To put it bluntly the Govt. should be plunking down many millions on these types of initiatives to house the people. But it seems the bulk of the Labour Caucus would fill their pants at the prospect of a mass flat pack/tiny house/apartment build.
Yes there is a reason for that timidity, many decades of housing being treated as a cash cow rather than a family resource and accomodation, does not allow for an easy quick solution, but it surely must be attempted.
(New) Labour New Zealand are as much a part of the problem as National, therefore as they both exist today they will never tackle this housing disaster..I can't understand why people haven't figured out by now that Ardern/Robertson and pretty much all Labour NZ are Neo Liberal Free Market ideologues…they are real believers in that shit and are prepared to hold that course until the bitter end, just like all ideologues (myself included, except my political ideology is right and theirs is wrong).
I agree Adrian, which is why I have suggested homeless and supporters need to start occupying appropriate empty residential and commercial property in an organised manner to put some more heat on the Labour Caucus. Pressure worked at Ihumatāo. Around 40,000 empty properties in Auckland per various statistics from Census to Real Estate sources.
Squatting was common when I was young in England. Unoccupied buildings were squatted and in London, there was an agreement between local councils and a well organised squatting movement that allowed people who couldnt afford the rents at the time to occupy empty council homes that were going to be renovated or knocked down. My partner and I lived in 2 of these places for several years with others until eventually securing a council flat. I think squatting has been a criminal offence for years, now. Thatcher and those who followed her squashed all those protests at the same time as they squashed the miners and the British TU movement. Then she sold off as many council houses as possible.
We have brought up 3 children in an 150 year old school house, the main living area of which is the dining, lounge, homework and play area and is 60 sq metres. A 60 sq metre house which also requires toilet and bathroom, kitchen, wash house and storage and 3 bedrooms crammed into the same meterage means the rooms become cells. That’s why these things get turned down they don’t meet the required regulatory conditions for healthy living. Yes, there will be stories of “We we’re all bought up in shoebox and luvved it”, and so was I, but it had an outside shithouse, the bathroom could only take one person at a time and a standard bed wouldn’t fit in my shared room. It was not fit for purpose.
If you count 8 sqm per bedroom as a min that would meant your three rooms would be 24 sqm, then the rest can be build into the remaining 36 sqm.
Yeah, that might be a bit small, but it beats living in transient housing at million dollars for some motels who would have gone bust since the closed borders were it not for homeless people and those that lost houses in floods/tornadoes etc.
Also not everyone has three kids. Tell us why someone starting out in adult life needs a 100sqm, three garages, two landings and 4 rooms?
I remember a journalist in tears as he described the likely starvation of people in an African country. They had estimates that they only had enough food, grain etc for about two weeks to send out to the people whose crops had failed, or had run from violence. The Red Cross were onto it, they were making plans for a big delivery – but that was months away, some said six months.
Sometimes the small is beautiful, get started with practical plans now is the right thing to do. Not worry about the medium-term future, not make doubtful comments about it not being the best answer; if it fits short-term, wear it.
Definitely a fair point to consider. The penalty for failure of subsized homes, however, is a slum. So would it be "two steps forward, one back", or "one step forward, two back"?
The fact is that detached housing, no matter the size, isn't going to change the housing crisis. Just money for developers.
Vacant investment dwellings and significant state housing increases need to be addressed. It's possible that some of the govt's economic changes might tweak things over the longer term, but I doubt it will decimate property market speculation.
Agree 96% – but some more advanced fix-it ideas needed.
Like registering at an approved camping ground with toilets and showers. and covered area around them. concrete pathways and electric points so that those who have to sleep in their cars can do so. This would be government admitting the need and helping one group in a practical, honest way instead of promises at the end of the very ordinary rainbow. People who didn't behave would be ejected, so that those using the facility would have good sleep and security,
"NZ is going to the dogs because we cannot express ourselves freely and frankly any longer" = New Zealand is going to the dogs because I fear my opinions and worldview are no longer hegemonic and I am being challenged in ways I find unacceptable. And I will 'prove' this by pointing at all manner of dopey sh*t that is basically just irrelevant peripheral idiocy – while ignoring anything else that doesn't suit my argument.
Well I think its fair to say outside of Covid response evidence is mounting that this Govt is failing badly on a core issue that they had promised to address.
We all know that accommodation insecurity / affordability has a severe effect on families and their children including long term outcomes I think you can see the beginnings of this here.
This is a crisis and it feels like the current govt is happy to tinker around the edges doing just enough to avoid real scrutiny… a middle class free the lane protest got a faster reaction ffs.
A Hawke's Bay hotel that earned $1.5 million in nine months from housing people in emergency accommodation has stopped because it was "too much hassle".
He said the $1.55m his hotel earned could be down to the November floods in Napier, which displaced hundreds and caused millions of dollars of damage.
oh well. I guess that money will help him weather the lack of tourists and if its not enough they can again take up unhoused kiwis for another million or several.
Yeah, I remember the endless media stories towards the end last Nat govt covering homelessness we had the big sleepout events all this pressure for action and now we have a Lab majority govt if feels no one cares that much anymore…
i honestly don't care about Louise Upton, i dont' think that women has ever said a word in her political life that had value.
My point was that the Motelier complained about housing people for Top Dollar who mostly have lost their houses in floods. He called it / them a 'hassle' that is not worth it.
Unless 1.55 million is not top dollar and being a shitheel is the new norm.
Yup, othering, virtue signalling, making unsupported assumptions about what others think or feel, criticising the good intentions and actions of others, judging others in a negative way, the list goes on, doesn’t it, Sabine?
sabine washes her hands of all her statements with the trump excuse"im only repeating what someone else has said" just as indefensable as saying she is carbon negative because she doesnt have a car, too bad that all her product is delivered and most of her product is resold to people using dinosaur juice. bollocks…
Sabine's comments might work on the 80:20 principle. Most right but it us hard to see the constant truth. Perhaps you should put up some more interesting German stuff Sabine that we could learn from. You would be making your point and giving us some fresh ideas to add to the pot.
The Lambda variant – known to scientists as C.37 – was first identified in Peru and has been detected in samples dating back to as early as December 2020.
Since then it has become the dominant variant in the South American country, where it accounts for more than 80 per cent of new infections.
It has now been detected in at least 26 countries, including the UK. So should we be concerned?
A Variant of Interest
The World Health Organisation designated the Lambda variant as a variant of interest on 14 June.
It's more infectious than delta and so far appears to resist the vaccines.
