Does the green policy of Maori getting first right of refusal on land , mean that if Joe farmer wants to sell his farm to Joe jnr and his wife, Maori would have the right to step in and stop that happening and purchase the farm, ?
RMT Union General Secretary Todd Valster argues powerfully here that it is illogical and unjustified to stop Te Huia coming into Auckland. He says it is an over reaction by Waka Kotahi which if they stick to will stop Te Huia coming into Auckland for 2 years.
What a ridiculous decision by Waka Kotahi-one wonders if it is politically driven. This is a good listen.
I suspect that Waka Kotahi will be highly motivated by the Safety legislation.
Now that they have had 2 alerts of drivers going through red lights – if they did not halt Te Huia, and there was a subsequent accident due to driver error – they would be liable.
We are seeing this play out over White Island at the moment – and I'm sure it's giving point to concerns.
Pointing to other trains which don't need the specified piece of safety equipment – is not relevant unless you can also point to them running red lights in a high passenger environment (i.e. during rush-hour in Auckland).
I don't know what kinds of additional safety strategies that were proposed for Te Huia to mitigate the risk.
However, running a red light on a busy Auckland train corridor is a pretty serious risk to mitigate.
And, note, mitigation is what they've done.
They've said that they're prepared to accept the risk of running Te Huia up to Papakura, but not within the Auckland rail commuter corridor during rush hour – until there are acceptable safety strategies to manage the already-identified risk.
well yes, obviously safety needs to be the priority. I'm just surprised they can't put other systems in place while they're waiting for this one piece of tech that takes 2 years to install. That suggests there's not redundancy planning in the system. Odd, although tbf the couple of MSM pieces I read didn't talk about this.
Just listened to it now – no new information that wasn't in the written sources.
Union guy seems to see Te Huia as being singled out – whereas freight and another passenger service (Northern explorer) are still allowed to operate on the suburban network – without the required piece of safety gear.
What he's not addressing, is whether either of these other 2 services have run red lights during the Auckland passenger rush hour.
[NB: running red lights at all is bad, but it's much worse if there is heavy passenger use on the tracks when it happens]
He claims that WK should wait for the outcome of the investigation (ongoing) before short-stopping Te Huia.
I really don't think he'd be prepared to front the media if Te Huia ran another red light and caused a major accident!
It seems a reasonable safety precaution for WK to halt Te Huia at Papakura – until a suitable mitigation is in place.
He hasn't mentioned any other risk mitigation possibilities (I don't know if he doesn't have any, or there wasn't the opportunity to air these in the short interview)
However, as lprent pointed out, it seems entirely unreasonable for NZ rail to take 2 years to install a piece of kit – which is already operational on other trains. Why is no one asking that question?
Exactly Weka. If you listen to the audio many trains are coming into Auckland without having the safety system Waka Kotahi are uniquely insisting that Te Huia have.
Do you (or the Union guy) have any evidence that other trains have the same risk levels (specifically running red lights in rush hour within the Auckland commuter rail network)?
I've read some vague claims from the Train Supporters group that 'incidents' have happened – but no specifics.
Because, at the moment, the WK response appears to be: Te Huia has the safety problem (and therefore needs to additional piece of equipment); the other trains have not (and therefore it isn't a priority requirement for them).
Perhaps, a better question would be why it will apparently take KiwiRail so long to install this safety device? It's already operational on domestic trains in Auckland – so isn't new…..
[Edited to say, lprent has already said this last para in more detail]
Other trains regularly operated on the Auckland rail network that did not have ETCS, including freight trains, shunts and the Northern Explorer passenger service that runs between Auckland and Wellington.
"The only trains that have got what they call ETCS are the Auckland suburban trains, there's no other trains in the country that have got that system."
Effectively this is a standardised system running on a variant of the antique GSM system. The only parts are standardised and should be readily available.
The Auckland network should already have the hardware in stock as spares. They should also have a supply line to get replacements into stock within a short period. They aren't bespoke systems unless Auckland Transport have been complete morons and have used some weird variations from the standard.
If they don't then they are being quite remiss in their duties.
But KiwiRail said it would take up to two years to design, install and test the system.
I would describe that as outright bullshit.
It would maybe take that time to design it for a full system ready to disperse over the whole rail network.
But most of the design work is putting in the sensors, and transmission network. Which is already in place and working.
Hell, even just designing and building on-train hardware on a SBC made to a written and testable standard wouldn't take 2 years. (But I'd be concerned about losing GSM-R network hardware longer term.)
But to conform to an existing hardware network would just require the purchase and installation of the end-point units on some trains used by Te Huia. Limited testing to make sure that they can reliably see the existing Auckland network. Might take a couple of months depending on KiwiRail phobias about access to the rail corridors and access to trains for testing. Hardly two years.
If I had to bet, then I'd say this is just another dumbarse stupid pissing contest over who controls traffic in Auckland rail. Or what standard should be used for traffic control on combined urban commuter / freight rail networks.
RMT Union General Secretary Todd Valster is so eloquent, and so very level-headed, about the Te Huia situation in the audio above. He knows what he is talking about.
Not all of it. Kiwirail should be completely faulted for not conforming to a local traffic standard.
Kiwirail and for that matter the Hamilton council should have had the gear on their trains coming into Auckland. Running with two different systems on the same network pushing tonnes of inertia is just stupid.
Waka Kotahi should have mandated that all trains coming into Auckland used exactly the same control systems that were in use by all parties. ie as soon as the ETCS went into effect, all trains should have been required to use ETCS in the Auckland railways – without any exceptions. Using two different primary control systems is just outright dangerous with that amount stored inertial energy.
Which means that Te Huia shouldn't have never been able to come in closer than Papakura during the day without having ETCS operational. Nor should have the freight trains on the same lines.
The reason why it'd have been put into Auckland network was because the signalling system has been a flakey as shit. That in turn was because the short-sighted idiots in National sold NZ Railways in 1993 to some inefficient penny-pinchers who stripped it of maintenance and asset stripped the value.
The pricing of shares makes that pretty clear, as did their public accounts.
The government sold New Zealand Rail in 1993 for $328 million to a consortium in which the US company Wisconsin Central was the leading shareholder. From 1996 the New Zealand subsidiary, known as Tranz Rail, was listed on the New Zealand and NASDAQ stock exchanges. Shares were initially floated at $6.19 and peaked at $9 a year later. Wisconsin Central had sold out of Tranz Rail by 2000; in 2003, when Toll Holdings of Australia bought the company, its shares were valued at between $1.34 and $1.65.
Toll did the same.
The lines and plant, including the control systems, were a basket case in Auckland by the time they dumped it back on the public. The irresponsible fuckwits in the National party should be charged with the cost of bringing it it back up to standard. I remember looking at this indirectly with a project back in ~2015 and being appalled at just how much of a horrible issue the signalling system and even the comms system to maintenance crews was.
After the urban rail was revitalised here eventually with electrification, it regularly went offline because the physical signals kept failing. I believe that they still do. The ETCS provides the more reliable system.
The things that keep the rail system running here the ETCS during the day (0600-0100) and that the rail freight doesn't tend to run on those lines in those hours. Having a daily service running without a decent control system.
I wasn’t aware that they were running without ETCS. I absolutely don’t want the damn service back on our lines until they bloody well are. I don’t care what Kiwirail or the union think. Putting ETCS on the kiwirail engines
shouldn’t be hard.
should have been done before they were allowed to run into britomart on commuter hours
The incidents of not obeying the fractured old signals is just icing on the cake.
Further to all that is the governance of the regulator. Since Prebs saved rail, we've had an oscillation between cowboy capitalists & neolibs who can't run the thing satisfactorily, so I suppose we're supposed to conclude that neither the left nor the right are sufficiently competent to operate the system properly.
Best thing to do would be to eliminate both the left and right from the control of the system – select winners instead of losers. Expertise has never been restricted to those wearing a party label. Perhaps, however, there's a need for govt liaison – which makes us wonder at the relation of the minister to the system.
The problem with NZ rail is the same as usual for NZ.
We have a very low density of population for the area and length of rail track. That is coupled with a very difficult terrain.
It means that rail, road, coastal shipping, main transmission lines, and a number of other economically important infrastructural supports are unlikely candidates for private companies to run. They can't make a profit if they maintain the whole of country structures. So they invariably hike prices and drop maintenance to maintain a return to investors.
Which makes the direct costs to all businesses much higher while also often giving a terrible service in that the risks of complete outages is very high. The borderline electricity supply in NZ at present being a good example. It is one drought away from failing as Huntly is slowly decommissioned and we have had virtually no significant investment in new capacity since the 1990s, while our population has grown by about 40-50%.
Not having these sectors running efficiently is an effective hobble for the rest of the economy.
select winners instead of losers
Selecting winners is always pure guesswork. Whenever it has been tried here it has invariably failed – all of the way back to the 29th century. I've been involved in various kinds of startups and post-startups in my entire career. Most of them have succeeded to one degree or another. But a lot of the companies that I looked at working for 9and a couple that I did work for) did fail.
It is extremely hard to "pick winners".
On the other-hand, providing stable, well-maintained, and reasonably priced economic infrastructure (ie pricing related to long term investment in the infrastructure and its maintenance) has invariably worked historically.
Doesn't matter if it is a good legal framework, or if it is the provision of a electricity grid. Enterprises will build on that and do the much riskier exploitation of those infrastructural resources to build 'winners'. Governments need to concentrate on providing the basis for an economy and not much on "picking winners".
Prices/costs need to be related to the usage – which is why our roading network is currently unsustainable. That is because the RUC is way too low on heavy trucks because of unfortunately maintained subsidies to the trucking industry as they wreck our roads.
