Talk is cheap Tamihere

Written By: - Date published: 5:13 am, August 22nd, 2019 - 56 comments
Categories: john tamihere, local body elections, local government, phil goff, politicans, Politics, transport, uncategorized - Tags:

I am really not a fan of political candidates bullshitting that they and only they can get the unachievable in politics.

John Tamihere – candidate for Auckland city Mayor, is just the epitome of this kind of blowhard. Politically over many years, he has been the kind of fool who seems to keep his brain mounted right next to his testicles to inform his mouth what to say.

He released a transport policy fantasy that appears to have been born directly out of a sustained release of testosterone while tripping on illegal substances in an alternate universe. 

So far he has been promising money that the city doesn’t have for multiple projects on transport infrastructure that is owned and operated by the state. Funding that he has doesn’t have a shit show of getting because it is based on funding that the rest of NZ is also competing for. He also says that he can get them happening on impossible timeframes.

Each project will cause traffic chaos while they’re implemented because they will require construction on existing infrastructure while it continues to run. Ask anyone who has had to deal with the choke points on the much needed   – just look at the joy for motorists that has been the much needed Southern Corridor Improvements  for the last 4 years. 

Most of the transport he is blithfully talking about isn’t Auckland City controlled. Changes to them depend on national funding because they are state roads. But there is a curious silence about the kind of business case that would be required to convince the rest of NZ to fund them. I guess that level of detail was too hard.

Even looking at his policy for the locally controlled transport infrastructure is just sheer fantasy. Somehow cutting the regional petrol tax that is funding the existing expansion is meant to magically cause transport projects to rise. Apparently by sweetheart deals with capital funding 

Mr Tamihere said: “There are investors wanting to invest in park and ride facilities that will help get this city out of grid lock,

I’m sure that there are. All that they will require is the free land, a removal of all local input during the planning process, zero risk built into secret contracts that require ratepayers to be liable for the private profits, and a massive cost to Aucklanders. After all, every PPP scheme I have ever looked at closely seems to contain those elements. 

Auckland is a city that is currently bumping up against its debt ceiling.  Rate payers (like myself) have a steadily rising price to pay for the previous lack of local transport work by his political partners in National’s C&R over past decades. Because of this beholden relationship, it appears that chopping the regional petrol tax that is helping to user fund current local transport projects is part of the deal. So is the hugely expensive East-West road link because there is no way that makes any sense nationally.

In fact the actual John Tamihere transport policy has a complete lack of ANY information about how any of this is going to get funded. Which really is my signal that he really is a flatulent do-nothing whose only really useful role appears to be a radio shock jock.

John Tamihere comes across as just being another dimwitted loud-mouthed conservative who is good at being a chattering critic and and grossly unrealistic at the reality of actually doing anything. Reminds me of John Banks as mayor or John Tamihere’s previous outing as a MP. 

I think I’ll just vote for Goff who is actually working on a reality that has funding plans and way less blowhard magic.

 

56 comments on “Talk is cheap Tamihere ”

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  1. roblogic 1
    22 August 2019 at 5:33 am

    Bomber is backing JT, amazing how he picks 'em (internet mana, kim dotcom lol)

    • Rapunzel 1.1
      22 August 2019 at 5:51 am

      It seems that things stay behind the paywall but this was a snippet from a Herald story on Monday that not all have seen,

      "Is there a crisis? Rates, debt and Auckland Council
      Is spending out of control?
      No. At the end of the third quarter of 2018/19, Auckland Council was $56 million better off than budget. That was caused by $24m in additional income and $32m less spending.
      That's part of a trend. Over the three-year term of the current council, it has reduced general spending by $69m. For the next three years, savings of a further $62m are projected. Since the Super City's first full budget back in 2011/12, the council has made general savings of $293m.”

      • lprent 1.1.1
        22 August 2019 at 6:11 am

        That paywall is somewhat irritating for Auckland.

