One of the factors in Part 1 (it's not actually the first cladding product failure here either) was that council building departments just weren't up to the task of certifying new products and methods, and still aren't. From your link the focus seems to be
Among the new options being considered to replace the current BCA system were:
• voluntary consolidation: allowing councils to pool resources for building consents
• regional BCAs: establishing a smaller number of regional BCAs
• single point of contact for builders to submit plans to: inspections may be contracted out to existing BCAs or private consenting providers, "creating competition and encouraging specialisation".
An amalgamation of consenting authorities, or better moving to a single stand alone, preferably state owned, entity can only be a good thing to get some consistency, and taking the process out of Local Government would get ratepayers off the hook if things go wrong.
Having seen one part of my extended family forced into near-destitution by a leaky home, I have enough reason to loathe the Nats, even without them enabling a repeat of the whole shameful business.
Again, this reposted article from an original RNZ release which was anonymously written. There was no writer of this article, or at least no writer willing or able to put their name to it, yet it has been promoted as gospel…
The thing is that noone will buy buildings in the next period if the National bill goes through. Construction will grind to a halt because demand for new builds will plummet. People won't want to risk their money on things that will have no resale value.
NZ Fist MP/NACT1 Minister, Casey Costello knew. She was told. But still she pushed on. Yet she stiil carries on with more denial, BS and outright lies.
'Most benefit' of government's tobacco tax cuts will go to tobacco company Philip Morris, officials told Casey Costello
Never mind our NZ Hospitals and Health system, give the harm agents a tax cut !
Officials told New Zealand First minister Casey Costello that Philip Morris would be the biggest winner from tax cuts for Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs), which they said were toxic and more harmful than vaping.
Despite a long list of problems Treasury identified with the proposal, Costello claimed she had got her own "independent" advice to the contrary and went ahead with a 50 percent excise tax cut for HTPs, at a cost of up to $216 million.
As Costello continues…..
Costello went to alternative sources to back up her claim that HTPs help people quit.
"I, the Associate Minister of Health, have received independent advice on the efficacy of HTPs as a smoking cessation tool," the documents recorded Costello as saying.
RNZ asked where the "independent advice" came from, but Costello would not say.
Yep, 35,000 in Dunedin surely could not have all been Labour voters or even voters necessarily…everyone needs public health care at some stage including tories. Within months of the CoC Govt., Pharmacists noted a drop off again of people picking up their prescriptions due to the reinstatement of charges, and they have had to can some of the extra services they were offering.
A Southern Cross rep stated casually on RNZ this am that his group does not cover Emergency Department or “tricky” work related to individual circumstances, they do insurance for essentially job lots of hips and knees.
Costello certainly has the arrogance of an egotistical ex detective, similar to Mike Sabin. She will be down the road eventually for gifting the Tobacco industry several hundred million dollars–as you say the harm agents get a leg up while public health gets cuts.
And yea Costello's…..outright arrogance. She must think she's one of the untouchables? Sad thing, even if she loses MP/Minister status….she will have a job for life with Big Tobacco/Atlas network/Taxpayers union..or any of the similar scumbags….she has earned her future. Selling NZ’s Health down the river
The granny is a war mongering, hate rag, of the lowest order. It was the tool which helped Grey in his misadventures, and is the tool of successive hard right misadventures.
Exactly MT-I just scrolled through at least two pages of the Herald website with no mention of the Dunedin hospital issue at all.
But for me this is ok. If the Herald has no idea how big this issue has become then neither has National (for the Herald and National are one and the same) and so they will suffer at the next election.
Yep – presence and prominence are different things. It pays to bear this in mind when analysing NZ Herald bias. Presence allows them to argue that the NZH is balanced, prominence tells you what they want to be seen.