Blojo wants to remove many restrictions in a week or so whilst the reigning F1 Champion is openly critical of the expected crowd at his home event for the British GP
If Bojo's "Freedom Day" on July 19 results in a million-person march descending on no.10 demanding that the genocidal lunatic leave office, there is some justification for it. More likely though that everyone will go to the pub.
I know, right. How dare the rest of the western world actually have a vaccination plan and a plan to move beyond closed borders and MIQ as the only way to deal with COVID.
A plan based on the science that's data driven so you know it's effective is awesome.
However the tories have time and again shown a priority for the optics, dominating the rhetoric and looking after their mates with lucrative uncontested contracts using covid as cover.
Good new covert system David, kill Covid19 and its variants off! Use sly remarks, they are so satisfying to the progenitor. Bet you don't even know what that means.
There is distinction between the Variants of Concern (still only alpha, beta, gamma & delta), and Variants of Interest (epsilon-lambda). Kappa is also a potential VoC; and it may not be always distinguished from delta, if the reference sequences aren't being looked for. Though it does seem to be a bit weird that Lambda is more related to alpha (B1.1 – first detected in UK) than gamma (P.1 – Brazil). It's a bit hard to tell; given the limits of Brazilian SARS-CoV-2 testing, but the gamma may be holding it's own against the lambda variant there.
I found this particularly concerning from your link, Sabine:
A new study – which has not yet been reviewed by other scientists and is based on tests on samples from healthcare workers in Chile – suggests that the Lambda variant is more infectious than both the Alpha (UK) or the Gamma (Brazil) variants.
It also suggests that the Lambda variant has a higher "immune escape" compared to the Alpha or Gamma variants in relation to antibodies produced in patients who have received China’s CoronaVac (Sinovac) vaccine. (The preprint, published on 1 July, did not look at other vaccines).
Much like Covid-19, simple precautions like social distancing, hand washing and keeping sick children home from daycare or kindy could help to limit the spread [of the RSV virus], he said.
But what about our freedoms? If you take away my freedom to cough over other people's babies what will you do next – forced labour camps and organ-harvesting?
When will we stand up to Australia's abuse of our common entry border?
Are we appalled at Australia's contempt for New Zealand as a dumping ground for convicts who have done their time in Australia?
Currently new Zealand shares a common entry border with Australia.
Should New Zealand protest these deportations as a breach of the common border?
Should the government give a warning that the continued abuse of our common entry border threatens the preferential free entry to New Zealand afforded Australian citizens?
If this abuse continues, should New Zealand demote Australian citizens to the same entry restrictions that we impose on our Pacific Island neighbours?
In the midst of a pandemic.
Is it time for New Zealand to stop being supine to Australia over the forced detention and deportation of 501s to this country?
Should the government tell the Morrison Administration that flights from Australia bearing 501s will not be given landing rights, or not be allowed to disembark?
Or how about these '501's actually accepting their own responsibility for their plight?
Why do you care, or why do you think anyone else should care about these 'people'?
Australia is acting legally and with its own interests at heart. We spent decades exporting our problem people (long term unemployed, criminals and so on) to Australia, starting from the 1970s. Thats why Kiwis are and have been so prominent in Australian organised crime (eg, Mr Asia Syndicate). I guess what goes around comes around.
Australia has a good historical example for transportation of criminals. Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. It’s estimated that 20% of the Australian population, over 5 million people, are descended from people originally transported as convicts, while around 2 million Britons have transported convict ancestry.
Just thinking about the length of your comments Jenny JTGT. I know that the setting when enter is pressed is to go to double spacing. When I finish my comments I usually go back and edit it to help put my point over, and I don't have a lot of one line paragraphs as you do.
Could you consider making your comments shorter, more concise, easier to read. Then more people will read them and not just get annoyed at the number and length of yours. You are exhorting others all the time to do more, and giving us info about the environment, so to get the maximum number of minds reading them, the above changes would help your quest.
This then raises the question: Are prisoners entitled to medical care while in custody? Because i seem that is what he is mainly complaining about, the lack of medical care.
Unless we don't care about such things when it comes to those that we deem 'undesirables' such as the 501'ers.
;"are prisoners entitled to medical care while in custody?" good question and one that continues to vex private prison operators in the u.s. . a real profit killer, blacks in prison have significantley better healthcare and a longer life expectancy than there brothers who are free(?). this has lead directley to private prison operators petitioning various states to be allowed to release many lossleaders,sorry, prisoners early, .. three stikes be damned.
If this article is true, haven't the tax break on the EV's been a waste of time? Japanese putting up the price of EV's by the amount of the subsidy!
"In Japan, there's such a small number of EVs. In terms of pricing, the vehicles in Japan have all gone up for the amount of the subsidy – $3450."
– Todd Hunter, Turners Automotive Group
Provided the car has a 3 Star safety rating and qualifies for the subsidy, and is being built in RHD, that'd come out cheaper than a lot of e-bikes or second hand ice cars.
So, Barnaby Joyce is back leading the Australian National Party.
That means Deputy Prime Minister. Big Cabinet vote. Big policy influence.
National used to he a straight rural political organization. Now it's the funnel for big oil and coal to tilt Australian politics away from climate mitigation. Very successfully over a decade.
That's a massive headache for the Liberals, because those rich inner seats will keep getting lost to light green independents.
And of course that itself will become the second largest transTasman problem for NZ and our Pacific Island colleagues.
One small party spill, one very big political problem.
As pointed out before, our deplorables have found Australia the land of promise, where they have flourished in that fertile soil, Joyce, Bjelke-Petersen, Clark, etc. (But not Clarke.) I guess it's all our fault! Now we have to get stronger to combat that overseas well-fed team of bullies. Perhaps we should try to enhance our strong points, and strive together including all in our team, and send the remaining deplorables over there to join with their natural cohort.
(As is common in communications (lazy), only an acronym is used in this item, with no reference to the actual descriptive words. So here is info. – Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection)
Our nation's leaders and wealthy upper class have brought the living conditions here down so far that people cannot keep themselves healthy, no longer having a standard of living previously regarded as basic and expected in an 'advanced, developed' country. Advancing means going forward, but we always thought it meant rising, not being on a sloping, downward path,
There is no resilience in much of the population to be able to cope with the unhealthy conditions that bring sickness to the lower strata of society. Yet I see an outwardly pleasant world as i look locally and read about NZ with many examples of well-off people and consumer goods and holidays that the comfortably-off can afford. It's time to get off your comfortable assets and look to doing your bit to assist those disadvantaged through not having your 'class' advantages.
