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March 23, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 March 2021

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General Debate

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Happychappy

Why Jacinda Ardern will not be rushed on the Trans-Tasman bubble.
Because in reality she has no plan and needs Covid-19 more than our Country’s needs, to cover up the Housing crisis, our Health and Mental problems but most to hide the damage to our Economy by the Prime Ministerand her Labour Party
This is obvious as she keeps preaching there is complex issues that are holding the negotiations up and stopping the bubble happening, but really any smart Politician would have sorted these problems months ago, butthat would have let the public know that this is about Jacinda Ardern and her Political ambitions not about New Zealanders.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124618094/why-jacinda-ardern-will-not-be-rushed-on-the-transtasman-bubble
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March 23, 2021 8:00am
- peterwn
  
  There is another reason she does not want to be rushed. She needs hotel and motel rooms available for the homeless. If too many foreign tourists come to NZ then the proprietors would want to take them back for *real* guests.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:18am
  - [email protected]
    
    The real guests will not be paying the same outrageous weekly rates as us taxpayers have been paying the hotels/motels. So the tourists may become the next set of homeless to be put up by us.
    
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    March 23, 2021 8:32am
    - RoboRob
      
      I suspect they would rather have tourists, I’m sure the price is high to cover the additional costs from anti-social behaviour.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:11am
  - Philview
    
    “Homeless” in this case means the approx 2,000 prisoners Labour have released and many have nowhere to live.
    
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    March 23, 2021 8:45am
    - RoboRob
      
      Calvin Davis on TV this morning discussing conditions in womans prisons….
      
      ”… We dont want to punish these woman..” lol
      
      I think we (as a society) do need to work out what our prisons are for, punishment or rehab. But it seems out minister has already made that decision for us 🙂
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:13am
      - Batman
        
        One could argue that the sentence of imprisonment is the punishment, is it not?
        
        Once there, those who can be rehabilitated should be. Obviously there are exceptions for the Tarrants and Weatherstons of the world…
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:16am
      - Tricati
        
        For goodness sake, with our limp wrist-ed judges, you have to have done something really heinous to get a custodial sentence in this country, so these prisoners are not paragons of society.
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:21am
      - RoboRob
        
        @ Batman
        
        See my last sentance
        
        ‘I think we (as a society) do need to work out what our prisons are for, punishment or rehab. But it seems out minister has already made that decision for us’.
        
        I’m not saying they should be punished in prison (or not), just that the current minister shouldn’t be making that decision for the country.
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:56am
      - Batman
        
        Well we do elect governments to make such policy decisions.
        
        Labour were elected and their policy was clearly more of a rehab approach, much as National was doing as part of social investment. Ironically it was ‘Crusher’ who did a lot of that I believe.
        
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        March 23, 2021 12:01pm
      - gump
        
        Rehab – if it is achievable – costs society a lot less in the long run. Both in purely financial terms as well as social terms.
        
        If you care about financially prudent decision making then you should support a system that makes a meaningful effort to rehabilitate prisoners. Bill English believed in it – perhaps you have forgotten his social investment policies.
        
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        March 23, 2021 12:21pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Yes we elect governments to make decisions. We elected Lab knowing that they wanted to reduce the prison population. There was no mention made about making prisons rehab only. if you want to do rehab setup facilities to do rehap not prison.
        
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        March 23, 2021 12:58pm
      - Batman
        
        Why shouldn’t they do rehabilitation too?
        
        If they don’t, all we do is end up with released crims who haven’t changed and have learned more crim skills behind bars. That’s stupidity.
        
        They are still in prison after all. While there they can say least get some help to not commit crimes again.
        
        I know you want to make a point here but in the real world it would just make things worse
        
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        March 23, 2021 1:25pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        ‘You look really worn out after your crime. Would you like a free bed and food? Don’t worry, the Govt/Taxpayer will pay, it is all free, just for you’
        //
        
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        March 23, 2021 4:01pm
      - rockape
        
        If rehab not punishment is what matters then shouldn’t they be kept in jail till we prove unequivocally that they have in fact been rehabbed successfully?
        
