Open mike 02/07/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 2nd, 2024 - 55 comments
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55 comments on “Open mike 02/07/2024 ”

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  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1
    2 July 2024 at 9:34 am

    Kāinga Ora chief's exit: New chair at odds with Christopher Luxon over performance

    The government has made a number of changes at its social housing agency and signalled more would be on the way, in response to a recent highly critical review chaired by Sir Bill English.

    It concluded the agency was underperforming and not financially viable.

    In response to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying Kāinga Ora had been "chronically underperforming" Moutter said he had no wish to disagree with Luxon.

    HOWEVER…..

    "It is an incredible achievement to have built that many new homes in this market over the last year and many thousands in the years prior."

    A looming bleak future ..

    Child Poverty Action Group's housing spokesperson, Alan Johnson, said it was no suprise about the lack of new housing from KO.

    He predicted homelessness would start to increase due to the government "sitting on its hands".

    It was "magical thinking" if the government believed community housing providers would fill the gaps.

    And where to from here?

    The government was allocating $200 million for 1500 new units over the next three years.

    "The reality is that won't be enough … what we probably will see is the entry of private capital to fund those houses at some future cost to taxpayers so what we are seeing is the slow privatisation of the provision of state housing."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/521039/kainga-ora-chief-s-exit-new-chair-at-odds-with-christopher-luxon-over-performance

    Privatisation. Where the NActFirst scumbags were always heading…..

    • Jimmy 1.1
      2 July 2024 at 10:05 am

      I think it is ridiculous that the chief executive gets six months salary to leave. He is not being made redundant. Should be a months notice. Some of these contracts are ridiculous.

      • Belladonna 1.1.1
        2 July 2024 at 10:32 am

        My understanding is, from the press coverage, that he's claiming that the job now isn't the same as the job he signed up for (contract renewal last year) – "These changes are material to the chief executive role, reducing its scale and accountabilities significantly,"

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/520986/kainga-ora-ceo-andrew-mckenzie-quits-over-government-changes

        Personally, I don't believe that this is the case. However, government departments have a long history of featherbedding the exit of their senior management team – whether that's months of gardening leave, or significant redundancy periods.

        I think that anyone who signs up for a contract renewal, or accepts an appointment, in the year before an election – should have zero redundancy if they choose to leave after the new government's policies change. It's a risk you should evaluate before you accept the job.

        Given the stoush there's been over the KO budget blowout (both during the previous Labour government, as well as the current one) – in a commercial organization he'd be at risk of being dismissed for cause.

        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-faces-60-year-debt-blowout-after-building-costs-explode/R7L54GYHNIEJD3Z6TQDFOYRJMI/

        • Drowsy M. Kram 1.1.1.1
          2 July 2024 at 12:32 pm

          However, government departments have a long history of featherbedding the exit of their senior management team…

          Note that it's not only government departments. The outcomes of some contractual featherbedding in commercial organisations is eye-watering – because they're worth it?

          https://www.quora.com/Why-do-companies-pay-CEOs-so-much-to-leave

          Theo Spierings' Fonterra payout slammed [16 Aug 2019]
          Former Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings is under fire for receiving a $4.6 million payout when he left the company last year.

          Fonterra paid ex-CEO $8.2m on departure [27 Sept 2012]

          Mystery Fonterra exec gets $3.7m payout [29 Oct 2009]

          Executive Remuneration – A Runaway Train?
          In recent times we have also seen large packages paid to the departing heads of Fletcher Building ($2.94m on top of a $4.29m package) and Sky City (a total package including departure payments of $7.36m), in spite of performance issues at both businesses.

          The End of Exorbitant CEO Exit Packages? Don’t Hold Your Breath
          [18 July 2012]
          Multimillion-dollar severance packages paid to exiting CEOs routinely make news — particularly when the leader’s tenure was universally panned or when the firm was in major cost-cutting mode. Such payouts have become the norm among large firms, observers say, and they have withstood both public outcry and legislative action. But when stakeholders believe an exit package represents a true injustice, it can have a profound impact on employee morale and a firm’s overall performance.