It will cost you, but remember that we all pay tax through GST, and on top of that you can afford to pay more from your discretionary income ie what is left after paying the necessary bills, and buy less of your wants, so there is money left to go to others who can then have their needs met.
More stats about something we know is a precipitating factor? How will that help us? The UN have already told us we are not up to the mark in the modern world as far as kiddies are concerned.l
Wikpedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_poverty_in_New_Zealand#Housing In 2010 25,000 children, mostly from lower-income families, were admitted to hospital for preventable respiratory infections aggravated by poor houses…The highest levels of crowding seen from 2013-2015 were children ages 0–17 living in social housing. 33% of children living in social housing experienced overcrowding
New Zealand continues to fail children, Unicef report shows …
This article on suicide: 3/09/2020 — Last year, Unicef's State of the World's Children report ranked New Zealand second-worst in the OECD for child obesity. New Zealand also ranked 33rd of 38 for ..
A "feasibility study" was commissioned as part of the overhaul of Child, Youth and Family (CYF), which found that such an approach was "highly desirable" to support a consistent approach.
Perhaps someone can design a movable fence in Hurricane wire or such, and that can be placed around the seal to protect it and allow it uninterrupted spectator enjoyment! The kids can regard it as a mascot, give it a name, and ask it to arf who it considers the best player or team. Have to think laterally here I think.
What do you think would happen if the pay were increased to say 35 NZD? The landlords would increase their rent once a year as they are legally allowed to do.
27NZD *40=1080 NZD per week, plus Kiwi Safer, Holiday Pay, Sick leave.
But if you think that you can increase the pay to a point where Landlords are gonna be shamed into not annually increasing their rentals to match the pay increases, then how much would that be?
Fifty bucks? A hundred?
We need a better system for rentals and rents charged. A. the rent should reflect the value of the space rented. B. the rent should reflect that one uses the premises, but will not own these (difference between mortgage and rent), c. all rentals should be open ended, and rent should only be increased if significant investment happened during that tenancy. I .e. say remodel of the rotting bathroom could / should lead to a higher rent. These are just a few things that could be done, above all a Rent Cap system could be established.
However that is not being done, with expeption being Chloe Swarbruck who raises these issues.
Agree we have a massive problem with out of control housing costs and I completely support perpetual tenancy by right and rent controls (and capital taxes too!). These need addressing and as you mention – Labour and National seem resolved not to do anything significant.
But these high costs are real and the solution to the burden on society is not to suppress wages, but to address the housing crisis.
Something that doesn't get mentioned in the hospo worker shortage is that people don't want to work in hospo because of covid. They've found other employment where you don't have random strangers spraying all over you. Personally know a lot who don't do hospo any more.
Same goes on the punter side of the game too, people are being careful where and when they go out now.
Over a third of Kiwis claimed their lifestyle values have changed since the Covid-19 lockdowns. These have shifted to focus on family, health, friends and time.
Nearly half of Kiwis agree that they now go out for dinner less frequently than they did before Covid. While 43% are trying to save money due to uncertainty, 35% do so because they enjoy staying at home more after getting used to it in lockdowns.
Well, casting my mind back to 12 or so months ago, back then we would have been ecstatic at the idea of a vaccine with efficacy numbers as good as the reduced efficacy claimed for Pfizer against the Delta variant in Israel.
Never mind that the UK has studied the same question and found a much smaller reduction in efficacy than the Israelis.
The data, however, also shows that the [Pfizer] vaccine is still highly effective against preventing serious symptoms and hospitalization. During May, that figure stood at 98.2%, and during June, it was 93%.
Never mind the sentence construction, appreciate the good news. There will be [at least some] better days ahead – but we can't hurry them.
Some of us need a chuckle, and are interested in a different perspective on politics. The Holy Grail offers some hidden truths – it's not all buffoonery.
Perhaps this opens up a sport that would take up male energies and channel them into fighting which also requires skill in metalwork, and obedience to a code of how to knock other people about. The new ABs.
Treetop, can you just enjoy giving some positive news, without the grizzle 'not happening fast enough'. Be grateful completely, we need to feed that in when something good happens and just leave it as a Good Thing.
If it's magic you wouldn't see it, so how do you know they aren't using it somewhere? It's not near me though so maybe you're right. But i like fairy stories; they can feel free to float by me scattering stars and tinsel around some great achievement.
It goes to show it can be done. It is a slow process. It is not happening fast enough and this is a fact. If you interpret fact as grizzle that is up to you.
Just drove from Blenheim to Christchurch and must have seen hundreds of houses being built and in even the smallest settlements, but get here and only read about ‘ Labour housing failure’ , these blind media fuckers need to get out more.
But who are the houses being built for Adrian? Can they be afforded by the really needy, the young families, the poorly paid single people or ones in the 'gig' economy with short-term contracts? Are they just a way for the overseas and local investors to exchange their vouchers for something real, such a nice solid feeling of wealth. Are they being used as lures for the overseas people who have come from a country that offers better wages, ie Australia…as holiday homes, or retirement ones, rather than adding extra houses to the present local waiting list? Are the houses built and the incoming residents in sync so that the locals aren't seeing any more houses available for them?
Your irritated comment Adrian doesn't seem to allow for the above possibilities.
Now there's a good game for those who say the Government is doing nothing about housing and are also ultra-quick to to throw around words like "dictatorship" and "state control."
Let houses only be built for certain defined groups – no-one outside that group is to get builders working for them.
Our government wimps out on dealing with our current clusterfuck of a system for collecting funding for our roads, and just kicks the can of RUCs for electric vehicles down the road to 2024.
That means if your vehicle operating cost is any kind of factor in your purchasing choices, electric vehicles will cost more to operate from 2024 than a lot of the small hybrids running around today. I'm certainly not going to massively stretch my budget to go electric if there's that kind of financial penalty waiting to drop in 2 1/2 years.
Cmon Grey, bugger all people are allowed in so that shoots down that theory, houses aren’t usually built without pre-sale , “ poorly paid “ singles generally flat with others or camp with mum and dad so no they haven’t put down a deposit and gig workers move about a bit to much to settle down until they find a job they want to stay in. No, these houses are for people to live in. In Blenheim, a 240 unit retirement complex being built, which I didn’t count as I didn’t drive past it, will free up a couple of hundred houses for families to shift into either to rent or own. So that shoots down that theory as well.
The truth is that there are shitloads of houses being built, record numbers in fact, the last I heard the most annually since the early 70s. I’m complaining about lazy shit-stirring journalism. And shitloads of new houses puts downward pressure on housing costs and and about time, but speaking as an ex-builder I know it takes quite a while from the first line on a plan to a key in the door.
