"Come along for a 'Picnic' at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, a place that symbolises our ancestors that fought for our freedom," a statement on Unite's website read.
What a gang of deluded fuckwits! Do they not realise that every service person since way back when has been vaccinated without choice or rights of refusal. To compound this lack of awareness, the most vulnerable to death with/by Covid overwhelmingly are of the age group that most closely represent those they purport to extol.
After WW2, thousands of young men were forced to do Compulsory Military Training. The 'youngsters' of this cohort are now in their 70's – and were all COMPULSORILY vaccinated, in case they were required as war fodder. Guess what they might think of these self-entitled pricks who want to wrap themselves in sham patriotism, while happily handing out premature death sentences to these people- all in the name of their 'freedumbs".
One might suggest that Unite should watching their backs. It is not only the old buggers that will be offended, there are thousands of younger active and former service men and women who may decide that the fuckwit brigade should be physically dealt too for their blatant disrespect.
The Ukranians are neither confirming or denying the attack on the fuel depot, so there has been some speculation that it was a false flag attack by the Russians.
However, I don't see the point of the Russians staging a false flag attack on this asset. It is strategic infrastructure the Russians need to support their heavily armour dependent effort in the region they have just signalled they want to focus on. It would make an ideal opportunistic target for the Ukranians and would fit with their MO of targeting Russian logistics.
I would suspect a false flag attack if an empty school had been hit, or there had been some sort of chemical incident in Russia.
I agree. I don’t think there really is much point. Unless they wanted to do something like staging a chemical attack against Russian civilians to justify using chemical weapons themselves.
That dissatisfied members of the Russian forces in the area may have carried out the attack themselves because they want to force Russia to exit the war.
Attacking that sort of installation as a false flag makes no sense at all. But mutiny in the ranks is certainly a possibility.
Anything to excuse the highly probable eh? You should be engaged by NATO in a psyops role. At least you might sound a little more credible than old sleepy Joe.
Do you have anything to back up your speculation that the US or NATO had anything to do with that attack? Especially given the extraordinary efforts they have gone to to make sure they weren't directly involved in this fight. Imagine if it had been the US and a helicopter crashed and the Americans were caught?
Or is it more likely to be forces that have been refusing to obey orders and shoot down their own air craft, or back a tank over their own commander?
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Aleksandr Motuzyanık … said, "Ukraine is carrying out a defensive operation to repel the Russian attack. But this does not mean that Ukraine is responsible for all the disasters and events that occurred on the territory of the Russian Federation. This is not the first time we have seen such accusations. Therefore, we cannot confirm this information. I neither deny it."
To screw with the Russian heads though, the Ukranians (regardless of whether or not they carried out the attack) could issue the following press release:
"After investigating this incident we can confirm that Ukraine did not carry out this attack. However, our sources inside the Russian military advise us that the attack was carried out by discontented members of the Russian airforce…"
How is he a 'good mayor'? He's gone against 72% of his own constituents, and appears to have actively shut down debate on the issue. He's also thrown away the opportunity to work with a powerful block of councils to effect change to what is a deeply flawed plan, which is foolish, considering his own Deputy said that "councillors were generally in agreement about having strong misgivings about aspects of the Government’s reform agenda."
He's gone against 72% of his own constituents, and appears to have actively shut down debate on the issue.
What article have you been reading? It sounds like you’re making up things. As you know, I get tetchy when I get the distinct feeling that commenters make up stuff to suit their biased narrative, especially when they make rather bold allegations.
"An unscientific poll of Otago Daily Times readers found 71.74% of respondents thought the council was wrong to pull out of Communities 4 Local Democracy, while 28.26% thought it had done the right thing. There were a total of 2265 voters in the poll."
'…and appears to have actively shut down debate on the issue.'
"While Aaron Hawkins remained mayor, no serious opposition would be mounted to the city council losing control of assets as part of the Government’s Three Waters reforms, Cr Jim O’Malley said. "He has actively blocked that in the past 12 months," Cr O’Malley said."
Fascinating, how your biased mind seems to work, truly fascinating.
You seem to think that the results of “[a]n unscientific poll” of “2265 voters in the poll” is representative of Dunedin’s constituents.
You also seem to think that reckons of one disgruntled councillor mean that debate was shut down. First, that’s not what the councillor said, but simply your incorrect interpretation. There’s nothing in the linked article suggesting that Hawkins has or did shut down debate as you allege. In addition, there’s mention of at least 2 pivotal votes and “numerous opportunities for the council to express concern”. Looks to me there’s been plenty of lively debate.
"You seem to think that the results of “[a]n unscientific poll” of “2265 voters in the poll” is representative of Dunedin’s constituents."
Do you have any other polls that say differently?
"First, that’s not what the councillor said, but simply your incorrect interpretation. "
How do you interpret the suggestion that the mayor blocked opposition?
"“numerous opportunities for the council to express concern”"
Yes that would be a claim made by the mayor who has been the one accused of shutting down debate.
"there’s mention of at least 2 pivotal votes"
And there's mention by the Deputy mayor Christine Garey of councillors being "generally in agreement about having strong misgivings about aspects of the Government’s reform agenda."
You made up these allegations, you find the evidence, which is not in the article I read. I read the facts, not your interpretations or allegations. Explain how there have been at least 2 pivotal votes without prior debate.
If you have other polls, preferentially scientific ones conducted by an independent party, let’s hear it, from you.
Council minutes will no doubt show there’s been plenty of debate. Go find those minutes and read them before you spread your disinformation here.
Even the Deputy Mayor referes to agreement and misgivings; is she a mindreader too just like you?
It seems I have to activate my recent moderation warning to you.
You're having some reading comprehension issues today.
"You made up these allegations,"
No. I quoted directly from the article.
"Even the Deputy Mayor referes to agreement and misgivings;"
But I didn't say there wasn't any disagreement – the votes were close, so clearly there was. What I said was that the mayor 'appears to have actively shut down debate', a claim supported directly from the article by the comments of Cr O'Malley.
"It seems I have to activate my recent moderation warning to you."
Go for your life. I'm not retracting comments that were based directly on the contents of an article that is in the public domain.
[Your conclusion is untenable from the info in that one single article. You make a serious allegation about the Mayor “actively” obstructing the democratic process, i.e. debate, apparent (to you) or not. There are many ways of a attempting a “serious opposition” (whatever that means) from mounting, e.g. persuasive arguments in open and robust debate and/or a legalistic behaviour. Evidence for this or to the contrary may be found in the minutes of Council meetings and/or elsewhere but you made no effort to find any because you’ve already made your conclusions and closed off your mind to other information. You also extrapolate from an unscientific poll result to come to your conclusion about the constituents of Dunedin. So, it is obvious that you subtly twist things your way to suit your bias and spread misinformation and disinformation. I have warned you recently this misleading behaviour here would result in an instant ban. So, take a week off – Incognito]
Yes I'd suggest the local government elections are a reasonable proxy for what local government feels about 3 Waters. And government will have no choice but to listen if it continues to languish in the 36% range or worse.
My feeling is that the government will "hear the word" of this upcoming result and put the proposal up for central government election.
If he has it right, it's by being lucky that his green party future career points in that direction, more than by his ability.
Not sure how many of the council actually support 3waters. But the mana whenua do support it.
So there is a chunk of council, like the mayor, who have "concern" or "misgivings" about it but will do nothing, and another chunk who are actually prepared to oppose it.
There is a certain poetry to councils losing billions of dollars worth of assets with a farcical amount of compensation, with mana whenua looking on and cheering. Who says history never repeats, lol
The biggest OPEX is the housing of the economy’s workforce….time (well past) to cut our biggest cost, and maybe, just maybe we may improve our productivity.
in the last 2 years the population has been stable,and yet house prices went up 40%,and building costs went through the roof,where a lot of the component's are locally sourced.
The cost of land say in CHCH should not have changed,there is for example 47 hecatres of residential land in the 4 avenues alone.
A lot of the new builds are being used for short term accomodation (airbnb) 2000 in CHCH single use alone.
All supported (made possible) by ever increasing book value…..which im sure we will agree is unsustainable….the moment that book value ceases to grow the whole house of cards collapses, and in the past few months (well before Ukraine) the indications are that enough are beginning to understand that….party is over, hangover to follow.
James Cooney, director of development company Wolfbrook Residential, said low interest rates and Government incentives to buy in new developments had strongly boosted sales of investment properties.
“There’s just so much demand, it’s ridiculous, and 80 to 90 per cent of it is coming from investors.”
New Government rules in force from this year mean mortgages for new properties require smaller deposits than existing ones, and are less likely to attract tax on capital gains.
The Government has announced that New Zealand will release more of its emergency oil stocks in response to the global impact on energy security as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We do not have a physical reserve,we have a futures contract,too purchase an agreed amount of oil at the spot price.With backwardation the oil prices are less in the future market,then the spot at present.
The US has a wide spread (releasing a million barrels of physical oil) which has brought the spot price down WTI under 100bbl and the december futures up to 94bbl.
Some of those fighting in Ukraine are doing so to cause the fall of Putin, one group are Belarusians. They see Putin as one factor behind the continuance of the rule of the tyrant in Minsk.
About 200 members of the volunteer battalion are serving on the front lines, including in Irpin on Kyiv’s outskirts, where Ukrainian forces recently regained control, Kulazhanka and other recruits said.
They are funded and equipped mostly through donations from the Belarusian and Ukrainian diasporas, including in the United States. But the recent induction of the battalion into the armed forces has meant that some received guns and armor, including some supplied by NATO, from the Ukrainian military.
On my way back across the border, I met two German foreign fighters in their mid-fifties, who were also traveling back to Poland. They’d been at the Yavoriv base earlier the previous morning, when it was bombed. “The international legion is young guys who are hungry for an adventure. They’re cannon fodder,” said one. “They won’t come back from the front lines. They should leave.” He described weapons trainings done with YouTube videos.
KO has been rapped over the knuckles by the Tenancy Tribunal for their gross failure to manage the impact of disruptive tenants on their neighbours. In this case both the parties were KO tenants.
It was declared in the hearing that Kāinga Ora breached its legal obligation by failing to take all reasonable steps in ensuring the peace and comfort of their tenant.
"While the landlord took some reasonable steps, it has become clear that the action taken by the landlord was inadequate," Walker said.
"Some urgent action should have been taken for the landlord to meet their statutory responsibility."
There is nothing in the article, about recent steps (since this new policy was implemented in February) to deal with this issue.
What I'm not seeing (or at least not reported) is a directive to KO to take urgent action – and move out the tenant with the significant and ongoing history of disruptive behaviour.
The wimpish current policy of 'offering both parties alternative accommodation' (especially when they know there is no alternative accommodation) is useless. Evict the problem tenant, and leave the rest of the neighbourhood to enjoy a peaceful life.
The 1st one though indicates those on the state house waiting house includes some who need an accessible wet accessible bathroom area (which would probably push them up the list). They probably usually get a new unit or any existing units once modified as soon as it is available.
The point i was making was that Kainga Ora does evict people. Just not hte violent antisocial assholes.
