Open Mike 24/01/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 24th, 2019 - 125 comments
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125 comments on “Open Mike 24/01/2019 ”

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    • Robert Guyton 1.1
      24 January 2019 at 7:27 am

      And Moffett wasn’t doing himself any favours.

    • Dennis Frank 1.2
      24 January 2019 at 7:41 am

      Who knew oppugnant is a real word?? “Moffett, 71, burst onto the political scene late last year, raging on Twitter at “traitorous” Jacinda Ardern, and calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel “a thoroughly detestable excuse for a human being.” He’s been trolling both sides of the discourse – baiting ACT leader David Seymour and left wing blogger Martyn Bradbury.”

      Attacking both left & right is an excellent strategy. Lots of kiwi voters want something less banal – but I can’t see him providing anything better. He’s the right age to be politically successful: geriatrics are the latest trend in politics.

      “He is primarily concerned with migration, climate change and gender politics. They are all touchstones of the populist right-wing movement sweeping the Western world, a backlash to political establishment thinking.” Alienated mainstreamers can be equated with conservatives, and we know Labour are handicapped by gender politics as much as National are handicapped by immigration-addiction. So he’s onto a viable constituency, no doubt about that.

      She asks “is David Moffett, once a referee, the man to kick it off?” A referee succeeds via the ability to judge the errors of both sides accurately. If he applies that self-discipline, he will succeed. “But, ask him to flesh out his ideas, and he is ill-prepared, his ideology both thin and confused: at one point he claims to be “a centrist”. Journalists have considerable difficulty comprehending centrism. Vance is not claiming to be any smarter than the pack. The notion that folks are reluctant to identify with morons on the left and morons on the right is too sophisticated for journalists to grasp.

      • Sanctuary 1.2.1
        24 January 2019 at 7:49 am

        Cool story bro.

        • greywarshark 1.2.1.1
          24 January 2019 at 9:55 am

          ‘…geriatrics are the latest trend in politics.’. If so there is a problem here as more and more are not dying till they are 90+. The young need to come to the fore, with elders to give them wisdom and background, but not lay on them their lifetime of unthinking prejudices which seem to crystallise into a hard mass in old age. Mix that with the onset of senile dementia bringing paranoia and confused emotions and the ability to plan for a viable future for now struggling young people is on the road to derailment.

          A thought comes to mind of a recent report on one of Monarch Butterfly farmers’plight. They had a tunnel house with about 300 advanced in their development or ready to fly. Next morning he found half of them on the floor and one paper wasp as he said ‘ stinging in a frenzy’. He killed that wasp but only about half of them recovered. If we let old diehards kill off the humane policies and change the direction for our society and culture in their narrow, wilful ignorance, then our young ones can’t and won’t have the means to cope with climate and world corrupt economic direction, so they can thrive to full development of their lives.

      • Gabby 1.2.2
        24 January 2019 at 10:45 am

        All this time we’ve been waiting for a moron in the muddle franky.

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    24 January 2019 at 7:30 am

    Bennett’s being panned as well.

    “When National’s newly minted spokeswoman of drug reform Paula Bennett was asked if she had partaken of marijuana, Bennett said she had but it did not agree with her.

    It made her fall asleep.

    This is valuable intel for her colleagues and rivals alike, should there be an occasion they would prefer her to be out of action. The pro-pot brigade must be tempted.

    Recipes for marijuana cookies can be found online.”

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12194937

    • Robert Guyton 2.1
      24 January 2019 at 7:34 am

      Bennett’s nonsense has pushed Pete George over the edge:
      ” I for one am moving further from voting National than I have been for a decade.”

      • Incognito 2.1.1
        24 January 2019 at 8:53 am

        A whiter shade of beige?

        The historical histrionics of one individual (MP) should not be conflated with those of a rudderless ruthless party that has thrown its moral compass overboard long time ago. Parties comprise a number (sometimes just one) individuals but they are not these individuals; the whole is always different from the sum of its parts.

    • greywarshark 2.2
      24 January 2019 at 9:57 am

      Robert G
      Marijuana cookies are to be the new panacea, the cure for all our ills? Bring them on.

    • Gabby 2.3
      24 January 2019 at 10:46 am

      On the plus side, it helped her forget her past.

    • bwaghorn 2.4
      24 January 2019 at 11:28 am

      The woman’s an idiot . She reckons shes never meet anyone successful that smokes regularly.
      There is so many answers to that shit .
      It illegal so they probably keep it on the down low
      In my experience uptight people don’t like weed as it spins there cogs to fast .
      Her definition of success is people who are cunts who have back stabbed and shit on people while amassing power and money .who aren’t typically pot smokers.

    • Kevin 2.5
      24 January 2019 at 12:48 pm

      When you need to cite a discredited report on the legalising of marijuana, as Bennett did, you can see where this will be going with National.

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    24 January 2019 at 8:03 am

    Twyford spills a revelation: “The reason the KiwiBuild was so far behind schedule was because the buying the plans scheme had hit a snag, he said.”

    This notion that governments can be derailed by a snag is probably new to people, I suspect. I don’t recall it being advanced previously, so I suppose I must congratulate Twyford on his ingenuity. “Twyford’s admission comes after a report from the NZ Initiative which called KiwiBuild a “massive political and bureaucratic distraction”. It also comes just a week after the head of KiwiBuild, Stephen Barclay, resigned from the role after an employment dispute. A spokesman for Barclay said the decision to leave KiwiBuild “was not his decision”.”

    Right, so he got pushed. Notice Twyford isn’t explaining why. “Asked about the resignation, Twyford again said it was an employment dispute and “there were lawyers involved”. “The reason I have been unwilling and unable to comment over the last couple of months is because it would be unwise of me to wade publically into a legal dispute where my comments would risk prejudicing the interests of either, or both parties.”

