Because the German Nazis murdered millions of your people in World War Two, is not a blank cheque you can cash in, giving you a moral authority to murder other people and take over their land..
Yesterday at the Nakba day rally in Auckland's Aotea Square, much to the dismay of the bloodthirsty tankies, Palestinian and Ukrainian flags flew together.
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman addressed the assembled crowd and spoke of both Palestinian and Ukraine peoples' struggles against the brutal military powers of Russia and Israel.
Chants from the crowd,
"1234 We Don't Want Your Bloody War – 2468 Stop the Killing Stop the Hate"
"From Auckland to Palestine Killing Reporters is a Crime"
"In a separate statement, Sunac said its aggregated sales in March and April fell 65% from a year ago due to COVID-19 outbreaks in various cities, and its refinancing and asset disposal plans did not materialise after a series of rating downgrades earlier this year.
The firm confirmed it missed the Wednesday deadline for a $29.5 million interest payment on the October 2023 bond that was required to be repaid last month, and it does not expect it will pay three other coupons due last month totalling $75.3 million before the 30-day grace periods expire, or pay other senior notes when they become due."
I scarcely bother reading Luke Malpass in Stuff- he is a boringly predictable right wing Aussie and just another self important twot in the MSM – but this line from his (badly sub-edited) piece today is such a jaw droppingly ideological statement it is worth repeating to a wider audience:
It tells us a lot about the MSM neoliberal consensus. Stuff, the self-proclaimed champions of establishment liberal identity politics, has no problem employing as its political editor a shill for the neoliberal economic settlement that has entrenched economic inequality in this country. Centrism in a single opinion piece. It isn't a coincidence that Josie Pagani also gets an opinion piece in Stuff.
And yes, I know it is an OPINION piece. But the MSM can't have it both ways. It can't spend it's time in perfromative puzzlement about the public's loss of trust in their objectivity and also promote such frankly ideological nonsense from it's senior political journalist. Once you read that you'll automatically adopt a partisan position towards all Malpass's other utterances on everything.
If the Herald exists to promote the interests of the Auckland squatocracy then Stuff exists to promote the views of the radical centre. Both exist primarily to promote the axiom that extreme individualism is the number one principle and defend the economic interests of their particular end of the trough.
If the Herald exists to promote the interests of the Auckland squatocracy then Stuff exists to promote the views of the radical centre. Both exist primarily to promote the axiom that extreme individualism is the number one principle and defend the economic interests of their particular end of the trough.
So how do left-wing commentators and opinion writers like Simon Wilson fit into this characterization?
I see both left- and right-wing people complain about the impartiality and/or slant of The Herald and/or Stuff
Bryan Gould concurs. However I think he is too nice in assuming that the Herald even cares about self-respect. You need to already have self-respect in order to care about it – and if you never had it, your not about to acquire it any time soon.
It never ceases to amaze me that Stuff begs us to "support quality journalism" at the bottom of every article, then it subjects us to third rate biased editorializing like a journalism student destined for a D minus see me.
Just in case you’re wondering where progressive men telling women what they can speak about is going, that’s the statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester in the UK. Women were set to gather and speak, men in black stopped them.
Anybody labouring under the naive illusion that Trans Rights Activists are just seeking fairness for Transgender people and that gender ideology is not an anti women movement, this will shatter those illusions if you bother to pay attention.
The picture speaks a thousand words. Its disturbing. Shame on any men turning a blind eye to this.
Yes. Not the posing bit, but my observation of men who have stood by while women have been subjected to blatant misogyny, and the men who have chosen to position themselves against gender critical feminists and with the gender ideologists who are doing that misogyny. Left wing men. Do you want receipts, very happy to share them.
and it is now time for those that don't support these black clad wanna be ninjas to step up and fight for womens rights. Either they are women, or they are men in frocks, atm it seems that the Men in frock are upper hand.
but can you spot the male taking pictures of the women in attendance? I wonder what this male will do with those images?
Yes, but they think we are talking about Carmen and Georgina. They have no idea that these days there is no requirement for any hormones or surgery to declare yourself trans. You don't even have to shave off your beard. Also, when the media showers violent and sadistic killers of women with female pronouns – they have no idea that trans identified men have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men.
Mainstream organisations such as NOW in the USA and the NCOWNZ here have decided to support the "trans cause" in terms of gender identity choice being recognised by others.
A British survey indicates that support for transgender rights is strongest from left wing (Labour) women and the young.
The women who support trans rights are being kind and haven't realized what gender ideology is about. Most of them haven't heard of autogynophilia.
We are socialized as girls to put others first and be kind and agreeable. It didn’t work with some of us and we see through this movement masquerading as human rights that so many progressives have fallen for.
After citing MFAT's immoral advice in support of the apartheid Israeli state, the soon to be departed Mayor, Andy Foster decided that Palestinians are persona non grata in Wellington.
The Stuff report concludes with the following, "The Embassy of Israel in Wellington could not be reached for comment but Zionist Federation of New Zealand President Rob Berg said having the flag displayed on a public building in the capital city would cause distress to Israeli people. “It doesn't help promote peace,” he said, though confirmed that the action in New Zealand in itself would be highly unlikely to have any actual impact in Palestine or Israel."
Who the fuck cares what the Israeli people or Mr. Berg think. How many live in New Zealand instead of Israel anyway? Once again, a self-appointed spokesperson seems to be pushing the bullshit line that all Jews are beholden to Zionism and Israel and that there is no place in the world that Palestinians are allowed to be recognised or able to live in peace – not even Wellington.
It is high time the Government adhered to its 'independent foreign policy' line instead of its unprincipled bending to the edicts of other states that do not even share this country's values.
This is what occupation looks like and this is what Israel does – it waits until people are at work then sends in busloads of settlers to steal their homes, and if they object then the Israeli army is called in and shoots the Palestinians.
Yeah Hebron is their post East Jerusalem enclave project (denying Arabs building consents in East Jerusalem and evictions attracting a similar crowd of opportunists).
There is annexation of land to the south. They have a far right wing MK led group attacking Palestinian market stalls in the streets (with IDF protection) – the urban equivalent of attacking village farmland.
'At least 10,806 deaths were reported in the United States, including 398 minors, as 119 mass shootings have taken place across the US since the beginning of this year, according to data from The Gun Violence Archive.
Of those killed in the mass shootings across the US, 937 were minors, while another 8,558 people were injured by gunfire ,which shows an increase in both the number of deaths and injuries from gun violence in the country compared with the same period last year.'
Have to admit I was wondering why this particular one got so much attention here, given the population is about 330 million (I think) and the seeming ease they have to buy guns she ain't exactly rocket science that a certain proportion of that many people are going to be nutters, and they are going to have so many shootings/mass shootings.
I'm assuming the only reason it even made the news here while all the others don't is because he apparently mentioned ChCh.
"…I'm assuming the only reason it even made the news here while all the others don't is because he apparently mentioned ChCh…."
Showing the Chch shooters video is an offense, which didn't stop TVNZ News showing the first several seconds of the Buffalo shooters Facebook livestream as the lead item of the 6pm news last night. An utterly morally bankrupt and completely disgraceful editorial decision.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the victory, Ukraine’s third since its 2003 Eurovision debut, and said “we will do our best” to one day host the contest in the port city of Mariupol. He underlined “Ukrainian Mariupol. Free, peaceful, rebuilt!”
EU to accept gas for roubles good analysis from Alexander Mercouris in his daily update .Seems the sanctions against Russia have turned out to be a giant stone hefted by the US and the EU only to be dropped on their own feet .!!
Alexander Mercouris concocted a web of “tortuous deceit” to convince a client he was pursuing the bogus claim, including forging a Supreme Court judge’s signature, a tribunal heard.
He even alleged that Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, President of the Supreme Court, had him abducted and offered him a £50,000 bribe to abandon the case.
[…]
Mercouris, 51, later told his client he had managed to win her a £983,000 payout, prompting her to rack up debts in expectation of the windfall.
[…]
Next he told her he had applied for an interim £50,000 payment, then claimed his brother had stolen the whole £983,000.
I couldnt care less what you think of Mercouris joe I think he does a damn good job in his daily analysis which you're gonna find difficult if not impossible to find in MSM .Theres very few saints around joe and rather than ceaselessly digging up dirt and indulging in smears and slurs perhaps you could contribute something constructive concerning the topics on the table ?
Quite the holistic approach to making rapid changes in the fight to halt/reverse the effects of climate change for not a lot of money (relatively), with plenty of added value.
Urban remote working frees up office space, significantly reduces commuting with less cars on the road, reducing the burden of public transport for non office workers and school goers who have to travel.
Rather than rip up the ERA and ruin the green belt around our cities for housing, not to mention the resources needed to prepare, manufacture and make, government should pay to convert the redundant office space into decent sized, minimum 150m2 apartments, selling them to individuals not landlords, at an interest free fixed priced per block, based on a % of income, like a state house for life you actually own for beneficiaries, or just a step on the ladder at a good price. Idea wouldn't be to make the money back, but if you're going to have to spend more to get less, for fewer people, and wreck the countryside to do it, anything back is a bonus.
i worked in the new Headquaters of Nike in Holland many years ago. The whole complex was desigend to be transformed into apartments by simply removing 'non fixed' walls. Plus a few other environmental goodies that were in use two decades ago.
It makes perfect sense as most of these place are open plan, and could/ should be transformed but the question to me would be the sound insulation. NZ is not a place known to think about noise before building.
Not being an engineer or architect I wouldn't know, but I'm certain there would be a low cost solution somewhere to minimise or mitigate sound leakage.
Done nicely and made to be the opposite of the tower block cages I've known, there are a lot of wins possible. Get housing as an issue out of the headlines, signal the equitable way forward the government wants to move forward, all that 'we are one' good feelz stuff, and free up time for them to focus on the hard jobs. :tic:
Nike was given a list by the Dutch government of what it needs to do to get a building permit. One of the clauses was that he building needs to be transformable into residential units, that there can only be a limited number of carparks, and that double glazing, insulation are used extensively. Their heating system is interesting, as it is passive.
As for the blocks, in Europe, France, England, Germany – Plattenbau buildings were used in the 60 to make up for the shortfall of houses and the lack of decent housing. They did not last very long in many cases, some only lasted some 30 odd years before they were destroyed, but they did fulfil a need. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattenbau
High density must go up, and fwiw, in NZ we seem to be stuck in the 60/70 as we are building only Plattenbau type buildings when going up, and sadly these buildings will not age well.
'Some relief for private rental home providers so they can help the 25,000 people out of emergency accommodation and into a house. Examples of this include changing the bright-line test back to two years and allowing private property providers to again claim interest as a mortgage tax deductible expense.'
And Kainga Ora is not protecting its good tenants from its bad tenants.
Mental health is one thing, letting someone terrorize their neighbourghs is another thing altogether. Kainga Ora is not fit for the job it is supposedly hired to do. Close it down, fire all the clowns there currently employed – include the Minister for that Portfolio for good measure and start from scratch.
Btw, mental health will not get better in NZ as we are not investing in it.
Kainga Ora is in an impossible situation and expected to perform the impossible….it has to protect tenants from themselves all the while not infringing on the tenants rights.
We have created the mental health crisis by misapplying reasonable principles…the theory of care in the community was sound provided it was sufficiently resourced (it never was) and there was provision for those for whom it was ineffective (there isnt).
How much resource can we provide and if the required resource is provided what do we forgo to provide it?
All we expect Kainga Ora to do is to protect ALL of its tenants and not just some.
If this would just be one case i would agree, but there are so many of these cases now that clearly there is an issue here in how KO properties are allocated and how KO staff is missing in action or simply lazy and not doing their job..
So again, take the 'domestic terrorist' out of the property and give that house to a family who will not terrorize the community but will be a good tenant. Send the domestic terrorist to one of the run down motels in which we house law abiding citizens for lack of decent housing.
You send the problematic tenant into the motels in which we currently house law abiding citizens and their children. We don't seem to have an issue warehousing decent people in motels for years on end without any help in sight.
Or are you really advocating that in NZ to get a state hosue you have to become a gang banger, drug peddler, pimp and abusive fuckwit?
And you might have missed it, but the same crew who runs Kainga Ora, runs WINZ, runs the Ministry of Health, the ministry of business and innovation and gasps runs the government with a full majority in an MMP environment. The Labour Party. The blames lies with them. So if you feel there are not enough resources being spread out by the government to cover both mental health and housing, maybe you write a letter to the dear leader who was gonna do something about child hood poverty (thanks to poor parents) to finally let loose the purse where they only let loose with meaningless words.
I advocate no such thing as you should well realise….obviously not all KO tenants meet your description but certainly a problematic proportion do….and motels are de facto KO housing in any case.
Importantly my opinion of the resourcing of both mental health and housing is preceded by copious evidence from those in the fields that establish the lack.
I note that there is no response to the question asked…..what is foregone to make such a provision?
