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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, July 2nd, 2025 - 72 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
The outlook for affordable housing is not good.
Why?
But.
The 100 community housing providers (CHPs) run more than 30,000 homes.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedetail/565673/kainga-ora-cuts-new-developments-as-the-housing-crisis-escalates
The Detail is worth a listen.
The Jackal did an excellent piece on the same issue a few days ago-here it is.
https://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2025/06/nationals-housing-hypocrisy-new-zealand.html
But the government is very keen to house people, including the mentally ill, and there's plenty of money available to do so!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360742037/prison-populations-are-set-spike-what-cost
And of course, no stable housing for those released, which greatly increases the risk of reoffending, and being sent back to prison.
Just a reminder that the Greens in Australia now hold the balance of power in the relatively powerful Australian Senate.
"It is generally considered to be, apart from the Senate of the United States of America, the most powerful legislative upper chamber in the world."
They remained on 10 seats after the recent election while Labor moved from 26 to 29 seats meaning that between them Labor and the Greens have 39 seats, a majority in the 76 seat Senate. An excellent result-oh that we had a Senate in NZ.
The Senate is elected using PR, while the House is elected using (fairly useless) preferential voting, which meant that the Greens lost 3 of their 4 house seats in 2025 despite polling 12% in both 2025 and 2022.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Senators/Senate_composition
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7/HTML/Chapter3/Senate_elections
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Practice_and_Procedure/Senate_Briefs/Brief10
https://theconversation.com/greens-election-hubris-how-the-minor-party-lost-its-way-and-now-its-leader-255954
With power will come accountability: with this tiny lever, what will the Grrens achieve?
The same Greens who politicized and blocked housing bills in the previous parliament and were crucified and lost all but one seat in the lower house as a result and lost votes in the popular vote.
I totally agree we should have an upper house (and a written formal constitution and state/provincial governments while we're at it, more democracy, not less) but the Aussie Greens are a basket case and are totally uncooperative
One of the few good things about proportional representation is it makes parties like the greens in NZ more collaborative compared to Australia
I used to be a huge support of MMP but since 2020 the minor parties on both sides have become dysfunctional freaks.
I'd much prefer Aussies electoral system of STV instead of MMP which empowers weirdo fringe parties who can't win an electorate seat but can dictate economic, foreign and environmental policies on just 6%.
Hopefully the greens play ball this time around, though there's also the Nationals and the liberals who may be more willing to collaborate and be seen as constructive due to being utterly wiped out.
Dreams are free though
The Australian Greens opposed the housing legislation because of the generous tax breaks to developers and the likelihood that that the legislation would drive up house prices thus shutting out poorer people.
The Greens were not "crucified"-look at the graph I posted above-the whole point of the post was to illustrate that the MSM's spinning of the Green's election result was total bollocks . Their vote held up well. The problem was that Preferential Voting is not fair/proportional in its outcome.
Please pay attention Corey.
Didn't we have greens in government..as ministers…over a number of years/terms..?
Does anyone have a handle on what was achieved from that pairing with labour..?
Hey Phil, this interview with James Shaw may help to give you a handle on climate change achievements – most have been watered down or reversed by the CoC (Cha-Ching!), which is only to be expected, and ACT wants to repeal the Zero Carbon Act.
Thanks for that… hopefully they learnt their lessons well..
Ready for next time…
Just imagine how far right Hipkins would go if he didn't have to keep the Greens onside.
Starmer gives you a clue.
scary thought
NZ Cyclists….an "underclass". Yet another killed by a truck driver. And acquitted ? : (
(Of course Cyclists are killed/maimed by other vehicles too…)
MANY more : (
The trolls who have a hate-on for Cycle lanes (separated especially)?
Fuck you…..
I cycle a lot, I also drive a lot as well.
In my humble opinion, many cyclists are their own worst enemy.
Oh yeah. Were their skirts too short?
Well given your response, I guess cyclists like you may be part of the problem.
Too many cyclists treat the road as if it is a closed road for racing. The brakes are not good enough to stop within a safe distance while they are riding at speed, and they often expect others to get out of the way, especially pedestrians and even other cyclists riding in the opposite direction.
There is a lack of situational awareness, along with understanding that they must abide by the road rules/laws.
Well given your response to my initial post (you know..the one about the Cyclists killed )
Pretty much standard victim blaming. As used by those anti cycling types. (And fake cyclists.) Who are the problem. Sound familiar?
And too many fucking motorists treat the road as though it were a closed road for racing, the big difference being the motorists are driving lethal weaponry.
I won't ride up the inside of anyone indicating a left turn these days, regardless of cycle lanes, lights or whatever. A proportion of drivers just ignore that stuff and it only takes one of them to kill you. I'm pretty sure the Venn diagram of those guys and the ones who think pedestrians have to give way to them on a pedestrian crossing is a circle.