Ex-builder eh. So you know about it all. The problem is supply and demand for cheaper houses being in sync I guess. And whether those shitloads of houses are going to be leak-proof and fungus proof. Seems that one of the problems is the obsessive desire to have sealed-up houses so not a drop of hot air escapes. People need to open windows, stop thinking about lost energy units all the time, and government needs to just act sensibly and ensure builders are doing the right thing. Not only regulation but inspection while the concrete is being poured etc.
The local Mens Shelter up for many years, and very much prized as we can't afford to put another one or one for women in our NCC budget, may have to be vacated because it is too expensive to put in all the energy-saving insulation required by busy bureaucrats devoted to achieving 'best practice' and 100% compliance, even if they have to use a whip – /sarc for the sensitives.
All those houses, I hope they have young families and people living in them soon and they don't have to sell their souls to achieve that. But I am like bwaghorn wishful about magic wands, but with no suspended disbelief in the magician. And of course the disbelief needs to spread to the media because this is something they can hit Labour about. Why did they ever let wotsisname talk about 10,000 houses? Even a child of five would know that wouldn't fly. As Groucho Marx said – 'Send for a child of five' for our next list position.
Not that Housing Minister Megan Woods vouchsafes too many smiles these days – progressive or otherwise. These days Megan’s more into frowns. The earnest frowns of the political realist who knows that there is no simple or quick fix to New Zealand’s housing crisis. The stoical frown of the left-wing politician who yet remains unflinching in her determination to keep on doing what she can with what she’s got.
(It's part of a response to Bernard Hickey's comments on going to Oz and what is to be made of that by Minister Megan Wood.)
Crazy levels of apartments and townhouses going up in Auckland burbs now as well. Not just the 33m2 student apartments either.
Bit of a pain in the arse dealing with their traffic disruptions to build them. Along with the infrastructure upgrades to water, power and comms that go along with them.
edit
I would appreciate it if someone knows of a citizens website where there is a check kept on our business world. We were told things were going to be better under business control, and guidance instead of dozy old government…hah.
I am concerned about my friend's experiences with InterCity buses cancelling bus services at the drop of a hat, tourist information providers not notified of immediate effect etc. She had to hitchhike to get to her next stop so she could take up the flight bookings to get home. Another time she was in Christchurch for a weekend, came to get the bus back and nil result!
How much of this treatment of us as pawns to be pandered to when there is profit in it, and to be dropped like hot spuds when not, goes on? AirNZ has been doing this – people sleeping over at the airport or wherever when their plane is cancelled. If you are flying from Wellington to somewhere, and the flight is cancelled, you have to find your own accommodation as a local, it only gets provided for those from somewhere else!
I think we need a Citizens site that gets feedback where you can check to find the company that gives decent service. Or we can try to go back to a time where we could get some leverage from those supposed to be providing service.
For your information, in the year to the end of May, 43,460 new houses consented and the recent rolling monthly totals are heading for 50,000 annually. The most for almost 50 years.
Shows a March year on year nett increase of population about 33,200.
Better than the 117,900 from the previous March year.
Or the 79,200 the March year prior to that.
The ramp up on consents is welcome and way better than National has managed over 9 years of nett rampant population growth mostly from immigration, but there is a hell of a backlog.
From your figures, lprent, can one say that there are more houses being consented to be built than the total number of people in the net increase in New Zealand's population? That is, 43460 houses consented for 32,000 increase in population?
Can the figures be easily discovered for the same two figures over the last ten years? Is there a significant difference between the numbers consented, and the numbers actually built?
I'm watching a replay of today's question time where I watched the Prime Minister give a serve back to the Leader of the Opposition who was criticising children's having to be housed in motels by saying that this has to be better than children sleeping in cars. Especially when at the same time state housing was being sold into private ownership.
Just how many houses are we short in God's Own Country?
How does this sit in conscience with 200,000 empty houses in God's Own Country at the last census?
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
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Read/listen to these and weep…particularly the modular company account–they need more workflow fer crissakes…as motels blowout
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018800028/a-modular-solution-to-the-housing-crisis
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018799639/small-homes-big-ambitions
To put it bluntly the Govt. should be plunking down many millions on these types of initiatives to house the people. But it seems the bulk of the Labour Caucus would fill their pants at the prospect of a mass flat pack/tiny house/apartment build.
Yes there is a reason for that timidity, many decades of housing being treated as a cash cow rather than a family resource and accomodation, does not allow for an easy quick solution, but it surely must be attempted.
(New) Labour New Zealand are as much a part of the problem as National, therefore as they both exist today they will never tackle this housing disaster..I can't understand why people haven't figured out by now that Ardern/Robertson and pretty much all Labour NZ are Neo Liberal Free Market ideologues…they are real believers in that shit and are prepared to hold that course until the bitter end, just like all ideologues (myself included, except my political ideology is right and theirs is wrong).
Adrian Thornton I am enjoying reading your comments. Wry sometimes, and leading to useful thought most of the time. Please stick in there.
I agree Adrian, which is why I have suggested homeless and supporters need to start occupying appropriate empty residential and commercial property in an organised manner to put some more heat on the Labour Caucus. Pressure worked at Ihumatāo. Around 40,000 empty properties in Auckland per various statistics from Census to Real Estate sources.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/cat-maclennan-on-ghost-housing
Can you point yo a country that's following your ideology so I can check that you are in fact right. ??
Late 70s Cambodia seems pretty close, as far as I can tell.
Here is some info on England and Wales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting_in_England_and_Wales
Interestingly, you can apply to own the property after 12 years.
Squatting was common when I was young in England. Unoccupied buildings were squatted and in London, there was an agreement between local councils and a well organised squatting movement that allowed people who couldnt afford the rents at the time to occupy empty council homes that were going to be renovated or knocked down. My partner and I lived in 2 of these places for several years with others until eventually securing a council flat. I think squatting has been a criminal offence for years, now. Thatcher and those who followed her squashed all those protests at the same time as they squashed the miners and the British TU movement. Then she sold off as many council houses as possible.
We have brought up 3 children in an 150 year old school house, the main living area of which is the dining, lounge, homework and play area and is 60 sq metres. A 60 sq metre house which also requires toilet and bathroom, kitchen, wash house and storage and 3 bedrooms crammed into the same meterage means the rooms become cells. That’s why these things get turned down they don’t meet the required regulatory conditions for healthy living. Yes, there will be stories of “We we’re all bought up in shoebox and luvved it”, and so was I, but it had an outside shithouse, the bathroom could only take one person at a time and a standard bed wouldn’t fit in my shared room. It was not fit for purpose.