It's full of apposite quotes; here's three samples:
We, the richest and most mobile cohort in history, are pitifully poor in spirit, suffering pains and terrors we cannot express. We act like colonial subjects. Because, in effect, that’s what we are. (my bold)
The entities that enclose and occupy our lands and waters, exploit our fossil fuel resources and distort our polities, are largely foreign. Most of the resources they exploit are the common property of sovereign peoples. The resultant products are exported, the profits siphoned offshore. Like the imperial powers of old, these corporations cultivate vassal governments and rely on local functionaries to maintain control. They have a massively disproportionate influence on public policy. No group of citizens, however large, wields such power over their own government.
***
But it’s naive to imagine the defeat of fossil capital will come gently. It is likely to be prolonged, brutal and chaotic. Securing a just and sustainable future will require many things to be smashed and cleared away. Not reformed incrementally but removed entirely. The opportunity for ameliorative tinkering has already been squandered. (my bold)
***
Meanwhile, politicians are drafting laws to constrain peaceful protest, limit legal recourse and smooth the way for many new fossil fuel developments, despite the science.
Meanwhile, politicians are drafting laws to constrain peaceful protest, limit legal recourse and smooth the way for many new fossil fuel developments, despite the science.
Iwas left feeling quite worried/sickened when I read the story of the 5 recently sent to prison by judge Christopher Hehir ..(more on this creep later)
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who attended part of the trial, issued a statement at its conclusion.
“Today is a dark day for peaceful environmental protest” in the UK, he said. “This sentence should shock the conscience of any member of the public. It should also put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom.
“Rulings like today’s set a very dangerous precedent, not just for environmental protest but any form of peaceful protest that may, at one point or another, not align with the interests of the government of the day.”
I drew some positive from him being called out..by the Solicitor General no less, for his previous quite bizarre rulings. I do hope that the 5 Protestors get an appeal on his draconian and IMO fascist sentencing.
The language in the news article makes it clear that it's likely they may well be discharged without conviction, and therefore without penalty.
Judge Robinson did not enter convictions against the defendants, inviting counsel to file submissions on a potential discharge without conviction at sentencing.
Securing a just and sustainable future will require many things to be smashed and cleared away. Not reformed incrementally but removed entirely.
Whoever wrote that hasn't noticed that the very fragility of capitalist economies constitutes their greatest protection against radical change. Market economies are not the stable, self-equilibrating systems beloved of neoclassical economics. Someone like Steve Keen would say that they are complex systems, with numerous self-reinforcing feedback loops and they tend towards chaos, dis-equilibrium and crisis. Even a small perturbation in one part of the system (e.g. supply-chain holdups due to Covid) causes nasty and hugely magnified effects elsewhere. And it's the weakest who suffer most.
Before anyone starts "smashing" anything they should bear that in mind. It sounds like a good way of engineering an economic collapse that hurts the poorest and sends them straight into the arms of the far right denialists. Thus engineering a sort of cross-class solidarity on the far right that is the left's worst nightmare.
Over the weekend, the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown proudly announced his new speed-setting rule, a decision that will undoubtedly lead to greater harm on our roads. It’s a tragically predictable decision by a Minister who seems to be on only nodding acquaintance with both evidence and international norms.
Fueled by misinformation, gaslighting, and falsehoods, and disregard for the outcry from experts home and abroad, and ignoring well-founded pleas from local councils across the country, Brown has chosen to impose blanket speed limit increases, and short stretches of time-restricted safe speeds around schools – touting the latter as offering (the bare minimum of) protection for (only some of) the most vulnerable members of our communities (at specified times and only on weekdays).
The Minister describes his accomplishment as returning our local streets, arterial roads, and state highways to December 2019. Half a decade of progress undone in one fell swoop – described in the same news story by road safety experts as “irresponsible and extremely concerning.”
Simeon Brown again demonstrates his puerile, perverse, callous mindset. He ploughs ahead with his ideological plans, despite expert evidence to the contrary, behaviour also exhibited repeatedly by Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, David Seymour, Nicole McKee, Louise Upston et al.
"…..Canterbury University professor Simon Kingham – a former chief science adviser to the Ministry of Transport – said the government was ignoring overwhelming evidence against higher speeds……
Kingham said previously, he had faith the government would take on board evidence showing higher speed limits caused more deaths and injuries.