    But hey, that’s just an evasion. He knows the resignation has made his excuse invalid. He’s assuming the reporter is too stupid to figure this out. His gamble paid off: the reporter did fail to figure it out. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12195042

    • soddenleaf 3.1
      24 January 2019 at 4:30 pm

      He’s already built more homes that National ever or would of. So vote Green,they’d build more that both main parties, and nzf.

      • Dennis Frank 3.1.1
        24 January 2019 at 4:51 pm

        I’ve voted Green ten general elections consecutively, starting in 1990 when the Green Party was formed (I became part of the Green movement in 1968). 👍

  4. Sanctuary 4
    24 January 2019 at 8:43 am

    The problem with Kiwibuild is simple. Twyford – and Labour – simply did not realise how much down the path Bill English had gotten in his rigid ideological agenda to drown government in the bathtub in a relentless pursuit of smaller government, less regulation and a surplus on top of tax cuts for the rich.

    So not only had National completely abandoned housing to the charitable sector in an attempt to turn the clock back to the 1920s, it had systematically defunded and crippled the governments capacity to do anything constructive even if it wanted to, and willfully and deliberately not even collected any data on the problem so it could engage in a crass and stupid game of political denialism rather than debate the crisis it had created.

    To make things worse, this is a mangerialist neloiberal Labour government that simply doesn’t have the guts to do what has to be done when confronted with the housing catastrophe bequeathed it by National – that his, a massive housing program funded and built by the state using a state organisation to offer cheap morgages to new home buyers.

    So Twyford has been left frantically pulling levers that were disconnected ages ago, for a problem whose size he didn’t realise, and relying on a grotesquely inefficient and self-serving private building and banking sector to do him a favour.

    • Ad 4.1
      24 January 2019 at 8:50 am

      Twford is using all levers he’s got and inventing others.
      No lack of guts. But the big HNZ builds under HLC take a couple of years.

      No othet Minister has tried to face the housing market in 20+years.

      He won’t fail.

    • Shadrach 4.2
      24 January 2019 at 9:06 am

      Labour new exactly what the situation was, and if they didn’t they are incompetent. They simply over promised to win votes. Now chickens are roosting.

      • mickysavage 4.2.1
        24 January 2019 at 9:12 am

        So they should be condemned because they are not fixing National’s mess as quickly as they thought they could?

        • Dennis Frank 4.2.1.1
          24 January 2019 at 9:27 am

          That would be unfair. If at first you don’t succeed, try again. But what irritates me is the failure to account, to explain. Twyford’s deployment of the ole mushroom strategy of public relations (keep ’em in the dark & feed ’em horseshit) will only be swallowed by the Labour base.

          Everyone else will know he’s trying to get away with insulting their intelligence. That’s no way to win friends and impress people. It’s no way to build market share – grow the Labour vote. Just dumb.

          Instead of trying to hide what’s gone wrong, he ought to explain it fully. If the problem lies in his instructions to the public servants, admit that. People would respect his honesty. More likely the problem lies in public service advice. Why, then, assume that he ought to cover that up? What is so hard about the notion of accountability, that Labour folk just can’t ever seem to get??

          • SaveNZ 4.2.1.1.1
            24 January 2019 at 10:17 am

            Is it is true the government spent 2 billion on building 33 houses?

            Even a fraction of that spend on such a few houses is pathetic.

            As usual the money is going on disputes and politics and slush funds rather than building houses for people who genuinely need them…

            No wonder construction is such a big issue in NZ now, some people are getting extremely wealthy from Kiwibuild but I don’t think it is the homeless or the taxpayers.

            Also how can they justify $500,000 for 40m2 as being reported for the 1 bedroom apartments?

            That is mansion prices of $12,500 m2 build price when low cost builders are charging $2,500m2..

            So they spend 2 billion of tax payers money on subsidies, have swapped land and have also somehow got one of the highest build prices too???

            A royal fuck up that no amount of justification can really explain. The screw up is well beyound Twyford, Labour are lazy on this issue and using Rogernomics with woke left thinking to create a massive fuck up that serves nobody.

            • SaveNZ 4.2.1.1.1.1
              24 January 2019 at 10:24 am

              This is what you can get for a build price of $344,000 – aka a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom beautiful property that is built within months and relocated to a a site… so no wonder they can’t tempt first home buyers with over priced offerings that are up to 6 times higher than open market prices.

              This is an example of $2,646m2…

              https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-1859514224.htm?rsqid=5044875d4d5042a0999727b85de9fec2

              • SaveNZ …
                24 January 2019 at 10:30 am

                The government have also not worked out that part of the problem is that people in NZ are now so poor, in particular those working aka the working poor that after living expenses there is little chance they could save for a property…

                Not only that they are now competing with 100,000’s of new residents from everything to jobs and wages, to rental properties and the 100,000’s of new residents have a lot more money to begin with in many cases after paying $40k to people traffickers to get visas to get here while the government actually is actually like construction, listening to the lobbyists who are profiting from the fuck up, and then making things worse, aka the new loosening of visas and giving the people traffickers more options to attract more people here to profit from…

              • Sabine …
                24 January 2019 at 12:38 pm

                very misleading dear SaveNZ>

                this is what you can find for 344.000 $ in

                221 Hannon Road, Cambridge, Waipa, Waikato

                Cambridge, that bastion of jobs.

                now please show us what you can find in AKL for that money, a town in which you at least have a fighting chance to a full time job.

                Because you can find cheaper elsewhere, to be honest. I found my retirment property for 100.000 grand in the middle of nowhere where you only live when you don’t have to work for a living anymore.