        It isn't that I mind paying for news and view services. After all we currently pay for NYT, Economist, Guardian, Medium, and a host of professional information sources.

        It is just that I expect value for money. And that is exactly the kind of information that I like. But the "Unlimited premium content from NZ Herald" is mostly junk opinions on local content as far as I can see. I can get that here or anywhere around the local net.

        And to pay for that, I would have to dump something that is useful.

        I'd go for a pay per view on a prepaid account without a time limit. But not coughing up a few hundred dollars per year every year just in case there is something worth reading.

        • Sacha 1.1.1.1
          22 August 2019 at 7:10 am

          I would happily pay per story or even per author.

          • esoteric pineapples 1.1.1.1.1
            22 August 2019 at 8:26 am

            Interesting to hear that. See my comment just below on that subject

        • Rapunzel 1.1.1.2
          22 August 2019 at 7:32 am

          Our local BOP paper had become so pitiful and full of Herald stories anyway, the paywall option and the local paper just on Saturdays costs us the same amount we were paying. Not sure if I will stay what they choose to paywall and what is "free" seems to have an ominous pattern to it – I would pay to avoid Hosking but I notice that Hawkesby is not getting many inches now, not sure but certainly no loss.

        • esoteric pineapples 1.1.1.3
          22 August 2019 at 8:23 am

          There's a real opportunity for independent media outlets that pick off the news that really matters and leave all junk opinions etc to the Herald and other media (media not being the same as news) outlets.

          All you need is a couple of journalists and a free Google blogger blogsite, then get advertising avenue on the page which will quickly build up a following, An accompanying youtube channel could be used to attract advertising revenue as well. Plus you invite people to become members with the bonus of extras, and also invite people to donate to the site or individual journalists pages using Patreon etc.

          You will never get rich but you could earn a living from it. There's plenty of people now earning a full time living from posting videos on Youtube alone.

          • Sacha 1.1.1.3.1
            22 August 2019 at 8:59 am

            Digital advertising is not enough to be viable, sadly. Newsroom.co.nz is doing that model but with sponsorship, presspatron.com donations, and a premium subscriber service for business news, not relying on advertising.

            • David Mac 1.1.1.3.1.1
              22 August 2019 at 9:37 am

              I think digital advertising will accumulate value as it becomes more targeted.

              A Toyota full page ad in the Herald might cost them $10,000. Of the 50,000 people they've paid to reach, 10 might purchase the new Corolla. The Toyota marketing dept would prefer to place their ad in front of people that have spent time with a digital road test of the model.

              • Dukeofurl …
                22 August 2019 at 12:40 pm

                Stuff revenue last financial year was around $300 mill

                Thats huge for a media business, cant explain what they spend it on as 100 journalists on an average of $75k salary per year is only $7.5 mill. For the whole country make that 200 including production journalists ( used to be sub editors) and overheads looks like $20 mill plus.

                We need a full Commerce Commision investigation like they did for the Oil companies to find out what they are spending their money on – before they start dipping into the tax payers pocket

          • Dukeofurl 1.1.1.3.2
            22 August 2019 at 9:46 am

            "There's plenty of people now earning a full time living from posting videos on Youtube alone."

            Plenty ? Maybe in the worldwide sense but not locally. And creating news is expensive . Youtube videos are essentailly about nothing or are advertisments for products anyway

            I was amused to read about Sparks live sports feeds, sure its a lot cheaper than paying for Skysport – if thats your thing.

            But some viewers noticed they arent getting half time commentaries and after match analysis that Sky Sport provided ( and could plug in advertising)

        • Dukeofurl 1.1.1.4
          22 August 2019 at 9:25 am

          There was a free Chrome store extension for workaround of the type of paywall NZME was using . They changed their HTML a few times to overcome it but as you would expect the extension was updated too. Then Herald got the software removed from Chrome store, so no more updates , but it still works if I disable javascript.