Agree – wherever they get put, they will be a problem tenant.
If the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants. If not, they don't. KO (and any other social provider e.g. council housing) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't.
"We have created the mental health crisis by misapplying reasonable principles…the theory of care in the community was sound provided it was sufficiently resourced (it never was) and there was provision for those for whom it was ineffective (there isnt).
How much resource can we provide and if the required resource is provided what do we forgo to provide it?"
Pat, there was 1.8 billion set aside for Mental Health programmes and what has happened to it. The Department is in crisis and is getting worse by the hour. Its a disgrace how the wrap around services are not being met.
I have a close family member languishing in a remand centre waiting for court appearances. This person is seriously unwell with mental health issues. This would never had happened if this person had received the wrap around care from a caseworker and been regularly watched. We are just one of thousands of wretched families desperate to get help for our sick loved ones. When I am calm enough there are going to be letters sent to the head of the District Health Board and to Andrew Little lodging a formal complaint who frankly, has been derelict in his duties towards administrating the 1.8 billion. This correspondence will not be answered of that I am sure but its going to be done nevertheless.
"Pat, there was 1.8 billion set aside for Mental Health programmes and what has happened to it. The Department is in crisis and is getting worse by the hour. Its a disgrace how the wrap around services are not being met."
Yes, but as I frequently point out money is not a resource….though it may allow you to purchase available resources….the resources are not available.
One of the reasons the resources are not available is we had determined that institutional care was undesireable….and certainly it was not the solution for many.
Consider that if we disperse those deemed needing assistance throughout the community and a proportion of those need 24/7 care/ oversight how many bodies, preferably trained, would be required ….bodies, skills unavailable to other needs.
Well, there are practical alternatives which we could put in place now – without the multi-year investment in increasing numbers of houses or mental health providers. Of course we should be doing both of those things – but they'll take a lot of time to make a dent in the issue.
However, they tend to be fairly controlling, and a bit one-size-fits all – and don't go down well with the touchy-feely part of the community.
* Institute all motels (and some apartment complexes) as controlled or restricted housing. Concierge (paid and resident) on site who is responsible for liaising with all associated providers over any issues (crime, mental health, welfare, etc) which arise. Would require a waiver to privacy – because the State (in the person of this individual, and the KO residential complex manager, needs to know).
* KO should just buy the motels – the transfer of wealth to the private sector over this is just ridiculous (I said at the time of first lockdown they should do this – and they should have got a bargain – since motel owners had no income stream)
* Restricted housing allows no visitors – residents can leave to visit family, etc. – but no random people allowed in (reduces gang issues, and other problem people). Only residents listed on the tenancy may be present within the complex. Evict non-residents. Trespass them if it's repeated. [NB: this is critical – a lot of the problem people aren't necessarily the residents themselves, but their associates]
* Collocate together suitable types of residents in housing complexes (i.e. not meth addicts or gang connections next to a family unit).
* Require parents to have children in school or pre-school, attend check ups etc. [NB: schools/pre-schools should be walking distance – concierge can organize walking school bus, etc.]
* Require people to take their medication (may need concierge to hold/administer this).
* Empower security (because the police are just as overwhelmed) to arrest/restrain lawbreakers (violence, intimidation, etc.).
* Establish a policy of transferring out the anti-social people. Even if it's to a different motel complex. The rest of the community needs to know and believe that action will be swift and effective (i.e. that it's safe to complain – you don't have to endure abuse)
* Partner with expert agencies (e.g. City Mission) to build accommodation for the 'problem' individuals (not defining what the problem is – but the expression is anti-social behaviour). They have the expertise to administer/run these. KO should give them the money and get out of their way.
*Admit that the community care model has failed a large sector of the mental health population. Since there is neither care nor community. Bite the bullet and re-establish the secure care that is evidently needed by this sector of society. [This is medum-long term – hard to do quickly]
Basically a paternal state. You have the opportunity to be in charge of your life, but if you demonstrably can't manage it, we'll do it for you.
Individuals/families who show they can manage their own lives, can then transition to independent living in existing KO properties.
Individuals/families who show they can't manage, can also be transitioned back to the managed environment.
Well – KO seem to be determined to add to the load.
The mental health of the multiple families, who are, let us not forget, innocent victims here – being terrorized by other KO 'clients', will certainly be deteriorating.
Triage – the appropriate method of dealing with an overwhelming resource crisis – in this case both limits on housing and on mental health capacity – seems to be a foreign concept to them.
Triage by KO. They already make decisions about housing allocation. Unfortunately, they're not following triage principles.
And, if you are a danger or a threat to your neighbours (as we have seen in *multiple* publicly reported instances – not to mention all the private ones which never make the papers) – you get to leave the nice KO house/neighbourhood, and be allocated a (much less desirable) motel unit.
KO have a *legal* responsibility as the landlord (of their other tenants) to ensure that problem tenants are not terrorizing their neighbours (recent Tenancy Tribunal case made this crystal clear)
KO housing managers can't be expected to be experts on mental health (and from a privacy perspective, I expect that they don't even have access to any information about the mental health of their clients).
They are, however, expected by both the public and their other clients, to manage disruptive, dangerous and terrorizing behaviour from their clients.
If they can't do this (and Poto Williams appears to be thoroughly ineffective in directing them in this area) – then NZ voters will be very tempted to vote for a party who claims that they can.
Just to be clear, you advocate that KO should evict problematic tenants and it is not their concern if they have no where else to go or if the cause of the behaviour is a mental health issue?
It would be nice if you’d actually read my comment.
Just to be clear. I'm advocating that problem tenants should be transferred to less desirable locations (typically motels).
KO apparently think it's fine for families with children to be in motel accommodation for years.
[I'd also advocate for motel unit style accommodation to be much more strictly monitored and regulated – especially for people with mental health and or addiction issues. But that's a different topic]
It's not the job of the landlord to decide whether the issue is mental health problems or something else.
You seem to be advocating that people who might have mental health issues should have a free rein to terrorize the neighbourhood with zero consequences.
"You seem to be advocating that people who might have mental health issues should have a free rein to terrorize the neighbourhood with zero consequences."
Not at all…indeed Im advocating that problem KO tenants be evicted, after one or two ignored warnings and engagement with relevant agencies…however I dont view moving to motels as anything other than transferring the problems location having said that motels are effectively KO housing.
The question then becomes, if the cause is a mental health issue what is done about the individual….we have barely any residential institutions and those we do have are already overwhelmed?
So its back to resourcing …if we are to resource the required what are we willing to forgo?….or are we not willing to forgo anything?
The problematic tenants without mental health issues similarly should be evicted after suitable opportunity to reform….however the problem there is what constitutes a mental health disability?
Wherever they get put, they will be a problem tenant. If the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants. If not, they don't.
KO (and any other social housing provider e.g. council horsing) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't. KO evicting someone doesn't stop those people being problem tenants, just stops them being problem tenants of KO. There's nothing to stop a problem tenant getting a private property in the same area and continuing to terrorise the neighbours, but now with no recourse by KO or anyone else.
For people who think that's a theoretical problem, Christchurch has plenty of KO housing in Aranui where the tenants in the private housing in the same area are no better, or worse, but nobody has anywhere else to go.
Why is it our responsibility to house anti social people (unless they have children)??
IWhy all the "but where would they go if we boot them out?" Aside from if they have kids living with them (and maybe they shouldn't) in the words of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, "frankly my dear I don't give a dam"
If they are mentally ill of course they may need hospitalitsation and should be able to be sectioned under the Act, if they are threatening others. Despite what most people think most people with severe mental illness are not threatening and dangerous. If they are psychotically ill, many are too paranoid to leave the house.
The Govt has to take responsiblity for the mess that is mental health. What they don't seem to get is that it all rises and falls on competent well trained staff who are well resourced and using evidenced based treatments. Re-structuring the health. system is the wrong priority. Somehow they seem to think if they fix the bureaucracy then jolly good show. Well done us. Same with having a Commission Enquiry into Mental Health, re-establishing the Mental Health Commission, yada yada yadh.
If not the state, then a private landlord, who as explained above may have no obligations to neighbours at all, in which case KO could evict someone only for the former tenant to move into a nearby house owned privately and be a worse issue as now nobody can do anything. Aranui is one suburb in Christchurch where this is entirely possible (I grew up there and it hasn't changed much) and there are plenty of state houses and also plenty of private houses with landlords who don't care how loud the tenants are.
If the state is not the housing provider of last resort in this manner, they will still be the provider of last resort as Corrections.
Christchurch nights can drop to -5, some parts of the South Island can drop below -10 – that can be lethal for someone unprepared for it, especially the homeless. Executing someone by hypothermia via eviction seems disproportionately severe, but maybe I'm just a bleeding heart liberal.
I read the article and wondered about whose job it is to deal with behaviour which might be illegal. (threatening, etc)
Is Kainga Ora to police illegal behaviour of its tenants? Harassing the neighbours? Fraud? Not having a vehicle WOF? Shop lifting?
What is described is terrible behaviour and awful for those being harassed. And certainly sounds like a job for the police. The problem is the behaviour not whose house they're living in.
The problem is that he police wont come in many cases, if they do show up its after the fact to take notes and appear as doing something, and then they leave without the criminal element so they might as well stay put have a cuppa and a donut and do nothing.
We currently do not a a good job in locking violent elements up, or sentencing them to anything meaning full, and even if we do that same person will be send 'home' on Home D to continue doing what they did before. Criming and terrorising their community and families.
A further problem is, even when the most serious of the cases are charged – they are then bailed back to the same address – to continue the criminal and intimidating behaviour, and terrorize those people who've been brave enough to complain.
The court system is so delayed – that it is likely to take *years* for the case to be heard. And, even then, if/when convicted – they're most likely to have a community sentence and be back in the same address.
In any case, behaviour should not have to be at a criminal level to be dealt with by the landlord. Fraud, failing to have a WOF and shop lifting, have minimal effect on the nearby residents. Harassment, burglary, drug dealing, intimidation and anti-social behaviour have a huge impact.
In terms of tenancy law, if the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants to provide "quiet enjoyment", to use the legal term, which includes the quiet-ness (or otherwise) of the neighbouring tenants. KO (and any other social housing provider) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't.
If the landlord doesn't own neighbouring properties, that obligation doesn't apply with respect to neighbouring tenants as they don't have any.
There is also a tenant responsibility not to disturb neighbours, but landlords are not required to police that if the neighbours aren't also their tenants (as above). They can choose to (tenancy legislation provides for it), but can't be made to, and there is no recourse for neighbours unless they are also tenants of the same landlord.
All that said, problem tenants are problem tenants, so KO (or any other provider) evicting tenants just passes it onto other landlords who may or may not be equipped to deal with them.
This always strikes me as a wicked problem in that no solutions are particularly good from the government perspective because the bad tenants are the root cause of the problem so will be problematic for the state both as landlord and more widely in terms of societal wellbeing, but I wonder if KO maintaining units in more rural areas (e.g. city fringes) for particularly problematic tenants would be the best solution of a collection of bad solutions.
The real problem is poverty mental health meth and gangs. Almost every story mentions one of these issues. Mental Health has always been the poor cousin in Health. The pandemic shortages both in materials and staff, and labelling continues.
No real suggestions are out forward to meet these problems, which used to be handled by evictions in the past. These people lived in vehicles or on the street under Paula Bennett's rules regarding meth, which were not science based.
So any effort to change that has to provide temporary systems while builds are under way. This is then able to be called slums terrorism and other names. No one wants these people as neighbours, so cries of what are …" Police Landlords or Poto or Andrew doing.??? "
They are running to stand still in a world utterly pressured by covid's supply line problems monetary fall out and "over it" attitudes of "Big Daddy" fix it for us now!! Community means caring for all, not just the deserving. Painful as that is.
There does need to be a cut off point for bad behaviour, and the case discussed here seems to meet the criteria. However, if there is no easy answer, as the building of homes is slowed by the pandemic. To say people are not trying to improve this situation is a stretch. It is not a situation that is able to be fixed easily, or all those right wing experts would have it sorted by now.
Absolutely agree that there is a mix of issues at the heart of the issues in most cases, and KO or any other landlord can't do much about that.
Also, while social housing providers are often seen as the landlords of last resort, especially the state and council-funded ones, arguably the actual landlord of last resort is Corrections i.e. prison.
The sum of everything that everybody has said is that: the problem is unfixable if we allow it to occur on the scale we do. My only concrete suggestion is to eliminate all financial, food and housing insecurity as a right of citizenship, see what social pathologies remain afterwards, and have well-trained and resourced professionals trying to mop up the residue. Give it 50 years and we might be in better shape.
Excuse me if i am mistaken but don't landlords have the ability to evict tennants, even if it can't be done immediately? Or do tennants just get to choose when and if they leave a rental property
I have a problem too, although I don't think the solution is for them to just evict people (where would they go?).