              • joe90 …
                24 January 2019 at 8:03 pm

                Now, all you need is the piece of dirt.

                Here’s one out west in Kumeu

                Offers from $495,000 ~ NO Covenants!

                […]

                637m2

                https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential/sections-for-sale/auction-1872190664.htm?rsqid=2d39cd9e7f494abd97bf4269581dbcc7

        • shadrach 4.2.1.2
          24 January 2019 at 11:45 am

          There are two possibilities:

          1. Labour made promises they knew they couldn’t keep, which means they are dishonest.
          2. Labour made promises they thought they could keep, despite evidence and advice to the contrary, which means they are incompetent.

          Providing middle class couples with high earning potential with housing is not fixing anything.

          • rod 4.2.1.2.1
            24 January 2019 at 5:24 pm

            When did they actually ( promise ) Shady ? citation needed.

          • Pat 4.2.1.2.2
            24 January 2019 at 8:12 pm

            Enabling the scam that shuts working/middle class out of the realistic possibility of home ownership is worse.

            • shadrach 4.2.1.2.2.1
              24 January 2019 at 8:34 pm

              What scam?

              • Pat …
                24 January 2019 at 8:42 pm

                the scam of purposely encouraging global based speculation in the national property market to the known detriment of a huge swath of the population they were nominally representing, compounded by the ongoing obfuscation.

                • shadrach …
                  24 January 2019 at 8:58 pm

                  Foreign ownership is not a scam. It is common internationally, and many NZ’ers own land in other countries.

                  • Pat …
                    24 January 2019 at 9:05 pm

                    when it it is to the detriment of the local population (and obfuscated) it is a scam…and the main mechanism is also foreign owned….that and the scale would be difficult to find replicated elsewhere….its amazing they managed to avoid the fallout for as long as they did.

                    • shadrach …
                      24 January 2019 at 9:10 pm

                      A ‘scam’ is a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation. Permitting foreign ownership of property is neither fraudulent nor deceptive, and is policy that has been followed by successive governments, including the current one.

                  • Pat …
                    25 January 2019 at 7:49 pm

                    “A ‘scam’ is a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation”

                    Isnt it just…and the fact you wish to paint what has occurred as simply ‘common typical foreign investment’ is disingenuous in the extreme….what was perpetrated was anything but …..and sold exactly as you attempt.

                    • shadrach …
                      25 January 2019 at 9:57 pm

                      There has been nothing fraudulent or deceptive. Foreign ownership is common for property. And continues to be so. Which part of that do you not understand?

                  • Pat …
                    25 January 2019 at 11:56 pm

                    You appear to be the one incapable of understanding, and myopically obsessed about foreign ownership….something you may note i never mentioned.

                    Things may become a little clearer to you if you actually read what I wrote rather than continuing with your own obsession

                    • Shadrach …
                      26 January 2019 at 11:33 am

                      “…something you may note i never mentioned.“
                      You said ‘global based speculation’. What on earth did you mean if not foreign ownership? You seem to have a problem with ‘others’ owning property in NZ. That’s both myopic and marginally xenophobic.

        • Herodotus 4.2.1.3
          24 January 2019 at 11:51 am

          National continued that oath that labour was transversing, to be so simplistic as to blame only national makes one wonder ….
          Many in the industry can see the problems that are now starting to surface.
          Remember it was kiwi BUILD and the govt was to save money with its volume in building houses, not being a middle man for buyers and developers.
          Building for young rich wasn’t the solution – building state houses imo is.
          As Kenny Rogers is well out it “you’ve got to know when to hold’em
          Know when to fold ‘em”
          Kiwibuild as it exists falls into the latter as a solution

        • Gosman 4.2.1.4
          24 January 2019 at 1:13 pm

          They should be held accountable for making promises that were unrealistic to begin with.

      • ankerawshark 4.2.2
        24 January 2019 at 3:06 pm

        What does that make National then Shardrach

        • shadrach 4.2.2.1
          24 January 2019 at 8:31 pm

          National don’t have my support in all this. They sat on their hands and did too little too late. But so did their Labour predecessors. However the main fault rests with Auckland Council.

      • soddenleaf 4.2.3
        24 January 2019 at 4:36 pm

        Labour hands are somewhat tiedby being in coalition. National had no such excuse, it was stacking people in hotels.

    • Gabby 4.3
      24 January 2019 at 10:50 am

      He seems willing to try absolutely anything apart from hiring actual builders to build actual houses.

      • SaveNZ 4.3.1
        24 January 2019 at 11:09 am

        Funny enough builders and consultants and god knows how many other people have taken the 2 billion, but at the end of the day the actual builders sounds like they were recruited with low wage tenders with massive subcontracting of various other tradies, combined with poor planning and a lot of political interference!

        The government housing goals seems to be around MSM photo opportunities for local and central government and hiding all the problems.

        Like the Natz, Labour is learning that you can’t just hoodwink the population for ever because people can work out that there aint any houses coming out of the process and they cost a fortune are grossly overpriced when they are sold on.

        But actually that is not the main problem. The problem is that increasing demand from lazy immigration.. which is getting lower and lower quality people into NZ who need housing and assistance and more and more sophisticated scams of profit from that goal from middle men and immigration lawyers.

        Even if Kiwibuild had gone smoothly and they got the 1000 houses, how is that even going to house 129,000 new permanent resident/citizens last year plus 150,000 new residents on work permits and 4 million tourists?

        The maths doesn’t work, and never did.

        • Gabby 4.3.1.1
          24 January 2019 at 11:12 am

          Well hopefully the whole 2 bill isn’t gone yet savey. Unless Stevey Barclay’s severance package was a doozy.