          You are right about the premium content being of poor quality, and often Stuff will 're-purpose' Herald stories within an hour or so ( happens the other way too). They have bought back that Key fanboy Roughan and hes at the same level as Hosking now, but more verbose.

        • Jimmy 1.1.1.5
          22 August 2019 at 12:49 pm

          NZ Herald used to be my home page and by far the most read (even though some of the articles were pretty average). But now its become pay wall, I hardly ever visit it anymore.

    • lprent 1.2
      22 August 2019 at 5:59 am

      Bomber is backing JT

      Same style. Talk is cheap – politics is just boring hard detailed yakka over decades.

      I'm pretty well out of the political sphere these days while I concentrate on work (while I still can). But after many decades of doing ground-level productive political work looking at what needs to be done to make everything work, you learn to who is worth supporting. Anything else is wasted effort.

      I don't think Bomber ever really learnt that.

    • Incognito 1.3
      22 August 2019 at 7:37 am

      The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    • Clive 1.4
      22 August 2019 at 4:54 pm

      Bomber backs anyone who may in the future provide him with work/funds/benefits. The differences between himself and Slater are too small and insignificant to list but I will. Bomber still has a blog.

  2. Sanctuary 2
    22 August 2019 at 6:51 am

    Tamihere is simply a full of shit blind blowhard with a campaign being run by the serial loser Matt McCarten who seem to think they can fool enough of the people for long enough to win and then… What? Like Trump I doubt he actually thinks he can win and like Trump if he did he is so stupid he would simply double down on his ridiculous behaviour and waste three years fighting his imagined enemies in a culture war about everything.

    Tamihere offers nothing to address the real issues facing transport in Auckland, like the 1990s Rogernomics legacy of a Byzantine operating model for PT in Auckland, the rear guard of structural opposition within NZTA and AT to multi-modal models for transport, the glacial pace of cycling infrastructure roll out, and the chronic underfunding of PT.

    He simply offers grandiose fantasy projects paid for by God knows what, since he is totally captured by the right who are finding him as their useful idiot and is therefore proposing to cut sources of dedicated transport funding like the fuel tax. Presumably as the right's puppet he'll declare an emergency and flog off Auckland's assets to the plutocrats who are funding him.

    What a fucking idiot he is.

  3. Sacha 3
    22 August 2019 at 7:15 am

    Interesting how the right is now pulling other candidates and putting support behind this oaf. Shows how much they respect voters, I guess.

    • Sanctuary 3.1
      22 August 2019 at 7:17 am

      The model they are looking for is a useful idiot to fight a culture war while they get on with the job of asset stripping Auckland.

  4. Visubversa 4
    22 August 2019 at 7:44 am

    JT has just adopted the Trump model of saying outrageous things to attract the press attention. The Nats have obviously worked out that they can't beat Goff on competance, so they are having a go at beating him with bluster and bullshit.

  5. David Mac 5
    22 August 2019 at 9:02 am

    Verbal flights of fantasy are good for getting a talkback radio switchboard lit up. Not so good for creating a harbourside home for over a million people.

    JT can prove he is the man for the job. He need only table his performance as the chief executive of the Waipareira Trust. Highlight the Whanau Ora dollars we've invested and the outcomes he has been able to achieve. If we're getting fantastic bang for our buck there, maybe he does have what it takes.

    Last time I heard him commenting about the Trust he was defending the payment of $600,000 to individuals in the form of dividends.

    • Dukeofurl 5.1
      22 August 2019 at 9:33 am

      And the other 'arrangement'

      Trust funds moved day of Tamihere house deal

      "It shows a "Te Whanu [sic] O Waipareira Trust advance" for $500,000 was paid into the "Tamihere Childrens Trust" held with Corban Revell lawyers on April 18, 2008. The money was paid out again the same day into an unknown BNZ account. .."