Yeah, and they get a house when one is available.
Come to Rotorua, go to Fenton street and understand that most of the motels are full with people who wait for a state house. And most of them are not violent antisocial assholes.
Last, i see no difference between L and N, i consider them all unwilling to do what needs to be done when it comes to housing – affordable, clean and tidy housing.
Sabine, Kainga Ora are currently building many homes in Rotorua. More building has happened here in the last 12 months and this year than in the last 5o years we have lived in Rotorua. We built our first home here in 1973, that was the last time you could see new homes in all areas of Rotorua.
A new subdivision is beginning on the corner of Ranolf and Malfroy Streets. Currntly there are 37 new homes in Pukehangi, 190 are planned city wide. So our suggestion they are the same as National is hogwash.
It's estimated that up to 2000 homeless people – many of them from other centres – are staying at about 45 motels in the city. Last year, the Ministry of Social Development spent about $10m on emergency accommodation grants in Rotorua, which has the second worst homeless problem in the country, behind Auckland.
They can't build fast enough and plenty enough to make even just a dent, so now they are buying motels in Rotorua for the homeless families of our fair town.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says emergency accommodation is a "stopgap measure" and is concerned about its long-term social effects
However, she would not say how long motels would be used to house the homeless.
snip
She said the government had built more than 70 public houses and had 180 more in the pipeline.
snip
Rotorua-based list MP Tāmati Coffey said he believed that there were a lot of "desperate" locals who had been pushed out of the rental market in Rotorua's emergency accommodation.
"We don't want them to be in emergency housing, but we also don't want them to be filling up Kuirau Park. We also don't want them in the shops, in the door fronts of some of the shops around the CBD.
Btw, i live next to one of these houses that are being build. The property stood empty for two years, then the property got demolished, then the block stood empty for one year, now they have been building for about half a year, and i would guess it will take another half a year to finish.
At that rate and the number announced it will take another 20 odd years to house the estimated 2000 people (2021 number) in houses.
Btw, my neighbourgh has a family member live in the Garage, it is safer there then in the Motels. Go figure.
Fwiw, i think the effort of N and L in regards to housing are negligable.
Never mind the properties that got demolished, surely for the greater good and some new houses. Hopefully. Never mind that we actually now have less state houses then we used too.
The Government has sold or demolished nearly 2000 state houses since July 2018, Newshub can reveal.
And while Housing Minister Megan Woods continues to trumpet a bonanza state house build, the number of state houses managed by Kāinga Ora – Housing NZ – has actually fallen.
Ms Morris credited Destiny Church's Man Up programme, Whānau Ora, Auckland Action Against Poverty and the Blind Foundation for their continued support throughout the family's tenancy process.
She said Mangere Housing New Zealand staff also treated the family with dignity.
I know two people that have been "saved" from a drunken and lonely old age by Destiny Church.
It appears to be more than just a vanity and self enrichment project of Tamaki's, for many in it.
I suspect like most churches, and other "gangs", they have to be more than just a money making outfit to keep members.
Just heard an acquaintance has transferred from Destiny to Equip. Apparently the tithe is cheaper!
Tempted to let them know that the Presbyterians and Sallies etc, offer the same services, for a voluntary donation!
Well, I guess they can go to the back of the line of the 20,000+ families who are waiting for a KO house.
'Inconvenience' is people parking on the berm, or not mowing the lawn, or having parties every weekend. Annoying. But you just live with it.
This is (as determined by both the police and the Tenancy Tribunal) illegal antisocial behaviour (threats, harassment, etc.). No neighbour should have to put up with it, because KO can't deal with a problem tenant.
And, 9/10 of the problem behaviour would stop immediately, if the tenants concerned knew they would be kicked out for anti-social behaviour.
The government can rent a motel just for these assholes and hide them there just as they do with those that are not antisocial violent assholes but who are unlucky enough to not being put up in state houses as these antisocial violent assholes. Like all the several hundreds of families that can’t get state houses because the government gives them to violent antisocial assholes. .
No they don't need greater support, they need no support. At some stage you cut the abuser out of your life and you put the effort to those that want to be good and law abiding citizens.
The right to safety from your feral neighbours is stronger.
Bear in mind that we are talking about people who conduct a relentless campaign of active harassment, threats, property damage and actual physical violence.
Just imagine what that does to your mental health, let alone physical well-being. We've had story, after story, in the media of families who are literally afraid to leave their houses, because of the (usually gang adjacent) neighbours.
Nothing preventing KO from choosing to house the anti-social in motels – it's still a 'roof over their heads' – just not one that's particularly attractive.
Given that the State can't care for and fix everyone at the same time (9 years of neglect, I hear the echo); then perhaps they need to follow standard triage principles, and deal with the people who 'can' be fixed in the short term. Get them out of the way and resolved, and then try to do something about the long-term dysfunctional.
Because, the fastest way to make a gang life attractive to the next generation, is to see criminals getting way with anti-social and intimidating behaviour with zero consequences.
How – you sit down and have a hard think and pull out your hankies.
And the other people who have been trying to be good citizens and not have their children turn in to a…holes just should look on with a saintly expression and get a big dog with big teeth. I saw in a usa film about a working solo father trying to protect his two boys in their inadequate room. He barked when people rattled the doorknob as he couldn't afford a dog. Or perhaps a recording? Ideas that the helpful government should pass on to it's poor and reasonably honest tenants.
People who are most damged probably can never be rehabilitated. They should have a special working farm prison with amenities and get locked into their rooms at night so they can't get out and start fires, pinch farm bikes, rape women or whatever has become their habitual obsession. They could be happy there so for god's sake take away their freedom – to create misery. And have tough cahps in charge, just practice isolation for people who threaten attack and never trust them completely, safety first and stun guns as backups. If they behave it could be a good place with their own room and decent bedding as long as they don't get the urge to slash it. Most of the men, no women permanently there, would be likely to have been assessed as mentally unbalanced.
So we are not solving anything considering that these people cause harm to law abiding citizens – presumably at their cost. So that is OK?
And some will always end up in Prison – that is why we have prisons, to get the criminal elements that wreak havoc in the community out of hte community.
In the meantime we are warehousing families who work in rundown motels at a million dollar or so
so my solution would be that these guys can live in a run down motel and the good state houses go to good families that work, but don't make enough to pay market rent. But i guess that is not awesome and 'woke' enough.
It is an outrage that you have no qualms about comparing assholes to criminals. They are of course not the same thing.
People who have no money for a long time have a propensity to be assholes because they have to fight for absolutely everything and everything in their life can be taken away – such little as they have.
Anyone who carries the badge 'woke' for actually caring for people that are really really hard to deal with … well those people don't give much thought for your labels.
You'll see such people out every weekend with other badges on them like St Johns, St Vincent De Paul, St Francis, Te Whanau Waipereira, Habitat for Humanity, Barnardo's, Tear Fund, The Compassion Soup Kitchen, City Mission, World Vision, and bunches of Anglican and Catholic trusts and entities. Kiwi volunteers and underpaid staff by the thousand.
They don't give a damn about how you disparage their work or the people they work with.
They understand your scorn, derision, rage and urge to punish. They've seen those stories for several thousand years.
People who have no money for a long time have a propensity to be assholes because they have to fight for absolutely everything and everything in their life can be taken away – such little as they have.
You have hit the nail on the head Ad. The above description is a plan for growing more assholes. You big softie Ad. Could you spread your sympathy wider to people who bear the brunt of thr poor caring of these people by authority figures for many years. As many of those people suffering from the effects of those poorly cared for people is likely to follow the same path as them, never having seen a different life, but forced to live amongst the rough, dishonest or vicious. Role models you know, get copied.
surely Tiny Dean has a motel space available for them on Fenton Street.
That is where we warehouse homeless families that work in many cases and can not afford rent. Just a thought. Or is that to good for criminals that wreak havoc in the areas where they get state houses that seemingly one can only get when one is a lawbreaking antisocial criminal.
That is just sour nastiness Sabine, and your constant attacks on the motelliers who have offered their properties says more about your bitterness than their motives. Constant carping and wild generalisations don't prove a thing. Too broad a brush. You confirmed the building programme, then got hung up on the time it takes to get consents and do infrastructure.. typical.!!
No sour nastiness about that at all Patricia. Just facts, inconvenient facts.
It was facts when National did nothing to alleviate the housing crisis and started housing people in motels and it is a fact now that Labour does it too.
We are warehousing people for month/years on end in Motels. In Rotorua and elsewhere.
And if you are pleased with the little that is happening that is good for you. Me i look at my neighbor in his two bedroom unit, with his wife, his son, the daughter, the grand child and the occasional cuzzy cause they have no where to go. This is now a fact in any town in NZ, but particularly in Auckland and Rotorua. Nothing nasty about that. It is actually just a tragedy. A tragedy of epic proportions.
I think Sabine has been really clear about her proposal – rent a motel for the people who are unable to live in a civilized fashion with their neighbours.
What's your one? Or do you think it's OK for them to continue their reign of terror (and that's exactly what it is, in some instances), with no consequences.
My proposal would be to rent the house next to Poto Williams, and put them there.
In the real world, there are already people living in the said motels on the waiting list for state housing.
And telling people in state housing that Labour will do nothing about their neighbour problems leaves them to wonder whether they would be better off under National.
To prove itself serious about such a social contract Labour would have abandon debt targets and bring in CGT, wealth and estate taxation and MMT. And at some risk of being seen as too radical for the centre.
On current policy settings it would have to plot a more measured course – and that means winning elections regularly if it is to make progress over time. That does not happen if the people in state housing are unhappy, or those in motels, because of the behaviour of their neighbours.
The social contract also involves law – landlords have certain responsibilities – including KO.
So, in your Hobsonville Plus vision – what do you do with a tenant who consistently exhibits anti-social behaviour (loud parties til 3am, smashed bottles across shared driveways, hard-core gang associates visiting, dealing drugs, feral dogs chained on the property, physical intimidation, threats, and actual violence against anyone who is brave enough to complain, regular and open domestic violence against women and children resident at the property, etc.)
[Before you say I'm making this up – all of this has been witnessed by friends at a local KO house – luckily, for them, slightly down the road, rather than actually next door]
Don't say the police will deal with it – because they won't – or at least, not until there is a case of actual assault – and even then it will be 'a visitor to the house' rather than a resident, so KO won't do anything.
Treat people like scum and replicate the problem a hundredfold.
That's exactly what KO are doing to the innocent neighbours caught up in this drama. Treating them like scum….
I do not doubt your example. And I am sure there are hundreds more.
You apply as many wraparound services as are required to change the situation. It usually involves a set of interventions from the following state entities, and there's no particular order to this:
Kainga Ora, NZPolice, MSD, MoE, local Kura, MOH and DHBs, urban Maori trust services, Oranga Tamariki or whatever it will be called, local service trusts, wider family members, tonnes upon tonnes of taxpayer $$ and family group conferences, Corrections and MoJ, and finally employers who are prepared to take on Not in Education Employment or Training …
… literally hundreds of thousands of dollars working day after day to lever each and every one of these people out of the desperation and rage they are in.