How did you survive without a media room and ensuite?
If you count 8 sqm per bedroom as a min that would meant your three rooms would be 24 sqm, then the rest can be build into the remaining 36 sqm.
Yeah, that might be a bit small, but it beats living in transient housing at million dollars for some motels who would have gone bust since the closed borders were it not for homeless people and those that lost houses in floods/tornadoes etc.
Also not everyone has three kids. Tell us why someone starting out in adult life needs a 100sqm, three garages, two landings and 4 rooms?
That's the same argument as the one for jobs paying a sub-living minimum wage – it's only for hardy young 'uns starting out.
The problem is that a serious chunk of people end up in those jobs or dwellings for life.
I remember a journalist in tears as he described the likely starvation of people in an African country. They had estimates that they only had enough food, grain etc for about two weeks to send out to the people whose crops had failed, or had run from violence. The Red Cross were onto it, they were making plans for a big delivery – but that was months away, some said six months.
Sometimes the small is beautiful, get started with practical plans now is the right thing to do. Not worry about the medium-term future, not make doubtful comments about it not being the best answer; if it fits short-term, wear it.
Definitely a fair point to consider. The penalty for failure of subsized homes, however, is a slum. So would it be "two steps forward, one back", or "one step forward, two back"?
The fact is that detached housing, no matter the size, isn't going to change the housing crisis. Just money for developers.
Vacant investment dwellings and significant state housing increases need to be addressed. It's possible that some of the govt's economic changes might tweak things over the longer term, but I doubt it will decimate property market speculation.
Agree 96% – but some more advanced fix-it ideas needed.
Like registering at an approved camping ground with toilets and showers. and covered area around them. concrete pathways and electric points so that those who have to sleep in their cars can do so. This would be government admitting the need and helping one group in a practical, honest way instead of promises at the end of the very ordinary rainbow. People who didn't behave would be ejected, so that those using the facility would have good sleep and security,
Is that really better than transitional housing in a motel?
Helpfully, Tim Watkin and RNZ are drawing the dividing line for us.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/drawing-a-red-line-with-china
Better make sure that I choose the right side …
Yeah, apparently Japan is an imperialist country.
Shows what I (or maybe Tim) know to be facts.
NZ is going to the dogs because we cannot express ourselves freely and frankly any longer 🙁
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/worker-at-auckland-airport-arrested-after-making-concerning-comments/DXVJBX2253DLWGC3GVXHK2SR5Q/
Witness the supporters jumping to his aid \SARC
Hopefully more details will come out. Was he talking about a bomb? Or was he being racist or sexist?
Did he make them online or did he have a ‘bad day’ at work and yelled at his co-workers and/or his boss? But that’s not really my point 😉
Would you mind saying what your point is? I’m not getting it.
"NZ is going to the dogs because we cannot express ourselves freely and frankly any longer" = New Zealand is going to the dogs because I fear my opinions and worldview are no longer hegemonic and I am being challenged in ways I find unacceptable. And I will 'prove' this by pointing at all manner of dopey sh*t that is basically just irrelevant peripheral idiocy – while ignoring anything else that doesn't suit my argument.
Good one AB you understand the situation completely and ridicule it well, except that you are choosing the wrong side for your wry ire.
Well I think its fair to say outside of Covid response evidence is mounting that this Govt is failing badly on a core issue that they had promised to address.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018802675/nz-children-living-in-motels-reaches-record-high
The state house build is forecast to add around 8000 homes over the next 4 years which will barely touch the sides.
Record house price increases adding hundreds of thousands to values further entrenching inequality.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/124504352/national-median-house-price-soars-to-record-high–reinz
Rents are hitting record highs https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2021/04/housing-crisis-price-for-rentals-hits-new-all-time-high.html
We all know that accommodation insecurity / affordability has a severe effect on families and their children including long term outcomes I think you can see the beginnings of this here.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/truancy-crisis-more-than-60000-students-chronically-absent-from-school/6TXZWOLAE6WTO35J7CGKHIOOQ4/
This is a crisis and it feels like the current govt is happy to tinker around the edges doing just enough to avoid real scrutiny… a middle class free the lane protest got a faster reaction ffs.
well, there is a lot of money to be made in 'transient housing'.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/emergency-housing-crisis-hawkes-bay-hotel-earned-15m-in-nine-months-but-it-was-too-much-hassle/W3FGXTV5KFKFFJSXJXEB7RBV3E/
oh well. I guess that money will help him weather the lack of tourists and if its not enough they can again take up unhoused kiwis for another million or several.
As for the kids. No one really cares.
Yeah, I remember the endless media stories towards the end last Nat govt covering homelessness we had the big sleepout events all this pressure for action and now we have a Lab majority govt if feels no one cares that much anymore…
I retread the article.
Louise Upston obviously didn't want the hotel to take any of the displaced hundreds from the November floods in Napier.
Maybe she could have put them up at her place.
i honestly don't care about Louise Upton, i dont' think that women has ever said a word in her political life that had value.
My point was that the Motelier complained about housing people for Top Dollar who mostly have lost their houses in floods. He called it / them a 'hassle' that is not worth it.
Unless 1.55 million is not top dollar and being a shitheel is the new norm.
It saddens me to hear that you don’t care about the kids
We all got to do what we got to do, don't we Incognito.
Yup, othering, virtue signalling, making unsupported assumptions about what others think or feel, criticising the good intentions and actions of others, judging others in a negative way, the list goes on, doesn’t it, Sabine?
Of course Incognito, it must be as you say it is.
I don’t write your comments, so please don’t avoid taking responsibility for them; they are yours.
sabine washes her hands of all her statements with the trump excuse"im only repeating what someone else has said" just as indefensable as saying she is carbon negative because she doesnt have a car, too bad that all her product is delivered and most of her product is resold to people using dinosaur juice. bollocks…
Sabine's comments might work on the 80:20 principle. Most right but it us hard to see the constant truth. Perhaps you should put up some more interesting German stuff Sabine that we could learn from. You would be making your point and giving us some fresh ideas to add to the pot.
Move over Delta, there is a new kid in town. Everyone meet Lamda.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-uk-lambda-variant-peru-b1878416.html
They are going to run out of letters soon to name these variants.
That is what i said to some friends today. Next roman numericals?
It's more infectious than delta and so far appears to resist the vaccines.
Blojo wants to remove many restrictions in a week or so whilst the reigning F1 Champion is openly critical of the expected crowd at his home event for the British GP
The new normal is here.