        • SaveNZ 4.3.1.2
          24 January 2019 at 11:20 am

          Construction is not the only issue that is proving difficult.

          For example new resident teachers are complaining they can’t find work, while there is a shortage….

          The lack of cohesive approach from government is concerning and like building, they fail to grasp the nuances of the situation from both the teachers and the schools what they are looking for and the general dysfunctional situation in NZ when we have people who can’t find work in shortages but the government is reluctant to address the systematic issues facing NZ employment and instead thinks they will recruit more and more fresh bodies from overseas while our jobseekers go up and up?

          https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/109441817/teacher-shortage-or-not–i-still-cant-get-work

      • shadrach 4.3.2
        24 January 2019 at 11:49 am

        He doesn’t need to hire anyone. The private sector is perfectly capable of building the houses (eg Pokeno). The problem is the Auckland Council, who have failed to allow the city to sprawl, hence the rising cost of land and shortage of supply.

        • Sacha 4.3.2.1
          24 January 2019 at 12:08 pm

          Only time I’ve seen someone bold enough to claim that sprawl is a good thing.

          • shadrach 4.3.2.1.1
            24 January 2019 at 12:27 pm

            Sprawl is a good thing.

            Spawl leads to investment in new infrastructure. Intensification leads to the breakdown of old infrastructure.

            Sprawl leads to properly planned communities, with modern community facilities. Intensification leads to overcrowded schools and children locked in match box houses.

            Sprawl reduces land costs, making housing more affordable on a comparative psm basis.

            Auckland is ideally placed to sprawl. This has not been allowed to happen to the extent it feasibly could because of the incompetence of Auckland City.

            • Sabine 4.3.2.1.1.1
              24 January 2019 at 12:41 pm

              yep, lets build future slums on prime agricultural land.

              makes perfect sense……more sprawl needs the world, more roads, more car, more pollution, more more more

              • Sacha …
                24 January 2019 at 12:58 pm

                What would all those urban planning professionals know anyway, right.

                • SaveNZ …
                  24 January 2019 at 3:18 pm

                  Well I hear that Auckland university closed the planning and architecture specialists library, so they clearly don’t value that course. Luckily the Law library was saved for the lawyers of which NZ has already a 25% surplus of lawyers beyond countries like the UK, because lawyers are such a productive lot in NZ moving the country forwards!!! sarcasm

              • Gosman …
                24 January 2019 at 1:17 pm

                If you focus the growth of Auckland to the North and North West you will avoid any prime agricultural land.

                • SaveNZ …
                  24 January 2019 at 3:25 pm

                  @ Gosman, Good idea, (sarcasm) I hear there is little public transport that is usable there and takes hours from the housing estates through the one road, but there is plenty of spec houses costing around 1 million which isn’t exactly affordable for the people that the housing crisis is actually effecting… lucky (sarcasm) it seems aimed at richer new residents families who don’t need to work in NZ and just costing those who are working and poorer who need to commute to work even more to get by and pay for the folly.

                  • Gosman …
                    24 January 2019 at 3:34 pm

                    Then spend some money improving the public transport infrastructure there. Perhaps by getting access to some of the funds from all the development that will be taking place. And if you allow lots of houses to be built then the average price of them will likely come down. It is called the law of supply and demand. Increase supply and the price tends to drop if demand stays the same.

                    • Tamati Tautuhi …
                      24 January 2019 at 4:45 pm

                      Public Transport Planning under both National & Labour over the past 30-40 years has been a big joke IMHO.

                  • Gosman …
                    24 January 2019 at 3:37 pm

                    Ironic that the guy narrating that video is a foreigner.

                    • SaveNZ …
                      24 January 2019 at 8:45 pm

                      I’ve noticed that the foreigners are trying to warn NZ the most about what is going on, while the woke lefties kiwi middle class political and media types flagellate the white male of whom they generally are themselves in some sort of irony. Maybe helps in the talk fest sessions to gain credibility??? Aka I’m white male and I know I’m the problem.

                      You hardly even see the foreigners thinking white pakeha are the scorge of all sins, in fact they seem to be coming to NZ in droves because their country has been destroyed by pollution and corruption or bad choices … sadly among them are the people and events they are trying to warn the Kiwi’s about… aka dowry scams or housing Ponzi schemes that Kiwi politicians and commentators seem oblivious to what is before their own eyes, aka plenty of empty houses but at a price point or in a location that does not suit working people of NZ.

                      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12123831

                  • Wayne …
                    25 January 2019 at 1:31 pm

                    Mayor Bob Harvey was always clear he wanted a coupe of thousand hectares in the north west zoned for residential. The Regional Council stopped it. That decision prevented thousands of houses being built over the last 15 years.

              • Shadrach …
                24 January 2019 at 4:01 pm

                Do you really think Pokeno is a ‘future slum’? The only future slums are Auckland’s inner suburb high density projects.

            • Gabby 4.3.2.1.1.2
              24 January 2019 at 1:26 pm

              On the surface shaddy, what you claim looks like crap. Dig down deeper, and it’s steaming crap.

            • SaveNZ 4.3.2.1.1.3
              24 January 2019 at 3:28 pm

              It was great when it took the Auckland councillors 4 hours to get in and out of west Auckland for a short journey. What a bonus to the country when we have no new infrastructure and no old infrastructure either and are borrowing more and more money in some sort of Ponzi to lower productivity and increase those on jobseeker benefits! Go NZ!!!

        • SaveNZ 4.3.2.2
          24 January 2019 at 3:14 pm

          @Shadrach, that right wing argument strikes again. Problem is you can’t get around Auckland due to the congestion from this urban sprawl, the developers are not paying or the money is disappearing to pay for the new roads and public transport and it will take decades to sort out while productivity and living standards in Auckland plummet, our beaches are being closed because they are full of dog, human poop and diesel run off from development, air pollution increasing, and taxes like petrol and more rates are hitting the poorest the most.