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        March 23, 2021 4:09pm
  - coge
    
    PM’s latest housing announcement today will only increase NZ’s homelessness. But the Govt aren’t smart enough to see it yet. Hopefully someone will explain it to them, in a way they can understand.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:54am
    - The Fifth Elephant
      
      As Kayleigh McEnany once said, “I can only explain it to you. I can’t understand it for you.”
      
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      March 23, 2021 11:34am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Now there is one smart cookie
        
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        March 23, 2021 4:02pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  But wait! There’s more!
  
  Look over there! A MIQ worker has tested positive!
  
  I can save you!
  
  How convenient – the two old girls outside the Four Square shop ad . . .
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:19am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    But they won’t build specialized MIQ…OUT OF TOWN….continued failure.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:03am
  - RoboRob
    
    Re MIQ worker. Weren’t they all vaccinated a month ago? Did someone lie to us (again) about that? Hard to know with the transparency around the vaccine rollout. Pretty sure our lord and savior Ashley Bloomfield told us all front line staff had been vaccinated.
    
    p.s. Even with one Jab the Pfizer vaccine is very effective after two weeks. It is highly unlikely someonce vaccinated more that 2 weeks ago would contract the virus, especially with precautions.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:18am
    - gump
      
      MIQ workers aren’t required to be vaccinated.
      
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      March 23, 2021 12:48pm
      - RoboRob
        
        wtf not? Are they not frontline staff? If they dont want the vaccine, get someone else to do the job that will have one.
        
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        March 23, 2021 2:02pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        That would be the reason we get isolated cases – and Jaspinda keeps control. Was that asymptomatic person really positive? Or did someone make a mistake, like told to make it? The controllers have been caught lying before, I would like to see a second opinion/test
        
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        March 23, 2021 4:06pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      3 weeks.
      
      At 2 weeks it is not effective.
      
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      March 23, 2021 5:46pm
- Simon
  
  Covid Cult answer as follows:
  
  There will be no rush on the Aust / NZ bubble as the Ro vaccines are experimental. Just will not have the data if the vaccines even work for another 2 to 3 months at earliest. Probably 12 months.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:30am
  - RoboRob
    
    Not true. We have known for some months the Pfizer vaccine works (this was confirmed in testing lat Nov 2020 and in the field in Israel and others).
    
    We don’t know how long they last, but we do, 100%, know that they work and are very effective. Why create FUD around the vaccine?
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:22am
- kowtow
  
  Proves the point that it’s very simple /easy to shut things down . (oil & gas expl, coal station shut downs other examples)
  
  Much harder to get things going again.
  
  That’s why you can’t rush into actions without considering the consequences.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:34am
  - theoldbloke
    
    Just think!!
    If the Aussie Bubble was approved
    AND
    Jacinda followed the science.
    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-options-to-reduce-quarantine.html
    
    Then MIQ requirements would drop dramatically
    and the current MIQ facilities could be used by GASP, SHOCK, HORROR paying guests/Tourists.
    
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    March 23, 2021 2:10pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Where would all of the released crims live?
      
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      March 23, 2021 4:07pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  any smart Politician would have sorted these problems months ago
  
  So share it with us – what exactly are these problems and how exactly should they be sorted …. ?
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:36am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    For a start, differentiated arrival and quarantine arrangements for people coming from zero or minimal-risk places such as the Pacific and Australia.
    
    It is ludicrous, to the point of criminal, that such people are still taking up scarce quarantine spaces, where they are probably at greater risk of being exposed to the virus than they were where they came from or they will be where they are going – at the expense of Kiwis who desperately need to get back to their families, or foreigners who are desperately needed by their employers, and who are coming from higher risk places for which quarantine is a sensible and necessary approach.
    
    And they could have worked out, and been transparent about, exactly when we’ll be getting how much of the vaccine and who’s going to get it when.
    
