Let's grant Damien the courtesy of a reply to his latest effort at demonstrating the ineptness of what passes for thinking out loud by libertarians.
He first notes that most of the income received by Kainga Ora for housing its tenants comes from a government rent subsidy top up.
And suggests because the amount paid by tenants is so much less than that for private market rentals, it would be better for both government and tenants, if they were gifted ownership of their property.
Thus the government would lose $30B ($45B of asset to remove $15B of debt).
He seems to fail to note that government can afford the cost of subsidising rent and borrowing to build more housing, because its land and property assets are rising in value – does he know nothing about the value of CG via ownership? How landlords acquire more and more property via leverage?
Most of our populations wealth is in the rising value of the land and yet he pretends to fail to understand.
It shows he just does not care about the health of government finances. And wants to divest government of its assets and capability.
Bill English just wants the coalition to do the same more slowly – less new debt and rising property value portfolio for Kainga Ora and transfer of taxpayer money to other social housing providers.
It shows he just does not care about the health of government finances. And wants to divest government of its assets and capability
Yep – and and also true for Luxon, Willis, Seymour etc. The scary talk about debt is just to garner popular support for their real agenda
Bill English just wants the coalition to do the same more slowly – less new debt and rising property value portfolio for Kainga Ora and transfer of taxpayer money to other social housing providers.
Yep – and just wait for the definition of social housing providers to be radically widened beyond what the popular imagination would normally consider to be such a thing. It's likely to encompass private sector mega-landlords showing their commitment to something called "the community" through participation in the Government's "social investment strategy" – aka Billy's Boondoggle.
Perhaps the calculations would be different if the government gifted the house but retained ownership of the land, which they would then rent out to the tenant. That rent could be kept relatively low with respect to the household income, and would take take into account the fact that the house was no longer included in the rent.
I don't have a problem personally with giving tenants the house eventually, but would do it after 12 years of paying 25% of income as rent regardless of income (so no maximum rent) since after that, the tenant would have paid 3 year's worth of income as rent.
Could be set up as peppercorn (or no) leaseholds, and probably a clause in the contract or legislation that gives the Crown first right of refusal on sale at a reasonably low value to avoid it being on-sold at high profits.
That said, does the Crown need to retain the land? If it wants to borrow, it can do it via A grade bonds backed by a sovereign currency with no history of defaults. It doesn't need to land as collateral.
1.giving people land ownership while others were paying market rents (and unable to afford to buy) would be unwise.
2.this is why I prefer assistance to those paying market rents into home ownership on leasehold land and continuing with income related rent for state housing.
3.debt to assets is an important part of government accounts (across time).
The Technology Institutes had embarked on Reform by unififying the content so that experts in soil management for example would design a universal program so that each Institute could use the same plan.
No! No says Penny Symonds. De-Unify this minute!
Reading programs were designed by teachers using a wide range of methods.
No! No says Erica Stanford. Unify the teaching of Reading and we will call it what the Dyslexic Association named it, Structured Literacy.
Does this sound like a coherent consistent plan or does it sound like a shambles?
(Incidentally, 80% of children do learn to read using the previous systems, but it is true that the 20% who can't, do need specific help, but bath/baby spring to mind.)
as a general principle, we should do both. We need national standards, but we also need those to be adaptable to local situations. All good sustainability design arises out of the environment in which it will be applied, because the local environment is what we have to work with.
The trouble with National Standards Weka, is that no two people learn at the same rate. We might say that the average class of 10 year old reads at the 10year Reading age. But some of those children read at the 15+ RA and some are reading at the 7y RA with all the others sprinkled between. Those below 7y RA need specific assistance. And they always had needs as the NZ long tail has shown. (Dyslexia.)
NZ has always had majority of children reading very well above "average" with a significant number weighing the average down. In UK there was (is?) a test day so cunning Principals asked certain kids to stay home so that their averages stayed higher.
(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)
(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)
I dunno bout that. By 10 I was reading stuff like Robert Ruark's – Uhuru, Edge and Adam Steele westerns, Robert Heinlen's – Stranger in a Strange Land, loads more scifi.
Even just looking at stuff now I got for Christmas that I can find – Black Beauty at 5, Dog Crusoe at 7, Huckleberry Finn and Ivanhoe at 8. I distinctly remember outgrowing the traditional children stuff and moving to adult books post the Ivanhoe / Three Musketeers era – somewhere in that period was Wilbur
Smith as well – though I think I was about 15 when I realised that Sean was not pronounced "seen". Sadly I also read the Erich von Däniken stuff about then as well.
11 to 12 was reading Sven Hassell (became interested after reading The Blue Max to read more books about the opposition's perspective of the war), Anne McCaffrey, etc etc
The point is, is that there was nothing in any of that that was not able to be read and understood and worked through – sex, violence, religion (for and against).
I read plenty of non-fiction too and magazines like my uncles Mind Alive.
I'm not sure what you mean by interests of 10 year olds. Just let people read what they are comfortable with. I suspect there may be some stuff I didn't fully understand at the time but not much – and if I didn't understand it it likely didn't matter. Just like so many people don't pick up on what Lola by The Kinks is about ….
I, too, was an extensive reader (and borrower of books from the adult section of my local library) – lovely librarians who were delighted to help me find new authors.
I think that I would have been bored silly by the 'books suitable for 10-year-olds' then (and even more so, now, when the literary level has been lowered even further).
If I was (and I was) interested in historical fiction, then the natural progression from Rosemary Sutcliffe, Cynthia Harnett, or Elsie Locke (all, BTW, probably too 'advanced' for today's 10-year-olds) – was Jean Plaidy, Mary Renault, or Robert Graves (or even Georgette Heyer). – from the shelves of the adult collection.
I will admit that I entirely skipped over the YA novels – which seemed to be entirely concerned with relationships or social problems – neither of which I was interested in.
If something came up in one of the novels (or non-fiction books) which I didn't understand – I could always discuss with my family (dinner-table conversations about torture, martyrdom, abuse, political shenanigans, etc.).
As an aside, I vividly remember the first time I asked my Dad something he didn't know the answer to (What was the Babington Plot) – and he said 'I don't know, but let's go and find out' – leading to consulting an encyclopedia, and a further trip to the library to look into Tudor history – no Google in those days).
It made a huge impression on me. Not only that adults didn't know everything, but that it was OK (even praiseworthy) to admit it, and go and find the answer.
We'd all gotten used to death and destruction I guess quite early on reading the bible from cover to cover anyway. Pretty sure I knew what killing people, stoning people to death, adultery, eternal damnation and being prejudiced was about quite early on in the piece. As well as the good bits. Focus on the good bits……..
My 8-year-old was horrified by the killing of the first-born (reason for the Jewish Passover). The Bible is not for the faint-hearted!
The Wars of the Roses was the inspiration for Game of Thrones – those of us familiar with Medieval history were not surprised by any of the blood-thirsty dramatization.
George R. R. Martin has stated many times that the Massacre of Glencoe, along with the Black Dinner at Edinburgh Castle in 1440, is what gave him the idea for Game of Thrones' most infamous scene – the Red Wedding.
And the wall and storms of winter coming from the north.
As to the bible stuff, the acts of god are just exaggerations of abuse of power judgment (beyond the capacity of empire, let alone mere kings). And there is no evidence any of them were real (not even a conquest of Canaan and decimation of the population). It can be explained as the shock and awe narrative of cult myth making.
Though belief in such inspires real acts of dubious morality by those of Christian, Moslem and Jewish faith.
"(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)"
I too read anything and every thing. What I meant was that teachers who read a 15+ RA should not thrust adult books on kids as part of the reading program. There is heaps of stuff available for challenging instruction. (I remember a book from the National Library Exchange whizzing around a class of 10 year old girls. Judy Blume wrote for younger kids but this particular book that excited the girls, was the book aimed at adolescents experimenting with sex. RA 15+.)
I don't know where you're getting your figure of 80% of kids learning to read under balanced literacy (the current MoE approach to teaching).
We don't have any figures – AFAIK – measuring this for primary age children.
The only independent measure has been the pass rate at the NCEA literacy test – which has been hovering around 65% for reading.
Note: this is *after* any interventions such as Reading Recovery, and/or expensive tutoring programmes (for higher wealth families).
Given that, I'd put the success rate of balanced literacy approach in actually teaching reading in the classroom- closer to one third (which aligns with overseas results)
Yes, of course, *some* kids learn to read under balanced literacy. They will also learn to read under structured literacy (phonics based) – and would probably learn to read with no actual teaching at all (all those anecdotes of people teaching themselves to read as preschoolers).
Yes, of course, *some* kids will not learn under structured literacy in the classroom and will need further intervention. But – all the research shows, that it's a lot fewer of them (and the current Reading Recovery programme won't teach them either)
The point is that structured literacy has a whole string of research-based evaluation – everything from neuroscience (what's going on in your brain when you learn to read), through to practical classroom-based results (including in NZ) – to show that it's a better methodology for teaching *all* kids to read.
Time for the NZ teachers unions and the MoE to get on with implementing best-practice, rather than trying to defend their previous (failing) systems.
The assumption is that "35%" of children based on the offered data cannot read.
Yet Pisa stated 21% of 15 year olds reading at the lowest level. That leaves 79% at some reading skill through to above age levels. Included in the below to high group is a group of kids who have mono-syllabic language language skills, deprived backgrounds where going to school is not part of their survival skills. I do not think it is possible for every kid to be above average. If they were then average would have no place.
The structured learning program was designed for the dyslexic kids who were failing, by the Dyslexic association and good on them. (Spectacles help poor sight so will we give every person a pair of spectacles?)