Swordfish's parents situation was an obvious one where eviction should have happened early on. Whichever government agency should then have stepped up and sorted out the issues with the evicted tenant.
jImmy this is why my sympathy was limited for Wellingtonians, especailly workers in the capital cries of how bad it was for them having the protesters at Parliament! I realized it can't have been easy, but where were their squells of outrage about the poor people in Kainga Ora flats putting up with this shit, while the landlord i.e the govt did NOTHING………
BTW I have been wondering how Swordfish has been doing. Anyone know?
It will be a nice fluff story about a young women who is going to come out as Non binary for a bit of 'most marginalized and vulnerable minority' coinage; just before announcing her co-leadership with Marama Davidson for the Green Party just in time for the Election.
btw, the person who is going to do this soap is the same that was doing the CHCH movie.
A waste of tax payers money. If either one of them, Chloe or Marama have any functioning braincells left they will say 'NO, thank you', it would not be proper.
I do hope that there will be documentaries made of other Politians, also funded by the government in the lead up to the next election, just for fairness sake.
Not holding my breath though.
"A waste of tax payers money. If either one of them, Chloe or Marama have any functioning braincells left they will say 'NO, thank you', it would not be proper."
Agree. If any National or Act politician was in this scenario, I would be just as scathing.
Being Chlöe, 1 x 90 mins, Razor Films for Three, up to $199,999. A documentary exploring the political and personal life of New Zealand’s youngest MP Chlöe Swarbrick.
Questions, I assume, over how partisan the documentary will be (I don't know where you're reading the commentary from)
Like the one on the Chch shootings which morphed into a piece on Ardern – to similar controversy.
Should public money be going into documentaries on sitting MPs? Can this be construed as election advertising? (guess it depends when it's released). I know that MPs have to be careful about when in the electoral cycle, they release biographies. And bios (books, that is) aren’t publicly funded.
Takes a long time to make a film. The timing would have had it on track to be potentially released shortly before the 2023 election – but (see below) commitment is that it will be released after the election.
In that case, perhaps NZ on Air should do a similar $200k documentary on Chris Luxon now as "18 months out from election can hardly be electioneering".
That would get people on here triggered. But also a documentary on say Grant Robertson could be good too.
Think that most pollies would reject the possibility with horror – especially if it had any prospect of being neutral 'warts and all' coverage – let alone critical.
I remember, years ago, watching a doco about several minor candidates standing for an election – it might have been "Campaign" set in Wellington Central in the 1996 election (not certain at this late date – much water has passed under the bridge of my memory).
But one stand-out for me was that the professional politicans curated their image with great care – it was the amateurs who were open.
Oh come on Robert lets stick to the arguements. Do you think it is a good idea that NZ on Air is giving funding for a doco called Becoming Chole when she is a sitting MP. I mean I would have thought there would be discomfort on all political sides about this, even if the movie is shown after the election. Chloe likely has a long career in politics.
BTW I agree with all Sabine says on this issue. $200,000 would have bought a hell of a lot of counselling sessions…………..
Director is Charlotte Evans – who has already made "OK Chlöe" – a short doco – which was fairly hagiographic. Guess that's always an issue with doco makers – if they are dealing with an 'attractive' subject (speaking here of political rather than personal attributes), it's hard to be balanced.
The government should simply not fund something like that, or the government should fund documentaries on all Politians – every single one of them, and then we can watch the trailers for these upcoming awesomely interesting movies during the election period.
And of course this will become the same public shitshow as it was with the CHCH movie which was incidentally being made by the same person who is gonna do the Chloe Swarbruck Fluff Piece.
Plunketts take on it. I am sure the NZ tax payers will be thrilled about this! And the beneficiaries who are struggling to put food on the table, will have some nice entertainment, after they have eaten bread and butter for tea.
It doesn't take much for you to start sounding like the Tax Payer's Onion, does it. As NZoA funding goes it isn't a huge amount – do you have a problem with state funding of culture in general?
I hate wasteful spending. I really do.But I am not against money being spent on culture. I am in agreement with Sabine, we either have movies made about all politicians or none (except of course those who have retired which will give us a historical perspective)
You will notice I often talk about the need to pay nurses and Dr's very, very very well. All so the care workers who are currently on strike. I have no idea where the tax payers union stand on paying nurses and drs more. But despite what you might think, I am not their mouth piece.
I am a Labour Party member who has freed myself from having to support their policies unless I agree with them. It wonderful being able to be an independent thinker
IMHO, we should not be making 'movies' about any sitting politician, but there is a bigger issue here. The opposition are running a campaign to paint the government as profligate spenders, linking that spending to inflation, and then trying to appeal to the 'squeezed middle'. The amounts are insignificant in the context of total government spending, but articles like this, featuring a photo of 2 cabinet ministers beside a $5,000 O (that will come back to bite them) just fuels the narrative.
NZs been doing this kind of thing for some time. Exhibit A being 'Were here to help', featuring sitting politician (and self styled perk buster) Rodney Hide, yes, partly funded by the tax payer.
I particularly enjoyed the part where Hide tells Henderson that he better not be lying because that would be curtains for Hides credibility to be pushing a tax frauds case. IRD staff told me the story is loosely 'based on a true story'.
Yeah there's an element of self promotion in that (Hide co-wrote the book) but the story isn't about Hide, it's about Dave Henderson, and Hide's brief role is played by an actor. So same but different. Either way, these movies/plays should be made after they have left politics, and they shouldn't be getting taxpayer support.
My point is that it should simply not be done. Not for her, nor for anyone else.
I would enjoy televised series that presents ALL of our dear suits and wanna be suits in parliament, i am sure there are some interesting characters and also interesting locations and with that their vey own needs. That would be a public service, and maybe actually inform the people about the people they actually voting for.
disclaimer: past voted Labour, Greens, last election was the first time that i did vote for neither of them and personally can't see myself voting for them ever again in the near future.
We have money to waste in this country, and we waste it on the people that least need it.
These 200.000 would have better been spend as a donation to Gumboot Friday for some mental health counceling services that the Goverment finds so hard to provide, and hey, i hear we have a mental health crisis.
Or to fund an emergency doctor or just an axtra bed in that Emergency Department where people wait 27 hour to be admitted to a bed while having a full blown mental health episode, but can't be cared for for lack of a bed.
Or pay full rent for 8 – 10 years for a law abiding family stuck in a run down motel in dead end town. Or a new grant for a charity that hands out food parcels to full time worker. Or maybe winter clothes for kids that have none. Or OR or
But obviously what NZ needs the most now is a fluff piece about Chloe Swarbruck, of all people.
Priorities, the woke liberals in NZ government departments have them.
But there is no reason why people should not to listen to that podcast, unless of course you might be afraid of being confronted with a point of view that would challenge yours, and that of course can’t be? Right?
Because Plunkett is a plonker, who rails against nuanced thought, decrying it, "woke", who bullies those callers who don't conform to his blunt, Actoidal world-view and who is relentlessly anti-Jacinda and the present (and future) Government.
Are you suggesting our youngest ever MP, elected off her own merits rather than the list, and advocating difficult progressive agendas like cannabis reform isn't inherently interesting? Or is it, to quote you:
…a young women who is going to come out as non-binary for a bit of 'most marginalized and vulnerable minority' coinage…
Who is this Swarbruck Fluff fella – any relation to Nadia?
Haven't watched "OK Chlöe", although imho Swarbrick is inspiring (sooo fluffable), along with Yousafzai, Nakate, Thunberg et al. – young sisters doing it themselves.
In the year since we lost our courageous and kind founding female co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, I regularly wonder how the Greens must have been received in trying to raise the science of global warming 30-odd years ago. I think of how today's young people, born long after scientists began delivering sobering predictions on human's impact on our planet, are still patronised for daring to propose the accepted order of things is not quite all right. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/chloe-swarbrick-youth-protest-is-politics-in-its-purest-form/QPVZ4OB4JTJWZPAT3S2YE6UHAM/
Like many taxes, what economists think are good, and what the public will accept, are not always in alignment, so will be interesting to see the talking points on it if it does come to fruition.
Agree that if they are going to introduce it, it should be as an option for councils to consider rather than central government doing it on their behalf, but public opinion of congestion charges is low, so maybe the concern is councils wouldn't use them if they did get introduced as an option.
Any capital works that a congestion charge may eventually fund would be going on roads that are close to, if not 100% Government funded. So makes sense that the funds are Government controlled.
Councils may think they control arterial roads by in reality it’s a Government show through Waka Kotahi
ChrisT-From the discussions I heard on RNZ last week the congestion charge has widescale support across the political spectrum. It was rather refreshing.
Trucking companies in particular have seen the effects in other countries where roads flow much better when a CC is in place.
But with all due respect this doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
For a start how are they going to police it?
I get it in places like London where there are millions of people and worth doing. But we are a small population country and can see it costing more to oversee, than they get back in funding.
And I should have also said. In my personal opinion.
We have the whole Covid and places going broke thing going on.
I am no climate change dehier. I appreciate completely how important it is. But geezes the priorities seem to be screwed up at this particular time with the inflation crisis going on.
People are having trouble affording to feed their kids atm.
The timing for this is just dim. But way to lose the next election.
For reasons discussed before the congestion charge will hit those with the least resources – who are not loud voices in the political polling or surveying.
The intention is to persuade people out of private vehicles and into PT.
When a congestion charge is suggested a few assumptions are made:
1. That the public transport options for people into the congestion area are accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable.
2. That the congestion charge will be a persuasive tool for change and not a punitive or exclusive one.
For central city commuters this might be true. But as you travel further out of the central city, it becomes less so.
In fact, it is most likely that many Aucklanders live where they can afford to – not where it is convenient. Those with less financial resources will often live further out. The further out they live, the less likely assumption 1. will be true, and the more likely assumption 2. will also be untrue, and will go from punitive to exclusive in some cases.
For example: Many tertiary courses are not offered in Manukau Technical Institute and South Auckland students have to travel in to get into town. Public transport is expensive, inefficient, and often unreliable.
What economists and political pundits often forget, is that when options are limited financially many individuals create work arounds that don't require extra money, but may require extra time or effort. Financially precarious households, are dealing with the rising costs of many essentials, housing, utilities, transport and food. Consideration needs to be given to the impact of measures such as congestion charges to ensure that further shocks are not the result.
"Trucking companies in particular have seen the effects in other countries where roads flow much better when a CC is in place."
As mentioned before, my partner works for a forward thinking long established trucking company who are already carbon zero. One ongoing conversation with customers that they are having, is arranging specific evening times for delivery to avoid both traffic delays (which results in higher costs for freight), and also often makes the receipt of delivery faster.
Delivery times are more reliable. Offloading is often faster, and stocking is also because it can happen or be scheduled while the business is not trading.
Molly: Private vehicles are usually more expensive than PT. Fuel is only 40% of the cost of running a vehicle. The next time you calculate the cost of a journey multiply the cost of the petrol by 2 and a half times.
But of course PT has to be improved massively. Party Vote Green and this will happen.
That assumes that every trip for a household member is an individual one, with each person going in a car.
The PT network in Auckland for people who live in the outer regions often does not go where they want to go, has limited timetables, is not reliable and is unaffordable.
I support PT. When our neighbourhood finally got access, (after the community submitted en masse to a AT survey), I went out and purchased the household Hop Cards. We took a trip into town. The cost of travel for five household members was over $100. The cost of petrol – hybrid and parking was around $30. The time of travel via PT was 2.5-3hrs each way. The time for vehicle was 1 hr, without heavy traffic it can be done in 45 min.
This is not an affordable option for a family.
My children studying in Auckland have PT options that will cost approx $60/wk @, but in time will cost them around 4/5 hrs/day. And that is with a 12 min drive to the train station there and back.
The ones that have the least options for PT will be paying the most – again. Transport networks and planning need to be much better than they are.
I also think inequality continues to worsen because the decision makers have little regard for those with limited financial choices. The Auckland fuel tax made transport more expensive for those with limited PT choices. The congestion charge will do the same. Often those with limited PT choices will also have limited finances.
I party voted Green last election. I do not think I will be doing so again.
I am not convinced by their policy focus, and their proposed solutions.
Molly-you are not costing all of the the costs of running a car into your calculations exactly as I said above. With these costs added PT becomes competitive at least in terms of cost. You also do not factor in that PT enables you to relax and to surf the net rather than have the stress of driving.
NZ is a hugely car oriented country-we need to move away from this. PT needs massive investment.
As to the Greens policies, which policies do you prefer in the other parties? For instance the Greens are the only party putting forward a workable Wealth Tax, which is the only way that a fairer distribution of wealth will be achieved compared with the current chronic imbalance. I thought you were concerned with the lot of poor people in NZ society?
Bearded Git. I have calculated the extra costs of running a car into the costs. Parking at Aotea Centre at the time was $11. Actual petrol costs were less than $10. I rounded $21 up to $30 to not overstate difference. That accommodates your concerns. I didn't add the cost of the Hop cards as it was a one-off ;: $50.