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11231114

      And this
      https://www.propertytalk.com/forum/showthread.php?32873-How-to-Buy-a-House-John-Tamihere-Style
      1) Get to be the CEO of a government quango.
      2) Get this organisation to give you a mortgage.
      3) Buy a big flash house using this money (and some of your own if you have to).
      4) Get this organisation to forgive the debt i.e. wipe the mortgage.
      5) Sit back and relax. Maybe think about increasing your salary by becoming an MP

      • Sanctuary 5.1.1
        22 August 2019 at 10:14 am

        Some right thinking people may in their opinion consider this corruption, but who are we to say?

        • Dukeofurl 5.1.1.1
          22 August 2019 at 12:20 pm

          Not a peep from The Herald when hes backed by National party types for mayor, that was a different approach taken when he became a labour MP.

          Surely the journalist Nippert who dealt with this before is itching to write a major feature covering Tamiheres 'history' [ I understand hes been in UK on Wolfson study but that is finished now and as he says on Twitter – Back to Work]

    • Sacha 5.2
      23 August 2019 at 1:49 am

      Tamihere is not applying to be CEO of the Council though. Mayor is the wrong sort of job for him.

  6. David Mac 6
    22 August 2019 at 9:59 am

    Yep, Roastbusting foot in his mouth and his money hook in our pockets.

    Ricky Houghton's name is in your link. His name is occasionally in the press. Usually in association with a genuine and plausible initiative to raise the Nga Puhi waka. Mayoral campaign aside, JT generally hits the press for being dodgy.

    I think JT could be a viable candidate if were reading 'West Auckland Maori Health best in NZ' headlines instead of reports of half a million mystery dollars appearing in his childrens' trust account.

  7. tc 7
    22 August 2019 at 10:52 am

    A graduate from the Shane Jones/Tau Henare school of political management.

    These mayoralty contests are perfectly suited to egomaniacs like him.

    It's easy to be loud and destructive, however it takes time, skill, patience, empathy and collaboration to get stuff done which JT's proven aren't his strengths.

  8. Shadrach 8
    22 August 2019 at 11:10 am

    I am writing this sitting in a café in the Mt Albert shops, looking out on the cluster f%%& that AT made of my local shopping village.

    A few months back, Jacinda Ardern (our local MP) and Phil Goff attended a ceremony to mark some kind of milestone in this project that simultaneously managed to utterly stuff up traffic flows and nearly destroy some local businesses. I was genuinely surprised by the level of anger visited upon both by locals. Jacinda Ardern was actually engaging, Phil Goff was an arrogant sod. He spoke condescendingly to business owners, and refused to engage in any meaningful way, palming the whole discussion off to local board members.

    Phil Goff is a dead set useless mayor. He has endorsed AT’s approach to wrecking local shopping villages, and has proven himself to be arrogant, with some alarmingly dictatorial tendencies. I have no time for Tamihere, but at the moment the mayoral election is shaping up to be between someone who is currently wrecking Auckland, and someone who might. What a choice we have.

    • Muttonbird 8.1
      22 August 2019 at 11:23 am

      Bring back Banksie!💩

      • Dukeofurl 8.1.1
        22 August 2019 at 12:30 pm

        His illegitimate son was looking for him too…. all that family first, god fearing bullshit from Banks…and the two big donations to Dotcom …

        I suppose all that means Banks wasnt going to run on his 'record'

    • Sanctuary 8.2
      22 August 2019 at 11:36 am

      The Mt. Albert redevelopment is a first class disaster for sure. It is probably a poster child of how to be penny wise and pound foolish and waste 6.5 million dollars of ratepayers money to make everything worse.

      Take a bold design to transform an area (roof over the station, build a plaza, covered access to Unitec, traffic redesign, cycle ways) then let ferocious opposition from the local retailers to losing car parks and the sort of local yellow journalism Bernard Boresman specialises in spook you over the cost so you end up with a piece of work that keeps all the worst aspects of the proposal and delivers none of the benefits.

      It doesn't help that the "Mt. Albert "upgrade" has worked" has assumed zombie fact status on sites like greater Auckland, those guys need to visit more of the city than wherever the latest AT junket takes them.