We will look forward to seeing if the quality of reading that we enjoyed, will translate from the mechanics and dissection of the bits of words into meaningful language. (I helped an adult man recently who could read the words but had never learned to understand the wholeness of the language.)
And your evidence for the 80% of kids learning to read through the current classroom balanced literacy approach has still not been provided.
The difference between the PISA results and the NCEA ones can very easily be explained by a difference in evaluation (I would assume that the bottom and next to bottom PISA results would be equivalent to the NCEA result – covering those kids who have some level of literacy, but are functionally illiterate when measured against NCEA standards)
Note that the PISA results absolutely do not include those kids who are not present at school, and I would strongly argue, don't include many kids who are noticeably struggling with learning. PISA evaluation is an 'opt-in' programme- and not all schools opt in (and not all students at those schools participate).
The structured learning programme may well benefit Dyslexic kids – but it also benefits many, many other children. There is zero evidence that only dyslexic kids are failing to learn to read using the current system – indeed thousands of kids, with no identifiable learning disability (apart from failing to learn to read), are being sent to Reading Recovery. Which makes this whole argument, a red herring.
The proof is, as always, in the pudding. But NZ schools which have already transitioned to structured literacy (at their own cost, and against MoE pressure) have reported significantly improved results for their students in learning to read.
Thanks Belladonna. Your thoughts are well informed and useful. In my time teaching NE to year 6, most of the kids could read from a bit below to 15+ but now in my 80s, so perhaps I need a wee lie down.
Appreciate the discussion Ianmac. Reading and literacy are a subject that I care deeply about. And the reality that too many Kiwi kids can't read worries me a lot.
Not so much reading for pleasure (although that's been a lifelong recreation for me) – but I recognize not everyone gets their kicks out of books.
But being able to read full stop. It's a huge barrier to employability (no driver's licence for example, or not able to read safety briefings), and to participation in society.
Well-researched and successful changes to teaching practice are absolutely worth trying.
I supported this under Jan Tinetti (although I doubted that she'd get it across the line against the MoE). And I support it under Stanford.
Does Chris Luxon shave? The answer is No! because he doesn’t have the balls to stimulate the growth of any facial hair. The reason is that he’s been politically castrated and neutered by his coalition buddies in a messy coup d’état.
But if/when he does grow some balls shit will hit the fan and the most likely scenario is that he’ll be replaced to keep the coalition alive.
But it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Prime Minister overrides his co-deputies to mete out the same clear and swift retribution suffered by National Party MPs and ministers. It’s unlikely the coalition would come out of that unscathed.
Unlikely – who needs balls when you're juggling seven properties. The whole governance thing is tangential to getting 'our' country back on a landLord's track.
Who chooses to be a tenant in NZ? Imagine what it's like for, say, a family with children to always be only 90 days away from eviction – that’s the 'stability' rent will buy.
In Vienna, the Renters’ Utopia [10 Oct 2023]
Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it?
That's what differentiates Vienna. Perhaps no other developed city has done more to protect residents from the commodification of housing. In Vienna, 43 percent of all housing is insulated from the market, meaning the rental prices reflect costs or rates set by law – not "what the market will bear" or what a person with no other options will pay.
…
The mean gross household income in Vienna is 57,700 euros a year, but any person who makes under 70,000 euros qualifies for a Gemeindebau unit. Once in, you never have to leave. It doesn't matter if you start earning more. The Government never checks your salary again.
Vienna is also the city with the shortest working week, ~29.5 hours on average, andthe 7th most productive city in the world. Vienna shows that planning/regulation to minimise landLord greed is possible. And, with what's in the pipeline, imho NZ govts would be stupid to stay on a landLord's track. Just hope we don't run out of time.
Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. – Einstein
If only prospective tenants could find out the history of bonds lodged for a given rental address – dates only would suffice, but actual dollar-amounts would be a bonus – then this could serve as a warning bell not to touch it with a barge pole. Knowledge is power and tenants need all the power they can get in this lopsided environment.
Yeah, that excuse is wheeled out way too easily and often, IMO. A rental agreement is a legal (commercial) contract between two parties and both parties should be able to do full due diligence, e.g., make it a pre-requirement before lodging the bond. This could be seen as the equivalent of obtaining a LIM report, title check, and builder’s report when buying a house – one could call it a RIM report.
There’s no time to think, so I operate on instinct. My task is ridiculously complex. I need to deescalate any signs of aggression, guide the man into a state of emotional balance, and exit the situation safely, all at once. This process requires all of my attention, energy, and intellect. It’s really hard.
I’ve been in this position so many times that it exhausts me just to write about it. Sometimes, it’s not that I’m afraid of men; I’m just really, really tired.
The ICJ has now formally agreed with the SA application for urgency in dealing with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza by demanding they cease operations in Rafah, open the Rafah crossing to allow the quantity of needed aid into Gaza (at last count, perhaps 10 trucks – pictures showed these only half full, perhaps due to the instability of a floating platform – had delivered aid to warehouses, a big zero to acrual Palestinians), and to allow any investigators of appropriate UN bodies in.
Of course, the chances of this occurring so long as the US remains staunch in its support for genocide, approaches zero. With regard to ICC warrants, Germany has conceded that should Netanyahu or Gallant visit after the warrants have been issued they will be obliged to arrest them.
The US is now increasing the depth of its complicity with law changes enabling US citizens in the IDF to claim the same benefits as US servicemen. It is estimated that around 20,000 US citizens serve in the IDF. One of the benefits accrued will be immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
In effect, H.R. 8445 is a measure designed to ensure U.S. legal and financial protections are being extended directly to U.S. citizens on the ground in Occupied Palestine as they assist in the ongoing colonization, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Palestinians.The amendments it proposes formally bring U.S. citizens fighting in a foreign military into the fold, opening up further incentives for becoming an active participant in the Gaza genocide.
In addition to those serving in the IDF, US citizens have a large footprint in Israeli cotrolled areas.
This figure is bolstered further by the reality that an estimated 600,000 Americans were living in areas under Israeli control, including illegal West Bank settlements, prior to October 7. These settlers play key roles in advancing Zionist and, by extension, U.S. imperial interests. As such, it is no surprise that they have been consistently enabled to travel and settle in Occupied Palestine, being joined by billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid.
Albeit a little late, this is much-needed funding from central government to add to allocation by local government to clear choked and blocked waterways in greater Auckland of debris.
With increased housing density and in-fill housing one wonders if these clean-up efforts are going to be enough to prevent future flooding and major infrastructure damage caused by natural events. Probably not.
People could help by stopping littering, taking waste to waste & recycling stations, and by reporting major blockages in/of waterways by debris.
People who recycle should be paid instead of charged a recycling cost. I used to help my primary school collect old newspapers because they could earn money by selling it for recycling. In the Netherlands there’s a container deposit on glass and plastic bottles and cans and customers/consumers receive their deposit back upon returning the empty containers; many Dutch love it!
Interesting if we were to collate the malfeasance of the Government because bit by bit they slip bits through. So guess what. In Nick Rockel's Korero he has published Gerald Otto's compilation, from the side bar:
Footnote: Further to that “independent” review of Kāinga Ora by Bill English whose departing record in his final year in office ( o.e. minus 1500 state houses) somehow qualified him to damn Kāinga Ora, which was well on track to build 4,800 to 6,000 state houses a year. Despite its allegedly “unsustainable”forecast debt of $9 billion debt, Kāinga Ora was actually building up housing assets worth tens of billions
The salient detail is that the coalition of chaos was/is trying to imply that Kainga Ora''s operational management was the concern as per growing debt forecasts, when this was mostly related to the build up planned.
"The salient detail is that the coalition of chaos was/is trying to imply that Kainga Ora''s operational management was the concern as per growing debt forecasts, when this was mostly related to the build up planned."
That is a political red herring thrown up by Labour. The assets being accumulated mean nothing, if the organisation can't generate sufficient cash flow to service and pay back the debt.
KO is forecasting losses over somewhere around $2.5bn over the next 4 years. Interest costs exceeded the net operating income for 2023 and are forecast to do the same for 3 of the subsequent 4 years. KO is facing negative net operating cash flows such that they will have to take on even more debt just to pay its interest.
KO has been poorly governed – it doesn't matter which way you slice this.
Landlords who are unable to pay the mortgage – either from rents or supplemented with other revenue – do not do 'fine'. They either sell the loss-making house, or the bank forecloses.
Some may well run at an interest-only mortgage for some time (although banks are fairly wary about these, with the potential for a dropping housing market). And many may just break even (or even make a technical small loss – although they can not set that off against any other taxes).
I don't have an issue with KO having borrowed money to build the houses. But there is indeed an issue if the interest repayments are increasing substantially – with no way to offset these by increased income.
Note that money spent on repaying interest is not available for other uses. And if that amount of money increases a lot over the next few years, then what do you think the government should cut to pay for it?
Landlords at the very least, have to ensure that their outgoings on interest, are balanced by their income on rents.
The argument that they make their profit when they sell (assuming it’s outside the bright line period) – is indeed true. But not relevant to the government – unless they are proposing to sell off this state housing (which I think, we’d all say is not desirable)
Any landlord having a problem paying a mortgage out of rent income can just borrow more against the property (as farmers do in any year where cost is higher than profit). Using growth in equity (CG).
Landlords were doing this because of rising interest payment liability coinciding with the full realisation of Labour's end to deduction of this cost against rent income. There were not any mortgagee sales.
And now with the CoC in power they will be back buying more.
An organisation with $15B in debt and $45B in assets was well set to add thousands of new builds each year.
