Daily review 13/05/2021

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, May 13th, 2021 - 20 comments
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20 comments on “Daily review 13/05/2021 ”

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  1. Forget now 1
    13 May 2021 at 6:45 pm

    What is kurdish for chutzpa? I don't fancy their chances, but you certainly can't fault; International Student Rescue Mission (MRSI) founder and president Zhian Eli's ambition!

    There were 4000 children living in emergency accommodation in New Zealand, Mrs Eli said.

    “Iraq and Syria have [an] excuse for displaced children because they are in a war. What’s New Zealand’s reason?”…

    She was seeking 25% of the funding for the project from each of the city council, Housing New Zealand, and Work and Income.

    The remaining 25% would be raised by the MRSI from national and international donors.

    She had advice from builders that 10 identical houses could be built within three months.

    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/funding-sought-build-homes-refugees-others

    So, say; ten houses at a rough $100,000 each (give or take – depending on where is the land on which they are proposing building), for a round million. Of which, Eli wants the; DCC, HNZ (/Kainga Ora), & WINZ to put up a $250,000 each. In the week before the budget is announced.

    Maybe if they are a standard house design that has successfully built elsewhere, and the DCC wants to use it as a PR exercise, they might get planning permission within 3 months. As for the builders actually following through on their 3month build schedule once they have the deposit in their bank account?

    • Spa 1.1
      13 May 2021 at 7:16 pm

      I think $100,000 per unit is a bit optimistic.

      • Forget now 1.1.1
        13 May 2021 at 7:30 pm

        Yeah, probably so; Spa, especially since the cheaper land is in danger of more flooding over the next century with rising sea levels. So the DCC will be unlikely to be keen to allow new residences there, in opposition to their planned retreat from the shoreline. The houses would have to be pretty small for families to reach that target too.

        It did make the maths easy though.

        • Spa 1.1.1.1
          13 May 2021 at 9:49 pm

          Fair enough, I'm not sure where the original quote comes from but I am a fan of "roughly right rather than precisely wrong" or something along those lines.

    • Forget now 3.1
      13 May 2021 at 10:19 pm

      Yeah, I saw that myself earlier in the evening, greywarshark. What was it a 15second karakia? It probably took longer to; standup, leave, then be called when it was clear to walk back into the room after the prayer, than the karkia itself took. I'm an atheist myself, but I will sit through grace or other religious rituals if it gives others comfort; that's just basic manners.

      This seemed more headline grabbing showboating, and to be fair; it appears to have achieved its goal.

      • greywarshark 3.1.1
        14 May 2021 at 1:36 pm

        I feel as you do FN – sit through grace or other religious rituals as basic manners – though I am not completely gracious as i start squirming if it goes on for too long, even when I go to church. But I try and can handle and welcome, short prayers invoking the Great Spirit to kindly guide the meeting to positive outcomes. Seems reasonable.

        I think this is an example of redneck colonialism coming out in present generations in Taranaki, home of Parihaka and fertile farmlands. He has been a property valuer for some decades and now is into electricity so is one of those rational men who deal with real things. Some of them care about human feelings and emotions and some think that's a lot of piffle.

    • greywarshark 4.1
      13 May 2021 at 10:07 pm

      I see young people protesting about starting sea transport but they need to think of jobs for the future, what they could work at in the district and how the barge is a smart idea for transporting their produce. Holding placards doesn't feed you or your family.

      Can it he done sustainably? Why don't they form a research group and liaise with the barge-idea group and find the latest methods of limiting pollution from this type of operation elsewhere?

      • weka 4.1.1
        14 May 2021 at 12:42 am

        it doesn't actually say what the environmental issues are.

        • McFlock 4.1.1.1
          14 May 2021 at 1:28 am

          yeah.

          Seems to bisect the beach pretty definitively, comparing it with google's satellite view. Certainly much more severely than the river seems to.

          On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be particularly enormous. Although the access road seems to be significantly wider than the existing highway it connects to?

        • Sabine 4.1.1.2
          14 May 2021 at 8:32 am

          But later in the day Shyla-Drew Taiapa, whose grandfather Joseph Akuhata-Brown was a founding member of Te Rimu Trust, said whānau strongly opposed a port or barging facility on the Matakaoa rohe.

          "The impacts of a port or a barging facility will be detrimental to our environment.

          "Our moana not only sustains us by providing us with kai, it is also a place where we take our whānau and our tamariki to learn and to teach."

          Matakaoa was a place that sustained their mental, cultural and spiritual wellbeing, she said.

          Local hapū Te Whānau a Tūwhakairiora and Te Whānau a Te Aotaki had developed their own economic plans for the community, which included maintaining and sustaining an abundant marine estate, she said.