      • Shadrach 8.2.1
        22 August 2019 at 5:16 pm

        Not much in there I disagree with, although I'm with the retailers on the car parks. The place is dead now, and peoples livelihoods have been ruined.

    • David Mac 8.3
      22 August 2019 at 11:41 am

      Phil Goff didn't kill our suburban shopping villages. We did, we all turned into mall rats. Just over the last year or 2 shopping mall patronage has plateaued and is trending downward.

      We are slowly starting to rediscover the charm of places like the old Mt Albert shop facades. They'll never be electrical and hardware stores again, we'll see Cafes, delis and boutiques. Traffic flow didn't kill Mt Albert Village, Westfield did but they're bouncing back Shad.

      • Sanctuary 8.3.1
        22 August 2019 at 11:46 am

        Albert's Post hints at the beginning of gentrification of the Mt. Albert shops. The 3000 new dwelling at Unitec will provide a huge injection of bodies looking for retail. They should have roofed the station and provided the covered link to the Unitec site when the original development was done, I hope they revisit the whole project and carry through on the original promise.

        • Dukeofurl 8.3.1.1
          22 August 2019 at 12:26 pm

          Its 700m from the station to the main Unitec buildings along Carrington Rd

          I dont think you are really familiar with the station and the residential area before the Unitec site.

          St Lukes and its big box retailers nearby will be the big winner from any residential development. Mt Albert shops date back to the 1920-30s and are small size and arent how modern retail works. Fine for cafes and little owner operator businesses

          • Sanctuary 8.3.1.1.1
            22 August 2019 at 12:58 pm

            Ummm, I worked there for ten years and live 2km away.

          • Shadrach 8.3.1.1.2
            22 August 2019 at 5:28 pm

            Funny that. The retailers in Mt Albert have been told by our mayor and his council that they will be big winners from the Unitec site development.

            "Fine for cafes and little owner operator businesses"

            Totally agree.

        • Shadrach 8.3.1.2
          22 August 2019 at 5:26 pm

          When the re-paving was laid along the frontage of Albert's Post, AT laid the concrete incorrectly, and they couldn't open one of their front doors. There is more I could say, but I'd be getting someone into trouble, and that isn't my intention.

      • Shadrach 8.3.2
        22 August 2019 at 5:17 pm

        Thanks David, let's hope so.

    • That_guy 8.4
      22 August 2019 at 12:47 pm

      I'm a Mt Albert local and I honestly don't see what's so bad about the redevelopment. But I'm willing to be educated.

      • Shadrach 8.4.1
        22 August 2019 at 5:23 pm

        1. Less parking – which is really hurting local business.

        2. Provision of cycle lanes no-one uses – which has added to traffic congestion.

        3. Try coming along Carrington Rd from the Pt Chev end and going straight ahead at the intersection. At peak times it takes multiple phases to get through.

        4. Because of the stupid way the cycle lane has been incorporated into the pedestrian way, there are issues on rubbish collection day. Go through on a Thursday (??) – you'll see what I mean.

        I could go on and on but it makes me f'ing angry.

    • lprent 8.5
      22 August 2019 at 2:31 pm

      I grew up on Fowlds Ave a few kilometres down the road. The Mt Albert shopping area was always pretty useless.

      A natural choke point. Terrible to get to, hard to get in and out of. Completely dangerous to bike around.

      Before St Lukes changed my shopping area (and killed off my favourite skink rock pile), I'd head to Sandringham or even Mt Roskill to shop before I went near Mt Albert.

      About the only thing that I ever saw change in the last 50 years was the change to the rail station and 'new' post office. It really was an archaic dead hole.

      Hard to see how any development could have made it worse. Getting rid of the parking and putting it off the main drag would have at least freed up the road space.