Landlord equity is higher in 2024 than in 2019, much higher – so this can be borrowed against to manage a temporary rise in mortgage cost.
Rents go up when there is a market shortage, the constraint is ability of the tenant class to afford the rent (and desirability of the landlords property vs others)
Landlord equity means nothing if landlord income cannot fund the debt.
As far as rents are concerned, market pressure from excess demand is going to be exacerbated when landlords have additional costs imposed on them. And we know that from the data. From 2008 through 2017, the median weekly rent in NZ increased by just 4% per year. From 2017 through 2023, the average rise was 6%. In 2023 alone the increases was 9%! That's the impact of government policy right there. https://figure.nz/chart/dnQKC3FHjhAE6Kqw
Maybe the high level of migrant labour inflow 2022-23 has an impact on rent demand.
And in adding that level of demand, the government just made things worse. Add costs to suppliers, and then throw extra demand on top.
Anyone whose equity has gone from 40% to 66% can borrow money rather easily (banks know higher mortgage rates are temporary).
Where do those figures come from? You're also forgetting that interest rates have risen substantially. Any landlord who purchased in the year or so up to November 2021 will have seen their equity decline.
Anyone whose equity has gone from 40% to 66% can borrow money rather easily (banks know higher mortgage rates are temporary).
Really? You have evidence that people with an increase in equity, but not increase in income (either current or projected) can "borrow money rather easily"?
Perhaps you could share the source of your information.
No. Banks require landlords to prove that they have a reasonable expectation that income will grow to meet the mortgage repayment requirements.
So, yes, the banks may agree to an interest-only period to meet a specific crisis: e.g. someone loses their job, a serious operation (requiring an extended period of convalescence) or the house needs to be gutted and refitted after being trashed by a tenant. Or, as you say, a bad farm year (with future projections being positive). All of those are time-limited issues. If things don't improve (i.e. income doesn't increase) after this period – then the banks will move to foreclosure. [Note that many farms operate on an entirely different commercial reality – with annual mortgage payments, rather than the regular fortnightly ones that most of us experience]
Banks may also agree to a reverse-mortgage. Although this is usually not for landlords.
Banks are now stress-testing additions to the capital sum borrowed at something around 9%. And, if you cannot afford this, they will not increase the capital sum they lend to you. They certainly won't loan you more, if you cannot pay interest on the amount you already owe!
This has nothing to do with the amount of equity you have in the property. It has to do with your ability to pay the interest and repay the capital.
But, if you cannot meet your interest repayments (setting aside capital repayments) the bank will indeed force foreclosure. From their perspective, a quick mortgagee sale gets them their money – and the prospect of a new loan to someone better able to pay.
But, in any case, comparing private individuals and even companies with state owned housing is entirely pointless.
Unless you are envisaging that the government is going to sell off state housing in order to achieve the capital gain, the 'assets' have no commercial value. The liabilities (the debt) however, is indeed real, and the government needs to find this money in order to pay off the lenders (interest and capital). If the income generated by the 'assets' isn't sufficient to match the liabilities (and we're just looking at debt here, setting aside maintenance, repairs and rates) – then there is a major issue for the government to manage.
If these repayments are ballooning because of increased mortgage rates – then this money has to come from somewhere. And means that the government has to cut spending in other areas. There is no money tree.
Historically, this was why governments issued bonds, rather than borrowing.
I suspect that the last government was over-persuaded by the very cheap capital available at the time, and didn't consider the long-term consequences if/when that situation changed.
There you go, so it is all about Kainga Ora being profitable. According to some psycho the only way NZ should expand social housing provision is at a profit.
There is no money tree Nic. KO has a funding model that enables it to build new housing and manage social housing stocks. When it is governed well, that works. When the organisation allows its borrowing and operating costs to balloon out beyond what is sustainable, it doesn't.
If the government wants to expand social housing that is a non-issue, if it wants to reduce social housing this is a convenient excuse. That is all that is going on here.
You can read that the KO funding model changed just from the report. The conditions include operating surplus within two years (That's what is known as profit in private sector terms, by the way) and it became clear that the boards expectation of increased borrowing (needed to expand social housing) was not going to be reciprocated.
The governance of KO didn't change, they were sacked for holding onto ideas of the previous government, after the government changed.
The funding model did not change. The way KO is funded is still the way it was funded under the previous government. And BTW, an operating surplus is not the same as a profit in private sector terms. In private sector terms terms 'profit' includes deduction of the cost of funding. The operating surplus examined in the KO review does not include funding costs.
"Kieran's claim is wrong. We're funding 1500 new homes for people in need. The vast bulk of those will be new houses."
$140M for 1500 new homes.
Bishop is now claiming the "vast" bulk of the funded 1500 new "homes" will be new houses.
It cannot include ownership of new land for housing. So it would have to be homes within existing or new building. One still wonders who can build a house for under $100,000 (a bed sit within a group house maybe)(otherwise factory sourced small build).
The delivery window does run over two years (so I guess the potential of additional funding in the second year).
The intention is that a large chunk of this is emergency housing (or it seems so) – operated by community housing providers (I guess the Sallies, etc.) I imagine, to free up the money currently being spent on motels.
Another chunk is for longer term housing – but very little detail on this.
Some verbiage about it not necessarily being built in the areas where there has been other social housing investment. I've no idea what they mean by that – unless it's a veiled hint that it will not be Rotorua!
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Sometimes you’ll just be so dog-tired, you can only keep yourself awake with a short stab of self-inflicted pain.A quick bite of the lip, for instance.Maybe a slight bite on the tongue or a dig of the nails.But what if you’re needing something a bit more painful?The solution is as ...
After months and months of blocking every attempt by the UN and everyone else to achieve a Gaza ceasefire, US President Joe Biden is now marketing his own three-stage “peace plan” to end the conflict. Like every other contribution by the US since October 7, the Biden initiative is hobbled ...
This is a guest post by Vivian Naylor, who is the Barrier Free Advisor and Educator at CCS Disability Action, Northern Region, the largest disability support and advocacy organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand. She also advises on AT’s Public Transport and Capital Projects Accessibility Groups.Vivian has been advocating and ...
So kiss me and smile for meTell me that you'll wait for meHold me like you'll never let me go'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet planeDon't know when I'll be back againOh babe, I hate to go“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its ...
The election promises of ‘better economic management’ are now ringing hollow, as NZ appears to be falling into a deeper recession, while other economies are turning the corner. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and the housing market are slumping back into a deep recession this winter, contrasting ...
Parliament’s new “Scrutiny” process, which is supposed to allow Select Committees to interrogate Ministers and officials in much more depth, has got off to a rocky start. Yesterday was the first day of “Scrutiny Week” which is supposed to see the Government grilled on how it spends taxpayers’ money and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Barbara GradyIllustration by Samantha Harrington. Photo credits: Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images, European Space Agency. In an empty wind-swept field in Richmond, California, next to the county landfill, a company called RavenSr has plotted out land and won ...
Although NZ readers may not be that interested in the subject and in lieu of US Fathers Day missives (not celebrated in NZ), I thought I would lay out some brief thoughts on a political subject being debated in the … Continue reading → ...
TL;DR:Chris Bishop talks up the use of value capture, congestion charging, PPPs, water meters, tolling and rebating GST on building materials to councils to ramp up infrastructure investment in the absence of the Government simply borrowing more to provide the capital.Meanwhile, Christopher Luxon wants to double the number of ...
When I was invited to come aboard and help with Greater Auckland a few months ago (thanks to Patrick!), it was suggested it might be a good idea to write some sort of autobiographical post by way of an introduction. This post isn’t quite that – although I’m sure I’lll ...
On the turning awayFrom the pale and downtroddenAnd the words they say which we won't understandDon't accept that, what's happeningIs just a case of other's sufferingOr you'll find that you're joining inThe turning awayToday’s guest kōrero is from Author Catherine Lea. So without further ado, over to Catherine…I’m so honoured ...
Hi,Tickled was one of the craziest things that ever happened to me (and I feel like a lot of crazy things have happened to me).So ahead of the Webworm popup and Tickled screening in New Zealand on July 13, I thought I’d write about how we made that film and ...
Hi,I’m doing a Webworm merch popup followed by a Tickled screening in Auckland, New Zealand on July 13th — and I’d love you to come. I got the urge to do this while writing this Webworm piece breaking down how we made Tickled, and talking to all the people who ...
One simple statistic said it all: China Premier Li Qiang asked Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell what percentage of the company’s overall sales were made in China. “Thirty per cent,” said Hurrell. In other words, New Zealand’s largest company is more or less dependent on the Chinese market. But Hurrell is ...
One occasionally runs into the question of what J.R.R. Tolkien would have thought of George R.R. Martin. For years, I had a go-to online answer: we could use a stand-in. Tolkien’s thoughts on E.R. Eddison – that he appreciated the invented world, but thought the invented names were silly, and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, June 9, 2024 thru Sat, June 15, 2024. Story of the week A glance at this week's inventory of what experts tell us is extreme weather mayhem juiced by ...
After a busy week it’s a good day to relax. Clear blues skies here in Tamaki Makaurau, very peaceful but for my dogs sleeping heavily. In the absence of a full newsletter I thought I’d send out a brief update and share a couple of posts that popped up in ...
Now in the land of Angus beef and the mighty ABsWhere the steaks were juicy and the rivers did run foulIt would often be said,This meal is terrible,andNo, for real this is legit the worst thing I've ever eatenBut this was an thing said only to others at the table,not ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from the Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is ocean acidification from human ...