Our planning has been abysmal, both spatial and transport. It is lower income households that bear the weight of that failure the most.
No acknowledgement of time costs on top of financials either.
These middle class solutions that can cost lower income households disproportionally more, is another small contribution to inequality.
There will be those who live in great PT areas that won't change behaviour because they, or their employers can carry the charge without effort.
I do care about those who are struggling.
I can see problems with proposed solutions.
Government announces a plan that includes: "including $569m for the Clean Car Upgrade, which will help lower and middle-income households scrap high-emitting vehicles in exchange for electric and hybrid alternatives.
The trial will initially support up to 2500 vehicles."
If they are dedicated to helping lower and middle-income households in this way, they would be looking to create a NZ-based battery recycling or reconditioning plant and subsidising that.
And all those Japanese right hand drive cars that dropped the price of second hand vehicles in NZ when they were internal combustion engines, will be replaced by very cheap EV vehicles too old to be used in Japan, but able to be refitted and purchased here cheaply.
The made a ceiling for uptake of 569b,the initial trial is for 2500 vehicles,so they can tweak vehicle type (removal) and replacement.They need a better understanding of the metrics for full carbon accounting purposes.
Reading between the lines if uptake or the outcome of the trial do not meet sufficient cost /benefit metrics,they can move funding to other areas.That is a logical progression where they can tweak the system,or get out at limited cost.
Implement an equity-oriented vehicle scrap-and-replace scheme to make cleaner vehicles and low-emissions alternatives affordable for low-income households.
• Trial of equity-oriented scrap-and-replace scheme established.
Government approval in 2022 Trial in 2023
MOT Waka Kotahi, MSD, vehicle and scrappage industries.
The removal of FF from industrial heat in the manufacturing area has been steadily announced since the last government (some under regional development) Steady replacement across a number of sectors and a national spread sustains the work,and local industry.
Lots of areas not covered,such as electricity generation,or public transport (excluding bus drivers) where with PT it may be use it or lose it.However PT traffic is down only in AK and WGN,where a systemic regime change post covid may be underway,such as relocation from CBD and work from home.
The concrete announcements for industry,give a base (and confidence) for manufacturers ie retaining jobs.
There are substantive details to come for transport, especially freight of which there may be budget provisions for accelerated depreciation for short haul electric,and biofuel for diesel (wood based) or specialised curtain sider freight cars for rail (where they fork on and off rail for long haul onto truck for local load and delivery)
Long read and little meat I agree,but more in the budget.
The points that maybe overlooked are there were necessities to involve multiple ministries each with their own agendas,which added complexity.
It also required bi partisan agreement as it bounded the opposition out to 2035.
Here the loaded pistol was left on the table for the nats to pickup.
National's climate spokesperson Scott Simpson said the party was committed to the targets but did not agree with everything in the plan…..
…..
He said big companies like Fonterra and breweries like DB were profitable enough to be paying their own way and should not be relying on taxpayers to remove coal-fired burners from their business.
"There's close to $750b that is effectively corporate welfare … a lot of this is going to be spent on is subsidising big corporates who frankly can already afford it and already should be making decisions to decarbonise their own businesses, to lower their own emissions without the support of taxpayers. Big business can and should be leading the charge."
The huge ships will produce less emissions,as of the 1st January all international shipping will have to reduce speed ( 1-3 knots on type) to reduce emissions as part of the cop26 agreement.
Both Japan and China will return to full production over the summer.Japan as more nukes come back on line,and China as covid constraints in Shanghai are reduced( Tesla restated late last week and has 4000 vehicles ready to ship.
Sorry btw. You are probably right. I am just a bit of a cynical person when it comes to this sort of stuff. Especially when you hear the kid stories, whether totally true or not. I actually think both sides do themselves no favours with their arguments.
As I have said before. I think electric cars and the concept is cool as. Even purely as a car nut I am and the instant acceleration.
But I also am concious our electrical capacity is a bit crap in some places and really don't want to be dodging uber length extension cords every time I walk to the bus to work in the morning Lol
No worries,by having a more sustainable uptake with EV,we will not have big blowouts in our BOP,and replacement of ff with ev will at some stage reflect on our fuel imports.
Everyone wanted EV and flying cars and all we got from big tech for most of the 20th century was 140 characters (and some with no edit button) and lightening fast methods to diss someone else.
The trial will also have hybrids for remote locations.
We recently bought an imported second hand hybrid, low ks uses half the fuel of previous similar vehicle (3.5l/100k combined)…..569 million would buy around 40,000 of these (even with the dealer margin).
Plug in hybrid? For those with distances to services (medical ,banks etc) of which can be a large part of NZ ,that may be need to they have more charging (and faster) and longer range.
There is also an uptake with both corporate leasing and GVT departments so we will also have a second hand market for ev in 5 years.
No..Aqua, no charging but as said half the fuel consumption even with a lot of open road running….strikes me as a much better possibility for reducing emissions if youve got half a billion to throw around…assuming theres stock available, though production was 2 million units over 10 years so there should be a significant number around.
Ram raids may increase however….apparently they are prime target for theft.
Actually thinking about it I should prbably think about investing in extension cord companies.
TBF. It is going to happen so if I owned a company and had staff I would be looking now at organising some sort of power unit/system/sockets so staff could charge during the day, rather than having to overnight.
Would be a good recruiting add on.
Do see people at first forgetting and driving off still plugged in while new at first, which will be quite funny.
Those "massive diesel guzzling ships" are the most energy efficient form of freight transport we have. In fact, the bigger, the better. NZ lamb exports to UK have a lower transport emission than trucking lamb across Europe.
"shockingly young child labour/slavery to mine that much cobalt for them". Yes. And coffee, oil and many other commodities. The pressure on Tesla, and other companies, to be more ethical in sourcing materials, continues.
"Yes. And coffee, oil and many other commodities. The pressure on Tesla, and other companies, to be more ethical in sourcing materials, continues."
Yeah. She is a bit of an issue.
TBF. I have read things about the companies trying to solve the issue. So they are genuinely trying.
Then you read the higher tower suicide nets being attached to high rises in Asia for Apple and stuff and realise. Far out. We really are living in a privileged country.
I know some on this blog are not fond of the Daily Blog, but this podcast every Monday nght is fantastic with a good mix of guests e.g Matt MacCarten, David Seymour. So spans across the spectrum of political persuasions.
tonight has Russell Norman and Jordan Williams and they will be discussing amongst other things the pre budget climate announcements.
Sorry Anker, I gave up on TDB a while ago now – it's burrowing down too many rabbit holes for my sanity now. The way they are going now I can imagine them all jumping up and down, hoopin and hollering on Election Night next year if the present Government gets defeated (which is NOT what I want, despite its shortcomings at times). As for coping with David Semour, Jordan Williams, Damien Grant et al – I am on medication to cope with some long term health issues, which I don't wish to exacerbate.
Yes. The degeneration of TDB is alarming evidence of how the notional 'left' can be wedged into fighting against itself. It must be highly amusing to the Nat/ACT boys, whose impeccable and well-maintained class consciousness means they mostly run a tight ship.
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Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Because the German Nazis murdered millions of your people in World War Two, is not a blank cheque you can cash in, giving you a moral authority to murder other people and take over their land..
Yesterday at the Nakba day rally in Auckland's Aotea Square, much to the dismay of the bloodthirsty tankies, Palestinian and Ukrainian flags flew together.
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman addressed the assembled crowd and spoke of both Palestinian and Ukraine peoples' struggles against the brutal military powers of Russia and Israel.
Chants from the crowd,
"1234 We Don't Want Your Bloody War – 2468 Stop the Killing Stop the Hate"
"From Auckland to Palestine Killing Reporters is a Crime"
Chinas property market continues to unwind…
"In a separate statement, Sunac said its aggregated sales in March and April fell 65% from a year ago due to COVID-19 outbreaks in various cities, and its refinancing and asset disposal plans did not materialise after a series of rating downgrades earlier this year.
The firm confirmed it missed the Wednesday deadline for a $29.5 million interest payment on the October 2023 bond that was required to be repaid last month, and it does not expect it will pay three other coupons due last month totalling $75.3 million before the 30-day grace periods expire, or pay other senior notes when they become due."
https://morns.ca/2022/05/15/chinese-developer-sunac-misses-bond-repayment-expects-to-miss-more/
Best of luck today Mr Shaw.
Your ERP is either going to be viewed as Rogernomics 2 or Nuclear Free 2.
More think big,at a time of high cost,high inflation and wealth destruction.
15B$ for electricity replacement alone,
https://twitter.com/business/status/1525819815755141120?cxt=HHwWgMCy1bnC5qwqAAAA
I scarcely bother reading Luke Malpass in Stuff- he is a boringly predictable right wing Aussie and just another self important twot in the MSM – but this line from his (badly sub-edited) piece today is such a jaw droppingly ideological statement it is worth repeating to a wider audience:
"…Rogernomics, named after then finance-minister Roger Douglas, was the overall policy suite that liberated the country’s economy from the dead hand of the state, with the goal of putting consumer choices at the centre of economic life, removing distortions, targeting state support and making New Zealand competition though comparative advantage…"
It tells us a lot about the MSM neoliberal consensus. Stuff, the self-proclaimed champions of establishment liberal identity politics, has no problem employing as its political editor a shill for the neoliberal economic settlement that has entrenched economic inequality in this country. Centrism in a single opinion piece. It isn't a coincidence that Josie Pagani also gets an opinion piece in Stuff.
And yes, I know it is an OPINION piece. But the MSM can't have it both ways. It can't spend it's time in perfromative puzzlement about the public's loss of trust in their objectivity and also promote such frankly ideological nonsense from it's senior political journalist. Once you read that you'll automatically adopt a partisan position towards all Malpass's other utterances on everything.
If the Herald exists to promote the interests of the Auckland squatocracy then Stuff exists to promote the views of the radical centre. Both exist primarily to promote the axiom that extreme individualism is the number one principle and defend the economic interests of their particular end of the trough.
So how do left-wing commentators and opinion writers like Simon Wilson fit into this characterization?
I see both left- and right-wing people complain about the impartiality and/or slant of The Herald and/or Stuff
Simon Wilson is the fig leaf of impartiality at the Herald.
Bryan Gould concurs. However I think he is too nice in assuming that the Herald even cares about self-respect. You need to already have self-respect in order to care about it – and if you never had it, your not about to acquire it any time soon.
Just so AB well put.
It never ceases to amaze me that Stuff begs us to "support quality journalism" at the bottom of every article, then it subjects us to third rate biased editorializing like a journalism student destined for a D minus see me.
again 100%
I wonder how NZ would have coped if we hadn't adopted the collective responsibility model during the pandemic.
Well, really I don't have to wonder, I only have to look at the UK and USA!
That wasn’t the mission and goals, stated or unstated, of Roger Douglas & gang?
The whole piece by Malpass was lazy and weak, an F for effort.
Just in case you’re wondering where progressive men telling women what they can speak about is going, that’s the statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester in the UK. Women were set to gather and speak, men in black stopped them.
https://twitter.com/bindelj/status/1525884203774132225
https://twitter.com/swwalesresister/status/1525845202438594562
https://twitter.com/duncanm/status/1525846979867205632
https://twitter.com/cauldronbourn/status/1525895517783343108
Reminder that trans people aren’t the problem, it’s gender ideologists and the left who now actively support men harassing women.
And anyone else they disagree with,
https://twitter.com/gspellchecker/status/1525923990929293313
the right side of history crowd.
Anybody labouring under the naive illusion that Trans Rights Activists are just seeking fairness for Transgender people and that gender ideology is not an anti women movement, this will shatter those illusions if you bother to pay attention.
The picture speaks a thousand words. Its disturbing. Shame on any men turning a blind eye to this.
Is posing the left as now supporting men actively harrassing women evidence based?
Yes. Not the posing bit, but my observation of men who have stood by while women have been subjected to blatant misogyny, and the men who have chosen to position themselves against gender critical feminists and with the gender ideologists who are doing that misogyny. Left wing men. Do you want receipts, very happy to share them.
The polls would indicate more left wing women than left wing men have chosen to position themselves against gender critical feminists.
So do the positions of most mainstream women's groups.
and it is now time for those that don't support these black clad wanna be ninjas to step up and fight for womens rights. Either they are women, or they are men in frocks, atm it seems that the Men in frock are upper hand.
but can you spot the male taking pictures of the women in attendance? I wonder what this male will do with those images?
https://twitter.com/Sorelle_Arduino/status/1525812479536017410/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Sorelle_Arduino/status/1525812479536017410/photo/2
Some people appear determined to get themselves on a watchlist.
Hard for the police to ID them even if they wanted to (which I’m doubtful of)
The British Police are too busy detaining women for stickering about women's rights, and telling men like Harry Miller (Fair Cop) that he should watch how he thinks. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-59727118
A great woman and a pound shop ninja. Photos indeed say more then words sometimes.