I’m the same, regardless of what the road rules say, I don’t undertake vehicles anywhere near an intersection. I’m just not confident that drivers, on my right, can see me, even when I’m in a cycle lane.
It's a mantra I share with other motorcyclists and is appropriate for cyclists too.
'Ride like you are invisible. Make other people's decisions for them'.
Attention is such a rare commodity nowadays and getting rarer. I would love a dollar for every motorist I see with a cell phone in one hand.
I don't hate cycle lanes and it's been good to see the numbers of people using some of them in Wellington increasing. I very much detest (still) the one that runs down my narrow street on both sides, for the simple reason there is already another perfectly good one going the same way just 1 block over, and a year later, it's practically unused, even at commuter time. So they spent god knows how much on a white elephant. One day I saw a whole 3 cyclists. The council claim that there's at least 70 bikes daily, which would be wonderful if true. But no one in my road has ever seen these mythical beasts.
I hope you don't consider me a troll based on this. Much of the hate- certainly in my area- is, and always was- the way the Council implemented the whole thing, without getting the community on board. I'm not a driver and I'm being affected quite negatively.
Sad. I linked to Cycling people killed. And you seem focused on your personal circumstance?
This has been seen before..and you had quite a few replies incl LOCAL.
I don't disagree with anything you said. In fact, one of my submissions was about how dangerous the layout is in one place, which actually puts cyclists at risk because the intersection in question needs traffic lights and I've already witnessed several collisions. I've been dreading that someone will get killed there, and very early on I did witness a very near miss on a rare occassion I saw a cyclist (who was doubling a child). A motorbike ignored the give way and only narrowly avoiding colliding with said cyclist. The council know full well that traffic lights are needed there, but it was fobbed off as 'not their responsibility'.
No, I am not focussed on my personal circumstance, and I'm fully aware of the need to separate cars- and pedestrians- from the completely incompetent and idiotic and selfish drivers that seem to live in this area. Walking to the shops should never mean having to risk your life. It would, however, be nice for people on all sides to accept that some people- mostly with disabilities- have been negatively affected by cycleways. There were ways to mitigate this, but we were ignored by the council.
It is possible to care about the lives of others and still care about my own situation.
Ideally, there should be regular driving competency top-up tests. perhaps then more drivers would know what a give way sign, zebra crossing, and indicators are.
I'm a regular motorcyclist.
A lot of what you say about some motorists is true.
The same can be said for other road users.
In the tragic story of the cyclist in Tauranga, it appeared the cyclist has assumed 'right of way' as they were going straight through the intersection, hadn't slowed as he approached and as a commuter, would have used the route several times.
The other thing to consider is sometimes, for whatever reason, you just don't see other vehicles on the road.
I did this a wee while ago. About to pull out to go right ( eastwards) of my rural driveway, checked both ways, nothing coming, pulled out and there was our postie in his big Transit with a flashing yellow light also headed east.
Both of us slammed on brakes and he went pass, a near miss. I caught up with him about 2 kms up the road.
I could only apologize has he really vented, very forthrightly.
As a frequent pedestrian and an infrequent driver, I love cycle lanes. I want a lot more of them and I was their use to be compulsory for cyclists and scooter riders. Those vehicles should not be on pedestrian pavements and until the young men with bad cases of testosterone poisoning who hoon around on cycles, completely ignoring the road rules, learn to behave in a civilised fashion, they should not be on the roads either.
My Initial comment was about Cyclists killed on NZ roads.
You seem like others, to have your own agenda : "young men with bad cases of testosterone poisoning" ? Whats that about?
Two of my 3 links were about young women killed.There have been sadly many, many more People, including young women,that I could link too….
It's good to see much more scrutiny and direct action against Israel where it seeks to cleanse itself of expansionism and war crimes by sports-washing.
Two New Zealand taxpayer funded cyclists ride for such a venture, the professional Israel-Premier Tech team. You have to wonder how CNZ and NZOC can be comfortable about their riders representing Israel by way of sponsorship and branding, and also receiving NZ taxpayer funds.
As more global attention is placed on Israel's illegal actions more pressure will be placed on organisations and individuals who associate with Israel, and rightly so. NZC and NZOC wouldn’t answer questions and perhaps hopefully they are thinking very carefully about their current position which sees their athletic funded by both New Zealanders and a murderous, criminal regime.
Corban Strong and George Bennett need to choose between good and evil.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/sports/02-07-2025/the-nz-cyclist-the-israeli-team-and-a-geopolitical-storm
Not a great Roy Morgan poll for the left.
