Where would you spend $26 million?

52 comments on “Where would you spend $26 million? ”

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1. JanM 1

   3 November 2014 at 8:51 am

   Restoring the rail network
2. mac1 2

   3 November 2014 at 8:55 am

   I’ve had the good luck to experience the help that our local Cancer Society can give to a person suffering from cancer. The Cancer Society does not receive any government funding but struggles to raise its funding locally.

   My area has one per cent of the population of New Zealand. One per cent of $26 million, that is $260,000, would go very nicely to help that cause.
3. AsleepWhileWalking 3

   3 November 2014 at 8:56 am

   Who says we have to spend it at all? Pay down debt.
   • Mary Anne 3.1

     3 November 2014 at 11:57 am

     I agree AsleepWhileWalking, what about our debt? We should sort out our debt first before spending money we do not have.
     • Colonial Rawshark 3.1.1

       3 November 2014 at 1:52 pm

       Although well meaning, your comment is totally wrong headed.

       The government is an issuer of money. It is not simply a user of money like you or I. It never ever has to run out of money. It never has to source money from a foreign bank.

       And paying down debt is a bad exercise when:

       a) $26M will only cover a day or two of National’s borrowing.
       b) That money is better used to create jobs and change the lives of Kiwis for the better.
4. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 4

   3 November 2014 at 9:05 am

   I would spend it on less than 10 hours of the welfare budget. Which, by coincidence, is exactly what this horrible, hard-hearted government does.
   • minarch 4.1

     3 November 2014 at 9:52 am

     We should buy all the libertards and randroids their own little “galts gulch” so they can f*#k off there and pat each other on the backs for all their “hard work” and leave the rest of society to get on with fixing the damage they have done..
     • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 4.1.1

       3 November 2014 at 10:28 am

       ‘preciate your call.
       • adam 4.1.1.1

         3 November 2014 at 10:33 am

         So where does the majority of that welfare budget go gormlees one?
     • A voter 4.1.2

       4 November 2014 at 1:14 pm

       Well said and make sure they cant come back and do it again
5. fisiani 5

   3 November 2014 at 9:10 am

   Just change the flag next week. No cost at all. Surely that would be applauded? Yeah right,
   • felix 5.1

     3 November 2014 at 10:15 am

     Or, like, just not.

     #mindfuckingblown
   • ghostwhowalksnz 5.2

     3 November 2014 at 10:48 am

     Why not just have two flags, an old and a new and let the users decide which one.

     After all we have two versions of the national anthem, gets around the problem of which is best
6. Ron 6

   3 November 2014 at 9:16 am

   It will probably go on expenditure for our invasion of the middle east which no doubt Key will announce soon.
   • A voter 6.1

     4 November 2014 at 1:20 pm

     Yeah Key and his deluded sense of world responsibility on our part
     Do him good to read a bit of WW2 history of NZers in the ME and then go and smoke a joint and Knock his own block off
     Has he never heard of the virtues of being Neutral –effin idiot Key
7. weka 7

   3 November 2014 at 9:22 am

   rape prevention (grossly underfunded currently).
8. Tautoko Mangō Mata 8

   3 November 2014 at 10:03 am

   Funding Women’s Refuge.
9. Dont worry. Be happy 9

   3 November 2014 at 10:10 am

   Feed hungy kids at school
10. adam 10

    3 November 2014 at 10:28 am

    Umm I thought Key was a Royalist? Is he not?
    • ghostwhowalksnz 10.1

      3 November 2014 at 10:52 am

      Well his Parnell pad resembles a minor papal palace, so maybe its more the pomp and pagentry.

      Maybe we can have a referendum on which rear vision mirror ornaments to use for the new limosines
    • ropata:rorschach 10.2

      3 November 2014 at 11:22 am

      Key’s values are whatever Curia advises. I’m sure he’s a royalist if there’s a chance of mugging for the camera and giving out meaningless feudal baubles to his cronies.
    • felix 10.3

      3 November 2014 at 11:29 am

      Key is a royalist in his capacity as PM. He wants to change the flag in his capacity as Captain of the All Blacks.
    • cogito 10.4

      3 November 2014 at 12:50 pm

      Key’s overblown ego was offended by being described as a galloping colonial clot following his visit to Balmoral. so now he’s turned against the Queen.
11. One Anonymous Bloke 11

    3 November 2014 at 11:06 am

    Investigative journalism 😈
12. ropata:rorschach 12

    3 November 2014 at 11:17 am

    Key can do a lot with $26 million

    gamble it on currency speculation
    turn DoC land into mines or golf courses
    overseas holidays for bankrupt finance directors
    cut taxes to the top 1%
    increase GST a bit more on daily necessities
    PR fluff pieces on how awesome JK is
    …
    • politikiwi 12.1

      3 November 2014 at 1:13 pm

      “PR fluff pieces on how awesome JK is”

      He doesn’t have to pay for those. They’re all over The Herald, all the time.
13. Sable 13

    3 November 2014 at 11:38 am

    I’d pass a raft of laws cleaning up our grubby mainstream media, holding them more closely accountable for any lies and half truths. Then I would break up their oligopolies in the same way the telecommunications industry was reformed only more vigorously.
14. ghostwhowalksnz 14

    3 November 2014 at 11:54 am

    We could buy enough copies of ‘Portrait of a Prime Minister’ to put in every home in NZ.
    A million copies would be about right ! The latest version of course.