      • Shadrach 8.5.1
        22 August 2019 at 5:19 pm

        Freed up the road space for what? Carrington Road is now a total bottleneck. Virtually no-one uses the dead set waste of space that is the cycle lanes, and now all we have is congestion. Mt Albert could have been so much better, but no AT made it into yet another monument to their stupidity.

        PS – my wife grew up in Fowlds Ave. Scary.

      • Anne 8.5.2
        22 August 2019 at 8:10 pm

        I go back a bit further when the Mt Albert shops were a hive of activity. There were the trams in the very early days followed by trolley buses. The only time traffic became a problem was around 5 pm. We had every type of shop in existence including a local theatre (as we preferred to call cinemas in those days). The trains were a big draw card and we kids would travel in and out of the city by train at holiday time. I grew up in Weston Ave on the western slope of the mountain – many a grand time was had sliding down those slopes on Nikau palms.

        • lprent 8.5.2.1
          23 August 2019 at 9:35 am

          My mother said that as well about the trams.

          We used to head up the mount a lot from the Owairaka side. Great place for kids to lose themselves for most of a day.

  9. cleangreen 9
    22 August 2019 at 12:23 pm

    "Talk is cheap Tamihere" good one Iprent;

    Our family is likely to vote for ‘Social Credit’ now during the 2020 election, because Social Credit is far more ‘socially responsible’ above all others, at a glance.

    All the other parties at present appear to be leaning towards being “risk adverse” as they are all desending into the big dark hole of being risk adverse and willing to endanger our population and damaging the health and wellbeing of all citizens now.

    There are far better ways for political parties to meet with providing citizens with health and welbeing success while taking a bare minimum of risk.

    Risk-adverse politics now seem to favour the method of playing it safe, preferring slow and steady gains to the possibility of a political failure.

    Assessment
    The first key to managing the risks involved in any project is to make an assessment.

    Developing a framework for risk assessment is worthwhile, and it doesn’t have to be a complex or high-budget endeavor.

    Risk assessment involves taking stock of any project and determining what problems could arise beyond normal expenses.

    Many outside factors must be considered, such as any adverse environmental impacts to citizens interests, while assessing the economy, citizens demand and labour relations.

    A good risk assessment takes account of anything that could go wrong with a project and firstly must have regard for the cost to provide Environmental, social, health and wellbeing responsibility then determine what it would cost would finally be.

    Risk assessment allows a political party to decide if proceeding with a project is worthwhile, ater first considering their responsibility to provide citizens with Environmental, social, healh and wellbeing.

    Labour needs to shut down half the truck freight and spend big on regional rail, as rail has a definate proven safety advantage while offering a ‘low carbon footprint’ as well.

    This is simply one way to save our ‘Environmental, social, healh and wellbeing’, as there are many more that need addressing also.

    Yesterday the national shadow transport MP said “NZ are registering 1200 new vehicles each day”.
    QUESTION; Labour what are you doing to reduce the vehicle fleet?

    nothing I see here if these numbers are correct.
    We need a bold policy of ‘action not words.’

    As the saying goes; -“Action speaks louder than words”

    • Dukeofurl 9.1
      22 August 2019 at 12:43 pm

      Not. Going. to. happen. We arent a dictatorship where big things changes for many are only wanted by a few- that was the Roger Douglas approach

  10. Dean Reynolds 10
    22 August 2019 at 4:57 pm

    Tamihere's campaign is being run by Michelle Boag – that means that he's in bed with a National Party Bezelebub

    • Obtrectator 10.1
      23 August 2019 at 8:51 am

      Surprised to hear any female could be running his campaign, bearing in mind the grossly opprobrious term he used for them – in public too – not so long ago.

  11. peterlepaysan 11
    22 August 2019 at 9:05 pm

    Tamihere and Boag in cahoots? Something smells.

  12. rod 12
    23 August 2019 at 4:53 pm

    Wonder who is bank rolling JT's mayoralty campaign. I expect he will tell us all before voting starts, but I won't hold my breath. wink