If Bojo's "Freedom Day" on July 19 results in a million-person march descending on no.10 demanding that the genocidal lunatic leave office, there is some justification for it. More likely though that everyone will go to the pub.
I know, right. How dare the rest of the western world actually have a vaccination plan and a plan to move beyond closed borders and MIQ as the only way to deal with COVID.
A plan based on the science that's data driven so you know it's effective is awesome.
However the tories have time and again shown a priority for the optics, dominating the rhetoric and looking after their mates with lucrative uncontested contracts using covid as cover.
Good new covert system David, kill Covid19 and its variants off! Use sly remarks, they are so satisfying to the progenitor. Bet you don't even know what that means.
There is distinction between the Variants of Concern (still only alpha, beta, gamma & delta), and Variants of Interest (epsilon-lambda). Kappa is also a potential VoC; and it may not be always distinguished from delta, if the reference sequences aren't being looked for. Though it does seem to be a bit weird that Lambda is more related to alpha (B1.1 – first detected in UK) than gamma (P.1 – Brazil). It's a bit hard to tell; given the limits of Brazilian SARS-CoV-2 testing, but the gamma may be holding it's own against the lambda variant there.
https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210627/Lambda-lineage-of-SARS-CoV-2-has-potential-to-become-variant-of-concern.aspx
I found this particularly concerning from your link, Sabine:
Honestly at this stage I just call it the fucking virus or the fucking plague. 🙂 TFV or TVP take your pick.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/446272/rsv-outbreak-cases-of-babies-with-serious-virus-rising-nationwide
But what about our freedoms? If you take away my freedom to cough over other people's babies what will you do next – forced labour camps and organ-harvesting?
AB – hyperbole?
When will we stand up to Australia's abuse of our common entry border?
Are we appalled at Australia's contempt for New Zealand as a dumping ground for convicts who have done their time in Australia?
Currently new Zealand shares a common entry border with Australia.
Should New Zealand protest these deportations as a breach of the common border?
Should the government give a warning that the continued abuse of our common entry border threatens the preferential free entry to New Zealand afforded Australian citizens?
If this abuse continues, should New Zealand demote Australian citizens to the same entry restrictions that we impose on our Pacific Island neighbours?
In the midst of a pandemic.
Is it time for New Zealand to stop being supine to Australia over the forced detention and deportation of 501s to this country?
Should the government tell the Morrison Administration that flights from Australia bearing 501s will not be given landing rights, or not be allowed to disembark?
Are we disgusted enough yet?
[over long text deleted]
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/deportee-with-terminal-cancer-says-australian-government-treats-501s-like-numbers-not-humans/ar-AALMzsU?
Or how about these '501's actually accepting their own responsibility for their plight?
Why do you care, or why do you think anyone else should care about these 'people'?
Australia is acting legally and with its own interests at heart. We spent decades exporting our problem people (long term unemployed, criminals and so on) to Australia, starting from the 1970s. Thats why Kiwis are and have been so prominent in Australian organised crime (eg, Mr Asia Syndicate). I guess what goes around comes around.
Australia has a good historical example for transportation of criminals. Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. It’s estimated that 20% of the Australian population, over 5 million people, are descended from people originally transported as convicts, while around 2 million Britons have transported convict ancestry.
https://www.migrationmuseum.org/were-your-ancestors-transported-to-australia-as-convicts/
Just thinking about the length of your comments Jenny JTGT. I know that the setting when enter is pressed is to go to double spacing. When I finish my comments I usually go back and edit it to help put my point over, and I don't have a lot of one line paragraphs as you do.
Could you consider making your comments shorter, more concise, easier to read. Then more people will read them and not just get annoyed at the number and length of yours. You are exhorting others all the time to do more, and giving us info about the environment, so to get the maximum number of minds reading them, the above changes would help your quest.
@ mac1 (8.1.1) … Australian Royalty
This then raises the question: Are prisoners entitled to medical care while in custody? Because i seem that is what he is mainly complaining about, the lack of medical care.
Unless we don't care about such things when it comes to those that we deem 'undesirables' such as the 501'ers.
;"are prisoners entitled to medical care while in custody?" good question and one that continues to vex private prison operators in the u.s. . a real profit killer, blacks in prison have significantley better healthcare and a longer life expectancy than there brothers who are free(?). this has lead directley to private prison operators petitioning various states to be allowed to release many lossleaders,sorry, prisoners early, .. three stikes be damned.
The real human rights being abused are us NZ citizens who have to put up with new massive criminal gangs expanding here.
They should be required to wear bracelets upon entry, until they renounce all such affiliates.
If this article is true, haven't the tax break on the EV's been a waste of time? Japanese putting up the price of EV's by the amount of the subsidy!
"In Japan, there's such a small number of EVs. In terms of pricing, the vehicles in Japan have all gone up for the amount of the subsidy – $3450."
– Todd Hunter, Turners Automotive Group
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/car-dealers-price-warning-on-ev-subsidies
Maybe we'll get Chinese EV like this one. Similar range to my Leaf yet with a much smaller 13 kw/h battery.
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/07/20200725-wuling.html
The Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV, outselling the Tesla. Under 3 metres long, under 700 kg weight, cleverly roomy inside. And much cheaper.
Provided the car has a 3 Star safety rating and qualifies for the subsidy, and is being built in RHD, that'd come out cheaper than a lot of e-bikes or second hand ice cars.
So, Barnaby Joyce is back leading the Australian National Party.
That means Deputy Prime Minister. Big Cabinet vote. Big policy influence.
National used to he a straight rural political organization. Now it's the funnel for big oil and coal to tilt Australian politics away from climate mitigation. Very successfully over a decade.
That's a massive headache for the Liberals, because those rich inner seats will keep getting lost to light green independents.
And of course that itself will become the second largest transTasman problem for NZ and our Pacific Island colleagues.
One small party spill, one very big political problem.
As pointed out before, our deplorables have found Australia the land of promise, where they have flourished in that fertile soil, Joyce, Bjelke-Petersen, Clark, etc. (But not Clarke.) I guess it's all our fault! Now we have to get stronger to combat that overseas well-fed team of bullies. Perhaps we should try to enhance our strong points, and strive together including all in our team, and send the remaining deplorables over there to join with their natural cohort.
wasnt hosking threatening-promising to phuck off to aus? start a whocares page.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/446272/rsv-outbreak-cases-of-babies-with-serious-virus-rising-nationwide
(As is common in communications (lazy), only an acronym is used in this item, with no reference to the actual descriptive words. So here is info. – Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection)
Our nation's leaders and wealthy upper class have brought the living conditions here down so far that people cannot keep themselves healthy, no longer having a standard of living previously regarded as basic and expected in an 'advanced, developed' country. Advancing means going forward, but we always thought it meant rising, not being on a sloping, downward path,
There is no resilience in much of the population to be able to cope with the unhealthy conditions that bring sickness to the lower strata of society. Yet I see an outwardly pleasant world as i look locally and read about NZ with many examples of well-off people and consumer goods and holidays that the comfortably-off can afford. It's time to get off your comfortable assets and look to doing your bit to assist those disadvantaged through not having your 'class' advantages.
