Open mike 15/10/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 15th, 2024 - 50 comments
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50 comments on “Open mike 15/10/2024 ”

  1. Joe90 1

    Is the CoC following the Tory play book?

    .

    @cjayanetti

    The Tories are lost because every part of their ideology has failed. Commentary on the leadership race has focused on the candidates, but their fundamental problem is that their entire worldview has collapsed

    By me, for Bloomberg – £ but screengrabs: 🧵

    https://xcancel.com/cjayanetti/status/1845150021873775081

  2. aj 2

    Has anyone noticed the cost of RUC for PHEV's has gone down. My last two payments per 1000km have been $50.44, prior to this it was $88.44 per 1000km

    I can't find any links to any announcement about this.

  3. Ffloyd 3

    I do hope that the Opposition come out swinging soon. I sense a certain amount of despondency due to lack of response to the antics of our present Coalition of Not Much At All. It would be nice to see them held to account, even just a little bit. …..Compliant media?

    • Shanreagh 4.1

      Thank goodness. She is now doing the pulling on the heartstrings stuff like saying 'oh of course any review will include social housing'. Many of the proponents of a review feel there there is much scope to crop unnecessary/postpone etc many programmes without touching social housing. If social housing is to be reviewed it does not need to be in the first round. In fact being land leases and land and housing it is much more in the line of family silver assets and should be kept. It provides a crucial service.

      I feel that the Nats being the Nats don't agree with the WCC vote of NOT selling family silver/airport shares, as privatisation is their first, second, third etc agenda. Any moves should be watched carefully. Rethink of programmes yes sure, rethink of decision to sell the airport shares, no. Tory Whanau is so under pressure that she probably wouldn't see the harm in cosying up to the Nats/CoC as long as it meant she could get her pet projects, Golden Mile cycle way, cycleways generally etc kept.

      • SPC 4.1.1

        The alliance of right wingers, with those against the sale of the airport shares, was a deliberate move to enable a minority to get control of the 10 year plan via government intervention.

        They themselves know that would involve sale of the shares and more.

        Despite your aspersion about Whanau, it appears to me that those opposed to the Golden Mile plan which includes the right wing of the council are the ones in cahoot with National (roads fast moving roads says Brown, slash the non essentials says Willis).

        • Shanreagh 4.1.1.1

          The ones against the sale of shares (from the top of my head ) include two Labour councillors and one Green so I am not sure how they have morphed into being right wingers…..Ben McNulty, Nikau Wi Neera, Nureddin Abdurahman. The NoM was passed by a majority 9-7. It is not a minority move otherwise it would not have passed.

          The Council now has to go back to the drawing board with the list of nice to haves to be removed and hopefully refocus on the 'knitting'. NZTA has withdrawn funding for 99% of transport initiatives applied for by WCC. Assuming these are not airy fairy stuff and real infrastructure needs then WCC will also have to find $$$$ for (some of) these. The pressure on the budgets now that the sale is not to proceed and with the additional 99%of transport infrastructure to be met will mean some very careful budgetting, some thing that did not happen last time judging by the fact that ratepayers are now expected to met addtional costs of 18-20%. I've seen comments from some that they wouldn't mind paying this extra as long as it all went on water.

          I guess, having voted for this mayor (sigh no) and Nureddin (yay yay good move) I am coming to accept that even Labour/Greens left councils can get it wrong sometimes. That there are Labour/Greens in the no voters seems to me that they may also believe this.

          These are the anti sale Councillors: Calvert, O'Neil, Randle, Chung, Young, Abdurahman, McNulty, wi Neera plus another .

          • SPC 4.1.1.1.1

            Right wingers – Calvert, Randle, Chung, Young.

            Labour – Ben McNulty, Abdurahman (Labour). The Labour Party supported the re-election of O'Neil to the council.

            The other opponents of the sale was Wi Neera and Pannett (Green Party).

            One of the three Labour councillors, Reweti, supported the sale.

            • Shanreagh 4.1.1.1.1.1

              I think this was bigger than political affilations actually. Unless you are saying the CoC is intervening to force the sale. Are you? or do you still think i the whole no vote was a righty plot?

              • SPC

                Do you think the right wingers oppose the sale of the shares – Calvert, Randle, Chung and Young want the Mayor removed and someone appointed by the government in her place.

                They voted against to have the 10 year plan re-litigated, and not by the rest of council majority – but by a government appointee.

    • joe90 4.2

      “If we have to make an intervention we will.”

      He said the failure of being able to sell the airport shares weakens the long-term plan and the ability to lower rates for Wellington residents.

      WTF do local body rates have to do with the CoC?

      • gsays 4.2.1

        Just a another Nanny State decision.

      • SPC 4.2.2

        The TU wants regulation restricting the amount councils can increase their rates – that would require councils to sell assets including water (councils cannot fund water infrastructure without more debt and higher rates are required to pay back the debt).