      • bwaghorn 1.1.2
        2 July 2024 at 10:52 am

        I think

        That's debatable

      • Bearded Git 1.1.3
        2 July 2024 at 12:06 pm

        Jimmy-he is effectively being made redundant. He signed up to run KO as a social housing renter and BUILDER .

        Despite the fact that KO has been highly successful in building state houses, including 3,500 last year, this government has made it absolutely clear that KO's role as a house builder is now ended. This was justified by the conclusions reached in the jacked-up report by Bill English.

        Luxon and co. have made it plain that only private companies will build social housing in the future with a pathetic $200m in the budget to support this process. The need for the private companies to make significant profits in this process will mean rents will inevitably rise.

        The billions saved by the government by KO not building social housing (thus increasing homelessness and the cost of putting homeless people up in motels) will be used to pay for tax cuts for the better off, which is what Key/English did over 9 years.

        To end this farce vote Labour or Green in 2026.

      • Mike the Lefty 1.1.4
        2 July 2024 at 12:48 pm

        It is called colloquially "buying out a contract".

        If they want him gone early then they have to make it worth it for him.

        The government must REALLY want him gone if they are prepared to pay that.

        I bet you would take the money if you were in his position, Jimmy.

      • Patricia Bremner 1.1.5
        2 July 2024 at 1:44 pm

        He has given eight years service. His contract was written under a National government. His job description has been totally changed. He has the right to be paid for 6 months as the Government triggered the move from building Social houses to just being a Landlord.

        As with the ferries, Luxon's politics are costly and short sighted.angry

        Vote Green or Labour Or Te Parti Maori in’26

      • aj 1.1.6
        2 July 2024 at 5:11 pm

        It's effectively a constructive dismissal.

    • Georgecom 1.2
      2 July 2024 at 5:01 pm

      Yes. According to luxon, bishop & english KO is a real concern and underperforming. The chair of the KO board says the outgoing CEO has done a great job and made some real achievements. Wonder which of the 2 camps I would trust to be more accurate

  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    2 July 2024 at 9:43 am

    While Labour were never going to build enough state houses and apartments for my liking–or the actual need–they did actually complete a few thousand some of which are “still in the pipeline” and will be finished.

    In 2020 they should have gone for broke and done a massive flat pack/modular build from Euro and Chinese imports given the local developers basically going on strike re social housing. Pepperpotting houses including tiny houses for homeless and emergency housing in every provincial town would have seriously stuck it to the grasping landlords.

    • Macro 2.1
      2 July 2024 at 10:33 am

      Just down the road from where I live KO, (to use CL's terminology) have replaced 2 very old state houses on 2 large and damp sections with 8 new and very attractive smaller homes for single parents. The sections are now well drained and attractively planted, the homes are well finished including curtaining and heat pumps. Doesn't sound like much, but I'll bet the new families living in them are very happy to be there.

      • Belladonna 2.1.1
        2 July 2024 at 10:46 am

        I think that that's been the case for the majority of the KO developments – replacing older homes on largish sections, with apartment blocks.

        This is the one just down the road from me. 9 old homes replaced with 85 apartments.

        https://kaingaora.govt.nz/en_NZ/news/northcote-development-celebrates-opening-85-new-public-homes-at-ngahuripoke/

        I hold no brief for the design of these (I think they are ugly, and the blocks are crammed too close together) – they certainly fulfill the requirement to get as many homes as possible onto the site.

        There is still KO development going on adjacent and across the road – building more of the same.

        • Visubversa 2.1.1.1
          2 July 2024 at 12:07 pm

          If you drive along Hendon Ave in Owairaka you can see an amazing transformation of the previous built environment. Gone are the old "State Houses", bult in the 1950's out of 6 varieties of tacky boarding and held together with thumb tacks. Houses where the biggest room was the kitchen, and the second bedroom was about 6m2 and expected to hold 3 children.

