Nats contradicting each other on panicked infrastructure policy
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- Date published:
8:40 am, August 8th, 2016 - 29 comments
Categories: bill english, housing, national, useless -
Tags: housing, housing crisis, nick smith, policy
The Nats are all over the place at the moment. Govt rushed $1b infrastructure fund, Labour claims –
The Government’s flagship $1 billion housing infrastructure fund was devised in just a month, according to official statements given to the Labour Party by ministers.
The policy was unveiled at the National Party’s annual conference in July.
There was no consultation with councils regarding how much money they needed, and they only found out about the initiative two days before it was made public.
It didn’t pass through a Cabinet committee before being signed off by Cabinet, which happened just five days before the conference. …
Didn’t even consult with councils? Right. Looks like they didn’t even consult with each other – Ministers seem at odds over infrastructure fund
Housing Minister Nick Smith and Finance Minister Bill English don’t seem to agree on whether the fund should only be for new housing developments and subdivisions – dubbed “greenfield areas” – or if it can be used in existing urban areas – dubbed “brownfields”.
Both ministers were sent a written parliamentary question from the Green Party asking: “Will loans from the new Housing Infrastructure Fund only be able to be used to fund infrastructure in new “greenfield” areas?”
Mr Smith replied: “Yes.”
Mr English replied: “No. It will be possible for the fund to be used to build infrastructure in existing urban areas provided councils can show that significant amounts of new housing will result from that investment and the other criteria are met.”
Making it up as they go along.
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That is the only policy they have for anything now ….. Make it up as they go along…….they have become so lost in lie upon lie that they have now given up being coherent and everything is just done on the fly……. Vision less creeps. Imagine, screwing up a whole nation through greed and incompetence.
+ 1
+100 Nck
@Nck (1) … “Imagine, screwing up a whole nation through greed and incompetence.”
Yep. Greed, lies, corruption, subterfuge, indecisive policies one after the other, making policy up on the hoof … absolute incompetence!
And to think they are still there and could well be re elected next year! Reflects very poorly on the psyche of too many NZers, when it comes to politics and electing a government!
News Flash national don’t give a fuck if it doesn’t work, it got them a positive headline and that’s all they live for in this constant election cycle we seem to live in these days.
But they will have it all sorted in….let’s say 2050?
So true! And don’t be surprised if that $1b ever gets anywhere but in a newspaper headline.
Looks like panic too me.
You cant govern the country when you dont even follow proper cabinet procedures.
Looks like the C E O has lost control of Nat Corp and its one free for all.
It’s more like: Can’t govern the country when your ideology always fails and you have NFI WTF to do when it does.
No it’s brilliant politics, this way everyone’s happy. It’s the new “National” strategy.
One says yes one says no, spin Doctors win again.
Anyone seen any reliable polls recently??? Have not seen anything for a while?
There was just that weird outlier one from Roy Morgan last month.
Used to be better when Roy Morgan did one every few weeks. The outliers could be seen more regularly.
they must be going down in the polls by now..maybe no news is good news?…maybe the pollsters don’t like what they are getting?
…a free-fall for jonkey nact
Jono i wouldnt waste your anticipation you know how it will read , the same as the last 8 years.
National can govern alone at 47% and Labour is going backwards at 24%.
It will still read the same in a years time !
One day, two incompetent ministers.
This is becoming a habit for national.
Haven’t heard much from the Prime Minister lately – is he still around?
Hawaii
Still backing Helen Clark and the more he backs her, the worse she does.
I think this is no coincidence. The UN from what I understand is not particularly enamoured with neolib, socially unaware government policy which privatises social services and promotes increasing inequality like the John Key government is doing.
Key’s endorsement of Clark is a death knell and she shouldn’t have cosied up to him as much as she did.
Amateur, and corrupt backhander stuff.
And on stuff politics 4 tales on Helen and a couple on ex mayor of Wellington and one for the new candidates? And nothing about homeless or house prices, Saudi sheep and all the govts back flips and bendy steel or kiwi fruit b.s. etc. we need a new media along with new govt to turn our lovely country back to a place to be proud of.
Spot on Rob .Trouble is it won’t happen while Labour maintains its neolib National-lite approach.
Corbyn and Momentum,the SNP in Scotland and Sanders supporters have shown the media can be bypassed and confronted.
Sadly our neoliberal opposition Labour Party is happy to be part of the club and not do this.
To be fair, Muttonbird, anyone running for Sec Gen has to be nominated by the government of their country. At present, that’s National.
I doubt whether Key and Co are having much effect on the process. There are lots of variables in play and the powerful get to make the choice. I think Clarke would make a very good Sec Gen; she’s got the values, skills and experience. She’s certainly not amateur or corrupt, and the endorsement from Key doesn’t involve any “backhander”. He doesn’t agree with her on plenty of issues, but he’s still (presumably) keen to lift NZ’s international status.
There was a backhander. Clark publicly endorsed Key’s negotiation of the TPPA in return for his endorsement of her bid (for better or worse). These two events happened literally at the same time.
She said ‘it would be madness for New Zealand not to be part of the agreement’, while Andrew Little expressed caution and wanted more discussion and negotiation to protect NZ’s vulnerable. She dismissed Labour’s concerns over the agreement in order to gain fulsome support from the NZ government.
unfortunately yes…he is still around…and still talking smoothly… about kiwifruit and the Chinese
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201811214/nz-braces-for-effects-on-zespri's-halt-of-kiwifruit-exports
Yeah, right. Nothing to see here. This is a new fungus never before detected by China. No, they just found it now for the first time, right after a New Zealand steel manufacturer went to the WTO about steel dumping by China. Right after reports come out about the very poor quality of steel products shipped to NZ and Australia from corrupt China.
We are deliberately not being told the truth. No surprises there.
The string puller is taking a break.
One of the strategies for winning next year is too keep him out of the news unless its good publicity and he is never interviewed standing alone, he always has the henchmen and woman fawning over his every word Maggie Barry grinning like the cat with cream-pure Crosby Textor.
That’s what I think. So much smelly stuff surrounding the government at the moment that he is trying being told? to stay out of sight as much as a PM can do that.
Always amusing how high the standard this government holds local Councils to, with:
– Councils’ fully costed and depreciated budgets subject to complete public consultation (unlike the central government budget),
– Central government motorways and expressways with weak justification and bloated costs never held to account (unlike local government public transport projects),
– Ministers’ criticism of city plans such as the Auckland Unitary Plan and Christchurch post-quake blueprint (when they are by far the most comprehensive plans for cities and infrastructure ever produced in this country, and National not produced a plan for anything major since the 1970s)
– Ministers’ perpetual criticism of councils not doing enough, and too much, while stripping away all alternative income generation methods other than rates
– Ministers’ complaints about Council consent departments being too slow, at the same time as they take three years to draft a massive reform to the RMA (coming next Parliamentary sitting) that is going to hold developments up in the courts for years as new regulations are tested.
We need a change of government to one that has a plan, understands cities, has real muscle and cooperative will in its delivery agencies, and doesn’t change the legislative rules all the time with perpetual blaming. In many aspects, central government has a lot to learn from the local government of cities.
I am pretty sick of Minister Smith’s bloated ego and Brownlee’s failures of delivery. This government is the primary part of the problem when it comes to the nearly 50% of our population that lives in Auckland and Christchurch.
Boom, the stories have changed on that site. hmmmm the house tomorrow should be hot as the fluckers have had a ridiculous holiday!