And yes not all fo them will work and some will still go to gangs, for which the only control is NZPolice and MoJ and Corrections. But then, how did we bring our jail count down from 13,000 to 8,000 in 2 terms?
Hobsonville has most of those services built in.
No it is not easy. Yes that is is what our taxpayer funding is for. Yes that is the essence of the social democratic state.
Pretty pictures and plans, very artistic. But people who want to be good citizens are being treated like scum under the present system Ad. If you don' think that is right the present system is wrong, and should be changed speedily for a better one. What can you do about that, without having fancy modern housing.
Just help with something now not in future years when built, warm, dry house, with sun and light, safe space for kids to play,some shade area beside for super hot summers, friendly, respectful neighbours, own area with gate for wandering dogs and people (though a man who insisted on entering a property despite a warning notice not to use the back entrance, got bitten by the guard dog in one Nelson property, and was able to plead rights and the dog be ordered to be put down). Makes you realise that you are on a different planet than Labour planners. Send in the clowns – Don't you love a farce? My fault, I fear,
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry my dear…
Sabine’s proposal sucks and is a typical simpleton solution. Unless such motel is in the wop-wops there will always be neighbours in the hood, just not in adjacent rooms.
The issue is not going away by not doing anything. It is getting worse. And anyone who will run on 'law and order' will pick up all those that feel that law and order has been abandoned.
We have no issues housing homeless people in motels the up and down the country. At great cost to the tax payer – as they are the ones that pay all the bills.
But i guess we will see what happen in the near future. Elections are only a few months away.
They’re always only a few months away. Which public assets will NAct flog off to their rich mates this time, and what public services will be privatised – gotta fund those tax cuts. My money's on water assets and health services (the pandemic’s over, right?), and they might give Serco another go – plenty of wealth to gorge on yet.
But I guess we'll see what happens in a few months.
"There's nowhere to sleep at the back of this line."
Really, so we have 20,000+ families sleeping in cars, then?
No, they're in motels – which everyone acknowledges is not adequate housing (apart from the most temporary of emergency housing).
But it does give them somewhere to sleep.
In February this year, Kainga Ora national services general manager Nick Maling announced a suite of changes to policy that would strengthen the way it managed disruptive behaviour in its homes.
Maling said the Residential Tenancies Act provided more scope to deal with unruly tenants by enabling Kāinga Ora to move disruptive residents out of communities more easily.
These changes included Kāinga Ora implementing a warnings process that allowed the public housing landlord to take disruptive tenants to the tribunal to end a tenancy if three incidents of a serious nature were documented in a 90-day period.
Maling noted they did not want to make tenants homeless and would work to provide alternative housing and support to address the causes behind residents' behaviour.
The changes were part of a broader Kāinga Ora Customer Programme that was focused on the wellbeing of state housing tenants and the communities they lived in, Maling said.
Maybe Kainga Ora tenants who have concerns about their neighbours behaviour need to become clients of the said agencies … .
Funny thing is National wants some of the said agencies to have a greater role in the lives of those on welfare, agencies that oppose National’s approach on Kainga Ora.
Oh, so it's fine for an 'ordinary' law-abiding family to be stuck in motel accommodation, but it's too sub-standard for anti-social criminals.
If they're a 'really difficult family' then just maybe – bog-standard KO independent living is *not* the most appropriate solution for them.
I'd like to see some actively monitored housing precincts (could be apartments) – which have a zero-tolerance for gang presence, and are gated so residents only.
I would assume that most people in these households are 'ok', but that one or two elements are not. These are the people that need to be removed. And if they are law breaking they need to be arrested, and locked up. And that is the issue, innit, that we are currently not arresting and locking up people who cause havoc.
Oh well, i guess its fair go for the 'tough on law and order crowd' as the current crowd seems to simply pretend that if you don't lock them up they will rehabilitate themselves, and no it wont be cheaper either as per the Corrections Ministers, cause average and fixed costs and leases.
Something is rotten at the heart of UK politics. The Russian oligarchy has embedded its tentacles deep in the Britsh aristocracy and they are exercising considerable power to suppress the truth. Reminds me of the Jian Yang saga and National's (no so hidden) propensity to suck up to CCP money
Like Russia, we are a deeply unequal society with an exceptionally narrow intermarried inter-director network with no more than a handful of key net worth people in: housing, building supplies, ports, airports, groceries, fuel, politics, media, milk, agriculture, meat, banking, bread, fruit, electricity production, broadband, and more. Most of our debt is controlled by Australia, and most of what we make is taken by China: just 2 countries.
We're under a total illusion that we are more economically free than Russia.
Bruce Jesson and WB Sutch would recognise this country as the worst possible scenario they had imagined.
But Kremlin aligned oligarchs are perhaps unusually active in promoting sociopathies like Brexit, which was intended to reduce the UK's influence and the effectiveness and cohesion of European powers.
The sociopathy of a Bill Gates is not intentionally directed towards the wrecking of Western society (though the various windows systems are hardly benign), they are his customers after all. But this limitation is not true of Kremlin operations, who would not be at all sad to see the present order collapse. They are in a very real sense the enemies of our states.
It's no more likely that Russians will be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine than Americans have been for theirs, but if tribunals were to be set up then there'd be a bunch of slam-dunk cases.
"Historically weak government finances, badly timed tax cuts and the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the vital tourism industry, have decimated the economy, triggering a currency crisis that has disrupted fuel imports and caused skyrocketing food prices."
Just read the obit for Dame Miriam Dell – what an outstanding woman. Just reading through this, it's filled with 'only woman on' and 'first woman to' – it's due to her (and the team of strong women around her) that we have made such progress towards equality not, that I – or probably Dell – think that we're there yet
Buzz from the Beehive Guns, gongs and goings feature on the government’s official website today. Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has announced the Government is delivering on a commitment made in the National-ACT coalition agreement by commencing a review of the Firearms Registry. That takes care of the “guns” part ...
Ele Ludemann writes – There is so much wrong with what is alleged here: A Te Pāti Māori MP and the marae she once ran are at the centre of claims that private information collected during the census was used for political campaigning.Stats NZ, the Government’s official ...
TL;DR: The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, which consumes over 15% of the motu’s renewable electricity, has struck a deal to stay open for another 20 years. This will delay Aotearoa-NZ’s transition to carbon zero and make it more expensive and unfair for the 100,000 households who currently can’t afford their ...
Today we rolled through troglodyte caves and ate a fresh roast chook by the river, the mighty Loire River, the still quite angry-looking Loire River. The Loire is not itself because it has been raining here for the last seven months without a break, the locals have been telling us, ...
Fighting out of the blue corner, wearing a pale pink jacket, a half hearted smile, and a lot of flack from the left and the right, it’s your Finance Minister - Nicola Willis.Her challenger will probe the Minister for answers. Armed with boyish charm and tricky questions, the last remaining ...
A listing of 33 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 26, 2024 thru Sat, June 1, 2024. Story of the week Sometimes one story is not enough. Our ongoing 2023-2024 experiences with lethalheatwaves, early wildfires and a threatening Atlantic hurricane season ...
Much has been said about how the coalition government’s Treaty Principles Bill distorts te Tiriti o Waitangi. However, it could also serve as a Trojan horse, installing an extreme libertarian agenda. We don’t know the intent driving the proposed Bill; however, many serious effects may ensue. Far from simply clarifying the ...
British PM Rishi Sunak seems to have surprised everyone with last week’s announcement of a snap poll. Perhaps even himself, to judge by his surprisingly upbeat mood. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s troubles have probably cheered him up a bit, with the spotlight coming onto Starmer’s efforts to purge some of ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by John Mason in collaboration with members from the Gigafact team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Have climate models overestimated global warming? Climate ...
Normally I would not write about Maori issues. I may have been living in NZ for over 25 years but I do not feel that it is my place to opine because I am not an expert on Maori history … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – National campaigned on funding more cancer drugs but the government wasn’t able to do that in this Budget. These drugs would make the difference in both quality and length of life for some, and could be the difference between life and death for others. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – To truly understand yesterday’s [May 30] Budget, it’s worth returning to a statement made in 2020 by the then British High Commissioner Laura Clark that New Zealand has “Scandinavian ambitions in terms of quality of life and public services, but a US attitude to ...
Tornado damage, like this in Oklahoma, has left the insurance industry reeling at the accumulated scale of losses. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:A ...
Poster on Cuba St, Wellington. Similar signs were prominent at the Budget Day protests around the country. 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 extreme heat in India ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis hadn’t finished with wanting to tell us about Budget 2024 at the end of play on Budget Day. She had more announcements yesterday. One of these informed us that people will get to keep more of their own money from 31 July ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past somewhat interrupted week. Been on the move!Share Read more ...
Hi,When Webworm contributorJackson James Wood (the guy who marathoned Lord of the Ringsand investigated Kremelta’s horny recipes) told me he’d been secretly running a Facebook page dedicated to reptilian shapeshifters for 15 years I said, “You must write about what you’ve learnt about both reptilians and the human ...
Completed reads for May: The King of Elfland’s Daughter, by Lord Dunsany The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson The Book of Wonder (collection), by Lord Dunsany Fifty-One Tales (collection), by Lord Dunsany Magna Carta (1215) The Creole Village, by Washington Irving Tales of Wonder (collection), by ...
The original version of this blog – written by Giacomo Grassi, with contributions from Stefano Caserini, Giorgio Vacchiano, Gianni Comoretto, Claudio della Volpe, and Mario Grosso - appeared in the Italian climate website Climalteranti. The version here has been checked and further enriched by Pierre Friedlingstein (Global Carbon Project). A recent ...
How to run a successful pressure group.In 2013 a group of idealists, led by Jordan Williams and David Farrar, established the Taxpayers’ Union. To celebrate its first decade as surely New Zealand’s most successful political pressure group NZTU published The Mission: The Taxpayers Union at 10, ten short interviews (by ...
To truly understand yesterday’s Budget, it’s worth returning to a statement made in 2020 by the then British High Commissioner Laura Clark that New Zealand has “Scandinavian ambitions in terms of quality of life and public services, but a US attitude to tax”. Her point is that New Zealand politicians ...
Not Wanted:What is truly astonishing about Pukekohe is that it was the only place in New Zealand where the vicious racism endemic to the other Anglo-states took hold with sufficient force to construct a permanent system of overt racial oppression and humiliation. At a moment in history when Western racial ...
Willis is dancing not-so-daintily on the head of a fiscal pin when she describes the tax cuts as ‘fully funded’ by spending cuts and a few little revenue increases. Photo: Hagen Hopkins / Getty ImagesTL;DR:Finance Minister Nicola Willis has delivered her first Budget, deciding to go ahead with long-promised ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Today’s anti-government protests around the country will not be convinced by Nicola Willis’s budget. She has announced exactly what critics were expecting—a right-wing Budget containing tax cuts and further cuts to government programmes. Yet the Budget is far from being the “neoliberal” or radical ...