"The minister hasn't shown any interest in the evidence or the science. He just seems to be blindly following some sort of ideological approach.
"So I'm not surprised, but I'm disappointed."
Kingham said he expected local councils would try to stop the speed limit changes.
"Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch… the bigger cities have made it very clear they don't want this. So I'm sure they will be thinking… not how can we get round this, because they're not going to break the law – but what can we do to stop this happening?"
Transport Minister Simeon Brown cited overseas countries with 50 km/h urban speed limits as evidence that his similar policy was reasonable, but omitted the fact that those countries allow municipalities to lower the limit as they see fit……
I was on the IRD's website this morning, looking for the answer to a another problem, when I chanced upon the report which came out a while back and said that the wealthy among us pay only 9% tax. I was interested to see in it that they distinguish between on the one hand "income" – wages, salaries, interest, dividends, etc., i.e. the sort of things that we normally think of as income – and on the other "economic income". But if an instance of gain is income why not include it with all those other incomes just mentioned; and, if not, how can it be "economic" income.
I think they are trying to bamboozle us with language,.
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
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Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
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Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
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Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
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Leaky homes.
Part 2.
Building consent reforms are 'new era' for construction industry – Property Council (msn.com)
Great so long as it works, however NZ Building Industry does not have a very good track record of doing anything properly.
Yeah. What could possibly go wrong?
One thing you can rely on with National. If it didn't work last time. "Lets try again"!
Unfortunately we the Ratepayers & the Taxpayers always pick up the tab for these stupid decisions by Politicians and Councilors.
Maybe not.
One of the factors in Part 1 (it's not actually the first cladding product failure here either) was that council building departments just weren't up to the task of certifying new products and methods, and still aren't. From your link the focus seems to be
An amalgamation of consenting authorities, or better moving to a single stand alone, preferably state owned, entity can only be a good thing to get some consistency, and taking the process out of Local Government would get ratepayers off the hook if things go wrong.
In QLDC land we are paying $300 / ratepayer for the next 30 years to cover one fuckup, and there's more as well, and with the same developer, who went tits up, so we're paying for it.
"contracted out to existing BCAs or private consenting providers, "creating competition and encouraging specialisation"
Exactly what caused the problems in leaky homes, part 1.
I was building during that era.
Fortunately we kept to our own standards, not that of the dodgy privatised inspectors, BRANZ and cladding specifiers.
Having seen one part of my extended family forced into near-destitution by a leaky home, I have enough reason to loathe the Nats, even without them enabling a repeat of the whole shameful business.
Again, this reposted article from an original RNZ release which was anonymously written. There was no writer of this article, or at least no writer willing or able to put their name to it, yet it has been promoted as gospel…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/529474/forestry-not-to-blame-for-smithfield-meatworks-closure-industry-says
Here's another government press release today from RNZ with no journalist attribution. It's an article, but apparently no living being wrote it:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/529456/watch-pm-christopher-luxon-targets-infrastructure-in-latest-quarterly-plan-for-government
The thing is that noone will buy buildings in the next period if the National bill goes through. Construction will grind to a halt because demand for new builds will plummet. People won't want to risk their money on things that will have no resale value.
NZ Fist MP/NACT1 Minister, Casey Costello knew. She was told. But still she pushed on. Yet she stiil carries on with more denial, BS and outright lies.
Never mind our NZ Hospitals and Health system, give the harm agents a tax cut !
As Costello continues…..
The obvious depth of feeling shown by the protests…needs to be ramped up.
Yep, 35,000 in Dunedin surely could not have all been Labour voters or even voters necessarily…everyone needs public health care at some stage including tories. Within months of the CoC Govt., Pharmacists noted a drop off again of people picking up their prescriptions due to the reinstatement of charges, and they have had to can some of the extra services they were offering.