Through all of this…a cynic could think : Are they incompetent? Agenda driven?.. Other ? Anyway, the Fwits, appear between them and by their action/inaction… to just want Rail in NZ…dead and gone.
Ah..just so absolutely frustrating !
And the eyewatering amount spent on Aucklands rail….to be completed…2025? or Sometime…?
Some could and should..have gone to the Passenger Rail South Island.
Just after the RNZ news @ 7am I listened to Hipkins grimly telling Morning Report that he takes "full responsibility" for the policy announcement he screwed up yesterday. I gathered he announced a different ram-raid policy to the one Labour actually adopted.
In the ongoing saga of ram-raiders defeating cops, a year of dramatic escalation of the problem seems to have triggered a Labour u-turn. Instead of watching from the sidelines while telling everyone it's a police operations issue, nothing to do with us, they've suddenly decided that copying National is urgently essential. Wonder why?
While Hipkins is claiming that this policy was developed entirely independently of the ones announced by ACT (first off the block) and National – he's going to struggle to convince voters of this.
"Hipkins rejected that the Government had adopted National’s policy regarding the targeting of offenders posting to social media, saying the idea had been developed before National announced it."
Maybe, Labour's "scandals" – manufactured or otherwise are not having the cut through …
That's my conclusion too. I was fully expecting Labour to drop more than 2% on the back of the so-called "government of chaos" hysteria currently being indulged in by NAct and their media lackeys.
I suspect most voters don't know what they're on about and don't care if some minister got a bit uppity or forgetful over some personal matter they're not the slightest bit interested in. Imo they have far more important matters to be concerned about than the relatively minor mishaps around a few ministers.
Feels more and more like the 2005 election. Which Brash and National/Act lost because they were unable to shake the impression that Brash/National/Act weren't ready for government.
Basically the opposition isn't getting enough traction to shift the goalposts, unless they manage to pull a Jacinda out of the hat. The centre of the potential coalition seats is teetering about that 61, but not moving far from it.
Here'a good example of Aotearoa's economic synergy with China:
Sir Richard Taylor, the co-founder and creative director of Weta Workshop, suggested that he might not still be in business had he not utilised the skills of China in his changing industry over the past 25 years.
He made his comments in a presentation to the China Business Summit in Auckland, hosted by the Auckland Business Chamber and Fran O’Sullivan’s NZINC.
He said what originally took him to China was a desire to make the Lord of the Rings Polystone collectibles looking for a manufacturing relationship.
It was then that he first met Fred Tang, who then became one of his closest friends, and who introduced him and his family to many others in China.
They ended up travelling the world together, chasing business opportunities, and they ran a bronze casting foundry together.
“Rather than it ever being perceived as a business-to-business relationship, I see that it’s a cultural bridge we have formed between our colleagues in China and ourselves as we’ve had the great chance to hang out and work with some mesmerising and amazing people.” Today he and wife, Tania, solely own Weta Workshop [which] employs about 360 people."
Hipkins on Maori land: "We don't intend to reopen Treaty settlements that have been closed where the settlement has been reached. They were full and final settlements."
They were proclaimed as such at the time. Times change.
Hipkins was also asked about ending perpetual leases over Māori land – something the Greens have already proposed to do – but he reiterated the "full and final" Treaty settlement process and how he doesn't intend to add to that. "That would also be inequitable for those iwi who have already reached the conclusion of that process."
Hipkins speaking for Maori is unlikely to be seen as culturally appropriate. Either Marama or the TMP co-leaders ought to reprimand him thus: "Equity for us is how we see it and describe it – your opinion of how we do this is irrelevant."
Greens Māori development spokesperson Teanau Tuiono said when indigenous people have control over their land, it boosts biodiversity. He also believed the policy will address "the impacts of land loss and colonisation in Aotearoa" and support whānau and papatūānuku to thrive.
"Returning land to tangata whenua is the right thing to do to address the ongoing injustices that Māori experience. Aotearoa can be a place where active kaitiakitanga led by tangata whenua guides our relationship with te taiao, ensuring our tūpuna whenua, awa, and maunga are cared for."
He's speaking for Aotearoans of the future. Hipkins is speaking for NZers of the past.
This, by the way, is some truly impressive boomer inventiveness. They've found another way to undertake intergenerational wealth theft. What will they think of next?
It's a policy designed to increase demand in the rental market by removing a hurdle to young people entering that market – rather than (say) living at home with parents. Coupled with a re-opening of the immigration taps to even further stimulate demand, it promises a nice bit of asset price inflation plus increased rental returns for landlords. Meanwhile those young people are not getting the investment return on their Kiwisaver funds now diverted into rental bonds. Accumulation by dispossession – it's been a bit harder recently, but with the Nats back in power it'll be the best gig in town once more.
Could you expand on that a bit please? I'm not sure where any theft is occurring?
As someone who has had to come up with goodness knows how many bonds in the last decade, I think it's an excellent idea for young people who can't afford a bond when looking for somewhere to live.
I wish it was for everybody rather than just under 30's but I understand why they're restricting it to youngsters.
rent of $600/week might have a bond of $2400. If that gets taken out of KS a few things might happen.
They lose the bond either through carelessness or no fault of their own.
They lose interest on that $2400. Say 5% over 5 years, roughly $600 (someone else can work out the actual interest rates and how interest accrues etc).
Both of those things reduce the ability of young people to save and have some chance of improving their income and wellbeing over time, that flows on to the ability to have and raise children with good income and wellbeing. It's intergenerational because younger generations are hit harder by housing costs than previous generations.
Sir Peter Gluckman on Morning Report at about 8:40 on integrating Science. Sounds a lot like the recent Draft Science Curriculum. Needs cooperation collaborative across the sciences.
I'm would be pretty confident that the NZ curriculum revisions (apparently being put to PISA) are not addressing the actual causes of NZ's PISA score declines. The issue with the PISA scores is a small percentile of NZ students are falling well behind the average or best NZ students on the test. This doesn't indicate a general failure of the NZ curriculum it indicates (most likely) some schools and teachers are not reaching all their students.
To actually improve the PISA scores would likely involve additional targeted teaching regularly bringing members of the class back towards the average. This should probably not even be targeted by special needs, but just based on assessment of strengths and weaknesses in achievement. But this will require actual investment via the MoE. A new curriculum on the other hand is relatively inexpensive.
As far as I have seen the thrust of the new curriculum is a terrible idea, basically the much vaunted holism, is another way of saying your teaching science while your actually trying to focus on the big picture of ecology and climatology. Its going to be quite difficult to teach biology, chemistry and physics while focusing only of specializations of those subjects and avoiding all the detailed ground work.
If anything the curriculum revision should focus on creating a detailed science curriculum with reasonable expectations of achievement set for all the levels. That would be a fantastic resource for teachers who can then focus on teaching that rather than the question of what to teach that is presented by the draft curriculum. Either the author or someone from the ministry was presenting the draft as a massive challenge to teachers, and that is quite correct. We really don't need teaching science to be more challenging right now, what we need is the science were teaching to be more challenging and for the majority of students to be never the less meeting those standards.
The great advantage of a holistic approach to all learning as it offers meaningful contexts. A College in Palmerston North back in the late 80s had a collection of teachers from Maths, Science, Social studies and English collaborate in a single program for the year. One theme was the operation of Local government. The surge in enthusiasm for the teachers and students was remarkable. Well worth it.
Think there might be a few different meanings to holistic in play here. From other uses of the term I've seen it seems to fit scientific thinking quite well. Science students certainly can get a kick from the feeling of understanding gained by applying new ideas and being able to predict outcomes. But from everything I've seen of the new curriculum its light on important details, which was already a weakness of the current curriculum.
He starts off commenting on the failure of science to provide sustainability. He then complains about billions going into yet more particle physics instead of solving global problems. He's right to point at Big Science as a failure complex. Useless losers.
He makes the point re integrative thinking, that it "leads to a different way of doing science". "Most funding and most institutions are designed around silos." Progress consequently is minimalised via antiquated beliefs being recycled ad nauseum.
"We desperately need an integrated approach." Says "we've been working with the United Nations over recent months" to develop "a much more integrated way of moving ahead." Doesn't know if funding will be provided "to change the paradigm".
The idea that paradigms change when money is tossed at them will be a revelation to readers. "Nations like ours need to change their own funding systems, and universities need to change their incentives." To incorporate "stakeholder engagement right from the outset." He's right: such operational holism is the path to the future.
He ends by citing turnaround of a particular social ecosystem in another country, facilitate by a scientist he mentions, regenerative results produced. Thing is, Ian, this applied science interface with geopolitics blends examples with holistic theory. Showing how it works in one situation provides a good example. Use three such (a triad) and you establish a correlative pattern in the minds of others. A pr expert would therefore advise him to include a couple of others in his repertoire.
He says that 2 mins into the interview. He cites the billions spent on particle physics then asks why we aren't spending that on sustainability. Listen for yourself:
You can stick to your story and I’ll stick to what I heard Sir Peter Gluckman actually saying. You only have to know a little about Gluckman to realise that he’d never say such a thing as you allege he said.
Let me just say that I call your judgement into question, generally speaking.
But by the same token our local media are largely pinched faced parochial naval gazers who steadfastly refuse to link rising food prices here with the slump in global food production in the last year
you have to be concerned as to whether or not questions like is the current laissez-faire food production and distribution and sale model still fit for purpose in an era of climate crisis are even being explored by anyone in government or the bureaucracy.
