Daily review 13/03/2024

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, March 13th, 2024 - 26 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

26 comments on “Daily review 13/03/2024 ”

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  1. SPC 1
    13 March 2024 at 6:05 pm

    Mortgages.

    The Oz way and the USA way.

    And ours.

    in the US they have up to 30-year fixed mortgage rates. My understanding is that in some cases there are no break fees from the outset, should you choose to sell or refinance. Or there is a sliding scale of fees over a five-year basis then no fee. None of the fees which are charged are as prohibitively expensive as here. Why are such products not offered here?

    A: Where’s the fun in fixing for 30 years? What would Kiwis talk about at BBQs and worry about at night if we didn’t have a mortgage rate to refix? Our mental health? Relationships? Perhaps we’d pay more attention to investing and saving.

    Seriously though, the New Zealand obsession with short-term fixed mortgage rates is something of a cultural quirk. I suspect we all quite enjoy it in a masochistic way.

    One technical reason for the inability of local lenders to provide longer-term fixed mortgages is that we just don’t have the depth of market in this country to fund them.

    In other words, there just aren’t enough large long-term investors seeking fixed investment returns across that timeframe. Banks have also made the point that there isn’t much demand here for longer terms – although that seems a bit self-fulfilling. We’re very much conditioned to go for six-month, 12-month or two-year rates because that’s where the banks seem most competitive and it’s usually where the best bargains are.

    Some people may recall that local banks did offer seven-year fixed rate terms a few years ago – but they weren’t popular. Clearly, we just aren’t keen to be locked in for the long haul despite the financial security that would provide.

    We don’t seem to be quite as bold as the Aussies though, either.

    In Australia, the bulk of mortgage holders stay on floating rates. They prefer to take their chances on the ups and downs of the market in that optimistic Aussie way.

    Of course, floating rates, relative to fixed, are cheaper there than here. For example, Westpac Australia is currently offering a basic variable rate of 6.44 per cent while the one-year fixed rate is 6.59 per cent.

    Again with the self-fulfilling prophecy… it’s the nature of markets that the best bargains land where the bulk of the competition is focused.

    Another benefit for the Australian economy is that the interest rate moves of the Reserve Bank of Australia have a much faster impact.

    We Kiwis are hooked on short- and mid-term fixed rates and are kind of stuck with them. But some more choices would be nice. A market opportunity for a new player perhaps? Don’t hold your breath!

    https://archive.li/vU8Pc

  2. bwaghorn 2
    13 March 2024 at 6:27 pm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350210418/mechanical-fault-hits-interislander-passenger-service

    Have national come up with a plan to replace our aging ferries yet, ?

  3. Bearded Git 3
    13 March 2024 at 6:39 pm

    School dinners for kids-slashed. Decent intergenerational ferries-slashed. Bike tracks for commuting, healthy recreation and tourism-slashed. Clean car discount-slashed. Public transport in Wellington-slashed. Auckland light rail-slashed.

    Skiing for rich pricks-no problem. Please, take this bag with $7 million dollars in it.

    • bwaghorn 3.1
      13 March 2024 at 6:49 pm

      I like a bit of skiing (I can see turoa from my doorstep) , but yes endless bailouts for a dying industry is dumb,

      If you hired national to run your farm the first thing they would do os stop putting fertilizer on !

      • Bearded Git 3.1.1
        13 March 2024 at 7:13 pm

        I live 50 minutes drive from Cardrona ski-field and have skied there many times.

        It is the hypocrisy that gets to me.

        • weka 3.1.1.1
          13 March 2024 at 7:41 pm

          I can't figure out if it's climate denial/cognitive dissonance, or they simply don't care and believe that we should make money while we still can. Or short term power gain?

          • Kat 3.1.1.1.1
            13 March 2024 at 8:04 pm

            All of the above including pandering to core voter base and picking up a few from the fringes……you know, sunburnt neck, bloke, blokesses, ute, gun, dog, mobile phone, self employed un-contractable wannabe……vote for a fence post with a blue rosette if it promised them what they wanted…..

          • joe90 3.1.1.1.2
            13 March 2024 at 8:14 pm

            we should make money while we still can

            There's never been any to make.

            The operation has always been marginal, because users have never been willing to pay the true cost, and now the recreational activities of the privileged few will be subsidised by the taxpayer.

            • weka 3.1.1.1.2.1
              13 March 2024 at 8:42 pm

              Sorry, I was talking about National. Presumably there's some flow on effect for them of the support.

              • joe90 …
                13 March 2024 at 9:21 pm

                They're bailing out those who can afford to ski but don't want to pay what it actually costs. Their base.

                • Graeme …
                  14 March 2024 at 10:03 am

                  The shareholders and punters would predominately be National voter and / or donors, but they are also baling out Ohakune and other towns around Ruapehu who get a fair bit of cash from punters who use RAL's facilities. Based on what I see around Queenstown off mountain spend would be equal or more than the lift ticket. You've also got the staff spend, which would be at least the payroll, and a good percentage would be going to local residents.

                  It's a bit more nuanced than just baling out RAL, there's an economy and community based around the winter product on Ruapehu.