          Now, there is a variety of modern, warm and dry homes – some duplexes, some town houses and some 3, 4 or 5 level apartment blocks. Almost finished is the big apartment building on the corner of Hendon Ave and Richmond Rd which uses modular construction just like the one being built for Seniors opposite to old Library building in Pt Chevalier.

          • Tiger Mountain 2.1.1.1.1
            2 July 2024 at 12:21 pm

            Exactly what is possible with the political will. When I had the misfortune to live in Whangārei for several years we had a hell of battle to get a 37 dwelling state house development–mix of duplexes and smaller apartments etc–built in the ostensibly middle class suburb of Maunu.

            But it did happen, despite Dr Reti immediately siding with the aggrieved white locals and lifestyle farmers miles away, not wanting dirty filthy state tenants in their neighbourhood driving down property values.

            242 submissions to WDC against, and 6 including me for. An independent Commissioner against all odds decided the development was in line with the Council long term plan and stated social goals.

        • Obtrectator 2.1.1.2
          2 July 2024 at 12:20 pm

          Not a word about transport links, as far as I was able to see. With what looks like little or no car-parking space, that's going to be crucial.

          • Macro 2.1.1.2.1
            2 July 2024 at 2:11 pm

            Well for the state homes to which I have been referring, the public transport passes by their front door so to speak – and the obliging driver will stop at any point to enable disabled, and mums with babies alight closest to their home. The bus stop is at most about 100 m away and the bus runs hourly and is $2 for adults and $1 for children 5 – 16, free for gold card and pre schoolers. There is also parking spaces for residents cars. The sections have also been tree planted (small natives, hebes, et al ) , fenced for individual privacy, and clothes lines, a small shed for bikes, etc as well.

          • Visubversa 2.1.1.2.2
            2 July 2024 at 4:28 pm

            Hendon Ave has been reworked with raised pedestrian crossings and a new "cross town" bus link that affords access to New North Rd for CBD buses and goes to Avondale and New Lynn.

            There is some nice planting and there were already good street trees which have been retained to provide amenity,

          • Belladonna 2.1.1.2.3
            2 July 2024 at 6:02 pm

            The Northcote one does have a bus service to the CBD and to Takapuna. It isn't a very good bus service, but it does exist. It's also within walking distance (about 15-20 minutes) to the Northern busway interchange at Akoranga Station.

            Bus, observationally, the vast majority of the tenants have cars, and the street parking in the surrounding streets and shopping centre is an ongoing issue.

        • Patricia Bremner 2.1.1.3
          2 July 2024 at 1:49 pm

          Have you crossed the road to ask them Belladonna?

          devil

        • Bearded Git 2.1.1.4
          3 July 2024 at 6:36 am

          I have seen a large number of impressively designed state houses built recently in Epuni, a few hundred metres from where one of my sons lives.

    • Louis 2.2
      2 July 2024 at 12:18 pm

      "a few thousand" Tiger Mountain?

      Clint Smith @ClintVSmith

      "borrowed and spent billions" is a weird way to refer to building 22,000 homes through the government build programme. it's not like the money disappeared. most of the new homes are state houses or transitional housing that are assets on the government's books.

      Quote

      Newsroom @NewsroomNZ ·

      May 27

      Directors of Kāinga Ora stand accused of inadequately governing the agency as it borrowed and spent billions Govt suggests board's been asleep at the wheel https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/27/govt-targets-a-board-asleep-at-the-wheel/…

      8:00 AM · May 27, 2024

      https://x.com/ClintVSmith/status/1794820867261960449

  3. joe90 3
    2 July 2024 at 10:37 am

    From Sotomayor's dissent:

    Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.

    Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.

    Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

  4. tWig 4
    2 July 2024 at 11:38 am

    Israel torture of civilian Gazan prisoners reported in The Guardian.

    "The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital has accused Israel of torturing him and other detainees, following his release after seven months in Israeli prisons and detention facilities….he and other prisoners were subjected to “almost daily torture” while in detention in Israel. Mistreatment included assaults with batons and dogs, deprivation of food and medicine, as well as physical and psychological humiliation, Abu Salmiya said."

    • joe90 4.1
      2 July 2024 at 12:16 pm

      The world's most moral army.

      /

      “The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.” This is how Khaled Mahajneh describes the Sde Teiman detention center as the first lawyer to visit the facility. More than 4,000 Palestinians whom Israel arrested in Gaza have been held at the military base in the Naqab/Negev since October 7; some of them have subsequently been released, but most remain in Israeli detention.

      […]

      ‘To take revenge on whom?’

      In recent months, international media outlets have published several testimonies of released prisoners as well as doctors who worked at Sde Teiman. For Israeli doctor Dr. Yoel Donchin, who spoke to the New York Times, it was unclear why Israeli soldiers had detained many of the people he treated, some of whom were “highly unlikely to have been combatants involved in the war” based on pre-existing physical ailments or disabilities.

      The Times also reported that doctors at the facility were instructed not to write their names on official documents or address each other by name in the presence of patients, for fear of being later identified and charged with war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

      “They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” one witness who worked as a medic at the facility’s makeshift hospital told CNN. “[The beatings] were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” another witness said. “It was punishment for what they [the Palestinians] did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”

      https://www.972mag.com/sde-teiman-prisoners-lawyer-mahajneh/

  5. tc 5
    2 July 2024 at 12:25 pm

    Hearing from a family member their diabetes sensors that were to be fully funded from 1/7 are now not being funded.

    Very late notice, going to cost hundreds per month. Thought Frontline health wasn't to be impacted ?

    • Barfly 5.1
      2 July 2024 at 3:06 pm

      Media asleep on this?

    • Descendant Of Smith 5.2
      2 July 2024 at 3:44 pm

      A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

      Medicines-buying agency Pharmac says it believes it can soon fund devices that would remove the need for people with type 1 diabetes to prick a finger to check their blood sugar levels.

      Pharmac announced on Tuesday it was seeking bids from suppliers of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and insulin pumps and pump accessories for people with type 1 diabetes.

      For the past five years, Diabetes NZ has called on Pharmac to fund the devices, but Pharmac’s chief medical officer, Dr David Hughes, said the agency can only now consider the move following last year’s budget increase.

      For the tens of thousands of New Zealanders living with type 1 diabetes, “having funded access to these devices would be life changing”, Hughes said.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300925375/pharmac-looks-set-to-fund-lifechanging-diabetes-devices

      • Corokia 5.2.1
        2 July 2024 at 7:30 pm

        The proposal that was going to start on July 1st didn't fund one of the insulin pumps that many type 1s are using. There was a lot of feedback about that, people not wanting to change away from a pump that they knew worked well. So, it all went ba ck to Pharmac for more consultation and the date has been pushed back to…..whenever….

        A lot of frustration on the Type 1 FB pages

        • Descendant Of Smith 5.2.1.1
          2 July 2024 at 11:39 pm

          I was aware of that but the issue TC raised was about the funding of sensors rather than the defunding of one pump brand.

          • tc 5.2.1.1.1
            3 July 2024 at 7:55 am

            Its caused financial stress as it was all good to go but appears to have made way for tax cut funding at the 11th hour.

            Cruel and needless as we give more to the already well off, how very national.

  7. Corokia 7
    3 July 2024 at 12:51 pm

    It seems that Pharmac has bundled the funding of sensors and pumps in one package, so the hold up because of pumps is causing a delay which is also affecting the funding of sensors.

    As a non pump user, currently paying over $55 a week for a sensor, I'm not happy with the delay.