Buzz from the Beehive Agriculture – the backbone of the economy – was not mentioned in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ first Budget speech. Nor was there any mention of “farming” or “horticulture” or “rural”. Hmm. Maybe there’s something for the farm sector in the deluge of press statements from Ministers ...
I was supposed to be sent awayBut they forgot to come and get meI was a functioning alcoholic'Til nobody noticed my new aestheticAll of this to say I hope you're okayBut you're the reasonAnd no one here's to blameBut what about your quiet treason?Those first lines resonate, having done my ...
So…. according to the Treasury, we’ll have to borrow $17.1 billion by June 2028, to help fund ( among other things) a nearly $10 billion tax cut programme, also paid for by slashing billions – and 240 line items – from our public services. Conventional political wisdom to the contrary, ...
And so this is budget week, and what have we learned? Or rather: what are the takeaway learnings going forward?Learning number 1: Just saying a thing is true doesn’t make it so Remember last year when these people were all like: Oh, we can totally do all this without borrowing we can ...
Welcome to June, a long weekend (happy birthday to all the kings and queens of urbanism out there), and another Rāmere Roundup! Here are a few things that caught our eye this week. Header image: Toitū te Tiriti march moving down Queen St, Thursday 30 May 2024 This Week ...
A slowing economy and, consequently, a lower tax take means we are looking at three years of economic austerity from the Government. That austerity will be the product of what will need to be more deep cuts to Government spending. That much was evident from yesterday’s Budget, which showed tax ...
What you see is what you get. Mostly. For all the coalition haggling, culture wars and “let me be clear” obfuscation we’ve seen in the first six months of this government, National has delivered a very National budget. It’s not so much the axe being swung in this budget as ...
George R.R. Martin has taken a potshot at the adaptation process, arguing that screenwriters’ desire to improve on source material leads to a worse story outcome: https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2024/05/24/the-adaptation-tango/ “Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and “make them their own.” It does ...
I've been watching the reports of the Māori-led protests all around the country this morning, seeing huge crowds not just in Auckland and Wellington and other major cities, but in much smaller places like Nelson and Whangārei. Its a significant show of opposition to the government, and hopefully they are ...
I've been watching the reports of the Māori-led protests all around the country this morning, seeing huge crowds not just in Auckland and Wellington and other major cities, but in much smaller places like Nelson and Whangārei. Its a significant show of opposition to the government, and hopefully they are ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Ever since National talked about helping us by allowing us to keep some of our own money, critics have been vociferous in opposition. There are so many urgent needs in core public services – education, health, infrastructure, police . . . it’s not hard ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has taken aim at Te Pāti Māori, calling them “radical extremists” and accusing them stoking racial division. Peters was responding to Te Pāti Māori’s promotion of the nationwide protests planned for Budget Day and comments ...
Buzz from the Beehive We drew a blank, almost, when we checked the government’s official website this morning. Yes, there was a speech by the redoubtable Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour. For the rest of it, our comfortably paid ministers of the Crown have ...
Inadequately Equipped: Forget the loud-hailers Minister, what you need is TikTok. Shane Jones marches into Blackball preaching the gospel of “Mine, Baby, Mine!” the old-fashioned way.IT ALMOST WORKED. “Matua Shane”, local supporters in tow, advanced down the main street of Blackball. Had the Minister for Resources, Shane Jones, been supplied with a ...
A treat for all those who have just read the preceding post. Roy Orbison sings (as only Roy Orbison can sing) his 1966 hit, Communication Breakdown.Video courtesy of YouTubeThis post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Hi all,I thought I’d write a quick note on the start of a long day. Protests this morning, speeches soon, then that budget thingy, and no doubt a lot of post match analysis.After the appalling weather last evening I was a little reluctant to get up, but this was no ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Michael LowryOver 90% of the tropical Atlantic is experiencing record or near-record warm sea surface temperatures for late May. Waters across the Atlantic’s tropical belt — extending from the coast of Africa through the Caribbean — are hotter now ...
We find out at 2:00 pm today what Finance Minister Nicola Willis has in her first Budget. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The new Government’s first Budget due today at 2:00 pm is focused on delivering ‘cost of living relief’ in the form of income tax cuts for middle ...
The Waitematā Local Board is currently consulting on the cutely named Local Active Modes Plan (aka LAMP), which aims to illuminate a programme of quick wins for walking and cycling. There’s a nifty drop-a-pin map here. Get in quick – consultation closes tomorrow,Friday 31 May, presumably at midnight. In the ...
The success – or otherwise — of today’s Budget will depend as much as anything else on the views of one man, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr. If the Bank concludes that the deficit track is either unconvincing or too lax, then despite the “back pocket boost” tax cuts, the ...
Rumours can be glorious things. One some time ago went so far as to suggest that Melkor/Morgoth will appear in Season Two of Rings of Power… disguised as Tom Bombadil. And now we know that crazy rumour had a grain of truth to it. He might not be ...
Been busy getting on bikes and pointing them towards Europe.Been feeling melancholy, seeing Karren off at the train, back to Heathrow, back to Auckland, back to the seaside village; hugging Mary-Margaret goodbye after one last coffee at Hackney 215. Even though you’ve been really really looking forward to this road ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Environmentalists preach that we should think global and act local. It’s a good message but one which too often they don’t follow, in some cases they don’t appear to be thinking at all. Demanding that New Zealand reduce livestock farming is a case in ...
National's 2023 campaign was all about tax cuts for landlords. And one of the key ways they were planning to fund it was a "climate dividend" - basically, pillaging ETS revenue and redirecting it from decarbonisation straight into the pockets of the rich. But there's a problem: there might not ...
Alwyn Poole writes – I have no doubt Chris Hipkins is the worst and most ignorant (or dishonest) Minister of Education our nation has seen. He said this on NewstalkZB last week: “If people are concerned about kids who aren’t achieving in mainstream schooling, the area ...
Bryce Edwards writes – News that the Government’s new Parliamentary Undersecretary for Health, Todd Stephenson, has been pressured today to sell his investments in pharmaceutical companies shows how New Zealand is becoming more sensitive and suspicious about politicians’ “conflicts of interest”. Yet, we need to get much more ...
Doing the maths: Most home buyers will now only be able to borrow six times their income (7 times for investors). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Reserve Bank has confirmed plans to apply Debt To Income (DTI) multiple limits on investors and owner-occupiers from July 1. While price ...
Gas Stations sit the very intersection of transport, land use, and the energy transition, so are interesting to watch. Especially in the city core. The three buildings shown here are all on the sites of former gas stations in central Auckland. The longer term fact is that gas stations are ...
Have you seen my bag of money?I left it in the parlour,It was your party and they were your friends,I see you got a nice new car and a brand new pair of pants.So what’s it going to be New Zealand? The Money or the Bag? Do you want those ...
Hi,I am sort of loath to write this newsletter today because I fear it’s playing into the hands of a bunch of elderly edgelords. These are typically older white men who generate their income by saying the most hideous stuff they can, all while self-righteously screaming about the merits of ...
Graham Adams writes that while Web of Chaos gets a rerun on TVNZ, River of Freedom is left out in the cold. If you are a film-maker looking for an injection of taxpayer cash, a pitch focused on fake news purportedly propagated by “conspiracy theorists” looks to be a good ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis has estimated the loss of around 2500 jobs from the public sector during the cost-saving since the general election last October. Another 1150 vacancies in Government departments have been removed from the books and 500 are expected to go, she said during ...
News that the Government’s new Parliamentary Undersecretary for Health, Todd Stephenson, has been pressured today to sell his investments in pharmaceutical companies shows how New Zealand is becoming more sensitive and suspicious about politicians’ “conflicts of interest”. Yet, we need to get much more serious about creating rules and procedures ...
Chris Trotter writes – It almost worked. “Matua Shane”, local supporters in tow, advanced down the main street of Blackball. Had the Minister for Resources, Shane Jones, been supplied with a full-sized loud-hailer to amplify his pro-mining slogans, then the photo-op would have been an unqualified success. Unfortunately, the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Last year, in the lead up to the national election, Governor Orr said in May 2023 that he was “very confident” there would not be further interest rate hikes, stating the Reserve Bank had done enough in terms of rate rises. He was interviewed by ...
Bryce Edwards writes Toxicity and disinformation are becoming a big part of New Zealand politics. And much of this relates to debates about ethnicity, race, and racism. We should all be concerned about this trend. Personal abuse, dishonesty, and contempt in the public sphere are bad for democracy, ...
House-building and infrastructure industry leaders are begging the Government for project-pipeline certainty and warning of a 2009/10-style exodus of skilled staff overseas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government won last year’s election with a pledge to ‘get things done’ and ‘get New Zealand back on ...
What's the matter with him? (He's alright)How do you know? (The Lord won't mind)Don't play no games (he's alright)Love from the bottom to the top.You’re alright, but how about her, or him? What makes them tick? Are they a solid citizen or a slippery fecker? Why are we all so ...
Recently, the transport consultancy Crank publicly released a report about children’s vision for transport in Auckland. It was produced in 2023 to help shape Auckland Council’s Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT) Reduction Strategy. That got me thinking, and after going back to the recent Long Term Plan Consultation Feedback results, one ...
One of National’s showpiece election promises appears to be in more trouble with Waikato University yesterday withdrawing its call for tenders to develop a new medical school. The move will delay any substantial increase in the number of doctors being trained in New Zealand. The University’s decision just over a ...
Today, I ran across a Twitter thread about writerly use of the word ‘said’: https://x.com/APoetForThePyre/status/1794895108581859794 As a writer, I have my opinions about this, and since it has been a long, long time since I offered thoughts on the unwritten rules of writing, I thought I would explore the matter ...
This story by James Goodwin was originally published by The Revelatorand is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Communities across the United States may soon find themselves facing a grim scenario. By adopted local ordinances that obstruct the development of new renewable energy resources within ...
Toxicity and disinformation are becoming a big part of New Zealand politics. And much of this relates to debates about ethnicity, race, and racism. We should all be concerned about this trend. Personal abuse, dishonesty, and contempt in the public sphere are bad for democracy, social cohesion, and the integrity ...
Buzz from the Beehive With just a few days to go before Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers her first Budget speech, her colleagues have been focused in recent days on issues beyond our shores. Education Minister Erica Stanford made the only announcement of concern to citizens who want to know ...
James Kierstead writes – White sand beaches. Palm trees waving in a gentle breeze. Seas of turquoise and ultramarine, cobalt and denim stretching out as far as the eye can see. Such is the view of New Caledonia that you get on travel websites. And it’s not an ...
The National Government has shown all their talk about meeting climate targets is just hot air as they cut more than $3 billion in climate-related work, said Labour climate spokesperson Megan Woods. ...
The Green Party’s Te Mātāwaka (Māori and Pasifika) caucus has labelled this year’s Budget as unambitious for Māori and unapologetic in its disregard for Te Tiriti. ...
The Government’s bloody-minded commitment to delivering trickle-down tax cuts at all costs comes at the expense of investment in people and planet. ...
This year’s Budget reflects the heartlessness of the Coalition Government when it comes to Pasifika, according to the Green Party’s Te Mātāwaka (Māori and Pasifika) caucus. ...