      • Obtrectator 4.2.3

        Perhaps he's hoping to garner a few more votes in what's lately been a solidly LW electorate (but one that's just as sensitive as any other kind to CoL increases). A spot of rates relief (to go along with recent tax relief) is never likely to go amiss.

        • SPC 4.2.3.1

          With a sea of budget deficits (with slash and burn spending cuts impact on public services) and rising public debt before us, tax relief is fools gold.

          The intent of the right is to use the cost of water infrastructure to straight-jacket councils (the same way they did Health Boards) especially in areas where they do not vote in right wing administration (ECAN etc).

          • Res Publica 4.2.3.1.1

            This is very true.

            Many councils are trapped between the Scylla of breaching their debt limits, and the Charybdis of having to massively increase rates to cover for the government's self-imposed austerity.

            For a government that campaigned on supporting localism, they sure seem to be spending a whole lot of time and political capital dictating to and threatening local government.

            I work at a fair-sized Council myself, and the general consensus among staff is that it's only a matter of time before one of us is assaulted or worse by a ratepayer who will take the NACTs official disdain for the sector as a sign we're fair game.

            After all, we're all lazy and inefficient and waste ratepayer money on "nice to haves"

    • Muttonbird 4.3

      I listened to that (ZB thing) live on my way to work driving down Browns Rd, Manurewa, and thought Luxton sounded like a child. Answered no questions even though resident racist Mike Hoskins was very fired up. He pushed him on a directive from the Solicitor General to consider Maori. Luxton hid behind 'judicial independence as a part of democracy' about 20 times.

      But Trevett is far worse than Coughlan in terms of being embedded within the National party. He's just a baby of media corruption compared to her.

  4. joe90 5

    The more I read about Navalny the less I know what to think or believe about him but one thing I am sure about, dude was streets ahead of the vengeful runt occupying the Kremlin.

    /

    I’m forty-five. I have a family and children. I’ve had a life to live, worked on some interesting things, done some things that were useful. But there’s a war on right now. Suppose a nineteen-year-old is riding in an armored vehicle, he gets a piece of shrapnel in his head, and that’s it. He has had no family, no children, no life. Right now, dead civilians are lying in the streets in Mariupol, their bodies gnawed at by dogs, and many of them will be lucky if they end up in even a mass grave—through no fault of their own. I made my choices, but these people were just living their lives. They had jobs. They were family breadwinners. Then, one fine evening, a vengeful runt on television, the President of a neighboring country, announces that you are all “Nazis” and have to die because Ukraine was invented by Lenin. The next day, a shell comes flying in your window and you no longer have a wife, a husband, or children—and maybe you yourself are also no longer alive.

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/21/alexei-navalny-patriot-memoir

    https://archive.li/9azeY

  5. Subliminal 6

    Once again, Israel is bombing hospitals. The carnage in Gaza only gets worse and more vengeful as Israel believes that the worlds focus has turned to Lebanon and Iran.

    The fire was 10 to 15 metres tall. It was so big people couldn't help. It kept spreading, and every now and then something would blow up inside, pushing the rescuers back."

    Khudari said he saw people inside the blaze being burned alive.

    "I saw at least three charred bodies. One of them was a janitor. He had nothing to do with anything.

    "There was a falafel vendor who worked and slept here. His wife and son both died in the fire. His son was a good guy, an engineer."

    It was the seventh such attack targeting the Al-Aqsa Hospital complex, according to the Palestinian government media office in Gaza.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-attack-burns-tents-al-aqsa-hospital-killing-displaced-palestinians

    These are the places that Gazans are asked to relocate to. Is it any wonder that they decide its better to remain at home with their families to die together? The UN has now issued a report documenting the systematic destruction of health services in Gaza as it relates to the crime of extermination.

    Still no aid has entered Northern Gaza this month. Along with the continued targeting of civilians using armed quad copters, life has gone beyond tenuous. Israel is determined to erase every suspected instance of resistence to death by bullet, starvation and disease.

  6. Ad 7

    If this government really does remove the Wellington mayor+council, as Brown is indicating, this government will fully own the economic crater they have made of Wellington.

    Amazing and dumb at same time.

    • Shanreagh 7.1

      Please Ad, let WCC lay clam to it's own crater. Fair's fair!wink

      Of course the CoC downsizing of the PS, ferries etc have had an impact but the seeds of the NoM and the no vote were in place even before the election.

  7. joe90 8

    New from the Bowie archive.