In case you have forgotten, support for transgender rights is higher among women than men.
It is not until a majority of women …
Yes, but they think we are talking about Carmen and Georgina. They have no idea that these days there is no requirement for any hormones or surgery to declare yourself trans. You don't even have to shave off your beard. Also, when the media showers violent and sadistic killers of women with female pronouns – they have no idea that trans identified men have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men.
Please provide some evidence for that statement.
Mainstream organisations such as NOW in the USA and the NCOWNZ here have decided to support the "trans cause" in terms of gender identity choice being recognised by others.
A British survey indicates that support for transgender rights is strongest from left wing (Labour) women and the young.
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/07/16/where-does-british-public-stand-transgender-rights
The detail of the poll above is useful for their government decision-making process.
It's not at that level with Pew (USA) yet.
There is the same greater level of support from Democrat registered, women and youth.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/11/deep-partisan-divide-on-whether-greater-acceptance-of-transgender-people-is-good-for-society/
Their is not many who don't support Transgender rights here,the point is we are supporting Women rights not having them pushed back a hundred years.
What transgender rights?
Because I'd probably be one of those women for the most part.
It's where demands/ideology are impacting on women and children that discussions need to take place.
The women who support trans rights are being kind and haven't realized what gender ideology is about. Most of them haven't heard of autogynophilia.
We are socialized as girls to put others first and be kind and agreeable. It didn’t work with some of us and we see through this movement masquerading as human rights that so many progressives have fallen for.
Here is the unequivocal evidence that NZ is Zionist Israeli occupied territory
After citing MFAT's immoral advice in support of the apartheid Israeli state, the soon to be departed Mayor, Andy Foster decided that Palestinians are persona non grata in Wellington.
The Stuff report concludes with the following, "The Embassy of Israel in Wellington could not be reached for comment but Zionist Federation of New Zealand President Rob Berg said having the flag displayed on a public building in the capital city would cause distress to Israeli people. “It doesn't help promote peace,” he said, though confirmed that the action in New Zealand in itself would be highly unlikely to have any actual impact in Palestine or Israel."
Who the fuck cares what the Israeli people or Mr. Berg think. How many live in New Zealand instead of Israel anyway? Once again, a self-appointed spokesperson seems to be pushing the bullshit line that all Jews are beholden to Zionism and Israel and that there is no place in the world that Palestinians are allowed to be recognised or able to live in peace – not even Wellington.
It is high time the Government adhered to its 'independent foreign policy' line instead of its unprincipled bending to the edicts of other states that do not even share this country's values.
This is what occupation looks like and this is what Israel does – it waits until people are at work then sends in busloads of settlers to steal their homes, and if they object then the Israeli army is called in and shoots the Palestinians.
https://twitter.com/Issaamro/status/1525100173327728641
Colonisation in progress. I guess it is colonisation that the western nation don't have an issue with.
Yeah Hebron is their post East Jerusalem enclave project (denying Arabs building consents in East Jerusalem and evictions attracting a similar crowd of opportunists).
There is annexation of land to the south. They have a far right wing MK led group attacking Palestinian market stalls in the streets (with IDF protection) – the urban equivalent of attacking village farmland.
Just another day in the…U.S.A=Buffalo mass shootings.
10 dead in mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket; suspect arraigned (cnbc.com)
+
'At least 10,806 deaths were reported in the United States, including 398 minors, as 119 mass shootings have taken place across the US since the beginning of this year, according to data from The Gun Violence Archive.
Of those killed in the mass shootings across the US, 937 were minors, while another 8,558 people were injured by gunfire ,which shows an increase in both the number of deaths and injuries from gun violence in the country compared with the same period last year.'
List of mass shootings in the United States in 2022 – Wikipedia
119 Mass Shootings Reported in US since Beginning of 2022 – World news – Tasnim News Agency
Have to admit I was wondering why this particular one got so much attention here, given the population is about 330 million (I think) and the seeming ease they have to buy guns she ain't exactly rocket science that a certain proportion of that many people are going to be nutters, and they are going to have so many shootings/mass shootings.
I'm assuming the only reason it even made the news here while all the others don't is because he apparently mentioned ChCh.
"…I'm assuming the only reason it even made the news here while all the others don't is because he apparently mentioned ChCh…."
Showing the Chch shooters video is an offense, which didn't stop TVNZ News showing the first several seconds of the Buffalo shooters Facebook livestream as the lead item of the 6pm news last night. An utterly morally bankrupt and completely disgraceful editorial decision.
The livestream has been banned in NZ.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/467212/video-of-white-supremacist-s-mass-shooting-in-new-york-banned-in-new-zealand
As smithers would say…'nice win to Ukraine'
Ukraine wins 2022 Eurovision song contest as UK finishes second in Turin | Eurovision 2022 | The Guardian
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the victory, Ukraine’s third since its 2003 Eurovision debut, and said “we will do our best” to one day host the contest in the port city of Mariupol. He underlined “Ukrainian Mariupol. Free, peaceful, rebuilt!”
Let's face it, the Ukraine could have put up a dog barking at a washing machine and they'd have won on the public vote.
haha your absolutely right sanc ! at first i thought the song title was ' stepania ' !!
Poots don’t care..
https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1525746141249273857
EU to accept gas for roubles good analysis from Alexander Mercouris in his daily update .Seems the sanctions against Russia have turned out to be a giant stone hefted by the US and the EU only to be dropped on their own feet .!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkBc0SiHDkg
Did you do any research into the rectitude and credibility of this nitwit, described by his own lawyer as not fully in control of his faculties?
/
Alexander Mercouris concocted a web of “tortuous deceit” to convince a client he was pursuing the bogus claim, including forging a Supreme Court judge’s signature, a tribunal heard.
He even alleged that Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, President of the Supreme Court, had him abducted and offered him a £50,000 bribe to abandon the case.
[…]
Mercouris, 51, later told his client he had managed to win her a £983,000 payout, prompting her to rack up debts in expectation of the windfall.
[…]
Next he told her he had applied for an interim £50,000 payment, then claimed his brother had stolen the whole £983,000.
https://archive.ph/4TA6p (torygraph)
https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/disciplinary_finding/76984.html
btw, winners host so Mariupal 2023, here we come!
I couldnt care less what you think of Mercouris joe I think he does a damn good job in his daily analysis which you're gonna find difficult if not impossible to find in MSM .Theres very few saints around joe and rather than ceaselessly digging up dirt and indulging in smears and slurs perhaps you could contribute something constructive concerning the topics on the table ?
Good news!
https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1525984602573180929
Mariupol a few days ago peace at last !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1I8SZeXGFo
Interesting article The office spaces transforming into luxury apartments
Quite the holistic approach to making rapid changes in the fight to halt/reverse the effects of climate change for not a lot of money (relatively), with plenty of added value.
Urban remote working frees up office space, significantly reduces commuting with less cars on the road, reducing the burden of public transport for non office workers and school goers who have to travel.
Rather than rip up the ERA and ruin the green belt around our cities for housing, not to mention the resources needed to prepare, manufacture and make, government should pay to convert the redundant office space into decent sized, minimum 150m2 apartments, selling them to individuals not landlords, at an interest free fixed priced per block, based on a % of income, like a state house for life you actually own for beneficiaries, or just a step on the ladder at a good price. Idea wouldn't be to make the money back, but if you're going to have to spend more to get less, for fewer people, and wreck the countryside to do it, anything back is a bonus.
i worked in the new Headquaters of Nike in Holland many years ago. The whole complex was desigend to be transformed into apartments by simply removing 'non fixed' walls. Plus a few other environmental goodies that were in use two decades ago.
It makes perfect sense as most of these place are open plan, and could/ should be transformed but the question to me would be the sound insulation. NZ is not a place known to think about noise before building.
https://mcdonoughpartners.com/projects/nike-european-headquarters/
Not being an engineer or architect I wouldn't know, but I'm certain there would be a low cost solution somewhere to minimise or mitigate sound leakage.
Done nicely and made to be the opposite of the tower block cages I've known, there are a lot of wins possible. Get housing as an issue out of the headlines, signal the equitable way forward the government wants to move forward, all that 'we are one' good feelz stuff, and free up time for them to focus on the hard jobs. :tic:
Nike was given a list by the Dutch government of what it needs to do to get a building permit. One of the clauses was that he building needs to be transformable into residential units, that there can only be a limited number of carparks, and that double glazing, insulation are used extensively. Their heating system is interesting, as it is passive.
As for the blocks, in Europe, France, England, Germany – Plattenbau buildings were used in the 60 to make up for the shortfall of houses and the lack of decent housing. They did not last very long in many cases, some only lasted some 30 odd years before they were destroyed, but they did fulfil a need. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattenbau
High density must go up, and fwiw, in NZ we seem to be stuck in the 60/70 as we are building only Plattenbau type buildings when going up, and sadly these buildings will not age well.
'always be sincere…even if you don't really …mean it'!
budget expectations=Stuff NZ.
'
Sharon Cullwick, executive officer, NZ Property Investors Federation:
'Some relief for private rental home providers so they can help the 25,000 people out of emergency accommodation and into a house. Examples of this include changing the bright-line test back to two years and allowing private property providers to again claim interest as a mortgage tax deductible expense.'
There are a few bad landlords in NZ, but Kiaga Ora seem to be one of the worse!
Terrified Rotorua family sleeping in lounge, children receiving therapy after death threats from Kāinga Ora neighbour – NZ Herald
Mental health issues have overwhelmed our systems ability to cope.
And Kainga Ora is not protecting its good tenants from its bad tenants.
Mental health is one thing, letting someone terrorize their neighbourghs is another thing altogether. Kainga Ora is not fit for the job it is supposedly hired to do. Close it down, fire all the clowns there currently employed – include the Minister for that Portfolio for good measure and start from scratch.
Btw, mental health will not get better in NZ as we are not investing in it.
Kainga Ora is in an impossible situation and expected to perform the impossible….it has to protect tenants from themselves all the while not infringing on the tenants rights.
We have created the mental health crisis by misapplying reasonable principles…the theory of care in the community was sound provided it was sufficiently resourced (it never was) and there was provision for those for whom it was ineffective (there isnt).
How much resource can we provide and if the required resource is provided what do we forgo to provide it?
All we expect Kainga Ora to do is to protect ALL of its tenants and not just some.
If this would just be one case i would agree, but there are so many of these cases now that clearly there is an issue here in how KO properties are allocated and how KO staff is missing in action or simply lazy and not doing their job..
So again, take the 'domestic terrorist' out of the property and give that house to a family who will not terrorize the community but will be a good tenant. Send the domestic terrorist to one of the run down motels in which we house law abiding citizens for lack of decent housing.
And do what with the problematic tenant(s)?….and the public and political backlash of mistreating the unwell and now homeless.
And as an aside when did a state housing provider become a mental health facility (without expertise or resource)?
You send the problematic tenant into the motels in which we currently house law abiding citizens and their children. We don't seem to have an issue warehousing decent people in motels for years on end without any help in sight.
Or are you really advocating that in NZ to get a state hosue you have to become a gang banger, drug peddler, pimp and abusive fuckwit?
And you might have missed it, but the same crew who runs Kainga Ora, runs WINZ, runs the Ministry of Health, the ministry of business and innovation and gasps runs the government with a full majority in an MMP environment. The Labour Party. The blames lies with them. So if you feel there are not enough resources being spread out by the government to cover both mental health and housing, maybe you write a letter to the dear leader who was gonna do something about child hood poverty (thanks to poor parents) to finally let loose the purse where they only let loose with meaningless words.
I advocate no such thing as you should well realise….obviously not all KO tenants meet your description but certainly a problematic proportion do….and motels are de facto KO housing in any case.
Importantly my opinion of the resourcing of both mental health and housing is preceded by copious evidence from those in the fields that establish the lack.
I note that there is no response to the question asked…..what is foregone to make such a provision?
Agree – wherever they get put, they will be a problem tenant.
If the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants. If not, they don't. KO (and any other social provider e.g. council housing) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't.
"We have created the mental health crisis by misapplying reasonable principles…the theory of care in the community was sound provided it was sufficiently resourced (it never was) and there was provision for those for whom it was ineffective (there isnt).
How much resource can we provide and if the required resource is provided what do we forgo to provide it?"
Pat, there was 1.8 billion set aside for Mental Health programmes and what has happened to it. The Department is in crisis and is getting worse by the hour. Its a disgrace how the wrap around services are not being met.
I have a close family member languishing in a remand centre waiting for court appearances. This person is seriously unwell with mental health issues. This would never had happened if this person had received the wrap around care from a caseworker and been regularly watched. We are just one of thousands of wretched families desperate to get help for our sick loved ones. When I am calm enough there are going to be letters sent to the head of the District Health Board and to Andrew Little lodging a formal complaint who frankly, has been derelict in his duties towards administrating the 1.8 billion. This correspondence will not be answered of that I am sure but its going to be done nevertheless.