    Yes, it might be a bit tricky to work out the exact requirements and logistics. But they have had months and months – and they’ve done nothing a-fucking-tall.
    
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    March 23, 2021 8:54am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      What else do you expect with this horrendous low quality govt? The don’t have the ability for discriminatory or considered thought.
      
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      March 23, 2021 9:44am
    - Ruawai
      
      Labour would say that is racist putting people from different countries in different hotels.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:58am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Surely guests have a choice of who they wish to mix with?
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:45am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Letter verifying Albert is correct to Ministers , MOT, MOH and Covid Min,
      
      I thought I’d share with yourselves to highlight NZ seafarers overseas keeping supply chains running have to deal with regarding MIQ vouchers..
      
      In regards to myself, If I followed Official advice by attempting to acquire a MIQ voucher under emergency 2c ( As advised).
      
      I would have been detained in Myanmar. Basically because I would not of been given the OKTB ( oK to Board) while transiting Singapore.
      
      As suggested by emergency allocation team members to apply and within 3 days I would be “possibly” granted. ( Common sense rules this out as would be required to “Sign Off” in Myanmar without any guarantee of giving onwards clearance to NZ
      
      As I am currently at sea and refused to sign off my vessel ( Lucky as I never received a reply with in 7 days) I would of been detained in Myanmar under Ports act of “Desertion”.
      
      I am currently at sea and heading towards the safety of Thailand.
      
      All I ask is you read the links below to NZ obligations and align COVID measures as required under NZ obligations.
      
      Kind regards,
      
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      March 23, 2021 1:48pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Ian Boag for one it is supposed to be a two way conversation but Jacinda Ardern think she is the leader of Australia too, so it’s a stalemate with no give or take as Jacinda thinks she’s a genius and it all has to go her way.
    I always thought to have a conversation you need two to contribute but in our Prime Minister’s belief it is I am the leader so do as your told.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:51am
  - RoboRob
    
    Wtf Ian. Thats been one of their only jobs. Work out what the issues are and resolve them. They supposedly have been working on this since last year. Why shouldn’t they be ready by now?
    
    We know why not though, JA hasn’t realy wanted to open up bubbles (see Cook Islands) so hasn’t done the work. She has been waiting for 80% + vaccine rollout. Unfortunately public pressure has forced their hands.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:26am
- rockape
  
  I am pretty sure the start of international travel will undo anything she does to control house prices. There are a lot of Kiwis overseas want to come home and many will have cash in hand.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:48am
  - Nukuleka
    
    We don’t have to wait for the opening up of international travel. My understanding is that returning Kiwis fall into two distinct groups: those who are flush with cash and who have already been pushing house prices up and those on the bare bones of their arse who are adding to the welfare burden.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:05am
  - PeeJay
    
    It’s gone nuts in the greater Chch area – seriously nuts. Land that was plentiful since the earthquakes is now close to double the asking price in one year – where previously there was loads of sections available in Selwyn, Waimak etc, now hardly anything at all. Housing isn’t too far behind in price growth / demand. This is Christchurch for goodness sake!
    
    And all this is with restricted entry arrangements to the country. As you say, when the cashed-up overseas Kiwi’s return, I’d hate the think what the chances are for first timers getting into the market.
    
    But I’m sure we’ll have see frowny face prezzers from Ardern to show how concerned she is about it.
    
    Got to be getting close to being the most useless government in NZ history?
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:15am
  - The Fifth Elephant
    
    Yet another useful idiot believing the housing crisis is due to demand rather than supply.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:17am
    - rockape
      
      You don’t think supply and demand are related?
      
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      March 23, 2021 4:14pm
    - rockape
      
      I have a business to sell you in Greenland selling fridges. They sure is a lack of supply so you should do well despite there being little demand for those products.
      
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      March 23, 2021 4:19pm
- Maxx
  
  All part of the road to becoming another North Korea. First of all take any and all crisis, make the public terrified and need you to save them.
  
  Step 2 – control the media and those that you cannot control, limit the interaction.
  