    ,

    Oct 15, 2024

    Filmed and recorded live in Paris on 14 October 1999, David Bowie performs 'Thursday's Child' from his 22nd studio album 'Hours'. The concert is notable for being recorded the same day Bowie received the rank of Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to art and music. The full concert was released as 'Something in the Air (Live Paris 99)'

  8. Shanreagh 9

    Or are you saying CoC is threatening to step in so they can force the sale of the shares? I don't think many Wellingtonians are reading it that way. If this is true then I shudder that CoC would prop up the side of the Council that voted for selling them ie the minority. very concerning if that is so and I would share your concern,

    The reason I thought it was to save the city from its mayor was because instead of making commentssuch as 'Ok then, the council has spoken lets get on with it', we have had a series of appearance where she seems to be arguing the toss, scaremongering etc. I thought the intervention was because they could see that with this kind of attitude from the Mayor that working from the resolution to better things would be impossible.

    Again if you feel the intervention would be to force the sale of the shares then I am totally against any stepping in.

    • Ad 9.1

      Don't forget the lobbying power of Infratil in Wellington. James Shaw and Cr Tim Brown in particular.

    • SPC 9.2

      because instead of making commentssuch as 'Ok then, the council has spoken lets get on with it', we have had a series of appearance where she seems to be arguing the toss

      What the Mayor said after the airport sale vote was Ok then, the council has spoken lets get on with it'

  9. Shanreagh 10

    Has this voting just happened recently? If so I have not caught up with it. can you provide a link please.

    Many were overjoyed that the No vote meant that the LTP would have to be looked at again and work on this/timetable is to come before the Council for the December meeting. Councillors will then work on what the LTP will look like following the share proceeds not being available and the need to meet 99% of the failed transport initiatives.

    Speaking for myself I am a bit sick of the mayor trying to rehash things and wish she would just work through the timetable above. So saying 'we'll do the work and who knows what will happen but we are just trying to do our best heeding the concern of the councillors'. would get kudos back to her. Arguing the toss won't, just indicates she doesn't want to do the hard, and it will be, work in changed circumstances.

    I am sure that some initiatives won't see the light of day now that the share sale price is not available while some like water & the transport initiatives that were being funded by NZTA may be enhanced/elevated. That is fine by me

  10. Shanreagh 11

    First who is Reweti?

    If the right wingers wanted to sell the shares they could have swung in behind the mayor and got the sale through. of course with the election next year many people are looking forward to a couple of new mayoral candidates. With the best will in the world, rembering I voted for her myself, she has not runed out to be as competent in the role as i woas expecting. The Labour guy Nureddin Abdurahman has more than shown he was a wise use of my vote. So 50% right is OK.

    I'd actually like to see a ticket where candidates made a virtue of running efficiently, of not having huge lists of unvoted on, unknown at the time of voting, nice to haves etc,.

    I understand WCC is being investigated by some governmental regulatory agencies. My experience with them via OIA/consultation has been nothing short of amazing for all the wrong reasons.

    • SPC 11.1

      Failed Labour candidate, I misread a statement by 3 "Labour" councillers opposing the sale (it included O'Neill who was only Labour backed), Reweti did not make it (Wi Neera won that contest).

      https://policy.nz/2022/wellington-city-council-te-whanganui-a-tara-maori-ward/candidates/matthew-reweti

      If the right wingers wanted to sell the shares they could have swung in behind the mayor and got the sale through

      Are you really that naive? Their targets were the 10 year plan and the continuation of Council governance.

      • Shanreagh 11.1.1

        No…but I think you are seeing RWingers under the bed.

        The targets were specific stuff in the LTP that were not necessities. These would have been funded by the sale of the shares. Many had not been shared with the electorate and many were nice to haves for somebody.

        I recycle as much as anybody, probably more with the textile work I do, but the biggest ticket item was home recyclable waste collection programme when the greatest need is water…..really.

        It had not been tested, it did not build on the work that many community orgs and groups of individuals are already doing in Wellington. There are oodles of compost groups already in Wellington, including in social housing and with food retailers. Groups pick up organic waste from supermarkets, garage cafes, cafes etc etc

        If it had greater priorty than water, and it would be a brave person in Wgtn who would say that, it was a case of joining the dots not reinventing. And that was about the only really green thing on the list.

        We had Takina, the conference centre still running at a loss. Admittedly another councils folly but do we really need to support this?

      • SPC 11.1.2

        It was Mathews, one of only 4 who opposed the airport share sale back in 2023, who supported the sale in the most recent vote.

        https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350447483/wellington-council-votes-against-sale-wellington-airport-stake

        Some interesting comments here after the 2023 vote.

        https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/09-11-2023/wellington-council-votes-in-favour-of-selling-airport-shares

  11. SPC 12

    A generation enjoyed peak Wellington (albeit while neglecting the under the ground stuff) …

    By the time the library is back there will be no walk to the waterfront.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350451875/wellingtons-city-sea-bridge-be-demolished

  12. Shanreagh 13

    Yes that was right but later it was noted that the fund was a load of c***. The greater and more prudent role with cash earning assets was to keep them. Once they're gone they are gone. Privatisation is not in the Green or Labour playbook now (hopefully- I thought we'd learned from the 1980/90s debacle)

    Indeed this was referenced by Nureddin Abdurahman in his speech to the NoM. He and some of the others had voted no to selling the shares at LTP time. Two councillors who voted no at LTP time voted yes at Thursday's meeting including leftie councillor Geordie Rogers

    The leftie concept of not selling assets was referenced by Nikau wi Neera (this guy gave an absolutely brilliant sppech and is a person to watch).