If we are not careful, we'll end up in an emergency situation where food is still being exported while NZer's suffer price-induced famine. Remember, Anglo-Irish landowners continued exporting wheat to the UK to get the best market price even while millions of Irish peasant starved to death or emigrated during the great famine of 1845-52. The bengal famine of 1943 was also at least partially caused by reluctance of the British to regulate the food market, despite natural disasters and military defeats disrupting food production and supply.
Waka Kotahi has known for years the land in the area is unstable but thought the motorway would bypass it.
Hipkins did not know at the time, but Waka Kotahi did, that already a large slope had begun sliding down toward the motorway at an average 5 to 11cm a week.
An artful ploy. Use of four-letter words will appeal to traditionalists everywhere. Deplorable is ever so 2016. I assume the White House is now able to speak for itself due to getting AI installed. Damn good idea. However it does lack charisma in the interim until the WH incorporates either a robot or android to do pr for it.
The very-much-there White House press secretary used the word ‘vile’ in answer to a question about JFK jnr’s claims during her daily press briefing. Unless she has a direct interface to AI, unlikely that this was AI generated.
Remember that Trump gave up on having a representative give daily press briefings when in office. Who needs AI generating White House output when you can just tweet baseless Fox News memes conveniently anytime, as he did? Of course, Fox News is no doubt using AI these days to ‘create’ content.
Quite rare for me to ever be a fan of someone nowadays, but I'm okay with giving credit where it's due. From a biodiversity perspective, rabble-rousers like him try to insert a wedge into the trad binary. Helpful activism. Doesn't really matter that he's seemingly locked into the paranoid world-view. A competent therapist can always extricate him if necessary…
All consciousness raising is inherently good. I do agree that you get a toxic downside when in-crowds generate sociopathy as a result of realising that govt often lie to the people. That's a different issue. Likewise the tendency of left-wingers to call out racism & antisemitism whenever an opinionated other irritates them.
Which lies?? Why not cite evidence? Are you trying to suggest that your personal assessment of bad behaviour is not evidence-based? Why do left-wingers hallucinate like that so often? Irrationality in political commentary is evident elsewhere online but I'd rather it didn't get traction here as trendy behaviour,
Browsing in a shop today, overheard a conversation between shopkeeper and customer that started off describing being in hospital with lung issues.
The story finshed with 'of course that covid's engineered, the vaccine causes disease, and anyway all the water and food is delibetately contaminated now'! JFK jnr's target demographic, in the US.
Try to focus on what I actually write rather than wackydoodle notions circulating in your head. It's the best way to communicate online. Address the topic instead of losing the plot.
Of course wealthy Trump supporters are funding the anti-science loon's campaign.
Mark Dickson, a Californian who amassed a fortune treating aluminum for the aerospace industry, has donated more than $450,000 to federal candidates since 2015. The total includes $400,000 to Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee that allows individuals to contribute large amounts to support Donald Trump. That money was then distributed to Trump's presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties, and others working on behalf of Trump.
[..]
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, neither Dickson nor Sheldon has ever donated a dime to a Democrat. Until now. This year, both donated $6,600 — the current legal maximum — to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a Democratic candidate for president.
Dickson and Sheldon's sudden interest in a Democratic primary candidate is unexpected. But, for Kennedy's campaign, it is not uncommon. According to a Popular Information analysis of Kennedy's first FEC filing, the lion's share of Kennedy's biggest donors have previously only donated to Republicans.
This cap, crafted by the Conservatives, 'prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017. It was introduced by the former chancellor George Osborne in his austerity drive with the aim of encouraging parents of larger families to find a job or work more hours.'
Instead, it has impoverished many families, proving it to be a useless policy. Why Starmer would carry on with it, I don't know…trying so hard to be tory-lite so as to pick up tory votes? Dyed-in-the-wool tory voters will never vote Labour. They will just stay home and not vote if they don't support the current government.
Guess Luxon might apply a similar cap on Working for families. Pinching useless Tory ideas is part of his modus operandi.
Unlike Russia … the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident ..
Right wing pundit Liam Heirer tries to run interference for the National Party's regressive KiwiSaver/bond switch policy. But he does highlight one of the many drawback of the policy:
There are drawbacks. When KiwiSaver funds are used as a bond, they are not actively invested, potentially resulting in missed growth opportunities.
Hand't thought much about it but my long time assumption is that bond money is invested to offset the cost of the service and tribunal. If it is not, it seems like poor financial management, and if it is then under the Nats policy then the lost interest from renters' KiwiSavings will definitely be used to fund Tenancy Services and the Tenancy Tribunal.
Question: Is $750M of tenants money invested, or not?
Edit: over the course of the morning Hirer has walked back defending the policy at a rate of knots…
Say your favorite landlord invested your bond how would you feel about that? Now say he lost a lot of your bond in that investment how would you feel about that?
Tenancy services don't pay interest on bonds and one would hope have not put them at risk (they haven't).
I know Tenancy Services don't pay interest on bonds but to have $750M sitting there devaluing without even low risk investment like govt bonds (?) or a bank seems weird.
Just wondering if that huge pot of tenants’ money is doing any work at all, even though it clearly does no work for tenants.
So essentially the bond scheme is highly regressive in that tenants, mostly lower income people, pay through lack of access to capital in the form of held bond and subsequent lost interest, for the security of wealthy, multiple property owners.
The bond scheme should be scrapped entirely and replaced with a fund from within the progressive tax system.
Not sure what your going on about here. You could propose, for example, that landlords be required to collect zero bond. I think that's going to encourage frequent rental fraud to unacceptable levels of course, but that's a proposal which actually leaves tenants with more of their income in their pockets.
Putting the bond money at risk by investing it really just adds risk where its unnecessary. Doing it to improve the government finances (because your not paying interest to the depositors anyway) seems to be helping the wrong people (I think for largely partisan reasons).
Well, I'm not advocating for the investment of bond money for profit, government or otherwise, but the fact is tenants' capital is eroded by inflation because they cannot access it, and it is also not protected by the custodian against inflation.
$2K bond in a bank is $3K after 10 years at 4% which covers inflation over the same period.
So tenants are required to stump up the lump sum and lose on it for what, an incentive for themselves to not commit fraud or criminal damage? Gee, thanks for that characterisation, I’m sure tenants appreciate it!
To replace the bond scheme (regressive), a govt fund (progressive) should be established to address disputes. Tenancy Services can chase unpaid rent using a progressive fund rather than a regressive one.
Again, its not clear what your going on about. As far as I can see Tenancy Services does run at a loss, making it already the progressive scheme your demanding.
Its unclear what your proposing regarding the govt funding of bonds here? You think maybe each time a tenancy ends the tenants and land lords should collect a share of the 'refund' from the government? This might result in a surprising high turnover of tenancies in practice.
Landlords don't collect the bond, it is held by tenancy services.
How would it encourage frequent rental fraud? Remember, renters don't only have to cover the bond, but usually two weeks rent in advance for the landlord and a weeks letting fee for the parasite. (real estate agent).
Until 12 December 2018, letting agents and solicitors could charge tenants to grant a tenancy. This is now prohibited under the Residential Tenancies Act.
Letting agents may choose to charge a landlord for these services, but they are prohibited from charging them to tenants.
Please don't suggest the Residential Tenancies Act be scrapped. Of course the money will be invested, because the cost of running Tenancy Service mediation and bond administration comes from that fund. I imagine excess goes into the general tax pool.
Tenancy Service fairly provides a win-win position for both tenants and landlords, and has for the past 36 years. Landlords need bonds to cover rent arrears and insurance excess on damages. Tenants need the service to mediate when landlords cheat them or refuse arrears or unfairly claim the bond.
A friend of mine who had work in tenancy advocacy contributed in the design this legislation, and was rightly proud of it. I think it's fantastic, clearly few here have experienced the iniquities that renting and bonds used to involve. For landlords, a benefit in losing interest on the bond is the Tenancy Tribunal, where you don't need a costly lawyer to chase bad tenants.
For those who can't afford bonds, the answer is not scrapping the Act, but providing them with a bond grant, as MSD already does. Abuse the grant, and lose your entitlement.
Tenancy Services doesn't use bond money to pay staff or operate. The meaning of a trust account is that the money in there is in no way invested or paid for any other purpose other than bond return (in this context).
Legal firms will usually have a trust account for similar purposes and again the funds are separated from how they pay staff and paid out only on the basis of why they were accepted (such as a property sale final settlement).
The MBIE Annual Report 2021-22 (pg 142) states "Revenue from Residential Tenancies Trust Account" in 2021-22 as being $15,909,000 and $18,694,000 in 2020-21.
So, the money young and low income provide for security earns the government about $17M each year, a 2.2% return on capital provided by the disadvantaged.
The landlord used to hold the bond. In days of high inflation the bond was a tidy earner for them. All sorts of excuses not to pay back the bond to tenants, and they had you over a barrel.
To answer the question, the money is invested, and as assumed, the interest offsets (partially at least) the costs of Tenancy Services, mediation, investigations and the Tribunal. This is done by the interest being departmental revenue meaning MBIE requires less funding than it otherwise would. References follow:
Bonds are paid into the Residential Tenancies Trust Account by the Chief Executive if received by them (usually from landlords or property managers) or the tenant directly if agreed with the landlord. Although the Act refers to the Chief Executive, naturally this is delegated to the relevant business unit (of MBIE in this case).
S127 of the Residential Tenancies Act covers the Residential Tenancies Trust Account and its operations. Among other things, the money must be invested in line with the Public Finance Act and any revenue from doing so is treated as departmental revenue. The relevant section of the Public Finance Act is s68 which provides for investing either in interest-earning bank deposits or public securities (Crown-backed debt e.g. government bonds).