She's not a girl who misses muchDo do do do do do, oh yeahShe's well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet handLike a lizard on a window paneI wouldn’t associate ACT with warmth, other than a certain fabled, notoriously hot, destination where surely they’re heading and many would like them ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past somewhat interrupted week. Still on the move!Share Read more ...
What does Budget 2024 tell us about the current government? Muddle on?Coalition governments are not new. About 50 percent of the time since the first MMP election, there has been a minority government, usually with allied parties holding ministerial portfolios outside cabinets. For 10 percent of the time there was ...
Somewhat surprisingly for what is regarded as a network of professionals, climate science misinformation is getting shared on LinkedIn, joining other channels where this is happening. Several of our recent posts published on LinkedIn have attracted the ire of various commenters who apparently are in denial about human-caused climate change. Based ...
1. On what subject is Paul Henry even remotely worth giving the time of day?a. The state of our nationb. The state of the ACT partyc. How to freak out potential buyers of your gin palace by baking the remains of your deceased parent into its fittings2. Now that New ...
Last time National was in power, they looted the state, privatising public assets and signing hugely wasteful public-private partnership (PPP) contracts which saw foreign consortiums provide substandard infrastructure while gouging us for profits. You only have to look at the ongoing fiasco of Transmission Gully to see how it was ...
The Democratic Façade Of Local Government: Our district and city councillors are democratically elected to govern their communities on one very strict condition – that they never, ever, under any circumstances, attempt to do so.A DISINTEGRATION OF LOYALTIES on the Wellington City Council has left Mayor Tory Whanau without a ...
I can feel the lowlights coming over meI can feel the lowlights, from the state I’m inI can see the light now even thought it’s dimA little glow on the horizonAnother week of lowlights from our government, with the odd bright spot and a glow on the horizon. The light ...
Another week, another roundup of things that caught our eye on our favourite topics of transport, housing and how to make cities a little bit greater. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Connor wrote about Kāinga Ora’s role as an urban development agency Tuesday’s guest post by ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s moves this week to take farming out of the ETS and encourage more mining and oil and ...
In 2019, Shane Jones addressed the “50 Shades of Green” protest at Parliament: Now he is part of a government giving those farmers a pass on becoming part of the ETS, as well as threatening to lock in offshore oil exploration and mining for decades. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the ...
Hi,Today’s newsletter is all about how easy it is to get sucked into “rage bait” online, and how easy it is to get played.But first I wanted to share something that elicited the exact opposite of rage in me — something that made me feel incredibly proud, whilst also making ...
Seymour said lower speed limits “drained the joy from life as people were forced to follow rules they knew made no sense.” File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, June 14 were:The National/ACT/NZ First ...
It sounded like the best word to describe yesterday’s talks between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his heavyweight delegation of Ministers and officials and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and New Zealand Ministers and officials was “frank.” But it was the kind of frankness that friends can indulge in. It ...
Open access notables Wildfire smoke impacts lake ecosystems, Farruggia et al., Global Change Biology:We introduce the concept of the lake smoke-day, or the number of days any given lake is exposed to smoke in any given fire season, and quantify the total lake smoke-day exposure in North America from 2019 ...
Photo by Mathias Elle on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests:5.00 ...
Don’t put it all at risk. That’s likely to be the take-home message for New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in his meetings with Li Qiang, the Chinese Premier. Li’s visit to Wellington this week is the highest-ranking visit by a Chinese official since 2017. The trip down under – ...
I know the feelingIt is the real thingThe essence of the soulThe perfect momentThat golden momentI know you feel it tooI know the feelingIt is the real thingYou can't refuse the embraceNo?Sometimes we face the things we most dislike. A phobia or fear that must be confronted so it doesn’t ...
Struth, what a week. Having made sure the rural sector won’t have to pay any time soon for its pollution, PM Christopher Luxon yesterday chose Fieldays 2024 to launch a parliamentary inquiry into rural banking services, to see how the banks have been treating farmers faced with high interest rates. ...
In April, 17,656 people left Aotearoa-NZ to live overseas, averaging 588 a day, with just over half of those likely to have gone to Australia. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, June 13 ...
Auckland’s draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) 2024 is open for feedback – and you only have until Monday 17 June to submit. Do it! Join the thousands of Aucklanders who are speaking up for wise strategic investment that will dig us out of traffic and give us easy and ...
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives in Wellington today for a three-day visit to the country. The visit will take place amid uncertainty about the future of the New Zealand-China relationship. Li hosted a formal welcome and then lunch for then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in Beijing a year ago. The pair ...
We are still in France, getting from A to B.Possibly for only another week, though; Switzerland and Germany are looming now. On we pedal, towards Budapest, at about 20 km per hour.What are are mostly doing is inhaling a country, loving its ways and its food. Rolling, talking, quietly thinking. ...
The big problem with the last Labour government was that they were chickenshits who did nothing with the absolute majority we had given them. They governed as if they were scared of their own shadows, afraid of making decisions lest it upset someone - usually someone who would never have ...
This morning I did something I seldom do, I looked at the Twitter newsfeed. Normally I take the approach of something that I’m not sure is an American urban legend, or genuinely something kids do over there. The infamous bag of dog poo on the front porch, set it on ...
We have some news on the upcoming War of the Rohirrim anime. It will apparently be two and a half hours in length, with Peter Jackson as Executive Producer, and Helm’s daughter Hera will be the main character. Also, pictures: The bloke in the middle picture is Freca’s ...
The cows will keep burping and farting and climate change will keep accelerating - but farmers can stop worrying about being included in the ETS. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, June 12 were:The ...
This is a guest post by our friend Darren Davis. It originally appeared on his excellent blog, Adventures in Transitland, which features “musings about public transport and other cool stuff in Aotearoa/ New Zealand and around the globe.” With Te Huia now having funding secure through to 2026, now is ...
In some ways, there may be less than meets the eye to the Government announcement yesterday that the He Waka Eke Noa proposal for farmers to pay for greenhouse gas emissions has been scrapped. The spectre of farmers still having to pay at some point in the future remains. That, ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Since entering office, National has unravelled practically every climate policy, leaving us with no effective way of reducing emissions or meeting our emissions budgets beyond magical thinking around the ETS. And today they've announced another step: removing agriculture entirely. At present, following the complete failure of he waka eka noa, ...
The blue billionaireDistraction no interactionOr movement outside these glazed over eyesThe new great divideFew fight the tide to be glorifiedBut will he be satisfied?Can we accept this without zoom?The elephant in the roomNot much happens in politics on a Monday. Bugger all in fact. Although yesterday Christopher Luxon found he ...
What if New Zealand threw a fossil fuel party, and nobody came? On the weekend, Resources Minister Shane Jones sent out the invitations and strung up the balloons, but will anyone really want to invest big time in resuming oil and gas exploration in our corner of the planet? Yes, ...
This is a guest post by Meredith Dale, senior urban designer and strategist at The Urban Advisory.There’s a saying that goes something like: ‘what you measure is what you value’. An RNZ article last week claimed that Auckland was ‘hurting’ because of a more affordable supply of homes, particularly townhouses ...
A Prime Minister directs his public service to inquire into the actions of the opposition political party which is his harshest critic. Something from Orban's Hungary, or Putin's Russia? No, its happening right here in Aotearoa: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Public Service Commission will launch an ...
This is a repost from a Yale Climate Connections article by SueEllen Campbell published on June 3, 2024. The articles listed can help you tell fact from fiction when it comes to solar and wind energy. Some statements you hear about solar and wind energy are just plain false. ...
Politics were going on all around us yesterday, and we barely noticed, rolling along canal paths, eating baguettes. It wasn’t until my mate got to the headlines last night that we learned there had been a dismayingly strong far right result in the EU elections and Macron had called a ...
Respect Existence, Or Expect Resistance? There may well have been 50,000 pairs of feet “Marching For Nature” down Auckland’s Queen Street on Saturday afternoon, but the figure that impresses the Coalition Government is the 1,450,000 pairs of Auckland feet that were somewhere else.IN THE ERA OF DRONES and Artificial Intelligence, ...
Selwyn Manning and I discuss varieties of post colonial blowback and the implications its has for the rise of the Global South. Counties discussed include Palestine/Israel, France/New Caledonia, England/India, apartheid/post-apartheid South Africa and post-colonial New Zealand. It is a bit … Continue reading → ...
Victims of family violence could fall through the gaps in New Zealand, as Police stop responding to some call outs and the Government chooses to prioritise other things. ...
The lack of bids at today’s ETS auction is a sad indictment on this Government's staggering indifference to the climate crisis and their lack of a plan. ...
“I am deeply disappointed in the National Party's budget. Their broken promises and cuts to essential services, including health, education, and support for vulnerable groups, will have long-lasting negative impacts” – Raymor, Auckland ...
Today marks the beginning of Schools Pride Week in New Zealand, an important calendar event largely run by rainbow rangitahi to advocate for safer, more inclusive school environments. ...
The Government’s announcement of a roadshow consultation on work health and safety is a smokescreen for its plan to throw out regulations which keep workers safe. ...
The Government has reportedly scrapped a policy that would have gone far to fix gender and ethnic pay gaps and instead is implementing a watered-down voluntary system. ...
The Government knew its changes to the school lunch programme would risk achievement, attendance, nutrition and wellbeing of New Zealand children, as well as having wider impacts on reducing child poverty, and made the changes anyway, new documents show. ...
Two months have passed since the National Government said it was a question of ”when, not if” New Zealand would recognise Palestine, in response to Labour’s call. ...