It will cost you, but remember that we all pay tax through GST, and on top of that you can afford to pay more from your discretionary income ie what is left after paying the necessary bills, and buy less of your wants, so there is money left to go to others who can then have their needs met.
I would like to know how many hospitalised babies live in substandard housing?
More stats about something we know is a precipitating factor? How will that help us? The UN have already told us we are not up to the mark in the modern world as far as kiddies are concerned.l
Wikpedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_poverty_in_New_Zealand#Housing
In 2010 25,000 children, mostly from lower-income families, were admitted to hospital for preventable respiratory infections aggravated by poor houses…The highest levels of crowding seen from 2013-2015 were children ages 0–17 living in social housing. 33% of children living in social housing experienced overcrowding
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-opinion/media/2020/new-zealand-is-violating-the-rights-of-its-children-is-it-time-to-change-the-legal-definition-of-age-discrimination
New Zealand continues to fail children, Unicef report shows …
This article on suicide: 3/09/2020 — Last year, Unicef's State of the World's Children report ranked New Zealand second-worst in the OECD for child obesity. New Zealand also ranked 33rd of 38 for ..
2016 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84170880/nz-comes-under-un-scrutiny-over-its-treatment-of-children
(Anne Tolley) It's asked New Zealand to report on whether the "outsourcing" of essential services to private enterprise is "compliant with the provisions of the convention".
A "feasibility study" was commissioned as part of the overhaul of Child, Youth and Family (CYF), which found that such an approach was "highly desirable" to support a consistent approach.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/446252/sea-lion-pitch-invasion-causes-suspension-of-two-kids-footie-games
Perhaps someone can design a movable fence in Hurricane wire or such, and that can be placed around the seal to protect it and allow it uninterrupted spectator enjoyment! The kids can regard it as a mascot, give it a name, and ask it to arf who it considers the best player or team. Have to think laterally here I think.
oh well that is some record i guess
https://twitter.com/UNFCCC/status/1412006088090820610
Yet another long article on the "Worker Shortage" (substitute "Pay and Training Shortage" every time you read that).
They say they offer $27 / hour so "it can't be the pay" – tried renting a house lately??!
Instead of paying or training – just braying to be allowed to bring in insecure immigrant labour to drive wages and training down.
What do you think would happen if the pay were increased to say 35 NZD? The landlords would increase their rent once a year as they are legally allowed to do.
27NZD *40=1080 NZD per week, plus Kiwi Safer, Holiday Pay, Sick leave.
But if you think that you can increase the pay to a point where Landlords are gonna be shamed into not annually increasing their rentals to match the pay increases, then how much would that be?
Fifty bucks? A hundred?
We need a better system for rentals and rents charged. A. the rent should reflect the value of the space rented. B. the rent should reflect that one uses the premises, but will not own these (difference between mortgage and rent), c. all rentals should be open ended, and rent should only be increased if significant investment happened during that tenancy. I .e. say remodel of the rotting bathroom could / should lead to a higher rent. These are just a few things that could be done, above all a Rent Cap system could be established.
However that is not being done, with expeption being Chloe Swarbruck who raises these issues.
Agree we have a massive problem with out of control housing costs and I completely support perpetual tenancy by right and rent controls (and capital taxes too!). These need addressing and as you mention – Labour and National seem resolved not to do anything significant.
But these high costs are real and the solution to the burden on society is not to suppress wages, but to address the housing crisis.
Something that doesn't get mentioned in the hospo worker shortage is that people don't want to work in hospo because of covid. They've found other employment where you don't have random strangers spraying all over you. Personally know a lot who don't do hospo any more.
Same goes on the punter side of the game too, people are being careful where and when they go out now.
Re above
https://theregister.co.nz/2021/07/05/new-zealands-hospitality-industry-is-struggling-more-than-ever/
I know 2 youngins who have worked in hospo and hated it because alot of people are rude ignorant fuckwits who cant even use basic manners.
Yep, and begrudge paying the price that would help enable a decent wage let alone a living.
Pfizer vaccine less effective against Delta variant, Israeli study finds
https://www.ft.com/content/0b3da41e-6390-4f4b-866c-da5c6aec7f5e
Well, that’s not the news that one would like to hear about this shitty virus.
Well, casting my mind back to 12 or so months ago, back then we would have been ecstatic at the idea of a vaccine with efficacy numbers as good as the reduced efficacy claimed for Pfizer against the Delta variant in Israel.
Never mind that the UK has studied the same question and found a much smaller reduction in efficacy than the Israelis.
"Always look on the bright side of life" – “At least they didn’t burn the potatoes.”
Or (simply) "The sun will come out…"
Never mind the sentence construction, appreciate the good news. There will be [at least some] better days ahead – but we can't hurry them.
Some of us need a chuckle, and are interested in a different perspective on politics. The Holy Grail offers some hidden truths – it's not all buffoonery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-wbrKimEOc
Perhaps this opens up a sport that would take up male energies and channel them into fighting which also requires skill in metalwork, and obedience to a code of how to knock other people about. The new ABs.
England v Australia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoFM2s0jxyQ
NZrs are already into this. Let's get behind the code and the sporting bodies already organising it, make them officially recognised.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TflUa6IWNdk
(https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/106094232/fighting-for-fun-an-inside-look-at-new-zealands-medieval-combat-scene
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Medieval_Combat_Federation
Good to see, but not happening fast enough. 83 apartments, 70 are one bedroom apartments.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/125552616/wellington-city-mission-opens-new-transitional-housing-facility-te-p-pori
Treetop, can you just enjoy giving some positive news, without the grizzle 'not happening fast enough'. Be grateful completely, we need to feed that in when something good happens and just leave it as a Good Thing.
Oh common grey every one knows labour has a fucking big magic wand, but the buggers simple wont use it.
If it's magic you wouldn't see it, so how do you know they aren't using it somewhere? It's not near me though so maybe you're right. But i like fairy stories; they can feel free to float by me scattering stars and tinsel around some great achievement.