  Step 3 – make it difficult for people outside of the country to come into the country, and vice versa, difficult for your citizens to leave. If they can’t be exposed to the truth they won’t question your truth.
  
  Step 4 – ???
  
  Step 5 – full control. The Ardern dynasty will live on forever!
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:50am
- amospicton
  
  I’m not convinced it’s about control. I think she’s scared – scared that any covid deaths are her responsibility. This is naive but to some extent understandable. What’s truly frightening and beyond acceptable is that she cannot see the cost of her elimination approach also has a cost – in dollars, and in health and wellbeing outcomes. I’ve said all along that the cost is too high.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:26am
  - Sacha
    
    I don’t think that we should ignore the fact that her ministerial colleagues are equally ineffective – apparently not one of them has any suggestion to help restore our country’s wellbeing. They are letting her wallow, and she may well disappear for want of their support.
    But I do not like her any the more for all that.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:58am
- Brian McDonald
  
  The 8 oclocker talking about other people preaching.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:15pm
mikenmildagain

Happy World Meteorological Day!
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March 23, 2021 8:01am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Nice day for it…
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:01am
- TWEEDSE
  
  Regrettably cancelled due to bad weather.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:13am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Weather you want it or not . . .
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:20am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Not when the falsify records to promote global warming.
  Never forget Hadcrut and its legacy.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:37am
- The Fifth Elephant
  
  I would have thought you would be celebrating Michael Joseph Savage’s birthday today.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:23am
- Master Mariner
  
  Maybe time to start researching it instead of Climate change for a better understanding how weather works.
  Notify Shaw as well to inform him how the Real weather patterns work.
  
  And that Carr character.
  
  Not rocket science and no need to bamboozzled by bullshit. A hint, Nothing to do with Co2.
  
  Just the facts.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:56pm
Maggie Pie

Word of the day……

AGITPROP
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March 23, 2021 8:01am
- hookerphil
  
  Another agitprop announcement expected at 9.00 am today.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:11am
  - oldfella
    
    The PTPM says her communist youth leadership experience enabled her to ace the agitprop component in her communications degree.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:51am
Andrei

2021 is out weirding 2020 if that were possible

Here in New Zealand we are at the mercy of an immature mature woman with the mind of a scatty school girl.

The USA is nominally in the hands of a senile old duffer, who gained the gig in very suspicious circumstances, and whose strings are actually being pulled by God knows who, and whose understudy is the ultimate identity politics candidate who changes her race according to political expediancy, usually identifying as “African American” but this week is “Asian” due the the massacre of some Asian “sex workers” – the fact that her Asian ancestry is South Asian and the victims of the atrocity East Asian being lost on everyone, South Asians genetically have more in common with Europeans than they do with East Asians another little known fact.

Australian politics is being roiled with a scandle where a Parliamentary Staffer wanked on a female MPs desk and amazingly in an act of career suicide saw fit to share the video of the deed with collegues/

In Bristol the natives are restless and are transforming the city center into Portland Oregon

Let’s cheer ourselves up with a video of a Romainian News Presenter being attacked on live TV by a naked woman with a brick.
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March 23, 2021 8:02am
- H. Upmann
  
  …and to add to that tragic list, the naked woman was faded out!
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:39am
Nigel Kearney

House prices in NZ are much too high relative to incomes.

The Cindynomics solution is to put more money (largely taken from income tax) into the housing market and at the same time change the rules to discourage landlords from selling.

They were better when they just made announcements and then did nothing.
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March 23, 2021 8:08am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Or an announcement about an announcement about doing something which was an announcement about an announcement which resulted in nothing.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:22am
- Simon
  
  Yep capital gains tax mean less renters coming onto the market. Lots of rumors that Cindy has a big deal on the demand side of the housing crisis.
  
  Maybe a land tax on each residental renter? Say a 1% annual tax on value of land levied on annual rates notice. If the clown show said 1% tax on your 3rd rental property onwards it might be acceptable? Big rates increases in the 19th century freed up a lot of land in NZ.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:25am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    That was undeveloped land. Try collecting taxes on such. I once assessed them until IRD gave up as it was uneconomic.
    