          The point is supposed to be that central and local government should be committed to improving living standards and business productivity not running pronzis to benefit the chosen few. Everything being promoted by MSM and government (mostly immigration and urban sprawl) is causing the opposite and increased poverty and homelessness, which at the current massive population growth figures (with Jobseekers rising at the same time aka the idea that everyone is employed seems to be false) showing what is really the issue.

          The government and councils need to plan the infrastructure and get it rolled out before the put in the people or you get a train wreck like Auckland has become. (And now Wellington, with high rentals, more people and dysfunctional public transport and soon they will create an exodus out of Wellington of local working people just like Auckland and Queenstown.

          • Shadrach 4.3.2.2.1
            24 January 2019 at 4:05 pm

            Actually you can get around Auckland. Any congestion is caused by intensification, not sprawl. In Pokeno the infrastructure was all included by the development partners, who sensibly built adjacent to a main arterial between Auckland and Hamilton.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.4
      24 January 2019 at 1:05 pm

      Yep. We need the Labour Party of the 1930s. Strong enough to do what needs to be done using new ideas.

      Instead we’ve got the weak version of the 1980s Labour government.

  5. Ad 5
    24 January 2019 at 8:46 am

    Encouraging to hear from Davos how hard the PM is driving 2019 budget bids according to demonstrable anti-poverty long term outcomes.

    “what gets measured gets done” -Ardern

    Looks like a fascinating budget framework to come.

  6. Ankerrawshark 6
    24 January 2019 at 8:50 am

    I am sick to death of people trashing Twyford and kiwibuild. I want those house built for the middle class (that doesn’t mean I don’t want social housing too, I think it is an even greater priority). But I want those young kids who likely have some sort of student loan to be able to get their own house. The principle is that these young kids have had to compete with mum and dad investors and speculators and didn’t stand a chance. The scheme is great. National are throwing everything they can at it , the media have jumped on the bandwagon and so the narrative forms that kiwi build is a dog.

    Rome wasn’t built in a day ffs……

    • Ad 6.1
      24 January 2019 at 8:52 am

      And no other Minister has tried to tilt real estate like this in 20+ years.

      • Poission 6.1.1
        24 January 2019 at 9:41 am

        60 years ago it was a different story.

        THE HOUSING SITUATION.—The number of new houses and flats constructed each year has, approximately doubled since the pre-war period. A peak of 19,200 was reached in each of the years ended 31 March 1956 and 31 March 1957. The total dropped back a little to 18,600 in the year ended 31 March 1958. This rate of house building in relation to population is higher than in most countries. Over 80 per cent of the houses built at present are for private home ownership.

        There was a fairly rapid expansion in house building from 1945 to 1951, when there was a noticeable levelling-off at just over 16,000 houses each year. In August 1953 the Government convened a National Housing Conference for the purpose of surveying the general housing situation in New Zealand and investigating ways and means of implementing the Government’s housing policy of promoting the building of more houses at a reasonable cost. The conference was attended by builders and others directly associated with the building industry, and also by employers, workers, welfare organizations, local bodies, organizations interested in housing finance, and other sections of the public. Every aspect of housing was discussed, and action taken on the resolutions adopted by the conference helped to effect a further expansion in house building to the present level. The conference assessed the extent of the housing shortage and set a number of 206,000 houses in ten years as a target to overcome the shortage and provide for the increase in population expected from both natural increase and immigration. This target represented an increase of 25 per cent in the building rate. A National Housing Council was also set up.

        The most noteworthy development in house building which has resulted has been the group building scheme. This scheme has been designed to give builders continuity of work, to reduce non-productive time between the finishing of one house and the starting of the next, and to assist builders in administration and supervision by enabling them to build houses for sale in groups. Plans and specifications are checked by the State Advances Corporation, which also inspects the work and, on behalf of the Government, gives an undertaking to take over at approved prices a specified number of any unsold houses. At 31 December 1958 there were 490 builders participating in the scheme, and 12,415 houses had been programmed; of these 9,785 had been completed and sold, and 675 were under construction.

        https://www3.stats.govt.nz/New_Zealand_Official_Yearbooks/1959/Images/fig650_1.jpg

        https://www3.stats.govt.nz/New_Zealand_Official_Yearbooks/1959/NZOYB_1959.html?_ga=2.49151718.1350318812.1548243308-443778311.1515815050#idchapter_1_211608

      • patricia bremner 6.1.2
        24 January 2019 at 8:41 pm

        Twyford has been truthful. so Gnats bring out the knives. Funny that.
        Social housing is happening, but as the Minister said ”It will take time to ramp up”

    • Wayne 6.2
      24 January 2019 at 9:27 am

      Twyford has all the resources of the state behind him.

      He set the target, starting 1 July 2018 and going through to 30 June 2019. The start date was nearly 8 months after the government was formed. No-one expected 10,000 houses in year one, but 1,000 seemed reasonable. Presumably he had advice on the target, he didn’t just pluck it out of thin air. He has failed on that, not just by a little, but by a lot.

      So yes, he will be called to account by the media and the opposition on his failure. Frankly, I am surprised that the miss is going to be so big. I would have expected at least 800 houses. Northcote and Tamaki have been ready to go for quite a while. But progress on both sites seems pretty slow.

      • ianmac 6.2.1
        24 January 2019 at 2:39 pm

        300 houses is a huge win Wayne, compared to the minus zero houses that National built in 9 years.