"Pat, there was 1.8 billion set aside for Mental Health programmes and what has happened to it. The Department is in crisis and is getting worse by the hour. Its a disgrace how the wrap around services are not being met."
Yes, but as I frequently point out money is not a resource….though it may allow you to purchase available resources….the resources are not available.
One of the reasons the resources are not available is we had determined that institutional care was undesireable….and certainly it was not the solution for many.
Consider that if we disperse those deemed needing assistance throughout the community and a proportion of those need 24/7 care/ oversight how many bodies, preferably trained, would be required ….bodies, skills unavailable to other needs.
The numbers are staggering
Well, there are practical alternatives which we could put in place now – without the multi-year investment in increasing numbers of houses or mental health providers. Of course we should be doing both of those things – but they'll take a lot of time to make a dent in the issue.
However, they tend to be fairly controlling, and a bit one-size-fits all – and don't go down well with the touchy-feely part of the community.
* Institute all motels (and some apartment complexes) as controlled or restricted housing. Concierge (paid and resident) on site who is responsible for liaising with all associated providers over any issues (crime, mental health, welfare, etc) which arise. Would require a waiver to privacy – because the State (in the person of this individual, and the KO residential complex manager, needs to know).
* KO should just buy the motels – the transfer of wealth to the private sector over this is just ridiculous (I said at the time of first lockdown they should do this – and they should have got a bargain – since motel owners had no income stream)
* Restricted housing allows no visitors – residents can leave to visit family, etc. – but no random people allowed in (reduces gang issues, and other problem people). Only residents listed on the tenancy may be present within the complex. Evict non-residents. Trespass them if it's repeated. [NB: this is critical – a lot of the problem people aren't necessarily the residents themselves, but their associates]
* Collocate together suitable types of residents in housing complexes (i.e. not meth addicts or gang connections next to a family unit).
* Require parents to have children in school or pre-school, attend check ups etc. [NB: schools/pre-schools should be walking distance – concierge can organize walking school bus, etc.]
* Require people to take their medication (may need concierge to hold/administer this).
* Empower security (because the police are just as overwhelmed) to arrest/restrain lawbreakers (violence, intimidation, etc.).
* Establish a policy of transferring out the anti-social people. Even if it's to a different motel complex. The rest of the community needs to know and believe that action will be swift and effective (i.e. that it's safe to complain – you don't have to endure abuse)
* Partner with expert agencies (e.g. City Mission) to build accommodation for the 'problem' individuals (not defining what the problem is – but the expression is anti-social behaviour). They have the expertise to administer/run these. KO should give them the money and get out of their way.
*Admit that the community care model has failed a large sector of the mental health population. Since there is neither care nor community. Bite the bullet and re-establish the secure care that is evidently needed by this sector of society. [This is medum-long term – hard to do quickly]
Basically a paternal state. You have the opportunity to be in charge of your life, but if you demonstrably can't manage it, we'll do it for you.
Individuals/families who show they can manage their own lives, can then transition to independent living in existing KO properties.
Individuals/families who show they can't manage, can also be transitioned back to the managed environment.
Well – KO seem to be determined to add to the load.
The mental health of the multiple families, who are, let us not forget, innocent victims here – being terrorized by other KO 'clients', will certainly be deteriorating.
Triage – the appropriate method of dealing with an overwhelming resource crisis – in this case both limits on housing and on mental health capacity – seems to be a foreign concept to them.
Triage to where?…and by whom?
Triage by KO. They already make decisions about housing allocation. Unfortunately, they're not following triage principles.
And, if you are a danger or a threat to your neighbours (as we have seen in *multiple* publicly reported instances – not to mention all the private ones which never make the papers) – you get to leave the nice KO house/neighbourhood, and be allocated a (much less desirable) motel unit.
KO have a *legal* responsibility as the landlord (of their other tenants) to ensure that problem tenants are not terrorizing their neighbours (recent Tenancy Tribunal case made this crystal clear)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kainga-ora-residents-tenancy-tribunal-complaint-after-neighbour-hell-for-three-years/JHLXUDIR4RO72KZKNQRUNNA7ME/?c_id=1&objectid=12515078&ref=rss
KO housing managers can't be expected to be experts on mental health (and from a privacy perspective, I expect that they don't even have access to any information about the mental health of their clients).
They are, however, expected by both the public and their other clients, to manage disruptive, dangerous and terrorizing behaviour from their clients.
If they can't do this (and Poto Williams appears to be thoroughly ineffective in directing them in this area) – then NZ voters will be very tempted to vote for a party who claims that they can.
Just to be clear, you advocate that KO should evict problematic tenants and it is not their concern if they have no where else to go or if the cause of the behaviour is a mental health issue?
It would be nice if you’d actually read my comment.
Just to be clear. I'm advocating that problem tenants should be transferred to less desirable locations (typically motels).
KO apparently think it's fine for families with children to be in motel accommodation for years.
[I'd also advocate for motel unit style accommodation to be much more strictly monitored and regulated – especially for people with mental health and or addiction issues. But that's a different topic]
It's not the job of the landlord to decide whether the issue is mental health problems or something else.
You seem to be advocating that people who might have mental health issues should have a free rein to terrorize the neighbourhood with zero consequences.
"You seem to be advocating that people who might have mental health issues should have a free rein to terrorize the neighbourhood with zero consequences."
Not at all…indeed Im advocating that problem KO tenants be evicted, after one or two ignored warnings and engagement with relevant agencies…however I dont view moving to motels as anything other than transferring the problems location having said that motels are effectively KO housing.
The question then becomes, if the cause is a mental health issue what is done about the individual….we have barely any residential institutions and those we do have are already overwhelmed?
So its back to resourcing …if we are to resource the required what are we willing to forgo?….or are we not willing to forgo anything?
The problematic tenants without mental health issues similarly should be evicted after suitable opportunity to reform….however the problem there is what constitutes a mental health disability?
Wherever they get put, they will be a problem tenant. If the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants. If not, they don't.
KO (and any other social housing provider e.g. council horsing) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't. KO evicting someone doesn't stop those people being problem tenants, just stops them being problem tenants of KO. There's nothing to stop a problem tenant getting a private property in the same area and continuing to terrorise the neighbours, but now with no recourse by KO or anyone else.
For people who think that's a theoretical problem, Christchurch has plenty of KO housing in Aranui where the tenants in the private housing in the same area are no better, or worse, but nobody has anywhere else to go.
Why is it our responsibility to house anti social people (unless they have children)??
IWhy all the "but where would they go if we boot them out?" Aside from if they have kids living with them (and maybe they shouldn't) in the words of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, "frankly my dear I don't give a dam"
If they are mentally ill of course they may need hospitalitsation and should be able to be sectioned under the Act, if they are threatening others. Despite what most people think most people with severe mental illness are not threatening and dangerous. If they are psychotically ill, many are too paranoid to leave the house.
The Govt has to take responsiblity for the mess that is mental health. What they don't seem to get is that it all rises and falls on competent well trained staff who are well resourced and using evidenced based treatments. Re-structuring the health. system is the wrong priority. Somehow they seem to think if they fix the bureaucracy then jolly good show. Well done us. Same with having a Commission Enquiry into Mental Health, re-establishing the Mental Health Commission, yada yada yadh.
If not the state, then a private landlord, who as explained above may have no obligations to neighbours at all, in which case KO could evict someone only for the former tenant to move into a nearby house owned privately and be a worse issue as now nobody can do anything. Aranui is one suburb in Christchurch where this is entirely possible (I grew up there and it hasn't changed much) and there are plenty of state houses and also plenty of private houses with landlords who don't care how loud the tenants are.
If the state is not the housing provider of last resort in this manner, they will still be the provider of last resort as Corrections.
Christchurch nights can drop to -5, some parts of the South Island can drop below -10 – that can be lethal for someone unprepared for it, especially the homeless. Executing someone by hypothermia via eviction seems disproportionately severe, but maybe I'm just a bleeding heart liberal.
I read the article and wondered about whose job it is to deal with behaviour which might be illegal. (threatening, etc)
Is Kainga Ora to police illegal behaviour of its tenants? Harassing the neighbours? Fraud? Not having a vehicle WOF? Shop lifting?
What is described is terrible behaviour and awful for those being harassed. And certainly sounds like a job for the police. The problem is the behaviour not whose house they're living in.
Think its fairly well established that prisons are pretty much our only mental health institutions now.
The problem is that he police wont come in many cases, if they do show up its after the fact to take notes and appear as doing something, and then they leave without the criminal element so they might as well stay put have a cuppa and a donut and do nothing.
We currently do not a a good job in locking violent elements up, or sentencing them to anything meaning full, and even if we do that same person will be send 'home' on Home D to continue doing what they did before. Criming and terrorising their community and families.
A further problem is, even when the most serious of the cases are charged – they are then bailed back to the same address – to continue the criminal and intimidating behaviour, and terrorize those people who've been brave enough to complain.
The court system is so delayed – that it is likely to take *years* for the case to be heard. And, even then, if/when convicted – they're most likely to have a community sentence and be back in the same address.
In any case, behaviour should not have to be at a criminal level to be dealt with by the landlord. Fraud, failing to have a WOF and shop lifting, have minimal effect on the nearby residents. Harassment, burglary, drug dealing, intimidation and anti-social behaviour have a huge impact.
In terms of tenancy law, if the landlord owns neighbouring properties, they have an obligation to those neighbouring tenants to provide "quiet enjoyment", to use the legal term, which includes the quiet-ness (or otherwise) of the neighbouring tenants. KO (and any other social housing provider) would usually come under that as they usually own multiple houses in an area (though not always), while many (not all) private landlords don't.
If the landlord doesn't own neighbouring properties, that obligation doesn't apply with respect to neighbouring tenants as they don't have any.
There is also a tenant responsibility not to disturb neighbours, but landlords are not required to police that if the neighbours aren't also their tenants (as above). They can choose to (tenancy legislation provides for it), but can't be made to, and there is no recourse for neighbours unless they are also tenants of the same landlord.
All that said, problem tenants are problem tenants, so KO (or any other provider) evicting tenants just passes it onto other landlords who may or may not be equipped to deal with them.
This always strikes me as a wicked problem in that no solutions are particularly good from the government perspective because the bad tenants are the root cause of the problem so will be problematic for the state both as landlord and more widely in terms of societal wellbeing, but I wonder if KO maintaining units in more rural areas (e.g. city fringes) for particularly problematic tenants would be the best solution of a collection of bad solutions.
The real problem is poverty mental health meth and gangs. Almost every story mentions one of these issues. Mental Health has always been the poor cousin in Health. The pandemic shortages both in materials and staff, and labelling continues.
No real suggestions are out forward to meet these problems, which used to be handled by evictions in the past. These people lived in vehicles or on the street under Paula Bennett's rules regarding meth, which were not science based.
So any effort to change that has to provide temporary systems while builds are under way. This is then able to be called slums terrorism and other names. No one wants these people as neighbours, so cries of what are …" Police Landlords or Poto or Andrew doing.??? "
They are running to stand still in a world utterly pressured by covid's supply line problems monetary fall out and "over it" attitudes of "Big Daddy" fix it for us now!! Community means caring for all, not just the deserving. Painful as that is.
There does need to be a cut off point for bad behaviour, and the case discussed here seems to meet the criteria. However, if there is no easy answer, as the building of homes is slowed by the pandemic. To say people are not trying to improve this situation is a stretch. It is not a situation that is able to be fixed easily, or all those right wing experts would have it sorted by now.
So concrete suggestions are welcome.
Absolutely agree that there is a mix of issues at the heart of the issues in most cases, and KO or any other landlord can't do much about that.
Also, while social housing providers are often seen as the landlords of last resort, especially the state and council-funded ones, arguably the actual landlord of last resort is Corrections i.e. prison.
The sum of everything that everybody has said is that: the problem is unfixable if we allow it to occur on the scale we do. My only concrete suggestion is to eliminate all financial, food and housing insecurity as a right of citizenship, see what social pathologies remain afterwards, and have well-trained and resourced professionals trying to mop up the residue. Give it 50 years and we might be in better shape.
"… the problem is unfixable if we allow it to occur on the scale we do. "
Somebody gets it…..and the likely timeframe to see it remedied, if ever.
Meanwhile no one has answered the original question….where do the resources come from?
Excuse me if i am mistaken but don't landlords have the ability to evict tennants, even if it can't be done immediately? Or do tennants just get to choose when and if they leave a rental property
They do, when they have good reason.However KO has an internal policy of not evicting. Where would the problematic tenants go?
If the issue is noise then getting council involved is another option
Yes understood Weka. It is this internal policy of not evicting I have a problem with
I have a problem too, although I don't think the solution is for them to just evict people (where would they go?).