    The fund for insurance purposes was to be based on a similar set-up in Taranaki where the CE had been prior to Wellington. The funds as we now know it were to be used to pay down debt first, then act as a security for getting more debt then after it had gone through all of these processes (perhaps like tracking funds in the Winebox enquiry /sarc/exaggeration), would it be used as a starter fund. WCC does not need any more debt. We need more debt like we need a hole in the head. We need it even less now we have been down graded by S & P and have achieved notoriety

    ANZ CPI comments says Local council rates are expected to be a key driver of quarterly inflation, posting their largest quarterly rise since 1987.”

    I think the left will have to work hard to make sure that the work on the amended LTP goes smoothly and some of the necessities reinstated ie the transport items from NZTA and the nice to haves kicked for touch. We just cannot afford it, ratepayers cannot afford it.

    We need to be able to count on WCC to act in our and the city's best interests by not indulging in nice to haves when we have other priorities such as water. (water, stormwater and sewage). Already, other councils who we are supposed to be joining with on water, are uneasy that they may have to contribute to WCC's years of water neglect. We have the chance to do something on this but instead we were wanting to sell shares for what! (Golden Mile and unwanted waste plan)

    I have read that some ratepayers could have been persuaded to change their minds on the sale had ALL the proceeds been earmarked for water. I'd be comfortable with scrapping all the nice to haves, working on the transport ones and any other programmes that were necessities. I don't consider the Golden Mile revamp a priority, it is a nice to have. Tarting up a place and putting wiffly waffly planter boxes is not going to fix our water supply.

    I don't agree that intervention is needed, unless and until, we find that Councilors are not able to work on the amendments to the LTP in the timetable.

    The mayor should be firm in countering this by expressing support for the new processes to come and confidence in the councilors to work out the necessities. At the moment she is not. She, by being all over the place and not supporting the work needed in the months to come, is playing into the CoC hands.

    • SPC 13.1

      I have read that some ratepayers could have been persuaded to change their minds on the sale had ALL the proceeds been earmarked for water

      The plan was to have all of the airport share sale money placed into other assets in a (new) perpetual investment fund.

      This based on advice received, as to risk management in the 10 year plan.

      https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/projects/airport-share-sale

      The Mayor back in 2023

      Wellington city council has voted to explore selling its 34% stake in Wellington International Airport, subject to public consultation.

      The council will also look to sell a number of ground leases in the centre city. The assets will be converted into a green investment fund, focused on more diversified investments outside the city.

      Mayor Tory Whanau insisted the sale was not intended to pay down debt to fund other spending.

      “Let me be clear – I will never lead a city that sells airport shares to pay down debt. I have never supported selling the silverware to pay the mortgage.”

      “Wellington city council must reshape its investment so it’s more resilient and diversified.

      The vote for the airport sale was a strong majority, with only four Labour councillors opposed: Teri O’Neil, Ben McNulty, Rebecca Matthews, and Nureddin Abdurahman.

      https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/09-11-2023/wellington-council-votes-in-favour-of-selling-airport-shares

      Note, not one of the 4 right wingers now opposed the sale of airport shares did so in 2023.

  13. Shanreagh 14

    WCC and it seems CoC are going to do something……WCC better sharpen up its pencils and Councillors put on their thinking caps as it will take an amount of wizardry to work a way through this. Tory Whanau is not a Jacinda Ardern who probably could do this.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350451403/local-govt-minister-wont-rule-out-early-election-wellington-city-council

    • Mike the Lefty 14.1

      The whole thing is a political setup by the CoC, the people who criticized Labour for putting a commissioner into Tauranga a few years ago. Tory Whanau is probably not really suited to a mayoral role BUT:

      It wouldn't happen if the mayor didn't just happen to be a Green. National obviously are still smarting about their electoral vote drubbing in Wellington a year ago. Great opportunity to take their revenge on the left and rid themselves of a council that stands up to them.

      By the way, who made Cr Nicola Young the authority on local body democracy? She's a National apologist fanning the social media trollspeak against Tory Whanau.

      This is the National Party meddling in local body politics (again). So much for their catchcry of "keep politics out of local body…" which they have always parrotted over the decades.

  14. Muttonbird 15

    I don't give a shit about Wellington.

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