion of people wearing masks correctly in indoor public spaces such as stores and public transit. (This could be monitored by human surveyors or security cameras for aggregate analysis, while protecting individuals’ privacy.)
The greatest benefit of good information isn’t knowledge, it’s action. Among other things, these indicators would give us:
An early-warning system to prevent explosions of cases by scaling back physical connections as soon as cases begin to rise.
More incentive to improve the turnaround time of tests, which is crucial to stop spread (there is little value to tests that come back more than two or three days later).
Information on the size, lethality and status of control of every outbreak, including those in every nursing home, homeless shelter, correctional facility and meatpacking factory.
The opportunity to better understand and reverse the unequal burden the pandemic is placing on Black, Hispanic, Native American and other communities.
Accountability for how many health care workers have been infected each week; if we published this, we would drive that number down toward zero.
I couldn't help but note that, while today's article on Stuff, Judith Collins Slams Ardern for Lack of Election Policy, was pretty much par for the course for any past year, if one had taken precisely the same article, adjusting only the names and governing party during the Key years, we can state with 100% certainty that the headline would have been "Opposition Promises Would Mean Huge Cuts to Education, Health — Key".
I can't remember the time of the media being as even handed has they been for this election, calling National out with their lies (30,000 houses, "I was only joking", anything Bishop says), maybe now when they get given something dirty from National they take a bit more care (the Herald running with the Falloon "I left my phone unattended story being an exception, suckers!).
Hmmm. One could argue that, given that the article is actually about what Collins said, they aren't playing them here. They certainly were during the Key years, though. That doesn't say anything about what they might do if National were in power again, of course, nor about what donating to them might achieve.
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The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Pope Francis has died after using his Easter Sunday address to call for peace in Gaza. I don’t know who the cardinals will pick to replace him, but I do know with absolute certainty that there ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Carr, Associate Professor, Strategy and Australian Defence Policy, Australian National University In 2024, the National Defence Strategy made deterrence Australia’s “primary strategic defence objective”. With writing now underway for the 2026 National Defence Strategy, can Australia actually deter threats to ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 22, 2025. How will a new pope be chosen? An expert explains the conclaveSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic University Following the death of Pope Francis, we’ll ...
New Zealand First is pushing for the term "woman" to be defined in law as "an adult human biological female" as the party vows to fight "cancerous social engineering" and "woke ideology". ...
The What is a woman? campaign last year called for ‘woman’ to be defined as ‘an adult human female’ in all our laws, public policies and regulations and was signed by more than 23,500 people and presented to Parliament last August. We are still ...
We break down the smorgasbord of streaming services available in Aotearoa. We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to streaming services in New Zealand, but as more and more services put their subscription prices up, it’s easy to wonder: who deserves my hard earned dollar? Which platform has the best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic University Following the death of Pope Francis, we’ll soon be seeing a new leader in the Vatican. The conclave – a strictly confidential gathering of Roman Catholic cardinals – is due to meet in a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University and Adjunct Professor Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology., Charles Sturt University Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke lead a haka with Eru Kapa-Kingi outside ...
John Minto says the United Nations has repeatedly said there are no safe places in Gaza for Palestinian civilians, where even so-called “safe zones” are systematically attacked as Israel terrorises the population to flee from the territory. ...
The bill’s primary objective was to stoke racial divisions as a means of diverting social anger in the working class over the government’s escalating attacks on living standards and public services. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that would block state laws seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions – the latest salvo in his administration’s campaign to roll back United States’ ...
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We are learning how to test quickly. 90 minute rapid tests in Britain. Could help with border tests, reassurance tests… We will survive and thrive.
1000 tests done today in Queenstown, just to check it's not here. Good effort by testers and Queenstown locals.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/long-lines-queenstown-pop-covid-testing-spot
I find the idea that a position of strength for the powerful and a position of weaknesses for the vulnerable must be maintained in order for the vulnerable simply to be housed, odious.
Multiple landlord groups and now The Crusher are up in arms at the idea their benevolent blessings over the less fortunate are being scrutinised.
The amendment bill in question has been so weakened by these powerful groups in select committee process, that the final bill barely changes anything from a tenant's point of view.