Swordfish's parents situation was an obvious one where eviction should have happened early on. Whichever government agency should then have stepped up and sorted out the issues with the evicted tenant.
jImmy this is why my sympathy was limited for Wellingtonians, especailly workers in the capital cries of how bad it was for them having the protesters at Parliament! I realized it can't have been easy, but where were their squells of outrage about the poor people in Kainga Ora flats putting up with this shit, while the landlord i.e the govt did NOTHING………
BTW I have been wondering how Swordfish has been doing. Anyone know?
Good point!
Yes I have been thinking of Swordfish lately.
Observing the changing narrative of a slippery ScoMo rather than merely reporting it …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imuTUxBu-kQ
Anyone know what the Chloe Swarbick allegedly "$200,000 taxpayer funding of a politically partisan puff piece," is all about?
Where did you see / hear about it?
I noticed the "story"several times on Twitter from amongst others Farrar and Plunkett. They seemed to be pretty emphatic.
There is a documentary about her made with NZ on Air funding that has got aging misogynists like Sean Plunkett all in a tizz.
Sean Plunket of ‘ungrateful hua’ infamy; say no more.
It will be a nice fluff story about a young women who is going to come out as Non binary for a bit of 'most marginalized and vulnerable minority' coinage; just before announcing her co-leadership with Marama Davidson for the Green Party just in time for the Election.
btw, the person who is going to do this soap is the same that was doing the CHCH movie.
A waste of tax payers money. If either one of them, Chloe or Marama have any functioning braincells left they will say 'NO, thank you', it would not be proper.
I do hope that there will be documentaries made of other Politians, also funded by the government in the lead up to the next election, just for fairness sake.
Not holding my breath though.
"A waste of tax payers money. If either one of them, Chloe or Marama have any functioning braincells left they will say 'NO, thank you', it would not be proper."
Agree. If any National or Act politician was in this scenario, I would be just as scathing.
yep, and everyone here would demand that they do that.
Waste of money. end of.
" come out as non binary for a bit of most marginalized and vulnerable minority coinage". Lol Sabine! Love your work!
NZ on Air funding decision
https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/news/december-2021-funding-decisions/
Questions, I assume, over how partisan the documentary will be (I don't know where you're reading the commentary from)
Like the one on the Chch shootings which morphed into a piece on Ardern – to similar controversy.
Should public money be going into documentaries on sitting MPs? Can this be construed as election advertising? (guess it depends when it's released). I know that MPs have to be careful about when in the electoral cycle, they release biographies. And bios (books, that is) aren’t publicly funded.
Thanks all. 18 months out from an election can hardly be electioneering I think.
Takes a long time to make a film. The timing would have had it on track to be potentially released shortly before the 2023 election – but (see below) commitment is that it will be released after the election.
Which addresses the electioneering issue.
In that case, perhaps NZ on Air should do a similar $200k documentary on Chris Luxon now as "18 months out from election can hardly be electioneering".
That would get people on here triggered. But also a documentary on say Grant Robertson could be good too.
But Chloe is interesting Jimmy.
Is she?
I dunno, a doco on Luxons personal life could be quite enlightening.
Think that most pollies would reject the possibility with horror – especially if it had any prospect of being neutral 'warts and all' coverage – let alone critical.
I remember, years ago, watching a doco about several minor candidates standing for an election – it might have been "Campaign" set in Wellington Central in the 1996 election (not certain at this late date – much water has passed under the bridge of my memory).
But one stand-out for me was that the professional politicans curated their image with great care – it was the amateurs who were open.
A Luxon doco, interesting?
More disturbing than anything, I imagine; footage from his “hands-in-the-air, brothers and sisters”, church meetings, anyone?
I said enlightening for a reason
I see what you mean, and you were correct.
If someone submitted a compelling proposal they likely would fund it. NZoA is just following it's process.
Nope, we have to question why these people are getting $200,000 to make a film about a current female politician. How on earth can this be justified.?
She is an interesting woman who has already achieved a lot. Unlike most of us.
I think it could be an interesting docu and I would probaby have a watch, but only once she is no longer a sitting politician.
Your absence from the audience will be noted with deep regret, Anker.
Oh come on Robert lets stick to the arguements. Do you think it is a good idea that NZ on Air is giving funding for a doco called Becoming Chole when she is a sitting MP. I mean I would have thought there would be discomfort on all political sides about this, even if the movie is shown after the election. Chloe likely has a long career in politics.
BTW I agree with all Sabine says on this issue. $200,000 would have bought a hell of a lot of counselling sessions…………..
Just found that it's set to release after the next election – so addresses the electoral cycle question.
https://www.deganz.co.nz/funded-full-length-documentary-to-follow-mp-chloe-swarbrick/
Director is Charlotte Evans – who has already made "OK Chlöe" – a short doco – which was fairly hagiographic. Guess that's always an issue with doco makers – if they are dealing with an 'attractive' subject (speaking here of political rather than personal attributes), it's hard to be balanced.
The government should simply not fund something like that, or the government should fund documentaries on all Politians – every single one of them, and then we can watch the trailers for these upcoming awesomely interesting movies during the election period.
And of course this will become the same public shitshow as it was with the CHCH movie which was incidentally being made by the same person who is gonna do the Chloe Swarbruck Fluff Piece.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/political-puff-pieces-funded-by-your-tax-dollar
Plunketts take on it. I am sure the NZ tax payers will be thrilled about this! And the beneficiaries who are struggling to put food on the table, will have some nice entertainment, after they have eaten bread and butter for tea.
It doesn't take much for you to start sounding like the Tax Payer's Onion, does it. As NZoA funding goes it isn't a huge amount – do you have a problem with state funding of culture in general?
Tax payers Onion? Union maybe.
I hate wasteful spending. I really do.But I am not against money being spent on culture. I am in agreement with Sabine, we either have movies made about all politicians or none (except of course those who have retired which will give us a historical perspective)
You will notice I often talk about the need to pay nurses and Dr's very, very very well. All so the care workers who are currently on strike. I have no idea where the tax payers union stand on paying nurses and drs more. But despite what you might think, I am not their mouth piece.
I am a Labour Party member who has freed myself from having to support their policies unless I agree with them. It wonderful being able to be an independent thinker
IMHO, we should not be making 'movies' about any sitting politician, but there is a bigger issue here. The opposition are running a campaign to paint the government as profligate spenders, linking that spending to inflation, and then trying to appeal to the 'squeezed middle'. The amounts are insignificant in the context of total government spending, but articles like this, featuring a photo of 2 cabinet ministers beside a $5,000 O (that will come back to bite them) just fuels the narrative.
NZs been doing this kind of thing for some time. Exhibit A being 'Were here to help', featuring sitting politician (and self styled perk buster) Rodney Hide, yes, partly funded by the tax payer.
I particularly enjoyed the part where Hide tells Henderson that he better not be lying because that would be curtains for Hides credibility to be pushing a tax frauds case. IRD staff told me the story is loosely 'based on a true story'.
Yeah there's an element of self promotion in that (Hide co-wrote the book) but the story isn't about Hide, it's about Dave Henderson, and Hide's brief role is played by an actor. So same but different. Either way, these movies/plays should be made after they have left politics, and they shouldn't be getting taxpayer support.
My point is that it should simply not be done. Not for her, nor for anyone else.
I would enjoy televised series that presents ALL of our dear suits and wanna be suits in parliament, i am sure there are some interesting characters and also interesting locations and with that their vey own needs. That would be a public service, and maybe actually inform the people about the people they actually voting for.
disclaimer: past voted Labour, Greens, last election was the first time that i did vote for neither of them and personally can't see myself voting for them ever again in the near future.
We have money to waste in this country, and we waste it on the people that least need it.
These 200.000 would have better been spend as a donation to Gumboot Friday for some mental health counceling services that the Goverment finds so hard to provide, and hey, i hear we have a mental health crisis.
Or to fund an emergency doctor or just an axtra bed in that Emergency Department where people wait 27 hour to be admitted to a bed while having a full blown mental health episode, but can't be cared for for lack of a bed.
Or pay full rent for 8 – 10 years for a law abiding family stuck in a run down motel in dead end town. Or a new grant for a charity that hands out food parcels to full time worker. Or maybe winter clothes for kids that have none. Or OR or
But obviously what NZ needs the most now is a fluff piece about Chloe Swarbruck, of all people.
Priorities, the woke liberals in NZ government departments have them.
NZ on Air is independent and autonomic. It does not fund mental health counselling, public health, or social housing.
NZ on Air funds:
https://www.govt.nz/organisations/nz-on-air/
I’m glad to have cleared up your confusion.
You listen to The Platform?
Why, in God's name?
why not.
Or maybe ask Norman Russel why he appears on it?
But there is no reason why people should not to listen to that podcast, unless of course you might be afraid of being confronted with a point of view that would challenge yours, and that of course can’t be? Right?
Why not?
Because Plunkett is a plonker, who rails against nuanced thought, decrying it, "woke", who bullies those callers who don't conform to his blunt, Actoidal world-view and who is relentlessly anti-Jacinda and the present (and future) Government.
That's why.
Who needs to listen to that whining pish?
You think Norman Russel is pish? Did the dude loose his Green card? Lol.
Or are yo upset that these guys set something up that did not need some tax payers funds like the Chloe Swarbruck 'pish'?
hahahahah, funny this.
Your Russel Norman comment is disingenuous.
I'm not upset. I've listened to hours of Plunkett.
His work is pish.
🙂
Norman Russel "could" be pish? …..whoever he is : ).
Cant say I've ever listened too much Plunkett…but the small amount I have seen and read….would indeed rate a high pish factor….
Well Robert if you read the article about the Chole film you will find Plunkett actually gives praise to Jacinda for her stance on the Chch film
Are you suggesting our youngest ever MP, elected off her own merits rather than the list, and advocating difficult progressive agendas like cannabis reform isn't inherently interesting? Or is it, to quote you:
Who is this Swarbruck Fluff fella – any relation to Nadia?
Haven't watched "OK Chlöe", although imho Swarbrick is inspiring (sooo fluffable), along with Yousafzai, Nakate, Thunberg et al. – young sisters doing it themselves.
So who is thinking the stupid congestion charge is going to be announced today for Auckland and Welly?
Call me Mr Dimmest person on earth, but still find it weird the govt controls it and not Councils.
Like many taxes, what economists think are good, and what the public will accept, are not always in alignment, so will be interesting to see the talking points on it if it does come to fruition.
Agree that if they are going to introduce it, it should be as an option for councils to consider rather than central government doing it on their behalf, but public opinion of congestion charges is low, so maybe the concern is councils wouldn't use them if they did get introduced as an option.
Yeah I just find it odd.
I am assuming the tax is going to central govt and not the actual city councils as well?
It is just silly.
Any capital works that a congestion charge may eventually fund would be going on roads that are close to, if not 100% Government funded. So makes sense that the funds are Government controlled.
Councils may think they control arterial roads by in reality it’s a Government show through Waka Kotahi
ChrisT-From the discussions I heard on RNZ last week the congestion charge has widescale support across the political spectrum. It was rather refreshing.
Trucking companies in particular have seen the effects in other countries where roads flow much better when a CC is in place.
I heard that as well.
But with all due respect this doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
For a start how are they going to police it?
I get it in places like London where there are millions of people and worth doing. But we are a small population country and can see it costing more to oversee, than they get back in funding.
And I should have also said. In my personal opinion.
We have the whole Covid and places going broke thing going on.
I am no climate change dehier. I appreciate completely how important it is. But geezes the priorities seem to be screwed up at this particular time with the inflation crisis going on.
People are having trouble affording to feed their kids atm.
The timing for this is just dim. But way to lose the next election.
There's broad support among economists as well, but polls don't seem to show much support of the public for the concept.
For reasons discussed before the congestion charge will hit those with the least resources – who are not loud voices in the political polling or surveying.
The intention is to persuade people out of private vehicles and into PT.
When a congestion charge is suggested a few assumptions are made:
1. That the public transport options for people into the congestion area are accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable.
2. That the congestion charge will be a persuasive tool for change and not a punitive or exclusive one.
For central city commuters this might be true. But as you travel further out of the central city, it becomes less so.
In fact, it is most likely that many Aucklanders live where they can afford to – not where it is convenient. Those with less financial resources will often live further out. The further out they live, the less likely assumption 1. will be true, and the more likely assumption 2. will also be untrue, and will go from punitive to exclusive in some cases.
For example: Many tertiary courses are not offered in Manukau Technical Institute and South Auckland students have to travel in to get into town. Public transport is expensive, inefficient, and often unreliable.
What economists and political pundits often forget, is that when options are limited financially many individuals create work arounds that don't require extra money, but may require extra time or effort. Financially precarious households, are dealing with the rising costs of many essentials, housing, utilities, transport and food. Consideration needs to be given to the impact of measures such as congestion charges to ensure that further shocks are not the result.
"Trucking companies in particular have seen the effects in other countries where roads flow much better when a CC is in place."