The budget today is a sad state of affairs and the country can now see the result of Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ wrong choices and the Government’s broken promises. ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has repeatedly said she will not be borrowing for tax cuts and denied fiscal irresponsibility. Today, the budget has revealed Nicola Willis has borrowed $12 billion – and her tax cuts cost $10 billion. ...
In six short months the Minister for Housing has shrunk the pool of potential home owners in New Zealand, removed housing security for renters, re-introduced competition on existing stock between investors and speculators, and served power and billions of dollars to landlords on a silver platter, says Labour housing spokesperson ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect New Zealanders' right of free speech. The “Protection of Freedom of Expression Bill” will ensure that no organisation or individual, when acting within the law, is unreasonably denied use of a public venue for an organised event or ...
The Green Party unequivocally condemns the governing parties’ attempts to limit the public’s say on the controversial Māori wards legislation, after the select committee considering the legislation set a deadline for submissions of just five days. ...
Disabled children and families nationwide have recently found out they’re no longer able to use disability support funding for programmes during school hours in another quiet update from the Government. ...
Following a horrific case of stalking that ended in tragedy, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has drafted a bill that would add stalking to the Crimes Act. ...
The Rt Hon Winston Peters, joined by Mike King, has announced $24 million over four years for the ‘I Am Hope Foundation’, and will provide young people aged between 5 to 25 years with free mental health counselling services. This funding will help I Am Hope’s ‘Gumboot Friday’ initiative give ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts travel to Singapore tomorrow to sign three Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) agreements. IPEF’s 14 partners represent 40 per cent of global GDP and account for 50 per cent of New Zealand’s exports. They include critical markets for Kiwi exporters ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford today recognises the significant achievements of those included in the King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List, particularly those being celebrated for their services to education. “This year’s King’s Birthday Honours recognises the commitment, dedication and passion that those who have been honoured have shown,” Ms Stanford ...
Me aro koe ki te hā o Hine-ahu-one The devotion shown by Katareina Kaiwai to improving the lives of people across her community is an inspiration to all New Zealanders, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. Katareina Kaiwai (Ngāti Porou, Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga) has been awarded a King’s Service Medal ...
Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee has congratulated the King’s Birthday 2024 Honours recipients hailing from ethnic communities, saying they embody the valuable contributions of diverse peoples to New Zealand society. “The King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List recognises a number of outstanding individuals for their services to New Zealand’s ethnic and ...
Minister of Health and Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti today recognises the significant work of those included in the King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List, particularly those being honoured for services to health and medical sciences and services to Pacific communities. “This year’s King’s Birthday Honours List represents a massive breadth ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has congratulated the recipients included on the King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List, saying they reflect the best of New Zealand. The 176 recipients include the appointments of two Dames and two Knights. “The New Zealanders being honoured in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours have given decades ...
Thank you to the International Institute for Strategic Studies for the invitation to speak on this panel today, and for your ongoing work organising the Shangri-La Dialogue. It’s great to be here today alongside my Thai and Canadian colleagues to discuss security connections across the wider Indo-Pacific. I am so ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will travel to Niue and Fiji this week (4-7 June), as New Zealand continues to sharpen its focus and engagement in the Pacific. It will be Mr Luxon’s first visit to the region as Prime Minister. “Niue and Fiji are two of New Zealand’s closest friends ...
The Coalition Government is delivering New Zealand’s aquaculture industry the confidence and security it needs to grow, says Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. A Bill which passed its first reading in Parliament today will extend current resource consents for marine farms by up to 20 years, removing a significant ...
The Government is delivering on a commitment made in the National-ACT coalition agreement by commencing a review of the Firearms Registry. “Cabinet has agreed to the registry review terms of reference and the review is now underway,” Associate Minister of Justice, Hon Nicole McKee says. “It is important that we ...
Average-income households will be up to $102 a fortnight better off from 31 July following passage of The Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill in Parliament today, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “The bill gives effect to the coalition Government’s promise to allow New Zealanders who have been experiencing a prolonged cost ...
Within 18 hours of the Budget being released, there have been 240,821 visits to our tax calculator website which outlines exactly how much tax relief lower and middle income New Zealanders will receive, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Hardworking Kiwis, who often work two jobs and juggle family commitments need ...
The Government is encouraging businesses to take advantage of the reduced tariff rates under our free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK). The UK is now our fastest growing export market, Trade Minister Todd McClay says. The deal entered into force one year ago today. Mr McClay meet with ...
Technology making it easier for hunters to find animals will be allowed on public conservation land from 1 June, Hunting and Fishing Minister Todd McClay has announced. The use of hand-held thermal technology during daylight hours will add to safety and help hunters to better identify animals,” Minister McClay ...
The Government will repeal legislation this weekend requiring the compulsory registration of log traders and forestry advisers, Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “The current system fails to deliver outcomes and places unnecessary costs on forest businesses,” Mr McClay says. “The repeal will be delivered at speed, with changes coming into ...
Professor Lester Levy has been appointed as a member and Chair of the Board of Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ), Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “Professor Levy has extensive experience working in the health system and will provide strong leadership to Health NZ through ...
The signing of individual 20-year bilateral long-term contracts between the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), Meridian Energy, Contact Energy, and Mercury NZ will provide certainty for the electricity market and will be a welcome relief for the Southland economy, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Tiwai Smelter is New Zealand’s ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to South East Asia next week. “South East Asia is critical to maintaining and building New Zealand’s security and prosperity,” Mr Peters says. “My travel to the region is a further demonstration of the Coalition Government’s strong commitment to boosting New Zealand’s ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says Budget 2024 delivers on the Government’s promises, with savings across the public sector being reinvested in frontline services and meaningful tax reductions to support hard-working Kiwis. “This Budget is prudent and fiscally responsible. By identifying billions of dollars of lower-value spending across the public sector, ...
Mr Speaker, I move that the Appropriation (2024/25 Estimates) Bill be now read a second time. Tēnā koutou katoa. E mihi ana ki a Ahumairangi, ki a Tangi-te-keo, ki te Whanganui-a-Tara. Tāne whakapiripiri e tū nei, e ngā tāngata whenua o te rohe, e ngā mema ...
Responsible and effective climate related initiatives that support New Zealand to reduce emissions, and adapt to the future effects of climate change are a priority, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Our Government is committed to meeting emission reduction targets, including the overall goal of carbon net-zero by 2050, while ...
Budget 2024 invests more than $1 billion in a package of initiatives to further support the rebuild and recovery of communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods to improve New Zealand’s emergency preparedness, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell say. ...
Revenue from the Waste Disposal Levy will be spent on a wider range of projects supporting the environment and climate change mitigation and adaptation in addition to minimising waste, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “The Government will introduce a Bill as part of Budget 2024 legislation which expands the scope ...
Budget 2024 sets the path for a sustainable tertiary education sector that supports and incentivises hard working learners, businesses, and tertiary education providers, Tertiary Education Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The first year Fees Free policy was an expensive failure and did not deliver its aim of more students going into ...
Budget 2024 confirms a $2.68 billion investment in roads, rail, and public transport to unlock economic growth and enable Kiwis and freight to get to where they want to go quickly and safely, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “This funding includes a billion-dollar increase over that signalled during the consultation ...
Kua tū te haka a Tāne Rore me ngā mahi a Hine Rēhia! Secure long-term funding of $48.7 million from 2025 will ensure the future of Te Matatini prospers with the support of the Government, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. I tēnei tahua pūtea kua whakangaoa e te Kāwanatanga ...
Supporting regional productivity, prosperity and resilience will be at the heart of the Regional Infrastructure Fund, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. “The coalition Government is committed to building a stronger, more productive economy, and this fund will help support our regional economies to grow,” Mr Jones says. “Building infrastructure ...
Critical support services that improve the lives of disabled people, their families, and those who care for them will receive significant investment through Budget 2024. “The coalition Government wants the best outcomes for the disability community, which is why we are prioritising the essential frontline services they rely on,” says ...
Budget 2024 lays the foundations for a better performing infrastructure system, with investments to ensure Kiwis spend less time waiting in traffic, that improve our climate resilience, and in modern classrooms that support our kids to achieve at school, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Government is determined to address ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour says this Budget makes a good start in reducing low value government spending, and there is more efficiency to be found in future Budget cycles. “The coalition Government inherited a dire fiscal situation. Core Crown expenditure increased nearly 70 percent between 2017 and 2023. Debt ...
Frontline Police numbers will be increased by 500 officers by the end of 2025 to help reduce crime and improve public safety, Associate Police Minister Casey Costello says. “We are serious about restoring law and order and that starts with having more Police on the beat to deter crime and ...
A focus on supporting frontline Police in this year’s Budget will keep our communities safer, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “We are serious about cracking down on crime and keeping communities safe so people can go about their lives in peace. We back our Police and are giving them more ...
The coalition Government is boosting education spending by $2.93 billion over the next four years to improve student outcomes, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. "The investment includes extra funding for new classrooms, additional teacher support and early childhood education,” Ms Stanford says. “It also includes previously announced additional funding for ...
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"Come along for a 'Picnic' at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, a place that symbolises our ancestors that fought for our freedom," a statement on Unite's website read.
What a gang of deluded fuckwits! Do they not realise that every service person since way back when has been vaccinated without choice or rights of refusal. To compound this lack of awareness, the most vulnerable to death with/by Covid overwhelmingly are of the age group that most closely represent those they purport to extol.
After WW2, thousands of young men were forced to do Compulsory Military Training. The 'youngsters' of this cohort are now in their 70's – and were all COMPULSORILY vaccinated, in case they were required as war fodder. Guess what they might think of these self-entitled pricks who want to wrap themselves in sham patriotism, while happily handing out premature death sentences to these people- all in the name of their 'freedumbs".
One might suggest that Unite should watching their backs. It is not only the old buggers that will be offended, there are thousands of younger active and former service men and women who may decide that the fuckwit brigade should be physically dealt too for their blatant disrespect.
I see the villagers around Belgarod in Russia have been getting lots of "entertainment" over the last few nights:
First, a Russian ammunition dump explodes allegedly due to Ukranian shelling, or perhaps a missile attack:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/huge-explosions-major-russian-ammo-26587639
And now a huge fire at a fuel storage depot caused by two attack helicopters:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60952125
The Ukranians are neither confirming or denying the attack on the fuel depot, so there has been some speculation that it was a false flag attack by the Russians.
However, I don't see the point of the Russians staging a false flag attack on this asset. It is strategic infrastructure the Russians need to support their heavily armour dependent effort in the region they have just signalled they want to focus on. It would make an ideal opportunistic target for the Ukranians and would fit with their MO of targeting Russian logistics.
I would suspect a false flag attack if an empty school had been hit, or there had been some sort of chemical incident in Russia.
What would be the point of a false flag?
Exactly. No point to attack this sort of infrastructure as a false flag.
A false flag would be much more effective if it was attacking some sort of soft target.
itHow would the Russians benefit from any false flag on Russian territory?