Today the coalition government has announced that a select committee inquiry into banking competition will be led by the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee.New Zealand First campaigned to take on foreign owned banks, and we committed to that in our coalition agreement by ensuring the inquiry has a broad ...
The National Government is doing everything it can to delay taking action on climate as it announces that years of work on agricultural emissions will start from scratch. ...
Tens of thousands of people showed up to have their voices heard and march against National’s unpopular Fast Track Approvals Bill in Auckland over the weekend. ...
The Government deciding to lift the oil and gas ban in the middle of a climate crisis is a severe step backwards that will have serious consequences for our future. ...
This week the Justice Select Committee has heard numerous submissions on the removal of Māori Wards. “I am feeling invigorated by the powerful oral submissions that I have heard throughout the week.” Said Local Government spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “People from all facets of life: whānau Māori, whānau Pākehā, rangatahi, kaumātua, ...
Today’s March for Nature sends a clear message that our country is deeply against the Fast Track Approvals Bill proceeding because the cost to the environment would be unacceptable. ...
The recent attacks on Te Pāti Māori and its MP’s are part of a continuing narrative of attack on all matters Māori. If we could respond to baseless inuendo we would. If there is any evidence then show us so we have a reason to engage in a conversation. The ...
The Government’s move to pour billions into potholes whilst remaining inactive on climate change does nothing to solve our transport system's core problems. ...
“The Government needs to provide leadership for New Zealand’s mental health sector, which appears to have lost out in the Budget despite the promises Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey made on the campaign trail,” said Labour mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s announcement that would see some workers’ entitlement to sick leave reduce flies in the face of yet another promise National made during the election campaign. ...
Cutting a third of the staff at Ministry for the Environment will undermine years of work to clean up our fresh water and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and leave us unprepared for a changing climate. ...
School attendance data released today shows an increase in the number of students regularly attending school to 61.7 per cent in term one. This compares to 59.5 per cent in term one last year and 53.6 per cent in term four. “It is encouraging to see more children getting to ...
The Government has announced a record 41 per cent increase in indicative funding for public transport services and operations, and confirmed the rollout of the National Ticketing Solution (NTS) that will enable contactless debit and credit card payments starting this year in Auckland, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This Government is ...
GDP figures for the March quarter reinforce the importance of restoring fiscal discipline to public spending and driving more economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows GDP has risen 0.2 per cent for the quarter to March. “While today’s data is technically in ...
Women’s representation on public sector boards and committees has reached 50 per cent or above for the fourth consecutive year, with women holding 53.9 per cent of public sector board roles, Acting Minister for Women Louise Upston says. “This is a fantastic achievement, but the work is not done. To ...
The Coalition Government is supporting Māori to boost development and the Māori economy through investment in projects that benefit the regions, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka say. “As the Regional Development Minister, I am focused on supporting Māori to succeed. The Provincial Growth Fund ...
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced that the review into better managing the risks of earthquake-prone buildings has commenced. “The terms of reference published today demonstrate the Government’s commitment to ensuring we get the balance right between public safety and costs to building owners,” Mr Penk says. “The Government ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has just finished a successful three-day visit to Japan, where he strengthened political relationships and boosted business links. Mr Luxon’s visit culminated in a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio followed by a state dinner. “It was important for me to meet Prime Minister Kishida in person ...
Significant business deals have been closed during the visit of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to Japan this week, including in the areas of space, renewable energy and investment. “Commercial deals like this demonstrate that we don’t just export high-quality agricultural products to Japan, but also our world-class technology, expertise, and ...
Minasan, konnichiwa, kia ora and good afternoon everyone. Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today and thank you to our friends at the Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies and NEC for making this event possible today. It gives me great pleasure to be here today, speaking with ...
The National Infrastructure Pipeline, which provides a national view of current or planned infrastructure projects, from roads, to water infrastructure, to schools, and more, has climbed above $120 billion, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says. “Our Government is investing a record amount in modern infrastructure that Kiwis can rely on as ...
The Government is modernising the Public Works Act to make it easier to build infrastructure, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk announced today. An independent panel will undertake an eight-week review of the Act and advise on common sense changes to enable large scale public works to be built faster and ...
New Zealand will enhance its defence contributions to monitoring violations of sanctions against North Korea, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. The enhancement will see the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) increase its contributions to North Korea sanctions monitoring, operating out of Japan. “This increase reflects the importance New Zealand ...
Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to be with you all today before we wrap up Day One of the annual Safeguard National Health and Safety Conference. Thank you to the organisers and sponsors of this conference, for the chance to talk to you about the upcoming health and safety consultation. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone for the Ōtaki to north of Levin Road of National Significance (RoNS), following the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) signing interim alliance agreements with two design and construction teams who will develop and ultimately build the new expressway.“The Government’s priority for transport ...
The Department of Internal Affairs [Department] is making a significant upgrade to their Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, which blocks access to websites known to host child sexual abuse material, says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “The Department will incorporate the up-to-date lists of websites hosting child sexual ...
A vaccine to prevent an infectious disease that costs New Zealand cattle farmers more than $190 million each year could radically improve the health of our cows and boost on-farm productivity, Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard says. The Ministry for Primary Industries is backing a project that aims to develop ...
The Government has today announced that it is making it easier for people to build granny flats, Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop say. “Making it easier to build granny flats will make it more affordable for families to live the way that suits them ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Auckland King’s Counsel Gregory Peter Blanchard as a High Court Judge. Justice Blanchard attended the University of Auckland from 1991 to 1995, graduating with an LLB (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (English). He was a solicitor with the firm that is now Dentons ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says new data released today shows encouraging growth in the health workforce, with a continued increase in the numbers of doctors, nurses and midwives joining Health New Zealand. “Frontline healthcare workers are the beating heart of the healthcare system. Increasing and retaining our health workforce ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has today announced a comprehensive programme to reform New Zealand's outdated and complicated firearms laws. “The Arms Act has been in place for over 40 years. It has been amended several times – in a piecemeal, and sometimes rushed way. This has resulted in outdated ...
The coalition Government is delivering record levels of targeted investment in specialist schools so children with additional needs can thrive. As part of Budget 24, $89 million has been ringfenced to redevelop specialist facilities and increase satellite classrooms for students with high needs. This includes: $63 million in depreciation funding ...
A substantial consultation on work health and safety will begin today with a roadshow across the regions over the coming months, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden. This the first step to deliver on the commitment to reforming health and safety law and regulations, set out in ...
Forestry Minister Todd McClay, today announced the start of the Government’s plan to restore certainty and confidence in the forestry and wood processing sector. “This government will drive investment to unlock the industry’s economic potential for growth,” Mr McClay says. “Forestry’s success is critical to rebuilding New Zealand’s economy, boosting ...
Annual service charges in the forestry Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will be cancelled for 2023/24, Forestry Minister Todd McClay says. “The sector has told me the costs imposed on forestry owners by the previous government were excessive and unreasonable and I agree,” Mr McClay says. “They have said that there ...
Introduction Thank you for having me here today and welcome to Wellington, the home of the Hurricanes, the next Super Rugby champions. Infrastructure – the challenge This government has inherited a series of big challenges in infrastructure. I don’t need to tell an audience as smart as this one that ...
Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard welcomed outcomes to boost agricultural and food trade between New Zealand and China. A number of documents were signed today at Government House that will improve the business environment between New Zealand and China, and help reduce barriers, including on infant formula ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay, and China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, today announced the official launch of Negotiations on Services Trade between the two countries. “The Government is focused on opening doors for services exporters to grow the New Zealand’s economy,” Mr McClay says. As part of the 2022 New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Upgrade ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at Government House in Wellington today. “I was pleased to welcome Premier Li to Wellington for his first official visit, which marks 10 years since New Zealand and China established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Mr Luxon says. “The Premier and ...
The coalition Government is taking action to reduce the gender pay gap in New Zealand through the development of a voluntary calculation tool. “Gender pay gaps have impacted women for decades, which is why we need to continue to drive change in New Zealand,” Acting Minister for Women Louise Upston ...
The coalition Government is boosting funding for Rural Support Trusts to provide more help to farmers and growers under pressure, Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson announced today. “A strong and thriving agricultural sector is crucial to the New Zealand economy and one of the ways to support it is to ...
Spending on contractors and consultants continues to fall and the size of the Public Service workforce has started to decrease after years of growth, according to the latest data released today by the Public Service Commission. Workforce data for the quarter from 31 December 23 to 31 March 24 shows ...
Thank you to the Law Association for inviting me to speak this morning. As a former president under its previous name — the Auckland District Law Society — I take particular satisfaction in seeing this organisation, and its members, in such good heart. As Attorney-General, I am grateful for these ...
New Zealand is committed to working closely with Timor-Leste to support its prosperity and resilience, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “This year is the 25th anniversary of New Zealand sending peacekeepers to Timor-Leste, who contributed to the country’s stabilisation and ultimately its independence,” Mr Peters says. “A quarter ...
Promoting robust competition in the banking sector is vital to rebuilding the economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “New Zealanders deserve a banking sector that is as competitive as possible. Banking services play an important role in our communities and in the economy. Kiwis rely on access to lending when ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard have today announced a regulatory sector review on the approval process for new agricultural and horticultural products. “Red tape stops farmers and growers from getting access to products that have been approved by other OECD countries. ...
The Coalition Government will reverse Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions by 1 July 2025 through a new Land Transport Rule released for public consultation today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. The draft speed limit rule will deliver on the National-ACT coalition commitment to reverse the previous government’s blanket speed limit ...
Minister Paul Goldsmith is making major leadership changes within both his Arts and Media portfolios. “I am delighted to announce Carmel Walsh will be officially stepping into the role of Chair of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, having been acting Chair since April,” Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Carmel is ...