It goes to show it can be done. It is a slow process. It is not happening fast enough and this is a fact. If you interpret fact as grizzle that is up to you.
Just drove from Blenheim to Christchurch and must have seen hundreds of houses being built and in even the smallest settlements, but get here and only read about ‘ Labour housing failure’ , these blind media fuckers need to get out more.
But who are the houses being built for Adrian? Can they be afforded by the really needy, the young families, the poorly paid single people or ones in the 'gig' economy with short-term contracts? Are they just a way for the overseas and local investors to exchange their vouchers for something real, such a nice solid feeling of wealth. Are they being used as lures for the overseas people who have come from a country that offers better wages, ie Australia…as holiday homes, or retirement ones, rather than adding extra houses to the present local waiting list? Are the houses built and the incoming residents in sync so that the locals aren't seeing any more houses available for them?
Your irritated comment Adrian doesn't seem to allow for the above possibilities.
Now there's a good game for those who say the Government is doing nothing about housing and are also ultra-quick to to throw around words like "dictatorship" and "state control."
Let houses only be built for certain defined groups – no-one outside that group is to get builders working for them.
Our government wimps out on dealing with our current clusterfuck of a system for collecting funding for our roads, and just kicks the can of RUCs for electric vehicles down the road to 2024.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/evs/125666247/government-extends-ruc-exemption-for-evs
That means if your vehicle operating cost is any kind of factor in your purchasing choices, electric vehicles will cost more to operate from 2024 than a lot of the small hybrids running around today. I'm certainly not going to massively stretch my budget to go electric if there's that kind of financial penalty waiting to drop in 2 1/2 years.
Cmon Grey, bugger all people are allowed in so that shoots down that theory, houses aren’t usually built without pre-sale , “ poorly paid “ singles generally flat with others or camp with mum and dad so no they haven’t put down a deposit and gig workers move about a bit to much to settle down until they find a job they want to stay in. No, these houses are for people to live in. In Blenheim, a 240 unit retirement complex being built, which I didn’t count as I didn’t drive past it, will free up a couple of hundred houses for families to shift into either to rent or own. So that shoots down that theory as well.
The truth is that there are shitloads of houses being built, record numbers in fact, the last I heard the most annually since the early 70s. I’m complaining about lazy shit-stirring journalism. And shitloads of new houses puts downward pressure on housing costs and and about time, but speaking as an ex-builder I know it takes quite a while from the first line on a plan to a key in the door.
Ex-builder eh. So you know about it all. The problem is supply and demand for cheaper houses being in sync I guess. And whether those shitloads of houses are going to be leak-proof and fungus proof. Seems that one of the problems is the obsessive desire to have sealed-up houses so not a drop of hot air escapes. People need to open windows, stop thinking about lost energy units all the time, and government needs to just act sensibly and ensure builders are doing the right thing. Not only regulation but inspection while the concrete is being poured etc.
The local Mens Shelter up for many years, and very much prized as we can't afford to put another one or one for women in our NCC budget, may have to be vacated because it is too expensive to put in all the energy-saving insulation required by busy bureaucrats devoted to achieving 'best practice' and 100% compliance, even if they have to use a whip – /sarc for the sensitives.
All those houses, I hope they have young families and people living in them soon and they don't have to sell their souls to achieve that. But I am like bwaghorn wishful about magic wands, but with no suspended disbelief in the magician. And of course the disbelief needs to spread to the media because this is something they can hit Labour about. Why did they ever let wotsisname talk about 10,000 houses? Even a child of five would know that wouldn't fly. As Groucho Marx said – 'Send for a child of five' for our next list position.
This from Bowalley Road on housing: https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-choice-giving-up-or-keeping-hope.html
Not that Housing Minister Megan Woods vouchsafes too many smiles these days – progressive or otherwise. These days Megan’s more into frowns. The earnest frowns of the political realist who knows that there is no simple or quick fix to New Zealand’s housing crisis. The stoical frown of the left-wing politician who yet remains unflinching in her determination to keep on doing what she can with what she’s got.
(It's part of a response to Bernard Hickey's comments on going to Oz and what is to be made of that by Minister Megan Wood.)
Crazy levels of apartments and townhouses going up in Auckland burbs now as well. Not just the 33m2 student apartments either.
Bit of a pain in the arse dealing with their traffic disruptions to build them. Along with the infrastructure upgrades to water, power and comms that go along with them.
edit
I would appreciate it if someone knows of a citizens website where there is a check kept on our business world. We were told things were going to be better under business control, and guidance instead of dozy old government…hah.
I am concerned about my friend's experiences with InterCity buses cancelling bus services at the drop of a hat, tourist information providers not notified of immediate effect etc. She had to hitchhike to get to her next stop so she could take up the flight bookings to get home. Another time she was in Christchurch for a weekend, came to get the bus back and nil result!
How much of this treatment of us as pawns to be pandered to when there is profit in it, and to be dropped like hot spuds when not, goes on? AirNZ has been doing this – people sleeping over at the airport or wherever when their plane is cancelled. If you are flying from Wellington to somewhere, and the flight is cancelled, you have to find your own accommodation as a local, it only gets provided for those from somewhere else!
I think we need a Citizens site that gets feedback where you can check to find the company that gives decent service. Or we can try to go back to a time where we could get some leverage from those supposed to be providing service.
For your information, in the year to the end of May, 43,460 new houses consented and the recent rolling monthly totals are heading for 50,000 annually. The most for almost 50 years.
Yay! But that still means that we’re running from way behind.
Stats estimates on population growth between March 2020 5,083,100 to March 2021 5,116,300
Shows a March year on year nett increase of population about 33,200.
Better than the 117,900 from the previous March year.
Or the 79,200 the March year prior to that.
The ramp up on consents is welcome and way better than National has managed over 9 years of nett rampant population growth mostly from immigration, but there is a hell of a backlog.
From your figures, lprent, can one say that there are more houses being consented to be built than the total number of people in the net increase in New Zealand's population? That is, 43460 houses consented for 32,000 increase in population?
Can the figures be easily discovered for the same two figures over the last ten years? Is there a significant difference between the numbers consented, and the numbers actually built?
I'm watching a replay of today's question time where I watched the Prime Minister give a serve back to the Leader of the Opposition who was criticising children's having to be housed in motels by saying that this has to be better than children sleeping in cars. Especially when at the same time state housing was being sold into private ownership.
Just how many houses are we short in God's Own Country?
How does this sit in conscience with 200,000 empty houses in God's Own Country at the last census?