I agree. I don’t think there really is much point. Unless they wanted to do something like staging a chemical attack against Russian civilians to justify using chemical weapons themselves.
Since Ukraine denies all knowledge, there is another highly disturbing implication and it ain't got anything to do with false flags.
Care to join the dots Tsmithfield?
Neither confirm nor deny is not the same thing as claiming no knowledge.
But are you suggesting another foreign actor could have done this? And if so, what would be the point?
Throwing a spanner into the works of peace negotiations?
Who might want the war to carry on and turn Ukraine into Afghanistan?
Actually, there is another possibility:
That dissatisfied members of the Russian forces in the area may have carried out the attack themselves because they want to force Russia to exit the war.
Attacking that sort of installation as a false flag makes no sense at all. But mutiny in the ranks is certainly a possibility.
Anything to excuse the highly probable eh? You should be engaged by NATO in a psyops role. At least you might sound a little more credible than old sleepy Joe.
Do you have anything to back up your speculation that the US or NATO had anything to do with that attack? Especially given the extraordinary efforts they have gone to to make sure they weren't directly involved in this fight. Imagine if it had been the US and a helicopter crashed and the Americans were caught?
Or is it more likely to be forces that have been refusing to obey orders and shoot down their own air craft, or back a tank over their own commander?
https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/31/russians-shooting-down-own-planes-and-refusing-to-follow-orders-16377838/
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/world/russia-ukraine-war-russian-soldier-reportedly-runs-over-his-commander-with-tank-in-protest/
I think there is more basis for my speculation than yours.
Where did you get 'neither confirm nor deny' from?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/300556574/ukraine-denies-they-were-behind-strike-on-russian-territory-as-talks-resume
Making stuff up again to support your obsessions?
Exactly: Also:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-foreign-minister-says-he-has-no-information-about-who-carried-out-2022-04-01/
To screw with the Russian heads though, the Ukranians (regardless of whether or not they carried out the attack) could issue the following press release:
"After investigating this incident we can confirm that Ukraine did not carry out this attack. However, our sources inside the Russian military advise us that the attack was carried out by discontented members of the Russian airforce…"
classic psyops
Pretty understandable however – flying a helicopter over an enemy country rich in manpads is likely rather stressful.
Yes, such a statement could sow seeds of doubt within the Russian forces on a number of levels: eg:
Do the Ukranians have sources inside our military?
Do we have a mutiny in our own forces? etc.
Or possibly some locals who decided to get involved as they have Ukrainian friends or relatives just across the border?
Mayor Hawkins of Dunedin goes against joining with other Councils who oppose the 3 Waters programme. Maori relationship healed, Council rift deepens.
Council schism over Three Waters broad | Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz)
Great to see a good Major making a principled stand and also paying a political cost for it. Proper politics.
How is he a 'good mayor'? He's gone against 72% of his own constituents, and appears to have actively shut down debate on the issue. He's also thrown away the opportunity to work with a powerful block of councils to effect change to what is a deeply flawed plan, which is foolish, considering his own Deputy said that "councillors were generally in agreement about having strong misgivings about aspects of the Government’s reform agenda."
What article have you been reading? It sounds like you’re making up things. As you know, I get tetchy when I get the distinct feeling that commenters make up stuff to suit their biased narrative, especially when they make rather bold allegations.
From the article referenced by Ad
'He's gone against 72% of his own constituents…'
"An unscientific poll of Otago Daily Times readers found 71.74% of respondents thought the council was wrong to pull out of Communities 4 Local Democracy, while 28.26% thought it had done the right thing. There were a total of 2265 voters in the poll."
'…and appears to have actively shut down debate on the issue.'
"While Aaron Hawkins remained mayor, no serious opposition would be mounted to the city council losing control of assets as part of the Government’s Three Waters reforms, Cr Jim O’Malley said. "He has actively blocked that in the past 12 months," Cr O’Malley said."
Fascinating, how your biased mind seems to work, truly fascinating.
You seem to think that the results of “[a]n unscientific poll” of “2265 voters in the poll” is representative of Dunedin’s constituents.
You also seem to think that reckons of one disgruntled councillor mean that debate was shut down. First, that’s not what the councillor said, but simply your incorrect interpretation. There’s nothing in the linked article suggesting that Hawkins has or did shut down debate as you allege. In addition, there’s mention of at least 2 pivotal votes and “numerous opportunities for the council to express concern”. Looks to me there’s been plenty of lively debate.
So, again, what article have you been reading?
"You seem to think that the results of “[a]n unscientific poll” of “2265 voters in the poll” is representative of Dunedin’s constituents."
Do you have any other polls that say differently?
"First, that’s not what the councillor said, but simply your incorrect interpretation. "
How do you interpret the suggestion that the mayor blocked opposition?
"“numerous opportunities for the council to express concern”"
Yes that would be a claim made by the mayor who has been the one accused of shutting down debate.
"there’s mention of at least 2 pivotal votes"
And there's mention by the Deputy mayor Christine Garey of councillors being "generally in agreement about having strong misgivings about aspects of the Government’s reform agenda."
It’s all in there.
You made up these allegations, you find the evidence, which is not in the article I read. I read the facts, not your interpretations or allegations. Explain how there have been at least 2 pivotal votes without prior debate.
If you have other polls, preferentially scientific ones conducted by an independent party, let’s hear it, from you.
Council minutes will no doubt show there’s been plenty of debate. Go find those minutes and read them before you spread your disinformation here.
Even the Deputy Mayor referes to agreement and misgivings; is she a mindreader too just like you?
It seems I have to activate my recent moderation warning to you.
You're having some reading comprehension issues today.
"You made up these allegations,"
No. I quoted directly from the article.
"Even the Deputy Mayor referes to agreement and misgivings;"
But I didn't say there wasn't any disagreement – the votes were close, so clearly there was. What I said was that the mayor 'appears to have actively shut down debate', a claim supported directly from the article by the comments of Cr O'Malley.
"It seems I have to activate my recent moderation warning to you."
Go for your life. I'm not retracting comments that were based directly on the contents of an article that is in the public domain.
[Your conclusion is untenable from the info in that one single article. You make a serious allegation about the Mayor “actively” obstructing the democratic process, i.e. debate, apparent (to you) or not. There are many ways of a attempting a “serious opposition” (whatever that means) from mounting, e.g. persuasive arguments in open and robust debate and/or a legalistic behaviour. Evidence for this or to the contrary may be found in the minutes of Council meetings and/or elsewhere but you made no effort to find any because you’ve already made your conclusions and closed off your mind to other information. You also extrapolate from an unscientific poll result to come to your conclusion about the constituents of Dunedin. So, it is obvious that you subtly twist things your way to suit your bias and spread misinformation and disinformation. I have warned you recently this misleading behaviour here would result in an instant ban. So, take a week off – Incognito]
Mode note
Yes I'd suggest the local government elections are a reasonable proxy for what local government feels about 3 Waters. And government will have no choice but to listen if it continues to languish in the 36% range or worse.
My feeling is that the government will "hear the word" of this upcoming result and put the proposal up for central government election.
3 Waters is big enough to need a fresh mandate.
The fact that he has gone against 72% of his constituents doesn't mean he is not a 'good mayor'. Those constituents may be wrong.
What fact?
I support Aaron's actions and rationale. He has it right, imo, and the others have it wrong.
Dunedin resident here, & I support Hawkins.
If he has it right, it's by being lucky that his green party future career points in that direction, more than by his ability.
Not sure how many of the council actually support 3waters. But the mana whenua do support it.
So there is a chunk of council, like the mayor, who have "concern" or "misgivings" about it but will do nothing, and another chunk who are actually prepared to oppose it.
There is a certain poetry to councils losing billions of dollars worth of assets with a farcical amount of compensation, with mana whenua looking on and cheering. Who says history never repeats, lol
30,000 Residents driven out of the Big Lemon over the last three years.Low rate of local GDP,excessive cost plus local economy.
A more sustainable city would need another 100000 to leave.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/housing-affordability/300556431/chief-economist-says-unaffordable-housing-in-auckland-is-driving-people-away
Median house price to income of 14.69…..nothing more needs to be said.
Thats the cost,the OPEX will increase around 15% by August next year (rates insurance,interest,electricity).
Potemkin policy and wasteful spending will not make it better.
But all the inflation is imported….nothing to be done about, so the experts say.
Unsustainable is.
Well some commodities are antifragile,Onions seem unchanged in price.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128192151/pak-n-saves-ageing-shopping-lists-show-steep-rise-in-food-prices
And no futures market…i wonder if theres a connection?
That is why there is always been a future in Onions,the other commodity classes Boom and Bust,
The biggest OPEX is the housing of the economy’s workforce….time (well past) to cut our biggest cost, and maybe, just maybe we may improve our productivity.
in the last 2 years the population has been stable,and yet house prices went up 40%,and building costs went through the roof,where a lot of the component's are locally sourced.
The cost of land say in CHCH should not have changed,there is for example 47 hecatres of residential land in the 4 avenues alone.
A lot of the new builds are being used for short term accomodation (airbnb) 2000 in CHCH single use alone.
All supported (made possible) by ever increasing book value…..which im sure we will agree is unsustainable….the moment that book value ceases to grow the whole house of cards collapses, and in the past few months (well before Ukraine) the indications are that enough are beginning to understand that….party is over, hangover to follow.
Its going to be one hell of a hangover
Bigger then we can expect.(8 months ago)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/125970733/developers-take-new-tack-in-search-for-land-as-investors-buy-up-new-homes
The gov and finance sector writing cheques the real economy cant possibly honour
the banks have a lot to answer for again.the RBNZ needs to make the banks increase their capital reserves,
Theyre getting around to it…..the Reserve Bank Act (1989) was a coup d'etat unrecognised.
What is 'Potemkin policy'?
All front and no substance
Ah that's the Potemkin Village. Not Battleship Potemkin.
Understand the clarification.
All smoke no hangi.
With the promise of a great feed
here is a good example with Megan Woods.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128249080/new-zealand-to-release-further-oil-reserves-in-response-to-russian-invasion-of-ukraine
We do not have a physical reserve,we have a futures contract,too purchase an agreed amount of oil at the spot price.With backwardation the oil prices are less in the future market,then the spot at present.
The US has a wide spread (releasing a million barrels of physical oil) which has brought the spot price down WTI under 100bbl and the december futures up to 94bbl.
Some of those fighting in Ukraine are doing so to cause the fall of Putin, one group are Belarusians. They see Putin as one factor behind the continuance of the rule of the tyrant in Minsk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/01/ukraine-belarus-fighters-russia/?carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3677f44%2F62471fe679d9d21aa1133935%2F602879e6ae7e8a31ba10f3a9%2F8%2F70%2F62471fe679d9d21aa1133935
Foreign fighters are of mixed value
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/among-ukraines-foreign-fighters
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/ukraine-pauses-new-recruiting-to-foreign-legion-as-it-grapples-with-non-military-volunteers
KO has been rapped over the knuckles by the Tenancy Tribunal for their gross failure to manage the impact of disruptive tenants on their neighbours. In this case both the parties were KO tenants.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kainga-ora-residents-tenancy-tribunal-complaint-after-neighbour-hell-for-three-years/JHLXUDIR4RO72KZKNQRUNNA7ME/?c_id=1&objectid=12515078&ref=rss
It makes it evident that the statement last year from Poto Williams about KO taking a firmer line, was just so much hot air.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/associate-minister-of-housing-poto-williams-steps-in-to-change-k-inga-ora-complaints-process-for-unruly-tenants.html
There is nothing in the article, about recent steps (since this new policy was implemented in February) to deal with this issue.