A Southern Cross rep stated casually on RNZ this am that his group does not cover Emergency Department or “tricky” work related to individual circumstances, they do insurance for essentially job lots of hips and knees.
Costello certainly has the arrogance of an egotistical ex detective, similar to Mike Sabin. She will be down the road eventually for gifting the Tobacco industry several hundred million dollars–as you say the harm agents get a leg up while public health gets cuts.
Like +100%
Absolutely. As I replied to Mike the Lefty here..and I'm sure the People are becoming activated !
And yea Costello's…..outright arrogance. She must think she's one of the untouchables? Sad thing, even if she loses MP/Minister status….she will have a job for life with Big Tobacco/Atlas network/Taxpayers union..or any of the similar scumbags….she has earned her future. Selling NZ’s Health down the river
We the People…must continue the fight.
Cathy Costello is a former ACT Member and Spokesperson for Hobson's Pledge right up Winston's and NZF's alley.
She's got her dodgy mitts in all the pies.
Clutha mayor sounds off about $14 billion in tax cuts = no new hospitals!
The CoC have lost almost the entire South Island with their Dunedin/Nelson hospitals/West Coast GP shortages and the ferry debacle!
A one term government!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018957761/clutha-mayor-speaks-on-dunedin-hospital-u-turn
No mention of the Dunedin Hospital Situation and the Protest's with 35k people in Dunedin in the NZ Herald.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dunedin-mayor-backs-thousands-marching-against-hospital-project-cuts/YY3GMHBLTVFDXNKPEP2EJI3TQQ/
It was there but you have to search for it. Ditto Casey Costello corruption articles.
NZME is a clear corporate mouthpiece and it shows at every step.
The granny is a war mongering, hate rag, of the lowest order. It was the tool which helped Grey in his misadventures, and is the tool of successive hard right misadventures.
Exactly MT-I just scrolled through at least two pages of the Herald website with no mention of the Dunedin hospital issue at all.
But for me this is ok. If the Herald has no idea how big this issue has become then neither has National (for the Herald and National are one and the same) and so they will suffer at the next election.
Yep – presence and prominence are different things. It pays to bear this in mind when analysing NZ Herald bias. Presence allows them to argue that the NZH is balanced, prominence tells you what they want to be seen.
Good summary of the present mood with the climate change situation, in this article from today's Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/30/our-leaders-are-collaborators-with-fossil-fuel-colonialists-this-is-the-source-of-our-communal-dread
It's full of apposite quotes; here's three samples:
We, the richest and most mobile cohort in history, are pitifully poor in spirit, suffering pains and terrors we cannot express. We act like colonial subjects. Because, in effect, that’s what we are. (my bold)
The entities that enclose and occupy our lands and waters, exploit our fossil fuel resources and distort our polities, are largely foreign. Most of the resources they exploit are the common property of sovereign peoples. The resultant products are exported, the profits siphoned offshore. Like the imperial powers of old, these corporations cultivate vassal governments and rely on local functionaries to maintain control. They have a massively disproportionate influence on public policy. No group of citizens, however large, wields such power over their own government.
***
But it’s naive to imagine the defeat of fossil capital will come gently. It is likely to be prolonged, brutal and chaotic. Securing a just and sustainable future will require many things to be smashed and cleared away. Not reformed incrementally but removed entirely. The opportunity for ameliorative tinkering has already been squandered. (my bold)
***
Meanwhile, politicians are drafting laws to constrain peaceful protest, limit legal recourse and smooth the way for many new fossil fuel developments, despite the science.
Any of this sound familiar?
I was left feeling quite worried/sickened when I read the story of the 5 recently sent to prison by judge Christopher Hehir ..(more on this creep later)
judge Hehir. Broken Britain ?
I drew some positive from him being called out..by the Solicitor General no less, for his previous quite bizarre rulings. I do hope that the 5 Protestors get an appeal on his draconian and IMO fascist sentencing.
6 Extinction Rebellion anti-coal activists in Dunedin are about to get a $60,000 bill for their protest last week:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/anti-coal-activists-may-get-60000-bill
That's quite a local chill effect.