Food and fibre export revenue is tipped to reach $54.6 billion this year and hit a record $66.6b in 2028 as the Government focuses on getting better access to markets and cutting red tape, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones say. “This achievement is testament ...
A new export exemption proposal for food businesses demonstrates the coalition Government’s commitment to reducing regulatory barriers for industry and increasing the value of New Zealand exports, which gets safe New Zealand food to more markets, says Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard. “The coalition Government has listened to the concerns ...
New Zealand and Philippines are continuing to elevate our relationship, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The leaders of New Zealand and Philippines agreed in April 2024 to lift our relationship to a Comprehensive Partnership by 2026,” Mr Peters says. “Our visit to Manila this week has been an excellent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University Lukas Gojda / Shutterstock Our planet was born around 4.5 billion years ago. To understand this mind-bendingly long history, we need to study rocks and the minerals they are made of. The oldest rocks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra No one doubts Peter Dutton has a huge task to sell his radical nuclear plan, with many experts throwing buckets of cold water over it. But on Thursday the opposition leader received some welcome backing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jordana Hunter, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute The Victorian Auditor-General has just released an audit of Victoria’s A$1.2 billion tutoring program designed to help struggling students post-COVID. The report found the program “did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marta Khomyn, Lecturer, University of Adelaide Jonathan Borba/Pexels The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has just seen the listing of its first bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund – “ETF” for short. Issued by investment management firm VanEck, the new investment product is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alana Lentin, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney University Prudence Upton/Sydney Theatre Company Anchuli Felicia King’s new one-performer piece, American Signs, written for the talented Catherine Văn-Davies, thrusts us into the world of a campus hire at “The Firm”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University Among the many sayings attributed to Winston Churchill is, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This sentiment seems appropriate as Israel potentially appears ...
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) have voiced concerns about Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora restricting the employment of graduate nurses into their workforce due to budget constraints. ...
The NZCTU is slamming a decision by the Government in Budget 2024 to cut a programme which ensured that disabled workers are paid the minimum wage. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University Martin Lisner/Shutterstock It is very difficult to take Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear announcement seriously. His proposal for seven nuclear power stations is, at present, legally impossible, technically improbable, economically ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Mobility, Public Safety & Disaster Risk, UNSW Sydney Each year, millions of Muslims from across the world embark on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The mass migration is unparalleled in scale, and pilgrims ...
The Committee has recommended that the Bill be passed with minor amendments. The bill will create 12 new high protection areas, 5 new seafloor protection areas and 2 extensions to existing marine reserves. ...
“The Green Party campaigned on protecting 30 percent of our oceans. We will continue to fight for our marine environment so it can be enjoyed across future generations,” says Marama Davidson. ...
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Let's grant Damien the courtesy of a reply to his latest effort at demonstrating the ineptness of what passes for thinking out loud by libertarians.
He first notes that most of the income received by Kainga Ora for housing its tenants comes from a government rent subsidy top up.
And suggests because the amount paid by tenants is so much less than that for private market rentals, it would be better for both government and tenants, if they were gifted ownership of their property.
Thus the government would lose $30B ($45B of asset to remove $15B of debt).
He seems to fail to note that government can afford the cost of subsidising rent and borrowing to build more housing, because its land and property assets are rising in value – does he know nothing about the value of CG via ownership? How landlords acquire more and more property via leverage?
Most of our populations wealth is in the rising value of the land and yet he pretends to fail to understand.
It shows he just does not care about the health of government finances. And wants to divest government of its assets and capability.
Bill English just wants the coalition to do the same more slowly – less new debt and rising property value portfolio for Kainga Ora and transfer of taxpayer money to other social housing providers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350287662/what-do-problem-kainga-ora
Yep – and and also true for Luxon, Willis, Seymour etc. The scary talk about debt is just to garner popular support for their real agenda
Yep – and just wait for the definition of social housing providers to be radically widened beyond what the popular imagination would normally consider to be such a thing. It's likely to encompass private sector mega-landlords showing their commitment to something called "the community" through participation in the Government's "social investment strategy" – aka Billy's Boondoggle.
Perhaps the calculations would be different if the government gifted the house but retained ownership of the land, which they would then rent out to the tenant. That rent could be kept relatively low with respect to the household income, and would take take into account the fact that the house was no longer included in the rent.
I've long argued that housing could be much cheaper if government owned the land and all you had to do was buy the house.
Put the land on 99 year peppercorn leases – after all if it is good enough for Taranaki farmers…..
Very Singaporean!
Not with state houses, but to help people into first homes (also hopefully Kiwi Saver and NZSF move to provide long term rentals).
That would allow more into a home than the First Start deposit (given rising land values).
And the rising land value would be a government asset.
I don't have a problem personally with giving tenants the house eventually, but would do it after 12 years of paying 25% of income as rent regardless of income (so no maximum rent) since after that, the tenant would have paid 3 year's worth of income as rent.
Not with the land, the government needs the rising land value to borrow against to build more new state housing.
Could be set up as peppercorn (or no) leaseholds, and probably a clause in the contract or legislation that gives the Crown first right of refusal on sale at a reasonably low value to avoid it being on-sold at high profits.
That said, does the Crown need to retain the land? If it wants to borrow, it can do it via A grade bonds backed by a sovereign currency with no history of defaults. It doesn't need to land as collateral.
1.giving people land ownership while others were paying market rents (and unable to afford to buy) would be unwise.
2.this is why I prefer assistance to those paying market rents into home ownership on leasehold land and continuing with income related rent for state housing.
3.debt to assets is an important part of government accounts (across time).
The Technology Institutes had embarked on Reform by unififying the content so that experts in soil management for example would design a universal program so that each Institute could use the same plan.
No! No says Penny Symonds. De-Unify this minute!
Reading programs were designed by teachers using a wide range of methods.
No! No says Erica Stanford. Unify the teaching of Reading and we will call it what the Dyslexic Association named it, Structured Literacy.
Does this sound like a coherent consistent plan or does it sound like a shambles?
(Incidentally, 80% of children do learn to read using the previous systems, but it is true that the 20% who can't, do need specific help, but bath/baby spring to mind.)
as a general principle, we should do both. We need national standards, but we also need those to be adaptable to local situations. All good sustainability design arises out of the environment in which it will be applied, because the local environment is what we have to work with.
The trouble with National Standards Weka, is that no two people learn at the same rate. We might say that the average class of 10 year old reads at the 10year Reading age. But some of those children read at the 15+ RA and some are reading at the 7y RA with all the others sprinkled between. Those below 7y RA need specific assistance. And they always had needs as the NZ long tail has shown. (Dyslexia.)
NZ has always had majority of children reading very well above "average" with a significant number weighing the average down. In UK there was (is?) a test day so cunning Principals asked certain kids to stay home so that their averages stayed higher.
(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)
(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)
I dunno bout that. By 10 I was reading stuff like Robert Ruark's – Uhuru, Edge and Adam Steele westerns, Robert Heinlen's – Stranger in a Strange Land, loads more scifi.
Even just looking at stuff now I got for Christmas that I can find – Black Beauty at 5, Dog Crusoe at 7, Huckleberry Finn and Ivanhoe at 8. I distinctly remember outgrowing the traditional children stuff and moving to adult books post the Ivanhoe / Three Musketeers era – somewhere in that period was Wilbur
Smith as well – though I think I was about 15 when I realised that Sean was not pronounced "seen". Sadly I also read the Erich von Däniken stuff about then as well.
11 to 12 was reading Sven Hassell (became interested after reading The Blue Max to read more books about the opposition's perspective of the war), Anne McCaffrey, etc etc
The point is, is that there was nothing in any of that that was not able to be read and understood and worked through – sex, violence, religion (for and against).
I read plenty of non-fiction too and magazines like my uncles Mind Alive.
I'm not sure what you mean by interests of 10 year olds. Just let people read what they are comfortable with. I suspect there may be some stuff I didn't fully understand at the time but not much – and if I didn't understand it it likely didn't matter. Just like so many people don't pick up on what Lola by The Kinks is about ….
I, too, was an extensive reader (and borrower of books from the adult section of my local library) – lovely librarians who were delighted to help me find new authors.
I think that I would have been bored silly by the 'books suitable for 10-year-olds' then (and even more so, now, when the literary level has been lowered even further).
If I was (and I was) interested in historical fiction, then the natural progression from Rosemary Sutcliffe, Cynthia Harnett, or Elsie Locke (all, BTW, probably too 'advanced' for today's 10-year-olds) – was Jean Plaidy, Mary Renault, or Robert Graves (or even Georgette Heyer). – from the shelves of the adult collection.
I will admit that I entirely skipped over the YA novels – which seemed to be entirely concerned with relationships or social problems – neither of which I was interested in.
If something came up in one of the novels (or non-fiction books) which I didn't understand – I could always discuss with my family (dinner-table conversations about torture, martyrdom, abuse, political shenanigans, etc.).
As an aside, I vividly remember the first time I asked my Dad something he didn't know the answer to (What was the Babington Plot) – and he said 'I don't know, but let's go and find out' – leading to consulting an encyclopedia, and a further trip to the library to look into Tudor history – no Google in those days).
It made a huge impression on me. Not only that adults didn't know everything, but that it was OK (even praiseworthy) to admit it, and go and find the answer.
A L Rowse's book on The Tudors was fascinating.
We'd all gotten used to death and destruction I guess quite early on reading the bible from cover to cover anyway. Pretty sure I knew what killing people, stoning people to death, adultery, eternal damnation and being prejudiced was about quite early on in the piece. As well as the good bits. Focus on the good bits……..