        • Gosman 6.2.1.1
          24 January 2019 at 2:42 pm

          Following that logic Kiwibuild would be a great success if but one house was built under the programme. Unfortunately for you that is not how people usually decide the success of failure of something. It is usually done off what was planned not what was happening before.

      • patricia bremner 6.2.2
        24 January 2019 at 9:27 pm

        Wayne, for gnat you are usually reasonable,
        ”All the resources of the State behind him”
        That is not true, he had some resources, the programme isn’t on a war footing.
        National had spent 9 years working towards small government. (underfunding)

        That meant, the private builders were undercutting each other, bringing in migrant labour, not investing in training , not keeping sites from polluting, and building for overseas buyers who wanted Mc Mansions, which they left empty as investments.

        Now Phil has built ‘First owner homes.’ Modest but modern. Banned overseas nonresident buyers, and the market has slowed by 20%, but not lost value.

        2 problems for Kiwibuild. An employment dispute, and ramping up selling off the plan which wasn’t popular.

        So he fronts up. WOW!! A Minister fronts up and tells of delays. He is honest.
        We are so used to lies and Ministers throwing others under the bus. So National with Judith as Housing spokesperson. will try to gain the moral high ground… very difficult with her China links and past demotion by Key.

      • Exkiwiforces 6.2.3
        24 January 2019 at 10:39 pm

        Sorry Wayn’o,

        But this time, you really need to pull your head out of your own ass this time!

        Who bugged up all the trade training and farm Cadetship in the 90’s?

        Who flog off MoW, Railways and shut down the Railway Workshops IOT to flog it off?

        Who made trainees take out student loans, while the same destroyed working conditions, workers safety through the ECA?

        Who reduce building standards and made it easy for employers/ companies to hire overseas tradies instead of investing in the NZers?

        Yes Wayne the rot started with you muppets in the “No Mates Party” with those stupid decisions that you lot did in the 90’s, are the result of the current shit fight we have atm across all sectors of NZ’s economy.

        To undo the massive damage you lot did is going to take yrs to do, but unless someone takes ownership of it. It going to keep on happening because of you dickheads and just take for example the recovery of CHCH earthquakes and the recovery of Napier or similar areas.

    • Gabby 6.3
      24 January 2019 at 11:45 am

      Ok, but why do you want young people in debt to get their own house that they’ll most likely be vacating in a few years as their careers evolve or their relationships fall apart? Wouldn’t they be better served by cheap rentals?

  7. Incognito 7
    24 January 2019 at 9:16 am

    Democracy, Trust and Legitimacy by Simon Longstaff. A very good paper on (Australian) Parliament that equally applies to NZ or many other countries for that matter.

    He makes a few nice comments about the machinery of politics (and power) and how political parties are now obsessed with this and have lost sight of their ethical foundations. Lately, I’ve also been wondering (pondering rather) whether parties have become more of a hinder to progress than we realise, i.e. if you can’t see or solve the problem you may well be the problem …

    https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/pop63/c05 (it’s a long read)

    • Dennis Frank 7.1
      24 January 2019 at 9:41 am

      Also: “This cabinet official, when challenged about this, said, ‘oh well, actually there is no problem with this; we can do whatever we like because we have a democratic mandate. We were actually elected by the people’. Well this is nonsense. There are boundaries set by our Constitution that limit what you can do despite what you think might be your democratic mandate.”

      This idea that the mandate of an election is merely a matter of perception, not a democratic reality, is postmodern. We’ve seen how the Democrats are using it to prevent Trump implementing his. They’ve been carefully not to do so honestly, by admitting or declaring their intent. They know voters still believe in it, so they must be covert in their subversive strategy. Closet-stalinism is deep-rooted in the tacit psychology of leftist political endeavour…

  8. Grantoc 8
    24 January 2019 at 9:31 am

    Yes Micky.

    If National had left such a mess, then Labour should have understood the nature of that mess and developed policies to address it well before now. After all Twyford was banging for years about housing when in opposition. That he didn’t appear to understand the issues and the complexities of the housing market then, as well as now, has to be a serious concern.

    Clearly Labour didn’t, and doesn’t, understand the housing market; clearly they over promised on what they could deliver; clearly they’re attracting little interest from the so called first home buyers target group (no demand from them for one of Twyford’s houses – they’re getting better deals in the general housing market).

    Blaming National for Labour’s own incompetence, is stretching it a bit thin now. Labour needs to take responsibility for how things are.

  9. Morrissey 9
    24 January 2019 at 10:18 am

    Canada, At War For 13 Years, Shocked
    That ‘A Terrorist’ Attacked Its Soldiers
    by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Oct. 23, 2014

    TORONTO – In Quebec on Monday, two Canadian soldiers were hit by a car driven by Martin Couture-Rouleau, a 25-year-old Canadian who, as The Globe and Mail reported, “converted to Islam recently and called himself Ahmad Rouleau.” One of the soldiers died, as did Couture-Rouleau when he was shot by police upon apprehension after allegedly brandishing a large knife. Police speculated that the incident was deliberate, alleging the driver waited for two hours before hitting the soldiers, one of whom was wearing a uniform. The incident took place in the parking lot of a shopping mall 30 miles southeast of Montreal, “a few kilometres from the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, the military academy operated by the Department of National Defence.”

    The right-wing Canadian government wasted no time in seizing on the incident to promote its fear-mongering agenda over terrorism, which includes pending legislation to vest its intelligence agency, CSIS, with more spying and secrecy powers in the name of fighting ISIS. A government spokesperson asserted “clear indications” that the driver “had become radicalized.”