The MBIE Annual Report 2021-22 (pg 142) states "Revenue from Residential Tenancies Trust Account" in 2021-22 as being $15,909,000 and $18,694,000 in 2020-21.
Thank you Craig H, I really appreciate you taking the time to cover all that. I didn't know where to look so I asked the forum. Your comment answers my question @ 13 and informs others who were interested.
Broadly, my issue is that the running of tenancy services and tribunal is partially or even largely funded from interest on the capital provided by low income people, either the young or those families resigned to long term renting situations.
So, $16-$19M is about a 2.5% return on the total $750M owned by tenants. It is regressive and I just don't think it should be this way.
"When KiwiSaver funds are used as a bond, they are not actively invested, potentially resulting in missed growth opportunities."
So what? It's their money. (The person paying the bond) and finding somewhere to live right now today is more important than potential lost interest on a couple of grand of kiwisaver funds when you've got 30+ more years of Kiwisaver contributions ahead of you. Furthermore, if someone has to borrow the money to pay a bond then guess what, those funds are not actively invested, potentially resulting in missed growth opportunities…,. Not only that but the borrower has to pay interest on the bond money.
Or alternatively a person suspends contributions on their Kiwisaver and instead saves that money until they have enough for a bond. Again, that will result in missed growth opportunities for that money…. Of course that's no use at all if you need somewhere to live now rather than in a years time when you have saved up enough.
Much better sense to make temporary use of their own money rather than taking on debt. (Apart from the fact that many renters are unable to get loans)
Regardless of all that, this would undoubtedly be only a relatively small number of people. I doubt there's many students for example with a few thousand dollars in Kiwisaver. (Just a guess I don't have evidence either way). Others under the age of 30 are more likely to have enough funds in Kiwisaver but there still will be many more who don't.
Plus, if someone can use their Kiwisaver funds to help with buying a house then why can't someone on a lower income who will probably never be able to buy a house use it to pay their bond. It's pretty much the same thing (Seeking somewhere to live) but as per usual, those with less (renters not buyers) are told no, but those who can afford to buy a house are told yes. Doesn't seem fair to me. If it was the other way around then no doubt people would be saying how unfair it is.
Maybe taxpayers (the government) should give them a 0% interest loan to cover it if they are so against them using their own money.
Bishop is a dangerous idiot who has deliberately limited knowledge about the welfare system. When explaining policy he often claims, 'he's been talking to people'. In the case of the KiwiSaver raid policy he'd been talking to the Young Nats, apparently.
I imagine his thinking is to have vulnerable, low income people withdraw from their own KiwiSavings to meet bond rather than having MSD provide a grant, something which he now knows about, and will surely shut down if in office.
Crikey! Just read Audrey Young's complete history of Chris Hipkins. No sly digs an no anti-government spin. What an amazing chap he is. Thanks Audrey.
Hipkins: “I think there’s a range of areas where we have picked too many battles all at the same time and at the same time, we haven’t always explained to people what we are doing and why we are doing them.”
Sorry BG. The item is many pages long. (Coming on Thursday: Read Investigations Editor Alex Spence’s profile of National leader Christopher Luxon.)
“He will handle it,” says Rosemary Hipkins. “He won’t buckle.”
Rose, as she is more often called, is the Prime Minister’s mother. She and Chris’ father, Doug, live in Raumati South, about 50km north of Wellington.
They are a hugely important part of their son’s life, and even more so as he juggles leadership with being a father to a 7-year-old son, Charlie, and 4-year-old daughter, Isabel.
“I think he’ll cope with it very well because he is disciplined, because he can focus on what matters,” she said.
“He doesn’t sweat the small stuff. He doesn’t bear grudges. He just moves on, accepts how things are and does the best he can in whatever circumstances confront him and that’s what he will keep doing.”
While Hipkins brands himself simply as “a boy from the Hutt” Rose Hipkins reveals more about her son’s character than his penchant for sausage rolls and mince pies and suggests he was not a typical boy.
“Chris was always a very singular boy. He marched to his own drum right from the time he was little.
“He was curious about the world and how it worked.”
“He really wanted to know what made things tick. He was quite different to other children … He wasn’t a typical Kiwi child at all.”
Hipkins made it clear just before being sworn in as Prime Minister in January this year that Jade and the kids were strictly out of bounds and that he would not talk about their split last year.
He was not charismatic like Ardern but not polarising either, in control but not controlling, intelligent but not intellectual, tribal Labour but collegial with it, pragmatic, non-ideological, and known and liked by the public after his role as Covid-19 Response Minister.
By the time of the election, Hipkins will have had almost nine months in the job. It is long enough for him to have demonstrated his own style – sensible, practical, and upfront.
“He was curious about the world and how it worked.”
I recall at age nine realising that about myself, and how it became a path into the future for me. The most auspicious thing I've heard about him so far.
Thanks ianmac…..that is interesting and very positive about Hipkins.
I think Hipkins is clever, eloquent but also a tough cookie. This means he will fight the election well. When I compare him to Keir Starmer in the UK, he looks pretty damn good.
Yes thanks Belladonna. Be interesting to read Luxon's write up in the Thursday Herald. by Alex Spence. Wonder if Alex is a National office holder unlike Audrey who is certainly not a Labour supporter.
Between July 8 and July 12 the 1News Verian poll asked eligible voters if they opposed or supported capital gains being taxed when people sold rental properties.
Of those polled, 52% said they supported it, 37% said they opposed it, while the remaining 11% said they didn’t know or refused to answer.
National leader Christopher Luxon said his party did not support capital gains tax.He said capital gains taxes on landlords “only leads to higher rents”.“That doesn’t help people in a cost of living crisis.
He makes the case for a rent freeze to complement the extension of the bright-line test to 10 years, to support the continuance of the policy in the next term (blocking the NACT alternative).
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said he was unsurprised by the poll result, as Green Party polling showed most New Zealanders wanted a “fairer tax system” which included capital gains tax on investment properties. “We have one of the least-fair tax systems in the world.
Sure, but do not forget to ask Luxon to support lower rents/rent freeze.
“It’s distortionary in the economy and it means that the government doesn’t collect the revenue it needs to be able to solve some of the great challenges, like lifting all of those families that are still below the poverty line up above that line.”
He said he hoped the poll would be a wake up call for Hipkins but the major parties had repeatedly “made decisions against the weight of evidence and against the weight of public opinion”.
True, be the champion for doing the right thing, give people a reason to vote.
Those groups of eligible voters who were more likely than average (52%) to support a capital gains tax on rental properties included Green party supporters (73%), Labour party supporters (62%)
The good, not so good
and the bad and just as ugly
Those groups of eligible voters who were more likely than average (37%) to oppose a capital gains tax on rental properties included Act Party supporters (50%), National Party supporters (49%)
I cannot find anywhere someone (?) making a case for a rent freeze.
Really?
Luxon believes quite passionately that the existence of a bright-line test (currently to 10 years), a form of CGT, leads to a rise in rents. And this is problematic during a cost of living crisis.
Surely he has made the case for a rent freeze during a cost of living crisis?
Of course this was not the thrust of the Greens policy on wealth
Between July 8 and July 12 the 1News Verian poll asked eligible voters if they opposed or supported capital gains being taxed when people sold rental properties.
I am interested to note that 52% supported an idea to tax on change of ownership of rental properties. I think this has a lot going for it.
A tax could also be imposed on the sale of any property (I doubt this would get over 50% support), and on shares. Those who don't sell during their lifetime could have the tax imposed on death when their estate is being wound up. Untaxed gains passed on to beneficiaries of an estate could be taxed at the rate applying to the beneficiary. (NB not talking about people who get a benefit)
Those groups of eligible voters who were more likely than average (52%) to support a capital gains tax on rental properties included Green party supporters (73%), Labour party supporters (62%)
I knew I did not fall into either of those categories right at the end
oppose a capital gains tax on rental properties included Act Party supporters (50%), National Party supporters (49%)
and it was a shockingly worded question…….I was heartened that some thought that taxes on sales going through on sale was worth considering. Rather than every year as proposed by the Greens
But I had to laugh at Luxon's response to this parliamentary question.
Are people with a sense of humour are allowed to laugh at anything funny or is this something that has to be cleared if it involves a Labour politician?
The second part to the question was about the family home being included in a CGT – the result is why CGT around the world either do not include the family home, or only include a small proportion (so CGT is made on the transfer of ownership of high value estates).
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The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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Does the green policy of Maori getting first right of refusal on land , mean that if Joe farmer wants to sell his farm to Joe jnr and his wife, Maori would have the right to step in and stop that happening and purchase the farm, ?
There’s a post up now https://thestandard.org.nz/hoki-whenua-mai-landback/
Yip just noticed that and see it's covered, ta
RMT Union General Secretary Todd Valster argues powerfully here that it is illogical and unjustified to stop Te Huia coming into Auckland. He says it is an over reaction by Waka Kotahi which if they stick to will stop Te Huia coming into Auckland for 2 years.
What a ridiculous decision by Waka Kotahi-one wonders if it is politically driven. This is a good listen.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018898726
Link to the news page that has details for those that can’t listen
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018898726/ban-on-red-light-running-te-huia-train-unjustified-says-rail-union
I suspect that Waka Kotahi will be highly motivated by the Safety legislation.
Now that they have had 2 alerts of drivers going through red lights – if they did not halt Te Huia, and there was a subsequent accident due to driver error – they would be liable.
We are seeing this play out over White Island at the moment – and I'm sure it's giving point to concerns.
Pointing to other trains which don't need the specified piece of safety equipment – is not relevant unless you can also point to them running red lights in a high passenger environment (i.e. during rush-hour in Auckland).
It seems extraordinary they can’t put other kinds of systems in place to ensure safety while they’re waiting for the upgrade to be done.