    Maybe even a fancier version with a hologram on the front cover so that Key seems to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time
15. tc 15

    3 November 2014 at 11:54 am

    Cheap for the amount of plunder it will distract and divert from as the MSM will be revved up to run the lines like the obedient poodles they are.

    Between this and JK’s war mongering the distractions are off and running at pace now.

    Has anyone in the opposition pointed out the contrast between the $9m on asset sales JK whined on about and this other policy they never mentioned was a top priority.

    Sorry but I’ve kind of tuned out since the Labour front bench threw away a winnable election and allowed Hone to be removed so apologies if I missed the searing rhetoric.
16. cogito 16

    3 November 2014 at 11:56 am

    “If you were the NZ government, with $26 million to spend, what would you spend it on?”

    I’d spend it on feeding the kids and getting families out of caravan parks…. and if it wasn’t enough, I’d make sure that Key and his rich mates started feeling the pinch.
    • Macro 16.1

      3 November 2014 at 12:24 pm

      me too
17. ropata:rorschach 17

    3 November 2014 at 12:36 pm

    Seriously I think the Govt should spend the money fixing the housing crisis, by applying the German legislative model of heavily favouring tenants to Aotearoa. It is urgently needed

    Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent. Here’s why
    Germany’s homeownership rate remains quite low. It was 43% in 2013.

    This may seem strange. Isn’t home ownership a crucial cog to any healthy economy? Well, as Germany shows—and Gershwin wrote—it ain’t necessarily so.

    In Spain, around 80% of people live in owner-occupied housing. (Yay!) But unemployment is nearly 27%, thanks to the burst of a giant housing bubble. (Ooof.)

    Only 43% own their home in Germany, where unemployment is 5.2%.

    Of course, none of this actually explains why Germans tend to rent so much. Turns out, Germany’s rental-heavy real-estate market goes all the way back to a bit of extremely unpleasant business in the late 1930s and 1940s.
    […]

    Soon after West Germany was established in 1949, the government pushed through its first housing law. The law was designed to boost construction of houses which, “in terms of their fittings, size and rent are intended and suitable for the broad population.”

    It worked. [And to this day renting is the norm in Germany]

    Why? The answer seems to be that Germans kept renting because, in Germany, rental housing is kind of nice.

    Economists think German housing policy struck a much better balance between government involvement and private investment than in many other countries.
    […]

    But given the economic spasms suffered in house-crazy economies such as the United States, Spain and Ireland in recent years, the German approach to housing looks pretty good right now—even if, before the crash, the low homeownership rate was seen as an albatross around Germany’s economic neck.
    • Weepus beard 17.1

      3 November 2014 at 12:59 pm

      Thanks for this. NZ has a long way to go before tenants are viewed as equal citizens but thoughts in articles like this will help.

      NZ needs to give tenants security of tenancy (particularly family tenancies), if the govt is determined to continue to allow domestic and overseas property speculation and amateur landlordism.

      Right now you can’t sign any sort of lease as a renter in NZ, it’s all week to week stuff. And there’s still that ugly 41 days to get out if the landlord wants the house back for “family reasons”.

      Laws in this country continue to favour the master and punish the servant.

      It’s an appalling way to treat half the populace but still it goes on.

      Even the word “landlord” should be consigned to the history of the English language. It makes me want to puke.
18. Barfly 18

    3 November 2014 at 2:38 pm

    $26 million…….

    end prescription fees for community service card holders or

    design and use a system for measuring poverty or

    create and implement a land and housing register to measure overseas ownership or

    create a new well funded taskforce in the IRD to tackle corporate and wealthy individuals tax crimes or

    design and create a syllabus in schools to educate on the cost of credit, loan sharking, “no interest sales” etc…. or

    create and fund an organization whose purpose would be to “name and shame” corporations that are exporting New Zealand jobs overseas (thus deterring them)
19. JanMeyer 19

    3 November 2014 at 4:30 pm

    It’s about our feelings of nationhood, of asking whether we have matured enough to imagine a flag without the union jack. To imagine a flag that isn’t for all intents and purposes identical to Australia’s. Yes it seems a lot of money but it’ll only get more expensive and there will always be other “priorities” – on this approach we would never change the flag (or for that matter, that bloody awful national anthem. Now there’s something I’m sure we can all agree on!).
    • cogito 19.1

      3 November 2014 at 5:37 pm

      “matured enough”

      Hard to see how Kiwis have matured enough when they have just elected a pathological liar as pm for the third time in a row.
      • seeker 19.1.1

        3 November 2014 at 9:31 pm

        ha! how true
    • MrV 19.2

      5 November 2014 at 1:37 am

      Identical to Australias? Are you one of those low IQ NZers who can’t tell the difference?
20. Ad 20

    3 November 2014 at 5:31 pm

    Key is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

    Don’t spend the funding getting a mandate, accused of being anti-democratic.
    Spend the money, accused of profligacy.