My 8-year-old was horrified by the killing of the first-born (reason for the Jewish Passover). The Bible is not for the faint-hearted!
The Wars of the Roses was the inspiration for Game of Thrones – those of us familiar with Medieval history were not surprised by any of the blood-thirsty dramatization.
As was Scottish history.
And the wall and storms of winter coming from the north.
https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2019/02/14/exploring-the-true-history-behind-game-of-thrones-at-the-national-museum-of-scotland/
As to the bible stuff, the acts of god are just exaggerations of abuse of power judgment (beyond the capacity of empire, let alone mere kings). And there is no evidence any of them were real (not even a conquest of Canaan and decimation of the population). It can be explained as the shock and awe narrative of cult myth making.
Though belief in such inspires real acts of dubious morality by those of Christian, Moslem and Jewish faith.
"(Note: Just because a 10 year old has a RA of 15+ doesn't mean that they should read Adult books because their interests are still that of 10 year olds.)"
I too read anything and every thing. What I meant was that teachers who read a 15+ RA should not thrust adult books on kids as part of the reading program. There is heaps of stuff available for challenging instruction. (I remember a book from the National Library Exchange whizzing around a class of 10 year old girls. Judy Blume wrote for younger kids but this particular book that excited the girls, was the book aimed at adolescents experimenting with sex. RA 15+.)
I don't know where you're getting your figure of 80% of kids learning to read under balanced literacy (the current MoE approach to teaching).
We don't have any figures – AFAIK – measuring this for primary age children.
The only independent measure has been the pass rate at the NCEA literacy test – which has been hovering around 65% for reading.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/499391/ncea-numeracy-literacy-test-results-show-55-percent-student-pass-rate
Meaning that around 35% of kids are functionally illiterate at age 14-15.
The PISA test found that 21% of NZ 15-year-olds were 'reading' at the lowest level (either completely or functionally illiterate)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516423/using-a-structured-literacy-approach-to-teach-reading-what-you-need-to-know
Note: this is *after* any interventions such as Reading Recovery, and/or expensive tutoring programmes (for higher wealth families).
Given that, I'd put the success rate of balanced literacy approach in actually teaching reading in the classroom- closer to one third (which aligns with overseas results)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/two-thirds-of-american-kids-cant-read-fluently/
Yes, of course, *some* kids learn to read under balanced literacy. They will also learn to read under structured literacy (phonics based) – and would probably learn to read with no actual teaching at all (all those anecdotes of people teaching themselves to read as preschoolers).
Yes, of course, *some* kids will not learn under structured literacy in the classroom and will need further intervention. But – all the research shows, that it's a lot fewer of them (and the current Reading Recovery programme won't teach them either)
The point is that structured literacy has a whole string of research-based evaluation – everything from neuroscience (what's going on in your brain when you learn to read), through to practical classroom-based results (including in NZ) – to show that it's a better methodology for teaching *all* kids to read.
Time for the NZ teachers unions and the MoE to get on with implementing best-practice, rather than trying to defend their previous (failing) systems.
The assumption is that "35%" of children based on the offered data cannot read.
Yet Pisa stated 21% of 15 year olds reading at the lowest level. That leaves 79% at some reading skill through to above age levels. Included in the below to high group is a group of kids who have mono-syllabic language language skills, deprived backgrounds where going to school is not part of their survival skills. I do not think it is possible for every kid to be above average. If they were then average would have no place.
The structured learning program was designed for the dyslexic kids who were failing, by the Dyslexic association and good on them. (Spectacles help poor sight so will we give every person a pair of spectacles?)
We will look forward to seeing if the quality of reading that we enjoyed, will translate from the mechanics and dissection of the bits of words into meaningful language. (I helped an adult man recently who could read the words but had never learned to understand the wholeness of the language.)
And your evidence for the 80% of kids learning to read through the current classroom balanced literacy approach has still not been provided.
The difference between the PISA results and the NCEA ones can very easily be explained by a difference in evaluation (I would assume that the bottom and next to bottom PISA results would be equivalent to the NCEA result – covering those kids who have some level of literacy, but are functionally illiterate when measured against NCEA standards)
Note that the PISA results absolutely do not include those kids who are not present at school, and I would strongly argue, don't include many kids who are noticeably struggling with learning. PISA evaluation is an 'opt-in' programme- and not all schools opt in (and not all students at those schools participate).
The structured learning programme may well benefit Dyslexic kids – but it also benefits many, many other children. There is zero evidence that only dyslexic kids are failing to learn to read using the current system – indeed thousands of kids, with no identifiable learning disability (apart from failing to learn to read), are being sent to Reading Recovery. Which makes this whole argument, a red herring.
The proof is, as always, in the pudding. But NZ schools which have already transitioned to structured literacy (at their own cost, and against MoE pressure) have reported significantly improved results for their students in learning to read.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/education/schools-footing-the-bill-to-teach-teachers-new-literacy-approach/3SMWSF3BSOCO5LJ76733SMBIOQ/
Thanks Belladonna. Your thoughts are well informed and useful. In my time teaching NE to year 6, most of the kids could read from a bit below to 15+ but now in my 80s, so perhaps I need a wee lie down.
Appreciate the discussion Ianmac. Reading and literacy are a subject that I care deeply about. And the reality that too many Kiwi kids can't read worries me a lot.
Not so much reading for pleasure (although that's been a lifelong recreation for me) – but I recognize not everyone gets their kicks out of books.
But being able to read full stop. It's a huge barrier to employability (no driver's licence for example, or not able to read safety briefings), and to participation in society.
Well-researched and successful changes to teaching practice are absolutely worth trying.
I supported this under Jan Tinetti (although I doubted that she'd get it across the line against the MoE). And I support it under Stanford.
All good.
Does Chris Luxon shave? The answer is No! because he doesn’t have the balls to stimulate the growth of any facial hair. The reason is that he’s been politically castrated and neutered by his coalition buddies in a messy coup d’état.
But if/when he does grow some balls shit will hit the fan and the most likely scenario is that he’ll be replaced to keep the coalition alive.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/22/christopher-luxon-the-disciplinarian/
Unlikely
– who needs balls when you're juggling seven properties. The whole governance thing is tangential to getting 'our' country back on a landLord's track.
Who chooses to be a tenant in NZ? Imagine what it's like for, say, a family with children to always be only 90 days away from eviction – that’s the 'stability' rent will buy.
https://rentersunited.org.nz/
Vienna is also the city with the shortest working week, ~29.5 hours on average, and the 7th most productive city in the world. Vienna shows that planning/regulation to minimise landLord greed is possible. And, with what's in the pipeline, imho NZ govts would be stupid to stay on a landLord's track. Just hope we don't run out of time.
https://www.greens.org.nz/ending_poverty_together
If only prospective tenants could find out the history of bonds lodged for a given rental address – dates only would suffice, but actual dollar-amounts would be a bonus – then this could serve as a warning bell not to touch it with a barge pole. Knowledge is power and tenants need all the power they can get in this lopsided environment.
Yeah, that excuse is wheeled out way too easily and often, IMO. A rental agreement is a legal (commercial) contract between two parties and both parties should be able to do full due diligence, e.g., make it a pre-requirement before lodging the bond. This could be seen as the equivalent of obtaining a LIM report, title check, and builder’s report when buying a house – one could call it a RIM report.
Man or bear?
.
There’s no time to think, so I operate on instinct. My task is ridiculously complex. I need to deescalate any signs of aggression, guide the man into a state of emotional balance, and exit the situation safely, all at once. This process requires all of my attention, energy, and intellect. It’s really hard.
I’ve been in this position so many times that it exhausts me just to write about it. Sometimes, it’s not that I’m afraid of men; I’m just really, really tired.
https://bikepacking.com/plog/man-or-bear-debate/
When confronted with a bear here is what you should do. Run like mad. It will give you something to do in the last minutes of your life.
Best advice I ever heard was to never, ever take your pants off and climb a tree. If you do you'll always have a bear behind.
The ICJ has now formally agreed with the SA application for urgency in dealing with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza by demanding they cease operations in Rafah, open the Rafah crossing to allow the quantity of needed aid into Gaza (at last count, perhaps 10 trucks – pictures showed these only half full, perhaps due to the instability of a floating platform – had delivered aid to warehouses, a big zero to acrual Palestinians), and to allow any investigators of appropriate UN bodies in.
Of course, the chances of this occurring so long as the US remains staunch in its support for genocide, approaches zero. With regard to ICC warrants, Germany has conceded that should Netanyahu or Gallant visit after the warrants have been issued they will be obliged to arrest them.
The US is now increasing the depth of its complicity with law changes enabling US citizens in the IDF to claim the same benefits as US servicemen. It is estimated that around 20,000 US citizens serve in the IDF. One of the benefits accrued will be immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
In addition to those serving in the IDF, US citizens have a large footprint in Israeli cotrolled areas.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/new-bill-seeks-to-extend-u-s-military-benefits-to-americans-serving-in-the-idf/
Albeit a little late, this is much-needed funding from central government to add to allocation by local government to clear choked and blocked waterways in greater Auckland of debris.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/517790/funding-boost-aims-to-clear-auckland-waterways-of-debris
With increased housing density and in-fill housing one wonders if these clean-up efforts are going to be enough to prevent future flooding and major infrastructure damage caused by natural events. Probably not.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/2018936992/how-much-of-our-extreme-weather-is-due-to-climate-change
People could help by stopping littering, taking waste to waste & recycling stations, and by reporting major blockages in/of waterways by debris.