I don't know what kinds of additional safety strategies that were proposed for Te Huia to mitigate the risk.
However, running a red light on a busy Auckland train corridor is a pretty serious risk to mitigate.
And, note, mitigation is what they've done.
They've said that they're prepared to accept the risk of running Te Huia up to Papakura, but not within the Auckland rail commuter corridor during rush hour – until there are acceptable safety strategies to manage the already-identified risk.
well yes, obviously safety needs to be the priority. I'm just surprised they can't put other systems in place while they're waiting for this one piece of tech that takes 2 years to install. That suggests there's not redundancy planning in the system. Odd, although tbf the couple of MSM pieces I read didn't talk about this.
Maybe there are politics involved as well.
Have you listened to the audio Bella?
The union guy explains the situation coherently, making a very strong case for the resumption of Te Huia now, not in two years, which is madness.
Look there’s lots of experts like Bella and Ad on what constitutes a failed system.
And if two carriages go through a red light, we must shut the whole thing down.
It’s going to be brilliant for our carbon footprint because no one will be driving anywhere by lunchtime!
Just listened to it now – no new information that wasn't in the written sources.
Union guy seems to see Te Huia as being singled out – whereas freight and another passenger service (Northern explorer) are still allowed to operate on the suburban network – without the required piece of safety gear.
What he's not addressing, is whether either of these other 2 services have run red lights during the Auckland passenger rush hour.
[NB: running red lights at all is bad, but it's much worse if there is heavy passenger use on the tracks when it happens]
He claims that WK should wait for the outcome of the investigation (ongoing) before short-stopping Te Huia.
I really don't think he'd be prepared to front the media if Te Huia ran another red light and caused a major accident!
It seems a reasonable safety precaution for WK to halt Te Huia at Papakura – until a suitable mitigation is in place.
He hasn't mentioned any other risk mitigation possibilities (I don't know if he doesn't have any, or there wasn't the opportunity to air these in the short interview)
However, as lprent pointed out, it seems entirely unreasonable for NZ rail to take 2 years to install a piece of kit – which is already operational on other trains. Why is no one asking that question?
Exactly Weka. If you listen to the audio many trains are coming into Auckland without having the safety system Waka Kotahi are uniquely insisting that Te Huia have.
Political I think.
it's probably reasonable to wait until the investigations into the two incidents are complete.
Do you (or the Union guy) have any evidence that other trains have the same risk levels (specifically running red lights in rush hour within the Auckland commuter rail network)?
I've read some vague claims from the Train Supporters group that 'incidents' have happened – but no specifics.
Because, at the moment, the WK response appears to be: Te Huia has the safety problem (and therefore needs to additional piece of equipment); the other trains have not (and therefore it isn't a priority requirement for them).
Perhaps, a better question would be why it will apparently take KiwiRail so long to install this safety device? It's already operational on domestic trains in Auckland – so isn't new…..
[Edited to say, lprent has already said this last para in more detail]
That is not what the union guy, RMT Union General Secretary Todd Valster, says. Have you listened to him in the audio?
Does anyone know if there is a page of reported incidents from all trains in the two train commuter networks?
Had to dig into the article for that.
The ETCS sytem is outlined in wikipedia.
Effectively this is a standardised system running on a variant of the antique GSM system. The only parts are standardised and should be readily available.
The Auckland network should already have the hardware in stock as spares. They should also have a supply line to get replacements into stock within a short period. They aren't bespoke systems unless Auckland Transport have been complete morons and have used some weird variations from the standard.
If they don't then they are being quite remiss in their duties.
I would describe that as outright bullshit.
It would maybe take that time to design it for a full system ready to disperse over the whole rail network.
But most of the design work is putting in the sensors, and transmission network. Which is already in place and working.
Hell, even just designing and building on-train hardware on a SBC made to a written and testable standard wouldn't take 2 years. (But I'd be concerned about losing GSM-R network hardware longer term.)
But to conform to an existing hardware network would just require the purchase and installation of the end-point units on some trains used by Te Huia. Limited testing to make sure that they can reliably see the existing Auckland network. Might take a couple of months depending on KiwiRail phobias about access to the rail corridors and access to trains for testing. Hardly two years.
If I had to bet, then I'd say this is just another dumbarse stupid pissing contest over who controls traffic in Auckland rail. Or what standard should be used for traffic control on combined urban commuter / freight rail networks.
lprent, re your last paragraph, agree entirely.
RMT Union General Secretary Todd Valster is so eloquent, and so very level-headed, about the Te Huia situation in the audio above. He knows what he is talking about.
I think heads should roll at Waka Kotahi.
Not all of it. Kiwirail should be completely faulted for not conforming to a local traffic standard.
Kiwirail and for that matter the Hamilton council should have had the gear on their trains coming into Auckland. Running with two different systems on the same network pushing tonnes of inertia is just stupid.
Waka Kotahi should have mandated that all trains coming into Auckland used exactly the same control systems that were in use by all parties. ie as soon as the ETCS went into effect, all trains should have been required to use ETCS in the Auckland railways – without any exceptions. Using two different primary control systems is just outright dangerous with that amount stored inertial energy.
Which means that Te Huia shouldn't have never been able to come in closer than Papakura during the day without having ETCS operational. Nor should have the freight trains on the same lines.
The reason why it'd have been put into Auckland network was because the signalling system has been a flakey as shit. That in turn was because the short-sighted idiots in National sold NZ Railways in 1993 to some inefficient penny-pinchers who stripped it of maintenance and asset stripped the value.
The pricing of shares makes that pretty clear, as did their public accounts.
Toll did the same.
The lines and plant, including the control systems, were a basket case in Auckland by the time they dumped it back on the public. The irresponsible fuckwits in the National party should be charged with the cost of bringing it it back up to standard. I remember looking at this indirectly with a project back in ~2015 and being appalled at just how much of a horrible issue the signalling system and even the comms system to maintenance crews was.
After the urban rail was revitalised here eventually with electrification, it regularly went offline because the physical signals kept failing. I believe that they still do. The ETCS provides the more reliable system.
The ETCS was put in because a wireless system was far easier than trying to bring the old system up to reliable. But I'm pretty sure that the old system is still pretty damn unreliable.
The things that keep the rail system running here the ETCS during the day (0600-0100) and that the rail freight doesn't tend to run on those lines in those hours. Having a daily service running without a decent control system.
I wasn’t aware that they were running without ETCS. I absolutely don’t want the damn service back on our lines until they bloody well are. I don’t care what Kiwirail or the union think. Putting ETCS on the kiwirail engines
The incidents of not obeying the fractured old signals is just icing on the cake.
Further to all that is the governance of the regulator. Since Prebs saved rail, we've had an oscillation between cowboy capitalists & neolibs who can't run the thing satisfactorily, so I suppose we're supposed to conclude that neither the left nor the right are sufficiently competent to operate the system properly.
Best thing to do would be to eliminate both the left and right from the control of the system – select winners instead of losers. Expertise has never been restricted to those wearing a party label. Perhaps, however, there's a need for govt liaison – which makes us wonder at the relation of the minister to the system.
The problem with NZ rail is the same as usual for NZ.
We have a very low density of population for the area and length of rail track. That is coupled with a very difficult terrain.
It means that rail, road, coastal shipping, main transmission lines, and a number of other economically important infrastructural supports are unlikely candidates for private companies to run. They can't make a profit if they maintain the whole of country structures. So they invariably hike prices and drop maintenance to maintain a return to investors.
Which makes the direct costs to all businesses much higher while also often giving a terrible service in that the risks of complete outages is very high. The borderline electricity supply in NZ at present being a good example. It is one drought away from failing as Huntly is slowly decommissioned and we have had virtually no significant investment in new capacity since the 1990s, while our population has grown by about 40-50%.
Not having these sectors running efficiently is an effective hobble for the rest of the economy.
Selecting winners is always pure guesswork. Whenever it has been tried here it has invariably failed – all of the way back to the 29th century. I've been involved in various kinds of startups and post-startups in my entire career. Most of them have succeeded to one degree or another. But a lot of the companies that I looked at working for 9and a couple that I did work for) did fail.
It is extremely hard to "pick winners".
On the other-hand, providing stable, well-maintained, and reasonably priced economic infrastructure (ie pricing related to long term investment in the infrastructure and its maintenance) has invariably worked historically.
Doesn't matter if it is a good legal framework, or if it is the provision of a electricity grid. Enterprises will build on that and do the much riskier exploitation of those infrastructural resources to build 'winners'. Governments need to concentrate on providing the basis for an economy and not much on "picking winners".
Prices/costs need to be related to the usage – which is why our roading network is currently unsustainable. That is because the RUC is way too low on heavy trucks because of unfortunately maintained subsidies to the trucking industry as they wreck our roads.
Through all of this…a cynic could think : Are they incompetent? Agenda driven?.. Other ? Anyway, the Fwits, appear between them and by their action/inaction… to just want Rail in NZ…dead and gone.
Ah..just so absolutely frustrating !
And the eyewatering amount spent on Aucklands rail….to be completed…2025? or Sometime…?
Some could and should..have gone to the Passenger Rail South Island.
And…
"Centre-right surges as Hipkins desperate to prove he's 'in it for you'"
A disappointed Luke Malpass decides to run with his pre – scripted headline – despite the center right dropping a percentage point,
Maybe, Labour's "scandals" – manufactured or otherwise are not having the cut through Luke envisaged.
Just after the RNZ news @ 7am I listened to Hipkins grimly telling Morning Report that he takes "full responsibility" for the policy announcement he screwed up yesterday. I gathered he announced a different ram-raid policy to the one Labour actually adopted.