          "The proposal of a barge or port facility undermines the health of our marine estate, which is already at a critical state, but it also undermines our economic aspirations that are based on our marine estate.

          i think they state quite well what the impact will be. Also, if this barge is to be used to transport logs, that beach and its road to it will be fucked and unusable. It will be in essence an 'industrial' port for logs.

          I see the need for investment, but this investment is not gonna help anyone.

          • Forget now 4.1.1.2.1
            14 May 2021 at 10:00 am

            Shane Jones said if he was re-elected next year, he will push for special legislation to allow logs from the East Coast to be taken away by barges to Northland.

            https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/404187/local-iwi-wary-of-hicks-bay-log-barge-proposal

            Shane Jones wasn't re-elected (yay!), and no one has introduced any "special legislation" about this AFAIK; so they are really flogging a dead barge-horse on this one. Those; "forest owners forced to send their logs south to Gisborne or Napier" might be better advised to put their influence behind restoring the railway up to the cape, though NZrail don't seem too keen on that.

          • Rosemary McDonald 4.1.1.2.2
            14 May 2021 at 10:22 am

            SH35 is pretty much fucked as well. We've taken our Bus over some of the most challenging public roads in NZ. Only a few have forced a turnaround. SH 35 heading north from Gisbourne with the intention of yet again 'doing the Cape' road through to Opotiki…road was so horribly shit with lumps and slumps and potholes that we turned around. Left hand side heading south…the direction the fully laden logging trucks travel…was even worse with pretty much a metre in from the tar seal completely buggered.

            Forestry is pretty much all that can be done commercially with the steep eroding land in some of this region and the logs are not going to fly themselves out. Barging them out from a small facility makes some sense. The deep water is close to land in that area so a loading facility can be in close.

            I see the Trust's intentions are good…and get the concerns of the naysayers also. It's a special part of the country and should be cared for…but there also needs to be some way for the locals to make a buck.

            Such infrastructure does not necessarily damage the environment to the point of depleting the kaimoana. Wheelchairs and wharves making happy 'crip' fishing and some of our catches have been outstanding.wink

            • Sabine 4.1.1.2.2.1
              14 May 2021 at 10:35 am

              I don't live there, so i don't have a say, but i am firmly with those that say no.

              WE could have trains. WE should have trains. And we need to look at other reveneue then just growing cheap pine for overseas needs.

              So yeah, nah, nah.

              • Rosemary McDonald …
                14 May 2021 at 10:48 am

                That 'cheap pine' used to feed our construction industry before the lure of overseas markets and wood chip gained dominance. Those trees for building had to be looked after, with locals employed to doing pruning and thinning to ensure straight knot-free timber. These would go off to a local sawmill to be dried/treated and cut into usable sizes.

                Have a look at your local building supply company for the knotty shit 4x2s they are demanding top dollar for these days.

                Where is the timber needed to build houses for our homeless going to come from?

                • Forget now …
                  14 May 2021 at 11:01 am

                  Pine trees do grow in other parts of the country too RMcD. Though, if as you say, they have been let go to get too gnarled for building timber, that'll be another decade until a properly maintained crop can be harvested? I don't know that much about tree-farming.

                  Though Sabine, NZRail is right to be daunted by the task of rebuilding and maintaining a coastal stretch of track when they are unsure of where the shore will be in a couple of decades. So it would be up to the government to prod/ subsidize them into action.

                  • Sabine …
                    14 May 2021 at 11:23 am

                    it is a daunting task, but it is a task that would future prove our needs for transport, and it would create jobs that are sorely needed, good, skilled jobs. Maintenance, train drivers, etc etc etc.

                    So yeah, Trains to the rescue.

                  • Rosemary McDonald …
                    14 May 2021 at 12:05 pm

                    Pine trees do grow in other parts of the country too RMcD.

                    I live on SH1 in the FFNorth. 1st empty logging trucks head north at 4.30 am. Most of the logs feed the mill in Kaitaia or head down to Whangarei for export. At a rough guess there would be thirty truck and trailer loads per day. At least. At yet, the roads up here are nowhere near as degraded as what we found on SH 35. (I guess it has a lot to do with ground stability. Kinda why growing pine helps with the erosion on the East Coast.) A few, from goddess knows where, have been put in the ground around here for the ever growing avocado industry. Hundreds of thousands of treated timber posts…along with the water consumption from the Te Aupouri Aquifer…the leaching of chemicals from these posts could very well cause major devastation into the future.

                    The returns from avos are much quicker though than the returns from growing building- quality trees.

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