Additional costs for the landlords, where? That they might have to record breaches of a tenancy agreement three times instead of once simply aligns with other master/servant relationships in the workplace, and is long overdue.
Even the provision that landlords must now do what they say when invoking a family take-over of a tenants home, while welcome, is light years too late.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12353655
It would be useful alongside these changes to have some figures on how many times the Tenancy Services think the use of the no-cause termination has been abused by landlords, and some data on how many instances of anti-social behaviour by tenants has resulted in immediate termination.
During the Covid Alert Level 4, despite the behaviour of our neighbouring tenants, the police advice came down to this:
1. Videotape them
2. Get rid of them
3. Anti-social behaviour would require them to physically assault you or your family before they would charge them.
Note: None of this advice was of any use.
We have a two page record of police visits to our property over a four month period.
The journey to the Tenancy Tribunal was a long and fraught one, despite the ongoing abuse and failure to pay rent, and in the end the adjudicator said, I'll issue a termination order for the rent arrears and don't worry about the rest. The rest was a meticulous record – proposed by the police – of all the instances – almost 200, that had taken place over three months.
When we finally got access to the property, after the tenants did not appear at their instigated Tribunal hearing, there was damage to the property that we will have to go through another Tenancy Tribunal process for – and run the risk of having to deal with the tenants in person again. The hearing took place in a Family Court situation, and the waiting room has no staff, and you are expected to arrive and sit there looking at the other party until you are called in…
So, the law does need to be fair, to both tenants and landlords – and the process could do with some streamlining, so that it takes place as efficiently as possible. The requirement for three instances of anti-social behaviour within three months, may sound appealing to some (why?), but from personal experience, living on the other side of it makes the times in between a tenterhook of anxiety.
The housing situation at present is so appallingly bad, that this focus on tenant/landlord balance seems to be a given. But the housing crisis has been created by a series of regulatory and legislative decisions that make investing in housing and flipping, a common and successful way of getting financial security, not just for some NZers, but for overseas investors. There are significant changes that can be made that will give NZers other choices, and so reduce the likelihood of irresponsible landlords being able to find tenants.
It is these regulatory, tax and legislative changes that will have the most impact – not just targeting rentals. Also, building of state and council housing will reduce the viability of rentals.
That sounds like a terrible situation. I agree with your assessment of the underlying cause of the housing crisis.
… was not the best… but thankfully over now.
I also understood that fraudulent use of the 42 day notice to end tenancy already had existing fines for landlords of up to $6,000. To be honest, I can't be bothered going through all the Tenancy Legislation again, but I'm sure that is already in place.
“We’ve always said te reo Māori was one of the official languages of New Zealand." – well, that's big of ya! & “We also don’t think there should only be one broadcaster for Māori, which is a very bad decision the current Government has done,” Collins said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300073402/judith-collins-cant-count-to-10-in-te-reo-and-wont-commit-to-learning-the-language
I just found those comments quite Trumpian, first I thought this was more gotcha crap from the journalists but it was actually in context, Collins talking about supporting Te Reo then being asked to count to 10, so she supports it, but won't speak or learn it, mmmmmkay. The Nats are keeping their heads down, no new roads or shambles today!
Second to last QT of the parliament and Collins clearly thought a shotgun approach was her best shot at trying to catch the PM out. Supplementaries ranged across a wide number of subjects. The PM did well to stay ahead of ahead of them all.
Here’s Jonathan Swan’s full interview with Donald Trump. The US president is incoherent combative and illogical.
Jaeezzuss! I'm in awe of anyone that can last the whole 37 minutes of the ramblings of the terracotta turdface with a used orangutan's merkin perched atop his head, without clawing out their eyes and blowtorching their ears off just to get some relief from that level of stupid.
Was Donald the model for the orange man promoting us to get on the role and vote. Not sure of the irony there 😉
Nah. If he was the model, they'd have had to include a cartoon week-dead roadkill hamster festering atop its head.
His constituency.
https://twitter.com/pewresearch/status/1290264908907581441
I thought Trump dealt quite well with the hit job interview and raised some good points.
Many other people see it differently.