    The fairer question to ask is: should New Zealand change its flag?
    If so, budget for it.

    We should change it, so I think Key is doing the right thing.
    • Macro 20.1

      3 November 2014 at 6:59 pm

      I don’t think we should change it.
      I think he is doing the wrong thing.
21. Ecosse_Maidy 21

    3 November 2014 at 7:22 pm

    What surely you want an ever lasting testament to the beloved leaders time in power?.Where we can all stand and hold the banner high over children that live in poverty.Yes ..when he gets old and decrepit he too can cast his bleary little eyes toward the flag pole and say…I DID THAT! and we can stand there and think…If only that was all he did.
22. Andrea 22

    3 November 2014 at 9:46 pm

    It might not be enough but – rebuild WINZ from the ground up to meet the present reality of massive international changes to ‘work’ and ‘working life’.

    If that’s too dear or impossible for now – can we reform our parliamentary system to bring it up to something that doesn’t have its feet in the ancient muck of the Westminster system with all its baggage of corruption, cronyism and exclusion?

    Or – we could buy a Cook Strait ferry that doesn’t keep throwing off bits every time it gets to bouncy water. In time for the summer vacation sailings.
23. Paul 23

    3 November 2014 at 10:08 pm

    School lunches
24. Paul 24

    3 November 2014 at 10:09 pm

    Pretty much anything other than a flag referendum!
25. georgecom 25

    3 November 2014 at 10:51 pm

    Spend $26 million on something worthwhile. That could be anything really, just not a waste of time referendum on the flag.

    Hmmmm, here is a novel idea. $260k per house, you could build 100 state homes and make a dent in the homeless and over crowding problem.
    • Murray Rawshark 25.1

      4 November 2014 at 12:00 am

      I like your suggestion best, but I think the government can probably build them cheaper than that. We might even get 200 for the same money.
26. Ovid 26

    4 November 2014 at 12:01 am

    John Oliver skewers Key on the flag issue
    • Ovid 26.1

      4 November 2014 at 12:41 am

      And here’s a direct Youtube link if you have an aversion to Facebook.
27. miravox 27

    4 November 2014 at 12:19 am

    Initial funding for better access to the high cost, highly effective medicines that other western countries take for granted.

    After the initial investment the cost should take care of itself with fewer people having knock-on health effects and a better chance of earning money rather than having to rely on sickness benefits.
28. A voter 28

    4 November 2014 at 12:23 pm

    I would not spend it on Keys ego mania fuckin arrogant prick
    A lot of good honest people died for that flag and Key can get fucked what an arsehole

    26 MILLION could be put into a new fund called BALANCE THE GAP FOR THE POOR
    and give the kids more at school
29. Molly 29

    4 November 2014 at 1:36 pm

    Since I am currently concerned about lack of affordable and social housing, I would identify twenty locations of HNZ tenants who have lived in their community for a long time, and proactively engaged in community building.

    Then I would use up to a million each to provide those people with the ability to purchase their own homes and surrounding properties on an interest free loan, with the proviso that the density of those properties is more than doubled and 25% of the development remains in social housing in perpetuity. And they will be assisted in becoming participants in small-scale community developments such as cohousing.

    The remaining monies will spent on providing a support team of architects, financiers and builders and developers that will enable these communities to build co-housing developments suitable for their community members.

    Kiwibank will be invited to provide mortgages to those wishing to purchase after the developments are completed at a competitive rate.

    The resulting communities of warmly and securely housed people can then get on with sorting out their own local issues in an empowered way. Without fear of threat of transience and interruption from private or government landlords.

    Benefits of this use:
    – after the development is complete, the loan becomes available for another group to use,
    – principles follow healthy tangata whenua and pasifika family structures and current housing and planning does not do this making the outcomes even better for those communities,
    – co-housing development processes creates methods and teaches skills to diverse community members, that can be used in the future for local problem solving and solution based action,
    – unlike most property developers, cohousing developments are designed by the people intending to live there. They end up being designed for living – not solely for selling.
30. Jrobin 30

    5 November 2014 at 1:27 am

    How about funding Secondary Schools adequately instead of attacking them, demolishing perfectly good classrooms, sinking lid policies etc…..probably designed to set up a shortage for the future. Then later when invaded by thousands of Britspouring down under in terror, we will need to be rescued by ………..Charter Schools run by glazed and cross eyed, check shirted smiling Miley Cyrus fanboys. These morons are making themselves unpopular at last. They are unwisely attacking good ole boys network schools as well as the nests of their enemies children.
    I vote for a Malevich style non flag. White square on white rectangle so each citizen can project their own imaginary flag onto the blank space.
    Jingoistic balderdash from dinosaur brainundermany hats & co.

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