People who recycle should be paid instead of charged a recycling cost. I used to help my primary school collect old newspapers because they could earn money by selling it for recycling. In the Netherlands there’s a container deposit on glass and plastic bottles and cans and customers/consumers receive their deposit back upon returning the empty containers; many Dutch love it!
Interesting if we were to collate the malfeasance of the Government because bit by bit they slip bits through. So guess what. In Nick Rockel's Korero he has published Gerald Otto's compilation, from the side bar:
"Threads of Corruption."
https://nickrockel.substack.com/p/threads-of-corruption
More on Corruption this time from Gordon Campbell:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2405/S00075/on-blurring-the-lines-around-political-corruption.htm
Another appropriate meaning of CoC.
This government is shaping up to be the most PC government in NZ history.
The salient detail is that the coalition of chaos was/is trying to imply that Kainga Ora''s operational management was the concern as per growing debt forecasts, when this was mostly related to the build up planned.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2405/S00075/on-blurring-the-lines-around-political-corruption.htm
"The salient detail is that the coalition of chaos was/is trying to imply that Kainga Ora''s operational management was the concern as per growing debt forecasts, when this was mostly related to the build up planned."
That is a political red herring thrown up by Labour. The assets being accumulated mean nothing, if the organisation can't generate sufficient cash flow to service and pay back the debt.
KO is forecasting losses over somewhere around $2.5bn over the next 4 years. Interest costs exceeded the net operating income for 2023 and are forecast to do the same for 3 of the subsequent 4 years. KO is facing negative net operating cash flows such that they will have to take on even more debt just to pay its interest.
KO has been poorly governed – it doesn't matter which way you slice this.
Landlords who leverage do just fine. They become multi-millionaires.
Some farmers operate at a loss for years too, provided the equity grows they survive.
Landlords who are unable to pay the mortgage – either from rents or supplemented with other revenue – do not do 'fine'. They either sell the loss-making house, or the bank forecloses.
Some may well run at an interest-only mortgage for some time (although banks are fairly wary about these, with the potential for a dropping housing market). And many may just break even (or even make a technical small loss – although they can not set that off against any other taxes).
I don't have an issue with KO having borrowed money to build the houses. But there is indeed an issue if the interest repayments are increasing substantially – with no way to offset these by increased income.
Note that money spent on repaying interest is not available for other uses. And if that amount of money increases a lot over the next few years, then what do you think the government should cut to pay for it?
Landlords at the very least, have to ensure that their outgoings on interest, are balanced by their income on rents.
The argument that they make their profit when they sell (assuming it’s outside the bright line period) – is indeed true. But not relevant to the government – unless they are proposing to sell off this state housing (which I think, we’d all say is not desirable)
Any landlord having a problem paying a mortgage out of rent income can just borrow more against the property (as farmers do in any year where cost is higher than profit). Using growth in equity (CG).
Landlords were doing this because of rising interest payment liability coinciding with the full realisation of Labour's end to deduction of this cost against rent income. There were not any mortgagee sales.
And now with the CoC in power they will be back buying more.
An organisation with $15B in debt and $45B in assets was well set to add thousands of new builds each year.
They can’t just borrow more if they can’t meet the costs of servicing the loans, and if they have no foreseeable ability to repay the loans.
There were not any mortgagee sales.
Do you rent? Did you notice what happened to rents?
Rents go up because of a shortage of supply.
Landlords were able to ride the rise in mortgage cost because they had equity from CG (did you not notice the rise in property value 2019-2021).
Property sales peaked in mid 2021, and the market peaked around November 2021. Since then, landlords equity has been declining.
Rents go up by more when landlords costs go up in a market where supply lags demand.
Landlord equity is higher in 2024 than in 2019, much higher – so this can be borrowed against to manage a temporary rise in mortgage cost.
Rents go up when there is a market shortage, the constraint is ability of the tenant class to afford the rent (and desirability of the landlords property vs others)
Landlord equity means nothing if landlord income cannot fund the debt.
As far as rents are concerned, market pressure from excess demand is going to be exacerbated when landlords have additional costs imposed on them. And we know that from the data. From 2008 through 2017, the median weekly rent in NZ increased by just 4% per year. From 2017 through 2023, the average rise was 6%. In 2023 alone the increases was 9%! That's the impact of government policy right there.
https://figure.nz/chart/dnQKC3FHjhAE6Kqw
Maybe the high level of migrant labour inflow 2022-23 has an impact on rent demand.
Anyone whose equity has gone from 40% to 66% can borrow money rather easily (banks know higher mortgage rates are temporary).
Maybe the high level of migrant labour inflow 2022-23 has an impact on rent demand.
And in adding that level of demand, the government just made things worse. Add costs to suppliers, and then throw extra demand on top.
Anyone whose equity has gone from 40% to 66% can borrow money rather easily (banks know higher mortgage rates are temporary).
Where do those figures come from? You're also forgetting that interest rates have risen substantially. Any landlord who purchased in the year or so up to November 2021 will have seen their equity decline.
Really? You have evidence that people with an increase in equity, but not increase in income (either current or projected) can "borrow money rather easily"?
Perhaps you could share the source of your information.
No. Banks require landlords to prove that they have a reasonable expectation that income will grow to meet the mortgage repayment requirements.
So, yes, the banks may agree to an interest-only period to meet a specific crisis: e.g. someone loses their job, a serious operation (requiring an extended period of convalescence) or the house needs to be gutted and refitted after being trashed by a tenant. Or, as you say, a bad farm year (with future projections being positive). All of those are time-limited issues. If things don't improve (i.e. income doesn't increase) after this period – then the banks will move to foreclosure. [Note that many farms operate on an entirely different commercial reality – with annual mortgage payments, rather than the regular fortnightly ones that most of us experience]
Banks may also agree to a reverse-mortgage. Although this is usually not for landlords.
Banks are now stress-testing additions to the capital sum borrowed at something around 9%. And, if you cannot afford this, they will not increase the capital sum they lend to you. They certainly won't loan you more, if you cannot pay interest on the amount you already owe!
This has nothing to do with the amount of equity you have in the property. It has to do with your ability to pay the interest and repay the capital.
But, if you cannot meet your interest repayments (setting aside capital repayments) the bank will indeed force foreclosure. From their perspective, a quick mortgagee sale gets them their money – and the prospect of a new loan to someone better able to pay.
Mortgagee sales rose substantially in 2023.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/cheap-as-2023-the-year-of-price-slashing-mortgagee-sales-and-1-reserves-44381
But, in any case, comparing private individuals and even companies with state owned housing is entirely pointless.
Unless you are envisaging that the government is going to sell off state housing in order to achieve the capital gain, the 'assets' have no commercial value. The liabilities (the debt) however, is indeed real, and the government needs to find this money in order to pay off the lenders (interest and capital). If the income generated by the 'assets' isn't sufficient to match the liabilities (and we're just looking at debt here, setting aside maintenance, repairs and rates) – then there is a major issue for the government to manage.
If these repayments are ballooning because of increased mortgage rates – then this money has to come from somewhere. And means that the government has to cut spending in other areas. There is no money tree.
Historically, this was why governments issued bonds, rather than borrowing.
I suspect that the last government was over-persuaded by the very cheap capital available at the time, and didn't consider the long-term consequences if/when that situation changed.
There you go, so it is all about Kainga Ora being profitable. According to some psycho the only way NZ should expand social housing provision is at a profit.
There is no money tree Nic. KO has a funding model that enables it to build new housing and manage social housing stocks. When it is governed well, that works. When the organisation allows its borrowing and operating costs to balloon out beyond what is sustainable, it doesn't.
If the government wants to expand social housing that is a non-issue, if it wants to reduce social housing this is a convenient excuse. That is all that is going on here.
The KO funding 'model' has been in place for years. And social housing can expand under that model.
What changed is that under the governance of KO, operating costs and borrowing were allowed to spiral out of control.
You can read that the KO funding model changed just from the report. The conditions include operating surplus within two years (That's what is known as profit in private sector terms, by the way) and it became clear that the boards expectation of increased borrowing (needed to expand social housing) was not going to be reciprocated.
The governance of KO didn't change, they were sacked for holding onto ideas of the previous government, after the government changed.
The funding model did not change. The way KO is funded is still the way it was funded under the previous government. And BTW, an operating surplus is not the same as a profit in private sector terms. In private sector terms terms 'profit' includes deduction of the cost of funding. The operating surplus examined in the KO review does not include funding costs.
$140M for 1500 new homes.
Bishop is now claiming the "vast" bulk of the funded 1500 new "homes" will be new houses.
It cannot include ownership of new land for housing. So it would have to be homes within existing or new building. One still wonders who can build a house for under $100,000 (a bed sit within a group house maybe)(otherwise factory sourced small build).
Please use the link when quoting next time.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/05/south-auckland-woman-living-in-car-with-two-kids-gets-emergency-accommodation-from-ministry-of-social-development.html
The announcement is pretty light on detail (to be expected, I guess, pre-budget). The detail is supposed to be released on the 30th of June.
https://www.hud.govt.nz/our-work/social-and-transitional-housing
The delivery window does run over two years (so I guess the potential of additional funding in the second year).
The intention is that a large chunk of this is emergency housing (or it seems so) – operated by community housing providers (I guess the Sallies, etc.) I imagine, to free up the money currently being spent on motels.
Another chunk is for longer term housing – but very little detail on this.
Some verbiage about it not necessarily being built in the areas where there has been other social housing investment. I've no idea what they mean by that – unless it's a veiled hint that it will not be Rotorua!