I think if they started a Give a Little much of this would be paid by donations.
The language in the news article makes it clear that it's likely they may well be discharged without conviction, and therefore without penalty.
Whoever wrote that hasn't noticed that the very fragility of capitalist economies constitutes their greatest protection against radical change. Market economies are not the stable, self-equilibrating systems beloved of neoclassical economics. Someone like Steve Keen would say that they are complex systems, with numerous self-reinforcing feedback loops and they tend towards chaos, dis-equilibrium and crisis. Even a small perturbation in one part of the system (e.g. supply-chain holdups due to Covid) causes nasty and hugely magnified effects elsewhere. And it's the weakest who suffer most.
Before anyone starts "smashing" anything they should bear that in mind. It sounds like a good way of engineering an economic collapse that hurts the poorest and sends them straight into the arms of the far right denialists. Thus engineering a sort of cross-class solidarity on the far right that is the left's worst nightmare.
Of course he's unworldly, he's fourteen.
/
Is this our least worldly Minister of Transport?
[…]
Over the weekend, the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown proudly announced his new speed-setting rule, a decision that will undoubtedly lead to greater harm on our roads. It’s a tragically predictable decision by a Minister who seems to be on only nodding acquaintance with both evidence and international norms.
Fueled by misinformation, gaslighting, and falsehoods, and disregard for the outcry from experts home and abroad, and ignoring well-founded pleas from local councils across the country, Brown has chosen to impose blanket speed limit increases, and short stretches of time-restricted safe speeds around schools – touting the latter as offering (the bare minimum of) protection for (only some of) the most vulnerable members of our communities (at specified times and only on weekdays).
The Minister describes his accomplishment as returning our local streets, arterial roads, and state highways to December 2019. Half a decade of progress undone in one fell swoop – described in the same news story by road safety experts as “irresponsible and extremely concerning.”
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/09/30/is-this-our-least-worldly-minister-of-transport/
He certainly is different, goes with his gut feeling rather the science.
But they are only experts….Simeon thinks he is doing God’s work.
Simeon Brown again demonstrates his puerile, perverse, callous mindset. He ploughs ahead with his ideological plans, despite expert evidence to the contrary, behaviour also exhibited repeatedly by Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, David Seymour, Nicole McKee, Louise Upston et al.
"…..Canterbury University professor Simon Kingham – a former chief science adviser to the Ministry of Transport – said the government was ignoring overwhelming evidence against higher speeds……
Kingham said previously, he had faith the government would take on board evidence showing higher speed limits caused more deaths and injuries.
"The minister hasn't shown any interest in the evidence or the science. He just seems to be blindly following some sort of ideological approach.
"So I'm not surprised, but I'm disappointed."
Kingham said he expected local councils would try to stop the speed limit changes.
"Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch… the bigger cities have made it very clear they don't want this. So I'm sure they will be thinking… not how can we get round this, because they're not going to break the law – but what can we do to stop this happening?"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/529368/new-speed-limits-mean-more-people-will-die-transport-researcher
As is also typical of Brown's colleagues and other deniers of fact, he tells a little bit of the truth, but omits relevant, contextual information.
"by Fox Meyer 27/09/2024
Transport Minister Simeon Brown cited overseas countries with 50 km/h urban speed limits as evidence that his similar policy was reasonable, but omitted the fact that those countries allow municipalities to lower the limit as they see fit……
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/27/truckies-say-higher-speed-limits-wont-boost-freight-efficiency/
I was on the IRD's website this morning, looking for the answer to a another problem, when I chanced upon the report which came out a while back and said that the wealthy among us pay only 9% tax. I was interested to see in it that they distinguish between on the one hand "income" – wages, salaries, interest, dividends, etc., i.e. the sort of things that we normally think of as income – and on the other "economic income". But if an instance of gain is income why not include it with all those other incomes just mentioned; and, if not, how can it be "economic" income.
I think they are trying to bamboozle us with language,.