What I'm not seeing (or at least not reported) is a directive to KO to take urgent action – and move out the tenant with the significant and ongoing history of disruptive behaviour.
The wimpish current policy of 'offering both parties alternative accommodation' (especially when they know there is no alternative accommodation) is useless. Evict the problem tenant, and leave the rest of the neighbourhood to enjoy a peaceful life.
After evicting them, where would you put the inconvenient poor?
i don't know, maybe the same place these guys have to go to?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/128142111/theyre-going-to-rip-our-whole-family-apart-a-week-after-mothers-death-kinga-ora-tells-family-to-leave
or where ever these guys went to?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/338294/housing-nz-orders-eviction-after-grandmother-s-death
It seems that KO can evict people, just not the poor hard done criminal elements.
The 2nd case occurred in 2017 under National.
The 1st one though indicates those on the state house waiting house includes some who need an accessible wet accessible bathroom area (which would probably push them up the list). They probably usually get a new unit or any existing units once modified as soon as it is available.
The point i was making was that Kainga Ora does evict people. Just not hte violent antisocial assholes.
Yeah, and they get a house when one is available.
Come to Rotorua, go to Fenton street and understand that most of the motels are full with people who wait for a state house. And most of them are not violent antisocial assholes.
Last, i see no difference between L and N, i consider them all unwilling to do what needs to be done when it comes to housing – affordable, clean and tidy housing.
Sabine, Kainga Ora are currently building many homes in Rotorua. More building has happened here in the last 12 months and this year than in the last 5o years we have lived in Rotorua. We built our first home here in 1973, that was the last time you could see new homes in all areas of Rotorua.
A new subdivision is beginning on the corner of Ranolf and Malfroy Streets. Currntly there are 37 new homes in Pukehangi, 190 are planned city wide. So our suggestion they are the same as National is hogwash.
Edit function would not respond. "currently"
According to this article from 2021 we have about 2000 homeless housed in motels in Rotorua.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300246795/rotorua-has-become-a-dumping-ground-for-the-countrys-homeless-some-locals-claim#:~:text=It's%20estimated%20that%20up%20to,45%20motels%20in%20the%20city.
They can't build fast enough and plenty enough to make even just a dent, so now they are buying motels in Rotorua for the homeless families of our fair town.
there https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125821220/govt-moves-from-paying-motels-to-house-homeless-to-buying-its-own-in-rotorua
Housing homeless in Motels may be a stop gag, but its going to be a permanent one. 🙂
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/461753/ardern-motel-housing-a-stopgap-measure-but-no-end-date-in-sight-for-rotorua
Btw, i live next to one of these houses that are being build. The property stood empty for two years, then the property got demolished, then the block stood empty for one year, now they have been building for about half a year, and i would guess it will take another half a year to finish.
At that rate and the number announced it will take another 20 odd years to house the estimated 2000 people (2021 number) in houses.
Btw, my neighbourgh has a family member live in the Garage, it is safer there then in the Motels. Go figure.
Fwiw, i think the effort of N and L in regards to housing are negligable.
Never mind the properties that got demolished, surely for the greater good and some new houses. Hopefully. Never mind that we actually now have less state houses then we used too.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/government-has-sold-or-demolished-nearly-2000-state-houses-since-july-2018.html
The second eviction never took place. It was cancelled while National were, just, still the Government. The daughter who took over the lease gave special thanks to the Destiny Church. They must do some good.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/339203/grandchildren-facing-loss-of-state-home-given-reprieve
The link also mentions
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/339203/grandchildren-facing-loss-of-state-home-given-reprieve
I know two people that have been "saved" from a drunken and lonely old age by Destiny Church.
It appears to be more than just a vanity and self enrichment project of Tamaki's, for many in it.
I suspect like most churches, and other "gangs", they have to be more than just a money making outfit to keep members.
Just heard an acquaintance has transferred from Destiny to Equip. Apparently the tithe is cheaper!
Tempted to let them know that the Presbyterians and Sallies etc, offer the same services, for a voluntary donation!
Well, I guess they can go to the back of the line of the 20,000+ families who are waiting for a KO house.
'Inconvenience' is people parking on the berm, or not mowing the lawn, or having parties every weekend. Annoying. But you just live with it.
This is (as determined by both the police and the Tenancy Tribunal) illegal antisocial behaviour (threats, harassment, etc.). No neighbour should have to put up with it, because KO can't deal with a problem tenant.
And, 9/10 of the problem behaviour would stop immediately, if the tenants concerned knew they would be kicked out for anti-social behaviour.
The state has a duty to assholes.
There's nowhere to sleep at the back of this line.
We didn't bring our total prison number down from 12,000 to 8000 by more punishment.
The hard cases need even greater state support.
The government can rent a motel just for these assholes and hide them there just as they do with those that are not antisocial violent assholes but who are unlucky enough to not being put up in state houses as these antisocial violent assholes. Like all the several hundreds of families that can’t get state houses because the government gives them to violent antisocial assholes. .
No they don't need greater support, they need no support. At some stage you cut the abuser out of your life and you put the effort to those that want to be good and law abiding citizens.
Yep a motel set up just for these people is the right approach.
We house each criminal in this country with an average subsidy of $150,000 per year.
You can't get rid of the problem until you solve it.
Unfortunately, the 'cost' of not solving the problem is being borne by the neighbours – who are trapped in the situation with no way out.
They have rights, too. As this Tenancy Tribunal case has made crystal clear to KO.
Neighbours have rights. Sure.
The right to safe housing is stronger.
It's weak to simply say you can just chuck them on the streets. As if our duty of care is exhausted because it's hard.
The hard question the left must always answer is:
How do we care for and fix the most damaged?
The right to safety from your feral neighbours is stronger.
Bear in mind that we are talking about people who conduct a relentless campaign of active harassment, threats, property damage and actual physical violence.
Just imagine what that does to your mental health, let alone physical well-being. We've had story, after story, in the media of families who are literally afraid to leave their houses, because of the (usually gang adjacent) neighbours.
Nothing preventing KO from choosing to house the anti-social in motels – it's still a 'roof over their heads' – just not one that's particularly attractive.
Given that the State can't care for and fix everyone at the same time (9 years of neglect, I hear the echo); then perhaps they need to follow standard triage principles, and deal with the people who 'can' be fixed in the short term. Get them out of the way and resolved, and then try to do something about the long-term dysfunctional.
Because, the fastest way to make a gang life attractive to the next generation, is to see criminals getting way with anti-social and intimidating behaviour with zero consequences.
How – you sit down and have a hard think and pull out your hankies.
And the other people who have been trying to be good citizens and not have their children turn in to a…holes just should look on with a saintly expression and get a big dog with big teeth. I saw in a usa film about a working solo father trying to protect his two boys in their inadequate room. He barked when people rattled the doorknob as he couldn't afford a dog. Or perhaps a recording? Ideas that the helpful government should pass on to it's poor and reasonably honest tenants.
People who are most damged probably can never be rehabilitated. They should have a special working farm prison with amenities and get locked into their rooms at night so they can't get out and start fires, pinch farm bikes, rape women or whatever has become their habitual obsession. They could be happy there so for god's sake take away their freedom – to create misery. And have tough cahps in charge, just practice isolation for people who threaten attack and never trust them completely, safety first and stun guns as backups. If they behave it could be a good place with their own room and decent bedding as long as they don't get the urge to slash it. Most of the men, no women permanently there, would be likely to have been assessed as mentally unbalanced.
But apparently you prioritise one right to SAFE housing over the other.
So we are not solving anything considering that these people cause harm to law abiding citizens – presumably at their cost. So that is OK?
And some will always end up in Prison – that is why we have prisons, to get the criminal elements that wreak havoc in the community out of hte community.
In the meantime we are warehousing families who work in rundown motels at a million dollar or so
But then you might consider that cheap.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/revealed-the-multimillion-dollar-cost-of-the-government-s-emergency-motel-policy.html
so my solution would be that these guys can live in a run down motel and the good state houses go to good families that work, but don't make enough to pay market rent. But i guess that is not awesome and 'woke' enough.
It is an outrage that you have no qualms about comparing assholes to criminals. They are of course not the same thing.
People who have no money for a long time have a propensity to be assholes because they have to fight for absolutely everything and everything in their life can be taken away – such little as they have.
Anyone who carries the badge 'woke' for actually caring for people that are really really hard to deal with … well those people don't give much thought for your labels.
You'll see such people out every weekend with other badges on them like St Johns, St Vincent De Paul, St Francis, Te Whanau Waipereira, Habitat for Humanity, Barnardo's, Tear Fund, The Compassion Soup Kitchen, City Mission, World Vision, and bunches of Anglican and Catholic trusts and entities. Kiwi volunteers and underpaid staff by the thousand.
They don't give a damn about how you disparage their work or the people they work with.
They understand your scorn, derision, rage and urge to punish. They've seen those stories for several thousand years.
People who have no money for a long time have a propensity to be assholes because they have to fight for absolutely everything and everything in their life can be taken away – such little as they have.
You have hit the nail on the head Ad. The above description is a plan for growing more assholes. You big softie Ad. Could you spread your sympathy wider to people who bear the brunt of thr poor caring of these people by authority figures for many years. As many of those people suffering from the effects of those poorly cared for people is likely to follow the same path as them, never having seen a different life, but forced to live amongst the rough, dishonest or vicious. Role models you know, get copied.
Sabine, These "arseholes" have families. What do you propose?
surely Tiny Dean has a motel space available for them on Fenton Street.
That is where we warehouse homeless families that work in many cases and can not afford rent. Just a thought. Or is that to good for criminals that wreak havoc in the areas where they get state houses that seemingly one can only get when one is a lawbreaking antisocial criminal.
How bout that Patricia?
Only Germans would have such conveniently short memories.
Sometimes the You Tube is called for.
Surely that comment Ad doesn't reach the supposed high standard of The Standard? The reference to nationality is egregious surely.
ONLY Germans? You fishing?
That is just sour nastiness Sabine, and your constant attacks on the motelliers who have offered their properties says more about your bitterness than their motives. Constant carping and wild generalisations don't prove a thing. Too broad a brush. You confirmed the building programme, then got hung up on the time it takes to get consents and do infrastructure.. typical.!!
No sour nastiness about that at all Patricia. Just facts, inconvenient facts.
It was facts when National did nothing to alleviate the housing crisis and started housing people in motels and it is a fact now that Labour does it too.
We are warehousing people for month/years on end in Motels. In Rotorua and elsewhere.