    In a “clearly prearranged exchange,” a conservative MP, during parliamentary question time, asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pictured above) whether this was considered a “terrorist attack”; in reply, the prime minister gravely opined that the incident was “obviously extremely troubling.” Canada’s Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney pronounced the incident “clearly linked to terrorist ideology,” while newspapers predictably followed suit, calling it a “suspected terrorist attack” and “homegrown terrorism.” CSIS spokesperson Tahera Mufti said “the event was the violent expression of an extremist ideology promoted by terrorist groups with global followings” and added: “That something like this would happen in a peaceable Canadian community like Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu shows the long reach of these ideologies.”

    In sum, the national mood and discourse in Canada is virtually identical to what prevails in every Western country whenever an incident like this happens: shock and bewilderment that someone would want to bring violence to such a good and innocent country (“a peaceable Canadian community like Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu”), followed by claims that the incident shows how primitive and savage is the “terrorist ideology” of extremist Muslims, followed by rage and demand for still more actions of militarism and freedom-deprivation. There are two points worth making about this….

    Read more….
    https://theintercept.com/2014/10/22/canada-proclaiming-war-12-years-shocked-someone-attacked-soldiers/

  10. greywarshark 10
    24 January 2019 at 11:07 am

    A national bank, the TSB, situated in the main street of Nelson was closed after
    Christmas when expected to be open. A notice apologised. Apparently staff shortage was the reason. This seems a very strange occurrence, and where and when does national support come in? Wouldn’t you think that staff from other centres could be sourced to keep the show going and the bank profile positive?

    Nelson branch of TSB Bank closed due to staff shortage
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/109771807/nelson-branch-of-tsb-bank-closed-due-to-staff-shortage

  11. greywarshark 11
    24 January 2019 at 11:22 am

    Is this something we will have to contend with in a few decades after our period of dodgy materials through poor reliability of standards documentation for steel and cheap contract labour?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/109978639/new-yorks-old-tappan-zee-bridge-come-tumbling-down

    The Tappan Zee Bridge, which opened in 1955, became a poster child for America’s crumbling infrastructure.

    Governor Andrew Cuomo, the son of the new bridge’s namesake, recalled in 2017 an experience familiar to many Tappan Zee drivers, steel plates that shifted beneath traffic, providing unnerving glimpses through road cracks of the chasm below.

    The Democrat said he’d envisioned escape scenarios in case he ended up in the water: “‘Do I take off the seat belt? Do I open the window?’ I had one of those special tools with the hammer and the seat belt cutter.”

    But OTOH it lasted till say 2015, 60 years, until the cracks showed the water below in 2017. Who knows what NZ will be doing after 60 years of eventful happenings. Any ideas for 2079 NZ way of life?

  12. Ad 12
    24 January 2019 at 11:32 am

    An important pointer from Jeanette Fitzsimmons on the need to show how and where carbon taxes will be spent:

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-01-2019/the-tax-grab-trap-why-politicians-need-to-tell-us-where-carbon-revenue-will-go/

    There is of course a detail threshold for most citizens – after all how many really took notice of the last EECA funding round for electric vehicles this week?

    But the NZTA National Land Transport Fund has very high visibility, a reasonable degree of democratic feedback, and can demonstrate visible results.

    The clear message from the Prime Minister in this budget will apply: show how it is reducing inequality in New Zealand over the long term, or this and any other proposal is not going to fly .

    • Dennis Frank 12.1
      24 January 2019 at 2:23 pm

      I’m inclined to agree with JF: “If a policy is to be durable and supported it has to create the conviction that we are all in this together – everyone pays; everyone benefits from the revenue created; and everyone has the opportunity to reduce their carbon burn by thinking smarter. What we need is a policy that delivers an equal monetary return to all citizens, bearing in mind that $20 to a beneficiary or low income worker is worth enormously more than $20 to a corporate chief.”

      “It needs to be communicated clearly that those paying the most in the carbon price will be those using more than their “share” of our carbon budget. Those getting the most benefit will be those who reduce their carbon burn. There are two ways to do this. The simple way is to reduce tax on the bottom band of income – probably by making the first dollars earned tax free. The second is by paying a “citizen’s dividend” to every citizen, or resident, or other qualifying descriptor.”

      She goes on to explain why she prefers the second option – while acknowledging it will cost more to operate. I agree, because citizens can see the tangible benefit they get from the policy, as well as the intangible benefit of sustainable economics.

  13. greywarshark 13
    24 January 2019 at 12:22 pm

    The timber needed for kiwibuild. There has been concern expressed for years at the government’s inability to provide for this country’s needs under neo liberal and freemarket economic controls. Seeing that the Right believed in their right to sell the country’s storehouse of needed items for the future, leaving us with remainders, leftovers and crusts, now we want to make a game-changing surge from a regressive, do-little policy, we find that the cupboard is virtually bare of resource.
    Like the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe we don’t know what to do. Any very large shoes in NZ?

    Here’s a few write-ups on it.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=11979686
    22 January 2018 Record log exports concern NZ housing processors

    Wood Processors & Manufacturers Association of New Zealand chief executive Jon Tanner said last year’s record exports underscored concerns of local manufacturers that the country was sending too many unprocessed logs overseas.
    At present it was a “free-for-all” market driving the high prices and domestic processors could not compete against the “fly-in fly-out” traders, Dr Tanner said in an interview.

    He acknowledged the situation was “open competition”, but it was on a “tilted playing field”, given industry subsidies existed in other countries.
    The scenario was posing a threat for future local timber supply and was undermining goals to add more value to exports, Dr Tanner said.

    “New Zealand is experiencing strong demand for logs from China, which has clamped down on harvesting its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet demand in its local market,” he said.
    Reduced exports from Canada and Russia meant China would increasingly be looking to New Zealand and Australia to fill the void.
    “I’d expect [Chinese] demand to keep increasing and to see more exports out of New Zealand and Australia,” he said.