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    March 23, 2021 8:40am
    - Simon
      
      “Try collecting taxes on such”
      
      Piece of cake. Extra tax line on rates notice. The council collects the tax, on behalf of IRD, along with rates levy.
      
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      March 23, 2021 8:44am
      - Yabster
        
        you clearly have no idea- councils struggle to collect rates mate
        
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        March 23, 2021 9:21am
      - Simon
        
        “you clearly have no idea- councils struggle to collect rates mate”
        
        Lol – when in the 1970s?
        
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        March 23, 2021 9:33am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        It takes money to pay assessments. Capital taxes don’t provide the moolah so are naturally hard to collect.
        
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        March 23, 2021 9:51am
  - RoboRob
    
    Becuase taxing things makes them cheaper
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:28am
- Tall Man
  
  Both actions will worsen the situation.
  
  Nothing … Nothing other than releasing lower cost land will start the process of “fixing” the housing crisis and Nothing … Nothing other than an increase in the supply of rentals will address the high rent problem.
  
  Subsidies will increase pricing on both.
  
  Taxing house sales will further reduce supply and again increase pricing to cover said taxes should people be forced to sell.
  
  Now, there is another solution, unpalatable as it may seem … Reduce the Public Service by 25% in Wellington and 50% throughout the rest of the country then lookie lookie 🙂
  
  Why those ratios? Wellington is the home of the bulk of the head offices and is also over represented by civil servants who form a significant part of the city’s workforce. Other cities not so high a ratio.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:28am
  - MCos
    
    Attempts have been made in the past to reduce the size of the state sector.
    The biggie was by the Lange government. At that stage a third of the work force was employed by the state. Now it’s under 20%. 16 or something.
    At other times there were ‘sinking lid’ policies that meant departments couldn’t hire people to replace those who left. They took on even more expensive contractors instead.
    A friend of mine charged an eye watering hourly rate to do IT for the IRD because they couldn’t employ permanent staff to do essential work.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:20am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Correct. an arbitrary cut in the number of public servants would simply see an astronomical rise in the expenditure on consultants and contractors. If someone actually wished to reduce the role of the state, instead of entertaining fantasies about dismissing legions of idle civil servants, then they would specify actual functions to be reduced.
      There are about 430,000 people employed in the public sector. Over half of that number are the health and education workforces alone. Good luck making significant cut without slashing frontline services.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:02am
      - Ed Snack
        
        No, much of what is done is make work rather than anything productive. Just cut out the red tape following empire building report generating sections and the productive 20% of civil servants would be left.
        
        In the civil service, useless output is rewarded, so remove the incentives for such money wasting.
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:23am
      - GJM
        
        Simple solution, rather than a %headcount reduction, which will hit those (few) who are important, time for that 90s buzzword, “business process re engineering”. Axe entire departements – childrens commisioner (a sop to Peter Dunne – new gone),
        human rights commsiioner (who promotes raceism as that keeps them in a job)
        WOmmens affairs ministry (no mens affairs minsthry as we organise our own affairs)
        Lots of racist Maori slush funds
        
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        March 23, 2021 1:44pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Apologies for the missing // to indicate that my tongue was firmly in my cheek.
        
        I thought “unpalatable” would give it away but I guess not.
        
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        March 23, 2021 2:16pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    You, like me, must get tired of explaining the obvious.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:24am
- Tomtoddy
  
  It would be a safe bet that the announcement will introduce measures that will make the situation worse not better.
  
  You can not fix a problem by treating the symptoms. It is simply Econ 101 – supply and demand. Supply is all about RMA, other legislation, Local govt nonsense, all that could be fixed if a govt had the will.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:09am
  - PeeJay
    
    As I posted above, Greater Christchurch prices have gone nuts. The steady supply of land post-quakes, primarily in Selwyn and Waimak districts but also outer Christchurch fringe, kept the market reasonable. Supply v Demand. Suddenly the equation has been tipped this year and land supply has trickled to almost nothing, therefore as demand has spiked, prices have jumped.
    