In the ongoing saga of ram-raiders defeating cops, a year of dramatic escalation of the problem seems to have triggered a Labour u-turn. Instead of watching from the sidelines while telling everyone it's a police operations issue, nothing to do with us, they've suddenly decided that copying National is urgently essential. Wonder why?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132558409/pm-announces-shakeup-to-tackle-brazen-criminal-offending
Cos our commercial media demands that Labour buys in to their crime narrative or be accused of not listening /not caring?
While Hipkins is claiming that this policy was developed entirely independently of the ones announced by ACT (first off the block) and National – he's going to struggle to convince voters of this.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/pm-chris-hipkins-to-reveal-new-govt-youth-crime-policy-as-kiri-allan-returns/YXGSQ2E4FVDT7AHZK5VLA5GWC4/
It looks like an attempt to eat the right's lunch on law and order. And likely to be characterized as 'too little, too late'.
National's influencers will certainly try to characterise it as such.
Dear me – are you supporting this Labour policy – you almost sound like a Centrist.
Hipkins explained it well though Dennis. At one time the preference was for the new offence option, then they decided not to go with that.
He seems to have written a draft version of his press release and not amended it correctly. One of his offsiders should have picked this up.
"Wonder why?" Their polling would have told them so.
This flip flop carry-on is what happens when one is bereft of a vision, beyond getting re-employed.
Seems so to me too. Hipkins surprised me by doing okay for quite a while but two performance errors within 24 hours sends a signal to anyone watching.
Link please
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132560948/centreright-surges-as-hipkins-desperate-to-prove-hes-in-it-for-you
My apologies .
That's my conclusion too. I was fully expecting Labour to drop more than 2% on the back of the so-called "government of chaos" hysteria currently being indulged in by NAct and their media lackeys.
I suspect most voters don't know what they're on about and don't care if some minister got a bit uppity or forgetful over some personal matter they're not the slightest bit interested in. Imo they have far more important matters to be concerned about than the relatively minor mishaps around a few ministers.
I agree Anne. It seems that, no matter how much the MSM tries to concoct anti-Left stories, Labour and the Greens continue to hang in there.
Feels more and more like the 2005 election. Which Brash and National/Act lost because they were unable to shake the impression that Brash/National/Act weren't ready for government.
Basically the opposition isn't getting enough traction to shift the goalposts, unless they manage to pull a Jacinda out of the hat. The centre of the potential coalition seats is teetering about that 61, but not moving far from it.
Here'a good example of Aotearoa's economic synergy with China:
Hipkins on Maori land: "We don't intend to reopen Treaty settlements that have been closed where the settlement has been reached. They were full and final settlements."
They were proclaimed as such at the time. Times change.
Hipkins speaking for Maori is unlikely to be seen as culturally appropriate. Either Marama or the TMP co-leaders ought to reprimand him thus: "Equity for us is how we see it and describe it – your opinion of how we do this is irrelevant."
He's speaking for Aotearoans of the future. Hipkins is speaking for NZers of the past.
This, by the way, is some truly impressive boomer inventiveness. They've found another way to undertake intergenerational wealth theft. What will they think of next?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132557803/national-promises-to-let-under30s-raid-their-kiwisavers-for-rental-bonds?cid=app-iPhone
It's a policy designed to increase demand in the rental market by removing a hurdle to young people entering that market – rather than (say) living at home with parents. Coupled with a re-opening of the immigration taps to even further stimulate demand, it promises a nice bit of asset price inflation plus increased rental returns for landlords. Meanwhile those young people are not getting the investment return on their Kiwisaver funds now diverted into rental bonds. Accumulation by dispossession – it's been a bit harder recently, but with the Nats back in power it'll be the best gig in town once more.
"intergenerational wealth theft"
Could you expand on that a bit please? I'm not sure where any theft is occurring?
As someone who has had to come up with goodness knows how many bonds in the last decade, I think it's an excellent idea for young people who can't afford a bond when looking for somewhere to live.
I wish it was for everybody rather than just under 30's but I understand why they're restricting it to youngsters.
rent of $600/week might have a bond of $2400. If that gets taken out of KS a few things might happen.
They lose the bond either through carelessness or no fault of their own.
They lose interest on that $2400. Say 5% over 5 years, roughly $600 (someone else can work out the actual interest rates and how interest accrues etc).
Both of those things reduce the ability of young people to save and have some chance of improving their income and wellbeing over time, that flows on to the ability to have and raise children with good income and wellbeing. It's intergenerational because younger generations are hit harder by housing costs than previous generations.
I guess I need to point out that it's lower income people that have trouble paying a bond.
Sir Peter Gluckman on Morning Report at about 8:40 on integrating Science. Sounds a lot like the recent Draft Science Curriculum. Needs cooperation collaborative across the sciences.
Maybe the Draft Curriculum is right on the mark.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018898821
I'm would be pretty confident that the NZ curriculum revisions (apparently being put to PISA) are not addressing the actual causes of NZ's PISA score declines. The issue with the PISA scores is a small percentile of NZ students are falling well behind the average or best NZ students on the test. This doesn't indicate a general failure of the NZ curriculum it indicates (most likely) some schools and teachers are not reaching all their students.
To actually improve the PISA scores would likely involve additional targeted teaching regularly bringing members of the class back towards the average. This should probably not even be targeted by special needs, but just based on assessment of strengths and weaknesses in achievement. But this will require actual investment via the MoE. A new curriculum on the other hand is relatively inexpensive.
As far as I have seen the thrust of the new curriculum is a terrible idea, basically the much vaunted holism, is another way of saying your teaching science while your actually trying to focus on the big picture of ecology and climatology. Its going to be quite difficult to teach biology, chemistry and physics while focusing only of specializations of those subjects and avoiding all the detailed ground work.
If anything the curriculum revision should focus on creating a detailed science curriculum with reasonable expectations of achievement set for all the levels. That would be a fantastic resource for teachers who can then focus on teaching that rather than the question of what to teach that is presented by the draft curriculum. Either the author or someone from the ministry was presenting the draft as a massive challenge to teachers, and that is quite correct. We really don't need teaching science to be more challenging right now, what we need is the science were teaching to be more challenging and for the majority of students to be never the less meeting those standards.
The great advantage of a holistic approach to all learning as it offers meaningful contexts. A College in Palmerston North back in the late 80s had a collection of teachers from Maths, Science, Social studies and English collaborate in a single program for the year. One theme was the operation of Local government. The surge in enthusiasm for the teachers and students was remarkable. Well worth it.
Think there might be a few different meanings to holistic in play here. From other uses of the term I've seen it seems to fit scientific thinking quite well. Science students certainly can get a kick from the feeling of understanding gained by applying new ideas and being able to predict outcomes. But from everything I've seen of the new curriculum its light on important details, which was already a weakness of the current curriculum.
He starts off commenting on the failure of science to provide sustainability. He then complains about billions going into yet more particle physics instead of solving global problems. He's right to point at Big Science as a failure complex. Useless losers.
He makes the point re integrative thinking, that it "leads to a different way of doing science". "Most funding and most institutions are designed around silos." Progress consequently is minimalised via antiquated beliefs being recycled ad nauseum.
"We desperately need an integrated approach." Says "we've been working with the United Nations over recent months" to develop "a much more integrated way of moving ahead." Doesn't know if funding will be provided "to change the paradigm".
The idea that paradigms change when money is tossed at them will be a revelation to readers. "Nations like ours need to change their own funding systems, and universities need to change their incentives." To incorporate "stakeholder engagement right from the outset." He's right: such operational holism is the path to the future.
He ends by citing turnaround of a particular social ecosystem in another country, facilitate by a scientist he mentions, regenerative results produced. Thing is, Ian, this applied science interface with geopolitics blends examples with holistic theory. Showing how it works in one situation provides a good example. Use three such (a triad) and you establish a correlative pattern in the minds of others. A pr expert would therefore advise him to include a couple of others in his repertoire.
No, he didn’t; you made that up to suit your narrative.
Dennis?
He says that 2 mins into the interview. He cites the billions spent on particle physics then asks why we aren't spending that on sustainability. Listen for yourself:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018898821
I did listen to it, which is why I can say that you made it up.
Just because left-wingers often get delusional when faced with reality doesn't mean you need to. You can do better. Get real!![angel angel](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/angel_smile.png?x42494)
You can stick to your story and I’ll stick to what I heard Sir Peter Gluckman actually saying. You only have to know a little about Gluckman to realise that he’d never say such a thing as you allege he said.
Let me just say that I call your judgement into question, generally speaking.
George Monboit has a bad habit of over-egging the pudding
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/15/food-systems-collapse-plutocrats-life-on-earth-climate-breakdown
But by the same token our local media are largely pinched faced parochial naval gazers who steadfastly refuse to link rising food prices here with the slump in global food production in the last year
https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/trade-restrictions-are-inflaming-worst-food-crisis-decade
So when the government is too chickenshit to even regulate against the domestic supermarket duopoly
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132556007/the-foods-that-have-gone-up-in-price-the-most-in-the-past-year
you have to be concerned as to whether or not questions like is the current laissez-faire food production and distribution and sale model still fit for purpose in an era of climate crisis are even being explored by anyone in government or the bureaucracy.
If we are not careful, we'll end up in an emergency situation where food is still being exported while NZer's suffer price-induced famine. Remember, Anglo-Irish landowners continued exporting wheat to the UK to get the best market price even while millions of Irish peasant starved to death or emigrated during the great famine of 1845-52. The bengal famine of 1943 was also at least partially caused by reluctance of the British to regulate the food market, despite natural disasters and military defeats disrupting food production and supply.