    Dr Tanner said the increased raw log shipments went against the aim of successive governments to add more value to commodities. The wood processing sector wanted more manufacturing done in New Zealand to sustain local industries.
    “It says an uptick in demand for wooden housing could see supply having to be met from overseas if the current situation prevails,” Dr Tanner said.
    He noted the high level of Auckland consents and requirements to achieve the KiwiBuild programme.
    When pressed, he was adamant the scenario of importing sawn lumber to meet demand could become a reality….

    (And there has been a big drop in shipping rates which has made exporting logs more profitable. Why would the shipping rates drop so much I wonder? Is there a subsidy from somewhere skewing the market?)

    …Not only had Chinese demand driven prices up during the past two years, a trifecta was created with generally favourable foreign exchange alongside very low shipping rates.
    The price to move a cubic metre of wood from Dunedin to Asian destinations had averaged about $US45 during the past decade, but early last year that cost was in a range of $US13 to $US25 per metre during the preceding 18 months.

    Port Otago’s last financial year moved a record 957,000 tonnes of export logs across its wharves.

    **************************

    Another report from 2017.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11973307
    NZ softwood log exports hit new record in 2017

    This one from the NZ tree grower’s perspective.
    http://www.nzffa.org.nz/specialty-timber-market/headlines/timber-imports-mean-export-of-environmental-impacts/
    from Specialty Timbers NZ May 2015
    In simple terms, indigenous and special-purpose timber production in New Zealand continues to decline while imports of special-purpose timber products continue to escalate.

    Many kiwis are happy to use imported timber products or specify imported timber for their floors, walls, ceilings, joinery or cladding without a thought as to the quality of forest management back at the source or the benefits of using NZ-grown wood.

    In effect, New Zealanders have effectively exported the environmental impacts of their special-purpose timber consumption to other countries and failed to recognise the impacts of their actions on the sustainability of their own forests or the viability of their own special-purpose and indigenous timber manufacturing industries.

    There is an obvious need to increase the public’s awareness of how their timber consumption patterns are at odds with the clean green conservation image we all cherish. New Zealander’s are unwitting partners in a double standard that requires high standards for their home-grown timbers but expect little in the way of sustainable credentials for special-purpose timber imported from overseas.

  16. Sacha 16
    24 January 2019 at 2:02 pm

    Big tobacco company outs itself as donor to NZ Taxpayers Onion. Onion spokesparrot says conflicts of interest do not apply because they are not publicly-funded.

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/01/24/412747/taxpayers-union-backed-by-tobacco-giant

  17. Cinny 17
    24 January 2019 at 2:10 pm

    Re kiwibuild…..

    Not sure how the situation is in other regions, but in Richmond area near Nelson, around five entities own the majority of available land. What those entities do is drip feed the land out for sale, thereby increasing the land value. Council asks for land, but noooooo money first for the entities and the drip feeding continues.

    Found that out from a former Tasman District Councillor yesterday who said they were very frustrated with people laying blame on the council re the availability of land.

    Does anyone know if it’s a similar situation in other regions please?

    • Gabby 17.1
      24 January 2019 at 5:09 pm

      Seems odd they’d stay quiet about that.

    • RedLogix 17.2
      25 January 2019 at 1:00 pm

      What those entities do is drip feed the land out for sale, thereby increasing the land value.

      It’s what any rational economic actor will do.

      A manufacturer of widgets will only make as many as there is a profitable market for; any more than this and the value of the product drops. (Before DtB leaps down my throat, yes I know this is a simplification.)

      But land is tricky. It’s not ‘manufactured’ as such, the supply is both enduring and finite. This puts it into a different category of ‘ownership’ than most other goods.

      My approach to this problem is to make all land ‘ownership’ to be held by public entities, while the ‘right to occupy’ is held privately. This distinction would go a long way toward allowing to solve land problems like this; it would give the public domain some control over the long-term supply and use of land, while at the same time preserving the private right to occupy and gain immediate benefit from it.

  18. Sabine 18
    24 January 2019 at 2:56 pm

    you will find the same all over the regions.
    some towns where whole streets are owned by one person who is also on the council 🙂

    so when you drive through the ‘real NZ’ and you wonder why everything is boarded up, chances are no one will pay the 10 – 25.000 anual lease 🙂 cause everything is Akl now.

    and that is the biggest issue that i have with kiwi build and all tht jazz, it is literally just a project for middle / upper class people like Phil Twyford who have realized that their own children in AKL / WLGTN – despite working good jobs – can’t afford a house anywhere near them.

    But, it would work, if they would also employ other methods to cool the housing market. One would be to establish some sort of rental mirror. I.e. the rent should cover the value of the flat/house (i.e. ammeneties near by, age of building, state of building, heating sources, new modern vs old rotting ), rather then cover a mortgage on which was added a boat, a suv for the missus and the mister, a overseas holiday or several etc etc etc etc. If you could rent for a reasonable rate you might not be so keen on buying a house.

    And kiwi build should go hand in hand with government investment into the region that will attract jobs to the region rather then just another business in akl. And with jobs i also include jobs for women. Cause that is an issue in the region is decent paying jobs for women.

  19. SaveNZ 19
    24 January 2019 at 3:51 pm

    Don’t build Queens Wharf extension for giant cruise ships, says planner

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12195069&fbclid=IwAR3gpr-0SWwgsrOYY5FUIGWXbYrkVdyuoVyuEVdsqS5vllLCjStlxJSBymU

    Air quality on cruise ship deck ‘worse than world’s most polluted cities’, investigation finds
    ‘Each day a cruise ship emits as much particulate matter as a million cars’

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/pollution-cruise-ships-po-oceana-higher-piccadilly-circus-channel-4-dispatches-a7821911.html