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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Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
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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?