                  • bwaghorn …
                    14 March 2024 at 12:32 pm

                    Investing in ruapehu sky feilds os akin to "buying a ticket on the titanic " I once heard a business man say,

                    • Graeme …
                      14 March 2024 at 6:47 pm

                      Ski fields can generate huge amounts of cash, on a good day. RAL's problem is that some seasons they don't have enough good days.

                      They aren't alone with that problem, Mt Hutt has gone tits up as regularly as the Ruapehu fields, for the same reason, and only got some stability once NZ Ski got involved and brought them onto a larger group with a bit of scale and geographic diversity.

                      Probably the best hope for skiing on Ruapehu is for RAL to become part of a bigger group, either Real NZ (Cardrona & Treble Cone), or one of the Australian operators.

                    • SPC …
                      14 March 2024 at 10:44 pm

                      Sure it's akin to farming in a drought prone area – but the government says it is not going to give any more assistance (or build dams).

                      A business has to pay risk insurance for the no snow year with the profit from good years. With an upside of the insurance cost with climate change. Any bankruptcy means no one to operate the business the next good ski season – and the news lifts unused?

                      Given the investment in the ski lifts … and employment …

    • SPC 3.2
      13 March 2024 at 9:47 pm

      Not exactly.

      The bail out is to enable the continuance of skiing at Ruapehu.

      It would not continue without the subsidy.

      With the changing climate, the season is short or non existent without snow-making – making the cost of ski lifts uneconomic – without government subsidy.

      Jones says it is out a business support fund and is the last payment (he does not know how to fix the problem and does not want to admit it is climate change related – a fish out of water, a man in a waka without a paddle, a man by a road without a compass, an empty vessel wanting someone to give him a clue).

      The local issue is that the winter season is part of an all year round business – tourism/hospitality. A matter of employment – how many jobs depend on their being a winter season.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/511601/ruapehu-alpine-lifts-gets-7m-bailout-from-government

  4. Anne 4
    13 March 2024 at 8:17 pm

    Don't have a lot of sympathy for the police. Past experience and knowledge tells me most of them probably voted for NAct. You get what you asked for?

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/511498/government-priorities-clearly-wrong-police-association-says-after-minister-defends-pay-offer

  5. SPC 5
    13 March 2024 at 9:28 pm

    From the Prime Minister a master class in gaslighting the workers who ensure untaxed CG and now once again untaxed rent income to the landlords of New Zealand.

    It is also an explanation of what one might call neo liberal Stockholm syndrome – the lords and the peasants dependent on them for their accommodation.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says renters are "very grateful" his Government is bringing back interest deductibility for landlords.

    "It's one of the things we campaigned on because we care about renters in New Zealand," he said.

    "What has been utterly unacceptable is that there's been a $170 per week increase in rents under the previous government and they just kept going up and up and up.

    "And a big reason for why they go up is because landlords have been hit with costs associated with the removal of interest deductibility and also the extension of the brightline test, and those costs have just been passed straight through to renters with higher levels of rent."

    Luxon, who owns rentals himself, said the policy was about putting "downward pressure on rents for renters".

    He denied there had been backlash on the policy.

    "I think if you're a renter, you're very grateful for the fact that actually costs that have been passed on to landlords are not being passed on to you," Luxon said.

    "That's exactly what has happened, when the last government made that decision, and it was a dumb decision, it wasn't an appropriate decision, it was wrong, we opposed it from the beginning, for that very reason."

    Luxon added that New Zealand had a "major problem" with housing supply not only for rentals but also buyers and social or state housing.

    "So actually, increasing the supply of rental properties by making sure landlords aren't actually removing their properties from the rental market, that they aren't adding those costs of interest deductibility and brightline implications onto the rents, is actually a very good thing," he said.

    Tenants like battered fish wives (be grateful for whatever standard of rental is provided and hope the government is nice to the landlords so they do not get angry and punish their tenants) and capitalist patriarchy and prosperity gospel – the many making the few closer to God in their "raptured" onto a high place of privilege.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/03/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-says-renters-very-grateful-government-bringing-back-interest-deductibility-for-landlords.html

    1.his arguments are specious and need to be fact checked by every self respecting media in the country.

    2.is he blinded by self interest from the truth, or just lying to deceive the public?

    • bwaghorn 5.1
      14 March 2024 at 6:42 am

      very grateful

      echos of trump

    • Charlotte Rust 5.2
      14 March 2024 at 8:07 am

      So..rentals held by landlords with no mortgage didn’t rise in the last few years? Yeah nah. He makes me sick with this framing (as a renter), patronising af as per.

  6. SPC 6
    13 March 2024 at 9:58 pm

    The heat island effect is well known in Sydney – urban intensification.

    But if a nation was weaknesses in its building code, those who buy multiple story town houses could have problems in summer (heat and cooling pump on one floor only).

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/511585/the-big-bill-to-cool-new-auckland-townhouses

    • Belladonna 6.1
      14 March 2024 at 7:51 am

      The reduced 'liveability' of higher stories in houses has been known for a heck of a lot longer. There's a reason that the attic was servants' quarters in Victorian London – baking hot in summer and freezing in winter.

      I note that a lot of the issue, in the article, is attributed to lack of natural ventilation (both windows that don't open and crammed-up houses with less natural ventilation available) and the increased specifications for insulation (which keeps the heat in)

      So really building specifications.

      If the new building code requirements result in houses which require additional temperature control, year-round – then they're not exactly environment-friendly.