As mentioned before, my partner works for a forward thinking long established trucking company who are already carbon zero. One ongoing conversation with customers that they are having, is arranging specific evening times for delivery to avoid both traffic delays (which results in higher costs for freight), and also often makes the receipt of delivery faster.
Delivery times are more reliable. Offloading is often faster, and stocking is also because it can happen or be scheduled while the business is not trading.
The Auckland fuel tax impacted on lower income households as well, for the same reasons given above.
Those making the decisions, are those who most likely have some form of paid or subsidised transport option available to them through employment.
Molly: Private vehicles are usually more expensive than PT. Fuel is only 40% of the cost of running a vehicle. The next time you calculate the cost of a journey multiply the cost of the petrol by 2 and a half times.
But of course PT has to be improved massively. Party Vote Green and this will happen.
That assumes that every trip for a household member is an individual one, with each person going in a car.
The PT network in Auckland for people who live in the outer regions often does not go where they want to go, has limited timetables, is not reliable and is unaffordable.
I support PT. When our neighbourhood finally got access, (after the community submitted en masse to a AT survey), I went out and purchased the household Hop Cards. We took a trip into town. The cost of travel for five household members was over $100. The cost of petrol – hybrid and parking was around $30. The time of travel via PT was 2.5-3hrs each way. The time for vehicle was 1 hr, without heavy traffic it can be done in 45 min.
This is not an affordable option for a family.
My children studying in Auckland have PT options that will cost approx $60/wk @, but in time will cost them around 4/5 hrs/day. And that is with a 12 min drive to the train station there and back.
The ones that have the least options for PT will be paying the most – again. Transport networks and planning need to be much better than they are.
I also think inequality continues to worsen because the decision makers have little regard for those with limited financial choices. The Auckland fuel tax made transport more expensive for those with limited PT choices. The congestion charge will do the same. Often those with limited PT choices will also have limited finances.
I party voted Green last election. I do not think I will be doing so again.
I am not convinced by their policy focus, and their proposed solutions.
Molly-you are not costing all of the the costs of running a car into your calculations exactly as I said above. With these costs added PT becomes competitive at least in terms of cost. You also do not factor in that PT enables you to relax and to surf the net rather than have the stress of driving.
NZ is a hugely car oriented country-we need to move away from this. PT needs massive investment.
As to the Greens policies, which policies do you prefer in the other parties? For instance the Greens are the only party putting forward a workable Wealth Tax, which is the only way that a fairer distribution of wealth will be achieved compared with the current chronic imbalance. I thought you were concerned with the lot of poor people in NZ society?
Bearded Git. I have calculated the extra costs of running a car into the costs. Parking at Aotea Centre at the time was $11. Actual petrol costs were less than $10. I rounded $21 up to $30 to not overstate difference. That accommodates your concerns. I didn't add the cost of the Hop cards as it was a one-off ;: $50.
Our planning has been abysmal, both spatial and transport. It is lower income households that bear the weight of that failure the most.
No acknowledgement of time costs on top of financials either.
These middle class solutions that can cost lower income households disproportionally more, is another small contribution to inequality.
There will be those who live in great PT areas that won't change behaviour because they, or their employers can carry the charge without effort.
I do care about those who are struggling.
I can see problems with proposed solutions.
Government announces a plan that includes: "including $569m for the Clean Car Upgrade, which will help lower and middle-income households scrap high-emitting vehicles in exchange for electric and hybrid alternatives.
The trial will initially support up to 2500 vehicles."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/climate-change-plan-high-emitting-vehicles-to-be-banned-electric-vehicle-scheme-under-45-billion-plan/7Y63XNCUS4PZ3OOF5NDJUN5HMU/
If they are dedicated to helping lower and middle-income households in this way, they would be looking to create a NZ-based battery recycling or reconditioning plant and subsidising that.
And all those Japanese right hand drive cars that dropped the price of second hand vehicles in NZ when they were internal combustion engines, will be replaced by very cheap EV vehicles too old to be used in Japan, but able to be refitted and purchased here cheaply.
569 million to remove 2500 high emitting vehicles?….thats $227,000 per vehicle.
Surely that cannot be correct?
The made a ceiling for uptake of 569b,the initial trial is for 2500 vehicles,so they can tweak vehicle type (removal) and replacement.They need a better understanding of the metrics for full carbon accounting purposes.
Reading between the lines if uptake or the outcome of the trial do not meet sufficient cost /benefit metrics,they can move funding to other areas.That is a logical progression where they can tweak the system,or get out at limited cost.
Do you have a link to the trials detail and costings….im struggling to find anything
snap!
All I have come across so far is this…
Implement an equity-oriented vehicle scrap-and-replace scheme to make cleaner vehicles and low-emissions alternatives affordable for low-income households.
• Trial of equity-oriented scrap-and-replace scheme established.
Government approval in 2022 Trial in 2023
MOT Waka Kotahi, MSD, vehicle and scrappage industries.
This is a pre budget announcement,some of the details etc are still budget sensitive as i understand ( excluding some fully funded announcements)
As far as I can see the entire document is full of aspirations, trials and to be decided's.
And they delayed it by months….for this?
The removal of FF from industrial heat in the manufacturing area has been steadily announced since the last government (some under regional development) Steady replacement across a number of sectors and a national spread sustains the work,and local industry.
Lots of areas not covered,such as electricity generation,or public transport (excluding bus drivers) where with PT it may be use it or lose it.However PT traffic is down only in AK and WGN,where a systemic regime change post covid may be underway,such as relocation from CBD and work from home.
They also needed the IMF signoff on friday last
Have a look at the actions and timelines…its a joke(a bad one and on us)
The concrete actions can be counted on the fingers of one hand and they are largely pre announced.
The concrete announcements for industry,give a base (and confidence) for manufacturers ie retaining jobs.
There are substantive details to come for transport, especially freight of which there may be budget provisions for accelerated depreciation for short haul electric,and biofuel for diesel (wood based) or specialised curtain sider freight cars for rail (where they fork on and off rail for long haul onto truck for local load and delivery)
Long read and little meat I agree,but more in the budget.
"Long read and little meat I agree,but more in the budget."
You hope….but this was supposed to be our first plan….not a plan to make a plan…the words develop. consider and investigate litter the whole document.
Well literally blah ,blah blah.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300589895/ministry-for-the-environment-posts-blah-blah-blah-in-outline-of-emissions-tool
Oh the irony
be a vacancy at PR in the MOE I suspect.
The points that maybe overlooked are there were necessities to involve multiple ministries each with their own agendas,which added complexity.
It also required bi partisan agreement as it bounded the opposition out to 2035.
Here the loaded pistol was left on the table for the nats to pickup.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/467218/emissions-reduction-plan-political-parties-weigh-in
By being broad based across a number of sectors,it does allow involvement (part of the narrative) to be all inclusive.
The big sells will be in the electricity sector,and housing.
"The made a ceiling for uptake of 569b,the initial trial is for 2500 vehicles,so they can tweak vehicle type (removal) and replacement."
Did they happen to mention how much emissions are caused by huge ships bringing 2,500 EVs over from the country they haven't said can supply them?
The huge ships will produce less emissions,as of the 1st January all international shipping will have to reduce speed ( 1-3 knots on type) to reduce emissions as part of the cop26 agreement.
Both Japan and China will return to full production over the summer.Japan as more nukes come back on line,and China as covid constraints in Shanghai are reduced( Tesla restated late last week and has 4000 vehicles ready to ship.
Apologies, but do you have a link to the 4000 vehicles ready to be shipped over on the massive diesel guzzling ships?
As I doubt there would be enough shockingly young child labour/slavery to mine that much cobalt for them.
Tesla stated they have resumed production in the china gigafactory ( 1.8 miles long by .5 miles wide).
i did not say they were coming here only that EV is available from manufacturers,including nissan
Cool
Sorry btw. You are probably right. I am just a bit of a cynical person when it comes to this sort of stuff. Especially when you hear the kid stories, whether totally true or not. I actually think both sides do themselves no favours with their arguments.
As I have said before. I think electric cars and the concept is cool as. Even purely as a car nut I am and the instant acceleration.
But I also am concious our electrical capacity is a bit crap in some places and really don't want to be dodging uber length extension cords every time I walk to the bus to work in the morning Lol
No worries,by having a more sustainable uptake with EV,we will not have big blowouts in our BOP,and replacement of ff with ev will at some stage reflect on our fuel imports.
Everyone wanted EV and flying cars and all we got from big tech for most of the 20th century was 140 characters (and some with no edit button) and lightening fast methods to diss someone else.
The trial will also have hybrids for remote locations.
We recently bought an imported second hand hybrid, low ks uses half the fuel of previous similar vehicle (3.5l/100k combined)…..569 million would buy around 40,000 of these (even with the dealer margin).
Plug in hybrid? For those with distances to services (medical ,banks etc) of which can be a large part of NZ ,that may be need to they have more charging (and faster) and longer range.
There is also an uptake with both corporate leasing and GVT departments so we will also have a second hand market for ev in 5 years.
No..Aqua, no charging but as said half the fuel consumption even with a lot of open road running….strikes me as a much better possibility for reducing emissions if youve got half a billion to throw around…assuming theres stock available, though production was 2 million units over 10 years so there should be a significant number around.
Ram raids may increase however….apparently they are prime target for theft.
More bangs for the buck with a large order across a mix of product,just as well we had a trade delegation in Japan very recently.
Actually thinking about it I should prbably think about investing in extension cord companies.
TBF. It is going to happen so if I owned a company and had staff I would be looking now at organising some sort of power unit/system/sockets so staff could charge during the day, rather than having to overnight.
Would be a good recruiting add on.
Do see people at first forgetting and driving off still plugged in while new at first, which will be quite funny.
Those "massive diesel guzzling ships" are the most energy efficient form of freight transport we have. In fact, the bigger, the better. NZ lamb exports to UK have a lower transport emission than trucking lamb across Europe.
"shockingly young child labour/slavery to mine that much cobalt for them". Yes. And coffee, oil and many other commodities. The pressure on Tesla, and other companies, to be more ethical in sourcing materials, continues.
We will, of course, ignore the effect of the constant wars and sanctions for oil, https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/media/2531/file/ UNICEF-Global-Insight-Sanctions-and-Children-2022.pdf. never mind the health issues with young children from hydrocarbons environmental effects. The Environmental Pollution Consequences of Nigerian Oil Boom: The Socio-Economic Calamity of Oil Spillage in the Delta Region on JSTOR
"Yes. And coffee, oil and many other commodities. The pressure on Tesla, and other companies, to be more ethical in sourcing materials, continues."
Yeah. She is a bit of an issue.
TBF. I have read things about the companies trying to solve the issue. So they are genuinely trying.
Then you read the higher tower suicide nets being attached to high rises in Asia for Apple and stuff and realise. Far out. We really are living in a privileged country.
Don’t be fooled by Apple’s PR: Workers strike against sweatshop conditions | Economic Policy Institute (epi.org)
Making parts for one of the most profitable coporations in the world.
Foxconn also told China that if they legislated for "Free" Unions they would shift their manufacturing elsewhere.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/05/16/7-30pm-live-tonight-the-working-group-weekly-political-podcast-with-russel-norman-jordan-williams-damien-grant/
I know some on this blog are not fond of the Daily Blog, but this podcast every Monday nght is fantastic with a good mix of guests e.g Matt MacCarten, David Seymour. So spans across the spectrum of political persuasions.
tonight has Russell Norman and Jordan Williams and they will be discussing amongst other things the pre budget climate announcements.
Damien Grant. NO thanks!!
Sorry Anker, I gave up on TDB a while ago now – it's burrowing down too many rabbit holes for my sanity now. The way they are going now I can imagine them all jumping up and down, hoopin and hollering on Election Night next year if the present Government gets defeated (which is NOT what I want, despite its shortcomings at times). As for coping with David Semour, Jordan Williams, Damien Grant et al – I am on medication to cope with some long term health issues, which I don't wish to exacerbate.
Please keep well Jilly Bee Sending good wishes.
Yes. The degeneration of TDB is alarming evidence of how the notional 'left' can be wedged into fighting against itself. It must be highly amusing to the Nat/ACT boys, whose impeccable and well-maintained class consciousness means they mostly run a tight ship.
Interesting thoughts AB. Who or what ideas constitutes the left now?
no problem Jilly Bee. take care
Sad to see Rusty sharing a spot with Williams.
https://bootstheory.nz/tag/jordan-williams/
https://twitter.com/helenkellyUnion/status/775688779923329025
https://twitter.com/jordnz/status/501113656784863232
thanks for the heads up about Jordan Joe 90.
Shocking, shocking mysogyny. Its been a bad day for it.
Brian Gaynor, will be missed. His articles were always thoughtfully constructed and thought provoking.
Obituary
Yeah, I enjoyed his articles.
Sad news.
He was actually also a very funny fellow personality wise, as well as brainy as.
Big loss.
When Bob Jones can't stand his insights…you know he was good.
exactly.