Lab 28.5 Gre 11.0 TPM 5 Total 44.5
Nat 32.0 ACT 11.5 NZF 8.0 Total 51.5
It may be somewhat influenced by Luxon having a high profile on the world stage recently.
RM had similar numbers in its last poll with the Right up 1.5% and the Left down just 0.5% this time. Other recent polls have had the race much tighter.
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9983-nz-national-voting-intention-june-2025
I must be living in my own lefties bubble to see those numbers:
– Mortgage defaults up.
– Late-payment of utility bills up.
– Food prices up.
– Unemployment up a bit, under-employment up.
– House prices down, esp Auckland.
– Investment down.
– Economy down.
– Business and consumer confidence down.
– Health system really failing.
– Hospitality dying in cities outside tourism capitals
What are the public reading? It's out of step.
But we can do 110 kmphr on some roads and act are sticking it to those damn Maori , so it's all goooood
Even older women prefer the Right….I don't get it either.
Bullshit up, and if there is one thing the CoC knows they can BS better than anyone else.
Don't those numbers underlined just how poorly hipkins/labour are doing in their role as opposition..?
That seems fairly obvious…
(Has anyone taken their pulse lately..?
Are they still breathing..?)
Chippie picked a fight with that trash station newstalk zb told them they're biased, of course he'll probably back down tomorrow instead of taking it to the twats
What was the fight about..?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360605837/live-nz-politics-blog
He told the host that thiwr owners stopped running ram raid stories once national where in power,
Numbers of ram raids have dropped but I'm picking that's due to them nit being in the headlines every day and all the beeided little loons have stopped copying the cat
RM is known for its rogue polls. Look at the trend instead.
I hope you are right.
Because the Labour Party is weak. It is stuck in neoliberalism. It is inward looking. It is bereft of ideas and vision. It sees no role in challenging the current order, and only offers patch-up solutions. It doesn't even go in to bat for public ownership of our essential services. It doesn't back working people. It doesn't handle the media effectively. It- just- isn't- out- there-in- amongst-it-fighting it's corner. It doesn't seem to know where its corner is. The whole lot of them seem too fricking comfortable. We need a Bernie, or a Jeremy.
@ feijoa…
Yep ..the Democrats in u.s. have Schumer..
We have hipkins/the labour party ..
Similar ailments to be found in both.. IMHO…
And both ..going on their past records..being tuned out by many..
They both aren't fighting enough against what the right is doing..
..and neither are offering a viable alternative..
So you and feijoa will vote this lot in again on lies?
Or lie back and let it happen?
Or join your local left group and work at change instead of being armchair critics?
Just asking on behalf of all the strugglers fighting the billionaires to buy food.
Are you wanting this lot back?
Or change?
I heard Hipkins say he would revoke the R S Bill.
That is not nothing or weak.
I vote green…
And given what I opine on here…and what I argue for…and having reread feijoa s opine…I am puzzled you could think that either of us would be supporters of this coalition of clowns..
And 'join a local group'…?. been there done that.. somewhat limiting/ineffectual I found ..
And I am puzzled you sneer at the current theatre of debate by calling contributors 'armchair critics'…
Where else are politics/policy able to be debated..?..new ideas introduced..(vegan..?..anyone..?)
I was going to say something similar.
Without any effort on the lefts part the two sides are fairly close and, despite his foreign travails, Luxon is less than 0 on the net popularity stakes.
This is the lefts election to win, just like some of us predicted after the last election.
BUT, and it is a big but, the left is going to have to work a lot harder than it is if it wants to win.
Champagne socialism and latte liberals won't do it anymore.
One thing for the right, they do get out and make themselves known in the election time.
… cuz they can buy plenty of air time and ad space.
Replace “Kiwis” and “you” with “the sorted” and I might believe them – might.
Careful now RNZ.
There have been many variations of this….I have read some Philosophy (a large thoughtscape : )…..anyway, a take on Thomas Aquinas. IMO worth a read.
I rate Prof Vance Morgan for making his Students..think. Some maybe more.
And Prof Vance Morgan's thoughts for last…
Yep : )
Lifelong atheist here…but seems Thomas had his heart and mind in the good place : )
Just sad – some CoC MPs are “more thin-skinned than a pavlova“.
Note to moderator:
Am wondering why I have been banished to the twilight world that is 'awaiting moderation'..?
You’ve got a typo in your user name again Phil so the system is treating you as a new user. Last time I think I suggested writing down the issue, so you can fix it yourself. Then you wpn’t have to wait for a moderator to come along.
Doh .!… operator error then…
It's called a PICNIC problem, Phillip – Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.
Heh ..!
Do you roll your eyes as you say it..?