Seems
Hipkins did not know at the time, but Waka Kotahi did, that already a large slope had begun sliding down toward the motorway at an average 5 to 11cm a week.
Waka Kotahi…WTAF !?
It's the PPP that will be on the hook for Defects, particularly if it affects the "availability" of the motorway to traffic.
Labour or National should toll it.
For Friends of JFK jnr, Guardian live: his claims that Covid-19 was engineered to be less harmful to Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese are described as 'vile' by the White House.
An artful ploy. Use of four-letter words will appeal to traditionalists everywhere. Deplorable is ever so 2016. I assume the White House is now able to speak for itself due to getting AI installed. Damn good idea. However it does lack charisma in the interim until the WH incorporates either a robot or android to do pr for it.
The very-much-there White House press secretary used the word ‘vile’ in answer to a question about JFK jnr’s claims during her daily press briefing. Unless she has a direct interface to AI, unlikely that this was AI generated.
Remember that Trump gave up on having a representative give daily press briefings when in office. Who needs AI generating White House output when you can just tweet baseless Fox News memes conveniently anytime, as he did? Of course, Fox News is no doubt using AI these days to ‘create’ content.
Are you a fan of this table-leg chewing kennedy..?..there d.price..?
If so…why..?
Quite rare for me to ever be a fan of someone nowadays, but I'm okay with giving credit where it's due. From a biodiversity perspective, rabble-rousers like him try to insert a wedge into the trad binary. Helpful activism. Doesn't really matter that he's seemingly locked into the paranoid world-view. A competent therapist can always extricate him if necessary…
You so easily dismiss the harm done by the likes of him…?
He is a conspiracy theory peddler..
Influencing the dumb and the gullible…
Trying to mop up the covid conspiracy nutbars who clustered around trump..
..and going by this latest outburst..he is racist/and anti-semitic .
And you call this 'helpful activism'…?
How so…?
All consciousness raising is inherently good. I do agree that you get a toxic downside when in-crowds generate sociopathy as a result of realising that govt often lie to the people. That's a different issue. Likewise the tendency of left-wingers to call out racism & antisemitism whenever an opinionated other irritates them.
Yeah..calling out racists/anti-semites when they peddle their racism/anti-semitism is a 'tendency' this left-winger plans to continue…
And how you can pimp such garbage as 'consciousness raising'…calls into question pretty much all you say…
And makes one wonder at your motives for spreading such lies…
Which lies?? Why not cite evidence? Are you trying to suggest that your personal assessment of bad behaviour is not evidence-based? Why do left-wingers hallucinate like that so often? Irrationality in political commentary is evident elsewhere online but I'd rather it didn't get traction here as trendy behaviour,
'what lies'…?
The racism/anti-semitism peddled by the barking mad kennedy…
That you seem to have no concerns about..
How about addressing that..?..those lies…?..that you are seemingly so comfortable with..
Do you agree with him..?
Do you think he has a point..?
Browsing in a shop today, overheard a conversation between shopkeeper and customer that started off describing being in hospital with lung issues.
The story finshed with 'of course that covid's engineered, the vaccine causes disease, and anyway all the water and food is delibetately contaminated now'! JFK jnr's target demographic, in the US.
The shopkeeper wisely kept comments to hmmms.
Try to focus on what I actually write rather than wackydoodle notions circulating in your head. It's the best way to communicate online. Address the topic instead of losing the plot.
To paraphrase you, DF, JK jnr is good for US democracy because he tells lies about covid. Why?
Of course wealthy Trump supporters are funding the anti-science loon's campaign.
Mark Dickson, a Californian who amassed a fortune treating aluminum for the aerospace industry, has donated more than $450,000 to federal candidates since 2015. The total includes $400,000 to Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee that allows individuals to contribute large amounts to support Donald Trump. That money was then distributed to Trump's presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties, and others working on behalf of Trump.
[..]
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, neither Dickson nor Sheldon has ever donated a dime to a Democrat. Until now. This year, both donated $6,600 — the current legal maximum — to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a Democratic candidate for president.
Dickson and Sheldon's sudden interest in a Democratic primary candidate is unexpected. But, for Kennedy's campaign, it is not uncommon. According to a Popular Information analysis of Kennedy's first FEC filing, the lion's share of Kennedy's biggest donors have previously only donated to Republicans.
https://popular.info/p/gop-donors-fuel-rfk-jrs-presidential
The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the two-child benefit cap if UK Labour wins power 'has exposed deep splits within the party, as he faces mounting calls to rethink the policy.'
This cap, crafted by the Conservatives, 'prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017. It was introduced by the former chancellor George Osborne in his austerity drive with the aim of encouraging parents of larger families to find a job or work more hours.'
Instead, it has impoverished many families, proving it to be a useless policy. Why Starmer would carry on with it, I don't know…trying so hard to be tory-lite so as to pick up tory votes? Dyed-in-the-wool tory voters will never vote Labour. They will just stay home and not vote if they don't support the current government.
Guess Luxon might apply a similar cap on Working for families. Pinching useless Tory ideas is part of his modus operandi.
Starmer is using the same labour-lite/neoliberal-incrementalist playbook as NZ labour has since 1984…
They are both centrist parties…
Both crippled by the inertia/glacial progress that defines centrist parties..
Thank goodness we have mmp here..to counter that centrist. Iceberg..
Reasons to thank rod donald..and all those others who worked to make that change happen..
Our gratitude should grow…day by day..
Even Blair looked after all of the kids.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/17/labour-party-poverty-families-two-child-benefit-cap
Nine years ago a Russian Buk missile killed all 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
Also
Unlike Russia … the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident ..
Yes. Just in case…you might not have known…FYI…I have NO interest in a contest as to which is worse.
You left out a link.
They are all bad. Ok ?
Well…I now see your edit. Taken down the photo. And rewritten it..
Maybe actually read the Iran one ?
An expression of regret and compensation versus adamant denial.
That's the difference.
Right wing pundit Liam Heirer tries to run interference for the National Party's regressive KiwiSaver/bond switch policy. But he does highlight one of the many drawback of the policy:
https://twitter.com/PronouncedHare/status/1681040563909558273
I replied questioning whether bond monies were indeed not invested by Tenancy Services actively or otherwise. Tried to find out:
https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/rent-bond-and-bills/bond/tenancy-bond-services-transformation/
Hand't thought much about it but my long time assumption is that bond money is invested to offset the cost of the service and tribunal. If it is not, it seems like poor financial management, and if it is then under the Nats policy then the lost interest from renters' KiwiSavings will definitely be used to fund Tenancy Services and the Tenancy Tribunal.
Question: Is $750M of tenants money invested, or not?
Edit: over the course of the morning Hirer has walked back defending the policy at a rate of knots…
Say your favorite landlord invested your bond how would you feel about that? Now say he lost a lot of your bond in that investment how would you feel about that?
Tenancy services don't pay interest on bonds and one would hope have not put them at risk (they haven't).
I know Tenancy Services don't pay interest on bonds but to have $750M sitting there devaluing without even low risk investment like govt bonds (?) or a bank seems weird.
Just wondering if that huge pot of tenants’ money is doing any work at all, even though it clearly does no work for tenants.
Tenancy services is a government department, it really doesn't need to make a profit.
So essentially the bond scheme is highly regressive in that tenants, mostly lower income people, pay through lack of access to capital in the form of held bond and subsequent lost interest, for the security of wealthy, multiple property owners.
The bond scheme should be scrapped entirely and replaced with a fund from within the progressive tax system.
Not sure what your going on about here. You could propose, for example, that landlords be required to collect zero bond. I think that's going to encourage frequent rental fraud to unacceptable levels of course, but that's a proposal which actually leaves tenants with more of their income in their pockets.
Putting the bond money at risk by investing it really just adds risk where its unnecessary. Doing it to improve the government finances (because your not paying interest to the depositors anyway) seems to be helping the wrong people (I think for largely partisan reasons).
Well, I'm not advocating for the investment of bond money for profit, government or otherwise, but the fact is tenants' capital is eroded by inflation because they cannot access it, and it is also not protected by the custodian against inflation.
$2K bond in a bank is $3K after 10 years at 4% which covers inflation over the same period.
So tenants are required to stump up the lump sum and lose on it for what, an incentive for themselves to not commit fraud or criminal damage? Gee, thanks for that characterisation, I’m sure tenants appreciate it!
To replace the bond scheme (regressive), a govt fund (progressive) should be established to address disputes. Tenancy Services can chase unpaid rent using a progressive fund rather than a regressive one.
Again, its not clear what your going on about. As far as I can see Tenancy Services does run at a loss, making it already the progressive scheme your demanding.
Its unclear what your proposing regarding the govt funding of bonds here? You think maybe each time a tenancy ends the tenants and land lords should collect a share of the 'refund' from the government? This might result in a surprising high turnover of tenancies in practice.
"…landlords be required to collect zero bond."
Landlords don't collect the bond, it is held by tenancy services.
How would it encourage frequent rental fraud? Remember, renters don't only have to cover the bond, but usually two weeks rent in advance for the landlord and a weeks letting fee for the parasite. (real estate agent).
Nope, you got that wrong.
https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/rent-bond-and-bills/letting-fees-and-key-money/
Please don't suggest the Residential Tenancies Act be scrapped. Of course the money will be invested, because the cost of running Tenancy Service mediation and bond administration comes from that fund. I imagine excess goes into the general tax pool.
Tenancy Service fairly provides a win-win position for both tenants and landlords, and has for the past 36 years. Landlords need bonds to cover rent arrears and insurance excess on damages. Tenants need the service to mediate when landlords cheat them or refuse arrears or unfairly claim the bond.