And if you are pleased with the little that is happening that is good for you. Me i look at my neighbor in his two bedroom unit, with his wife, his son, the daughter, the grand child and the occasional cuzzy cause they have no where to go. This is now a fact in any town in NZ, but particularly in Auckland and Rotorua. Nothing nasty about that. It is actually just a tragedy. A tragedy of epic proportions.
I think Sabine has been really clear about her proposal – rent a motel for the people who are unable to live in a civilized fashion with their neighbours.
What's your one? Or do you think it's OK for them to continue their reign of terror (and that's exactly what it is, in some instances), with no consequences.
My proposal would be to rent the house next to Poto Williams, and put them there.
Sabine's solution is a ghetto worse than any you have ever seen in this country. TReat people like scum and replicate the problem a hundredfold.
My solution would look something like Hobsonville.
Who we are » Hobsonville Point
In the real world, there are already people living in the said motels on the waiting list for state housing.
And telling people in state housing that Labour will do nothing about their neighbour problems leaves them to wonder whether they would be better off under National.
So it should. Unless there is a social contract for all of us, not just the deserving, the left has no leg to stand on.
To prove itself serious about such a social contract Labour would have abandon debt targets and bring in CGT, wealth and estate taxation and MMT. And at some risk of being seen as too radical for the centre.
On current policy settings it would have to plot a more measured course – and that means winning elections regularly if it is to make progress over time. That does not happen if the people in state housing are unhappy, or those in motels, because of the behaviour of their neighbours.
The social contract also involves law – landlords have certain responsibilities – including KO.
So, in your Hobsonville Plus vision – what do you do with a tenant who consistently exhibits anti-social behaviour (loud parties til 3am, smashed bottles across shared driveways, hard-core gang associates visiting, dealing drugs, feral dogs chained on the property, physical intimidation, threats, and actual violence against anyone who is brave enough to complain, regular and open domestic violence against women and children resident at the property, etc.)
[Before you say I'm making this up – all of this has been witnessed by friends at a local KO house – luckily, for them, slightly down the road, rather than actually next door]
Don't say the police will deal with it – because they won't – or at least, not until there is a case of actual assault – and even then it will be 'a visitor to the house' rather than a resident, so KO won't do anything.
That's exactly what KO are doing to the innocent neighbours caught up in this drama. Treating them like scum….
I do not doubt your example. And I am sure there are hundreds more.
You apply as many wraparound services as are required to change the situation. It usually involves a set of interventions from the following state entities, and there's no particular order to this:
Kainga Ora, NZPolice, MSD, MoE, local Kura, MOH and DHBs, urban Maori trust services, Oranga Tamariki or whatever it will be called, local service trusts, wider family members, tonnes upon tonnes of taxpayer $$ and family group conferences, Corrections and MoJ, and finally employers who are prepared to take on Not in Education Employment or Training …
… literally hundreds of thousands of dollars working day after day to lever each and every one of these people out of the desperation and rage they are in.
And yes not all fo them will work and some will still go to gangs, for which the only control is NZPolice and MoJ and Corrections. But then, how did we bring our jail count down from 13,000 to 8,000 in 2 terms?
Hobsonville has most of those services built in.
No it is not easy. Yes that is is what our taxpayer funding is for. Yes that is the essence of the social democratic state.
A hostel might be a solution. Where obstreperous 'guests' could be kept away from those who can play nicely with others.
Pretty pictures and plans, very artistic. But people who want to be good citizens are being treated like scum under the present system Ad. If you don' think that is right the present system is wrong, and should be changed speedily for a better one. What can you do about that, without having fancy modern housing.
Just help with something now not in future years when built, warm, dry house, with sun and light, safe space for kids to play,some shade area beside for super hot summers, friendly, respectful neighbours, own area with gate for wandering dogs and people (though a man who insisted on entering a property despite a warning notice not to use the back entrance, got bitten by the guard dog in one Nelson property, and was able to plead rights and the dog be ordered to be put down). Makes you realise that you are on a different planet than Labour planners. Send in the clowns – Don't you love a farce? My fault, I fear,
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry my dear…
Sabine’s proposal sucks and is a typical simpleton solution. Unless such motel is in the wop-wops there will always be neighbours in the hood, just not in adjacent rooms.
Your proposal sounds moronic.
Now that is a really good idea, and some could be housed right next to Carmel Sepuloni, Phil Twyford and so on and so forth.
To see what 300 truly unrepentant undesirable outsiders next door to an MP, look no further than the protests at Parliament weeks ago.
Everyone but Act simply denied they existed.
Your desire for schadenfreude achieves nothing.
I am not sure, Why don't we try?
The issue is not going away by not doing anything. It is getting worse. And anyone who will run on 'law and order' will pick up all those that feel that law and order has been abandoned.
We have no issues housing homeless people in motels the up and down the country. At great cost to the tax payer – as they are the ones that pay all the bills.
But i guess we will see what happen in the near future. Elections are only a few months away.
They’re always only a few months away. Which public assets will NAct flog off to their rich mates this time, and what public services will be privatised – gotta fund those tax cuts. My money's on water assets and health services (the pandemic’s over, right?), and they might give Serco another go – plenty of wealth to gorge on yet.
But I guess we'll see what happens in a few months.
"There's nowhere to sleep at the back of this line."
Really, so we have 20,000+ families sleeping in cars, then?
No, they're in motels – which everyone acknowledges is not adequate housing (apart from the most temporary of emergency housing).
But it does give them somewhere to sleep.
Like every really difficult family is just another can to kick down the road.
Don't become a public servant whatever you do.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kainga-ora-residents-tenancy-tribunal-complaint-after-neighbour-hell-for-three-years/JHLXUDIR4RO72KZKNQRUNNA7ME/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/461209/other-agencies-discourage-kainga-ora-from-evicting-misbehaving-tenants-select-committee-told
Maybe Kainga Ora tenants who have concerns about their neighbours behaviour need to become clients of the said agencies … .
Funny thing is National wants some of the said agencies to have a greater role in the lives of those on welfare, agencies that oppose National’s approach on Kainga Ora.
Oh, so it's fine for an 'ordinary' law-abiding family to be stuck in motel accommodation, but it's too sub-standard for anti-social criminals.
If they're a 'really difficult family' then just maybe – bog-standard KO independent living is *not* the most appropriate solution for them.
I'd like to see some actively monitored housing precincts (could be apartments) – which have a zero-tolerance for gang presence, and are gated so residents only.
I would assume that most people in these households are 'ok', but that one or two elements are not. These are the people that need to be removed. And if they are law breaking they need to be arrested, and locked up. And that is the issue, innit, that we are currently not arresting and locking up people who cause havoc.
Oh well, i guess its fair go for the 'tough on law and order crowd' as the current crowd seems to simply pretend that if you don't lock them up they will rehabilitate themselves, and no it wont be cheaper either as per the Corrections Ministers, cause average and fixed costs and leases.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/exclusive-expensive-failure-new-zealands-cost-per-prisoner-rises-while-jail-population-
What happens to the problem tenant after eviction, rather who's problem will it be next?
Does the law have any sway i.e fines or court?
KO are arguably the worst landlord in NZ. And Poto has to be in line to be one of our worst cabinet ministers.
Sorry to see Jen Psaki shifting from the White House to MSNBC.
Maybe Biden could swap for Rachel Maddow.
Good for her, imagine having to clean up after another Biden brain fart.
I would also assume better pay and a longer contract.
MSNBC is bleeding even faster than CNN. Better off joining Joe Rogan.
I consider it all just performative info/entertainment and i don't care nor do i listen/watch to either them.
Something is rotten at the heart of UK politics. The Russian oligarchy has embedded its tentacles deep in the Britsh aristocracy and they are exercising considerable power to suppress the truth. Reminds me of the Jian Yang saga and National's (no so hidden) propensity to suck up to CCP money
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1509612965011804162?s=21&t=HBIItVqjpfwUvilulnXicg
Interesting post on the connection between oligarachs and UK torys.
https://fb.watch/c7oBj0CGT4/
Are some billionaires more moral because they are not billionaires called oligarchs?
Anyone who doesn't think we have a fully functioning oligarchy here in New Zealand is gravely mistaken.
Bernie Sanders gets it.
Anybody who thinks we do not have an oligarchy right here in America is sorely mistaken. – YouTube
Like Russia, we are a deeply unequal society with an exceptionally narrow intermarried inter-director network with no more than a handful of key net worth people in: housing, building supplies, ports, airports, groceries, fuel, politics, media, milk, agriculture, meat, banking, bread, fruit, electricity production, broadband, and more. Most of our debt is controlled by Australia, and most of what we make is taken by China: just 2 countries.
We're under a total illusion that we are more economically free than Russia.
Bruce Jesson and WB Sutch would recognise this country as the worst possible scenario they had imagined.
Well it's Michel's Iron Law after all.
But Kremlin aligned oligarchs are perhaps unusually active in promoting sociopathies like Brexit, which was intended to reduce the UK's influence and the effectiveness and cohesion of European powers.
The sociopathy of a Bill Gates is not intentionally directed towards the wrecking of Western society (though the various windows systems are hardly benign), they are his customers after all. But this limitation is not true of Kremlin operations, who would not be at all sad to see the present order collapse. They are in a very real sense the enemies of our states.
As Mickey Savage noted yesterday, our own 1% elite political donor class is pretty open about the politics it funds.
Yeah – wage suppression and climate denial – useless backward turkeys.
It's no more likely that Russians will be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine than Americans have been for theirs, but if tribunals were to be set up then there'd be a bunch of slam-dunk cases.
Will no one think of whining, thin-skinned
Nazifar right feels.https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1509948907899564044
Well I give thanks today that I don't live in Sri Lanka.
As prices soar in crisis-hit Sri Lanka, many forced to moonlight | News | Al Jazeera
"Historically weak government finances, badly timed tax cuts and the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the vital tourism industry, have decimated the economy, triggering a currency crisis that has disrupted fuel imports and caused skyrocketing food prices."
"Well I give thanks today that I don't live in Sri Lanka."
….yet
We have a few months,and then we will be like the North sea Island off the coast of France.
https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1509820318369693713?cxt=HHwWooC-8ZDl-vMpAAAA
Couldnt possibly happen ….NZ is Godzone.
And all wanting coke cans to rain from the sky
Exhibit 1.
https://www.transpower.co.nz/sites/default/files/interfaces/can/CAN%20Southland%20security%20issues%20and%20request%20for%20information%204289359753.pdf
Its been a funny old summer….quite wet in Canterbury.
Perhaps the climate is changing.
Just read the obit for Dame Miriam Dell – what an outstanding woman. Just reading through this, it's filled with 'only woman on' and 'first woman to' – it's due to her (and the team of strong women around her) that we have made such progress towards equality not, that I – or probably Dell – think that we're there yet
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/women-of-influence/128191223/obituary-teamaking-snub-spurred-a-lifetime-of-advocacy-for-women
That was a lovely read, she would have been awesome to meet. Make us some tea dear! Yeah, nah nah, make your own cuppa. Signed, the token woman.