ACT and NZF not fans of fiscal accountability.
Each has an aggregate of policy agendas to bring to coalition talks. Neither bothers to pretend it is budget worthy.
National has to pretend to have a budget ready plan, and then adjust it to account for their coalition partners.
Thus the mess they are in.
ACT wanted the higher cost landlord tax benefit, NZF blocked the means of funding that.
https://archive.li/YvIZj#selection-3953.0-3996.1
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nine-year-battle-for-fiscal-hole-unit-ends-as-act-and-nz-first-block-nicola-willis-proposal/Y64CYHWW7NEGXOMOTB32HFSCKM/
A comparison of two governments.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/labour-delivers-12000-more-public-homes
But
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedetail/565673/kainga-ora-cuts-new-developments-as-the-housing-crisis-escalates.
State houses (low cost/income related rent) under Labour and National
National has not increased the number of state houses since the 1975-1984 government (despite home ownership levels falling since then). The number of state houses fell 1990-1999, 2008-2017. The current National government has froze Kainga Ora growth (this after the Bishop cultivated Tory English roadblock).
https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/32421/total-state-housing-stock
Details
1984-1990 Labour – 58,000 to 68,000
1999-2008 Labour – 61,000 to 69,000
2017-2023 Labour – 66,000 to 78.000
https://teara.govt.nz/sites/default/files/32421-data.txt
Some call this difference in policy neo-liberal incrementalism by Labour, maybe they should … .
Great post SPC.
The cnuts running this shambolic and morally bankrupt government, where they cancel state housing developments in order to finance tax cuts for landlords, should take note.
12.000 houses …in six years ..
…is something to gloat about…?
..is that what is known as a low-bar-boast..?
It is the fastest rate of state house building since 1949.
2000 per year and ready to go to 3,000 per year when 2023 happened
12,000 over 6 years.
24,000 over 12 years/28,000 over 14 years.
The 1935-1949 government built 28,000 in 14 years …
… It did not start till 1938
2,500 first year, over 2000 per year. .
12,000 over 6 years, 1939-1945 – 2000 per year
13,500 1945-1949. Nothing of the like since.
But moving to a capacity to go at 3000pa would have been 21,000 over 9 years and 30,000 over 12. The first labour government did 28,000 in the 1938-1949 period.
It was set on course to match the first Labour government.
Low bar. Read some links.
Imho, SPC's comment @15 is factual and informative. Who’s gloating, in your opinion?
NZ govts can do more to increase the provision of public housing, but our current CoC govt will not – NAct is now ideologically opposed to same.
Can either of you remember how many we were promised..?
Wasn't it called kiwibuild..or something like that..?
Hi Phil, you might find some answers to ure questions here.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-04-2024/is-kiwibuild-finally-on-its-last-legs
Chrs 4 that…
No Open Mike for 3 July?
I wanted to draw attention to the very informative column by Geoffrey Palmer regarding the Regulatory Standards Bill. Cuts to the chase in clinical passionate way. The comments below the column are also very telling. (Note that Geoffrey has been denied the opportunity to speak to the Select Committee.)
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/07/02/geoffrey-palmer-passing-regulatory-standards-bill-will-exact-high-political-price/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=8b708cd8c0-Daily_Briefing+03.07.2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-8b708cd8c0-95522477&mc_cid=8b708cd8c0&mc_eid=88a3081e75
Thanks for that link, and for drawing attention to a comment by a victim of Acting PM Seymour's Regulatory Derangement Syndrome. The Select Committee couldn't spare Geofftey Palmer 5 minutes of their precious time. Ah well, time is $$$ – cha-ching!
Travesties to the right of us, travesties to the far-right of us – into the maws of Mammon the plucky Kiwis were herded…
I posted the other day about the nurses pay negotiations stopping abruptly without explanation.
Te Whatu Ora have come back with a revised offer that is worse in a few areas.
They are proposing to remove the allowance that was paid for tikanga training that was then used in the hospital. Folks do it on their own time at their own expense.
Then there is a kaupapa Maori resolution aspect that is to cease.(I'm away from laptop and don't have a wider explanation of what that is.)
A shift coordinating allowance that was paid to those that do 10 and 12 hours shift is to cease. It will only be paid for 8 hour shifts…
Oh and by the way, Te Whatu Ora is demanding that this be sorted by July 31st.
This is worse than death by 1000 cuts.
It's a continued assault on Maoritanga and female workers. (Apologies to all our make nurse comrades).
I'm all for nurses getting better pay and conditions; they're the ones in the engine room of the hospital system.
Better for the funds used on tikanga knowledge etc to go to nurses' pay checks though. It falls into the "nice to have" category of expenditure.
Today's OM is up now
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03-07-2025/