A friend of mine who had work in tenancy advocacy contributed in the design this legislation, and was rightly proud of it. I think it's fantastic, clearly few here have experienced the iniquities that renting and bonds used to involve. For landlords, a benefit in losing interest on the bond is the Tenancy Tribunal, where you don't need a costly lawyer to chase bad tenants.
For those who can't afford bonds, the answer is not scrapping the Act, but providing them with a bond grant, as MSD already does. Abuse the grant, and lose your entitlement.
..'refuse repairs', sorry, not arrears
Ok, so you claim tenants' bond money is used to run the Tenancy Service. This is highly regressive and no leftie should support it.
Why shouldn't NZ's amateur landlords' money run the service? Or, the progressive state?
What interest do landlords lose on bond? They don't pay any bond.
Tenancy Services doesn't use bond money to pay staff or operate. The meaning of a trust account is that the money in there is in no way invested or paid for any other purpose other than bond return (in this context).
Legal firms will usually have a trust account for similar purposes and again the funds are separated from how they pay staff and paid out only on the basis of why they were accepted (such as a property sale final settlement).
A trust account is held in a bank and earns interest, or is a trust account a plastic bag under the mattress?
None of the above, as I'm confident you could look up for yourself.
Craig H has answered the question @13.3:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-07-2023/#comment-1960441
So, the money young and low income provide for security earns the government about $17M each year, a 2.2% return on capital provided by the disadvantaged.
The landlord used to hold the bond. In days of high inflation the bond was a tidy earner for them. All sorts of excuses not to pay back the bond to tenants, and they had you over a barrel.
Excellent idea Muttonbird. The bond system is just another area where those with less are penalized
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/leighton-roberts-sharesies-co-ceo-on-nationals-kiwisaver-policy/
You know it's a stinker when that bastion of balanced reporting
ZB run a negative headline on it
To answer the question, the money is invested, and as assumed, the interest offsets (partially at least) the costs of Tenancy Services, mediation, investigations and the Tribunal. This is done by the interest being departmental revenue meaning MBIE requires less funding than it otherwise would. References follow:
Bonds are paid into the Residential Tenancies Trust Account by the Chief Executive if received by them (usually from landlords or property managers) or the tenant directly if agreed with the landlord. Although the Act refers to the Chief Executive, naturally this is delegated to the relevant business unit (of MBIE in this case).
S127 of the Residential Tenancies Act covers the Residential Tenancies Trust Account and its operations. Among other things, the money must be invested in line with the Public Finance Act and any revenue from doing so is treated as departmental revenue. The relevant section of the Public Finance Act is s68 which provides for investing either in interest-earning bank deposits or public securities (Crown-backed debt e.g. government bonds).
The MBIE Annual Report 2021-22 (pg 142) states "Revenue from Residential Tenancies Trust Account" in 2021-22 as being $15,909,000 and $18,694,000 in 2020-21.
Thank you Craig H, I really appreciate you taking the time to cover all that. I didn't know where to look so I asked the forum. Your comment answers my question @ 13 and informs others who were interested.
Broadly, my issue is that the running of tenancy services and tribunal is partially or even largely funded from interest on the capital provided by low income people, either the young or those families resigned to long term renting situations.
So, $16-$19M is about a 2.5% return on the total $750M owned by tenants. It is regressive and I just don't think it should be this way.
"When KiwiSaver funds are used as a bond, they are not actively invested, potentially resulting in missed growth opportunities."
So what? It's their money. (The person paying the bond) and finding somewhere to live right now today is more important than potential lost interest on a couple of grand of kiwisaver funds when you've got 30+ more years of Kiwisaver contributions ahead of you. Furthermore, if someone has to borrow the money to pay a bond then guess what, those funds are not actively invested, potentially resulting in missed growth opportunities…,. Not only that but the borrower has to pay interest on the bond money.
Or alternatively a person suspends contributions on their Kiwisaver and instead saves that money until they have enough for a bond. Again, that will result in missed growth opportunities for that money…. Of course that's no use at all if you need somewhere to live now rather than in a years time when you have saved up enough.
Much better sense to make temporary use of their own money rather than taking on debt. (Apart from the fact that many renters are unable to get loans)
Regardless of all that, this would undoubtedly be only a relatively small number of people. I doubt there's many students for example with a few thousand dollars in Kiwisaver. (Just a guess I don't have evidence either way). Others under the age of 30 are more likely to have enough funds in Kiwisaver but there still will be many more who don't.
Plus, if someone can use their Kiwisaver funds to help with buying a house then why can't someone on a lower income who will probably never be able to buy a house use it to pay their bond. It's pretty much the same thing (Seeking somewhere to live) but as per usual, those with less (renters not buyers) are told no, but those who can afford to buy a house are told yes. Doesn't seem fair to me. If it was the other way around then no doubt people would be saying how unfair it is.
Maybe taxpayers (the government) should give them a 0% interest loan to cover it if they are so against them using their own money.
If anyone is struggling to come up with bond, MSD currently provides a grant, whether the applicant receives a benefit or not:
https://twitter.com/MariaSherwood2/status/1681229278963441665
Bishop is a dangerous idiot who has deliberately limited knowledge about the welfare system. When explaining policy he often claims, 'he's been talking to people'. In the case of the KiwiSaver raid policy he'd been talking to the Young Nats, apparently.
I imagine his thinking is to have vulnerable, low income people withdraw from their own KiwiSavings to meet bond rather than having MSD provide a grant, something which he now knows about, and will surely shut down if in office.
Now old QEII has shuffled off this mortal coil, time to send another ancient and anachronistic institution of empire quietly off to the knackers yard?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300929971/victoria-axes-hosting-of-commonwealth-games-in-2026
Crikey! Just read Audrey Young's complete history of Chris Hipkins. No sly digs an no anti-government spin. What an amazing chap he is. Thanks Audrey.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/chris-hipkins-from-hutt-valley-boy-to-quiet-coup-for-pm-audrey-young-reports/ET4JZSI5PVCKBDDHRCLYVQ3CHI/
…but paywalled.
Sorry BG. The item is many pages long. (Coming on Thursday: Read Investigations Editor Alex Spence’s profile of National leader Christopher Luxon.)
“He was curious about the world and how it worked.”
I recall at age nine realising that about myself, and how it became a path into the future for me. The most auspicious thing I've heard about him so far.
Hipkins was also head boy at his Hutt Valley College.
Where's the equivalent article about Luxon's youth? Perhaps because he was an uncharismatic non-entity at school?
Thanks ianmac…..that is interesting and very positive about Hipkins.
I think Hipkins is clever, eloquent but also a tough cookie. This means he will fight the election well. When I compare him to Keir Starmer in the UK, he looks pretty damn good.
Here it is archived
https://archive.ph/eP544
thanks Bella.
Yes thanks Belladonna. Be interesting to read Luxon's write up in the Thursday Herald. by Alex Spence. Wonder if Alex is a National office holder unlike Audrey who is certainly not a Labour supporter.
Thank you, much appreciated.
Just in case any of y'all are long suffering Warriors fans…
I never tire of hearing praise for them in an Australian accent, this is half an hour of intelligent, informed analysis.
Webster's a shoo-in for coach of the year. SJ is near top for Dally M, lot's of players in career best form and the squad has depth.
All aboard, plenty of room on the band wagon.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/17/poll-slim-majority-of-voters-want-capital-gains-tax-on-rentals/
A slim majority of voters! Lol.
When the major parties command around 33% and a capital gains tax is favorited by 52%. Slim, slim almost not there!
He makes the case for a rent freeze to complement the extension of the bright-line test to 10 years, to support the continuance of the policy in the next term (blocking the NACT alternative).
Sure, but do not forget to ask Luxon to support lower rents/rent freeze.
True, be the champion for doing the right thing, give people a reason to vote.
The good, not so good
and the bad and just as ugly
I assume this was a reply to the comment above @ 17, as yours does not contain one single link to your quotes.
The copy & paste contained some creative editing without indication!?
I cannot find anywhere someone (?) making a case for a rent freeze. Did you make this up?
Really?
Luxon believes quite passionately that the existence of a bright-line test (currently to 10 years), a form of CGT, leads to a rise in rents. And this is problematic during a cost of living crisis.
Surely he has made the case for a rent freeze during a cost of living crisis?
Luxon?
Of course this was not the thrust of the Greens policy on wealth
I am interested to note that 52% supported an idea to tax on change of ownership of rental properties. I think this has a lot going for it.
A tax could also be imposed on the sale of any property (I doubt this would get over 50% support), and on shares. Those who don't sell during their lifetime could have the tax imposed on death when their estate is being wound up. Untaxed gains passed on to beneficiaries of an estate could be taxed at the rate applying to the beneficiary. (NB not talking about people who get a benefit)
You didn’t scroll down & read all the way to the end, did you?
We wouldn’t hear the end of it …
??????
I knew I did not fall into either of those categories right at the end
and it was a shockingly worded question…….I was heartened that some thought that taxes on sales going through on sale was worth considering. Rather than every year as proposed by the Greens
But I had to laugh at Luxon's response to this parliamentary question.
18 July 2023 at 6:19 pm
Are people with a sense of humour are allowed to laugh at anything funny or is this something that has to be cleared if it involves a Labour politician?
Never mind
It was a question about a CGT.
The second part to the question was about the family home being included in a CGT – the result is why CGT around the world either do not include the family home, or only include a small proportion (so CGT is made on the transfer of ownership of high value estates).
This seems so sensible/fundamental, ie not including the family home, that I wonder why The Greens policy included it?
Was it included as part a sort of self scuppering internal time bomb to destroy the policy? /sarc