For example
The man is not only a buffoon, he is a complete and utter ignoramus, a liar and a cheat. He is not fit to even clean the boots of a ditch digger. Remember he is supposed to be the President of his country; but over the past 30 days when the number of people in his country infected with covid -19 increased by 1.9 million – nearly 42% of the more than 4.5 million cases reported since the pandemic began, and more than double the number documented in any other month, (he has spent 10 of them (1/3 of his time) playing golf.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/world/coronavirus-covid-19.html
https://trumpgolfcount.com/displayoutings
I thought you would have learnt by now that you can't take everything he says literally.
Depending on how you look at it Florida deaths were trending down when he said it.
The interviewers comparison between the US and South Korea was completely disingenuous and got the treatment it deserved. Trump came up with a more relevant point that the US has a low Case Fatality Rate.
So what do you think of Trump’s comparison of testing in the US with testing in India? Do you think India has comparable resources to the US?
Well woopie shit!
And yet – just 5 days ago – Florida was breaking records for the number of deaths
Only a Trumpkin could make such a statement – Ignoring the fact that it was Trump who initially raised the comparison of the US's reaction to Covid with South Korea.
Yet if one is smart enough to not just look at a single figure, the lowest death days have been trending down, and new cases have continued to reduce.
🙄 Um, it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country. But to compare death rates between countries where there's so many different variables at play is absurd.
it's reasonable to compare your testing rate against a benchmark country
So do you think that India is such a benchmark country to compare the US with? Do you think India has comparable resources to the US?
If one is smart enough one would realise that 5 days is hardly enough to feel confident that there is a reduction in cases – particularly where one is dealing with a disease that has an incubation period of up to 14 days. – The 3 day testing at NZ's Managed Isolation is precisely because that is around the 5 days that most returnees would be at having left their previous country of residence ( ie 2 days travel). The 12 days is there to pick up the cases that are slow to incubate. (ie 14 days after departure from their previous place of residence.)
In the meantime, Trump and his compatriot in crime Ron DeSantis, have been negligent in opening bars and restaurants for super spreading events when the disease is endemic in the community.
Except under Trump the US has done precisely nothing to deal with the pandemic What information is available is at best sketchy and varies from state to state. Even so the meta data tells us that the US in comparison to almost every other developed Nation is in a parlous state wrt its handling of Covid-19.
Here is a pretty full analysis of the fractured state of the US's response to the pandemic :
Good news everyone..
No more Hosking moderating the debates..
https://m.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2008/S00028/your-vote-2020-bringing-election-coverage-to-viewers-across-tvnz-channels-and-platforms.htm
Yayus! I did see him causing his usual outrage today by suggesting the Govt is fearmongering & NZrs should not get tested just coz MOH say so. Idiot.
Didn't hear him today, but they kind of are to be fair.
Why the sudden re-emergence of the ads and the continued press conferences if we are "Covid free and have no community spread"
You really are the master of idiotic questions.
This is probably the year we actually need Hosking running it.
At least he actually demands policy, which is more than Ardern fanboy Campbell and plaid Tame will do.
It is turning into a joke.
And good provisions for Sign Language and subtitling.
I couldn't help but note that, while today's article on Stuff, Judith Collins Slams Ardern for Lack of Election Policy, was pretty much par for the course for any past year, if one had taken precisely the same article, adjusting only the names and governing party during the Key years, we can state with 100% certainty that the headline would have been "Opposition Promises Would Mean Huge Cuts to Education, Health — Key".
I can't remember the time of the media being as even handed has they been for this election, calling National out with their lies (30,000 houses, "I was only joking", anything Bishop says), maybe now when they get given something dirty from National they take a bit more care (the Herald running with the Falloon "I left my phone unattended story being an exception, suckers!).
Yes, sneaky smart, aren't they! Until they stop playing those glib little pro-Nat word games they can forget about any financial support from me!
Hmmm. One could argue that, given that the article is actually about what Collins said, they aren't playing them here. They certainly were during the Key years, though. That doesn't say anything about what they might do if National were in power again, of course, nor about what donating to them might achieve.
I should have added, I agree with you Hanswurst.
Here’s a neat pic that could possibly be used for “Daily Review” in future… apart from the Mordor vibes 😝
https://twitter.com/NZLainey/status/1290220193428336641?s=20
That bring back good memories. Thanks