    Labour/Greens always think the answer to any issue is more tax and more regulation – and usually both at the same time! Sometimes regulation is required (leaky homes etc) but anyone who deals in the construction/property sector can tell you the regulations are too complex, there are too many delays and far too many charges.
    
    Extra taxes or regulations will not fix this housing issue – freeing up land and actively encouraging development will.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:23am
    - RoboRob
      
      100%. Supply is the problem. Taxing things doesn’t make them cheaper.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:30am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Not as simple as Econ 101. Money supply and interest rates are actively involved too. When global central banks print money that also affects us.
    
    Supply is more than mere accommodation: extensive infrastructure is a prerequisite. That can be needed to be underway years before the sewers or other facilities are required. Labour, training and material supply all take years of getting ready too.
    
    It’s obvious Treasury, with real economists, have ceased to be this govt’s advisers.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:06am
    - Paulus
      
      I think you will find that any advice that Treasury gives to the Government is ignored as it is not politically expedient.
      She and the fat one decide anyway.
      
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      March 23, 2021 11:00am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Quite agree, a major problem is that we are in the grip of an asset price bubble, and that is primarily because of the huge (and it is indeed huge) increase in the money supply over the past 12-13 years.
      
      When you pump such quantities of money into the system (as, it should be said, an antidote to the much reduced velocity of money circulation) then ultimately it has to go somewhere. And typically it goes into various assets, with safety being a prime consideration. So residential real estate prices are simply the symptom.
      
      In some places where it is possible, expanding the supply enormously can but a lid on prices, the actual investment in housing still increases hugely, but prices stay lower. In NZ, with restricted supply, largely but not only by administrative fiat, there’s little opportunity for a huge increase in supply.
      
      This was further exacerbated in NZ by the short sighted policies that increased immigration, driving up demand while restricting supply – John Key, we’re looking at you !
      
      So there’s little that can actually be done. Free up supply as much as possible, but where in Auckland and Wellington is there that much room for a large expanse of housing, and where is the skilled workforce and the infrastructure to support such an increase going to come from.
      
      So I expect some fiddling at the edges and some taxes in this announcement. No meaningful impact will result, except to make the shortage of rental housing more acute.
      
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      March 23, 2021 11:31am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    PM ANNOUNCES RUINATION OF LANDLORDS
    
    Interest deduction by landlords are to be removed. I suspect this is to apply from the new income year starting in only 9 days time.
    The affect is an additional payment will be required to be made to the IRD annually amounting to a quarter or more of the interest payment by landlords for financing a rented property.
    
    Is such a tax lawful as it is discriminating against a restricted class of citizens or taxpayers? Other businesses can deduct interest but not landlords. Does it apply to to commercial landlords?
    
    My builder-landlord client will be chuffed. He has carefully acquired properties for letting and his bank has extended mortgage credit based on both security and cash flow. This announcement nullifies all his prudent planning and leaves him in a situation where he will have to increase rents to have anything left over for himself to live on.
    He is typical of many. There is no certainty that rents can be adjusted upwards and that this will not flow into rents generally throughout New Zealand.
    
    Is this a communist grab for the NZ housing rental market? Who else would want it?
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:17pm
- Maxx
  
  I don’t see how ANY program to help first home buyers stops house price inflation, in fact doing the opposite, stoking the fires further. I look forward to seeing the treasury advice prissed out this governments most transparent hands via the OIA that states that “the announcement” will put further upwards pressure on house prices.
  
  No doubt the “not a CGT” bright line test will be extended to 10 years. Now, colour me stupid, but I am pretty sure the bright line tests original purpose was to create a definition between someone who is buying houses to rent out vs those that are speculators. Some landlords may get caught up in a 2 or 5 years BLT which would be acceptable under a test to ensure that it is capturing speculators, but when the changes to the BLT now capture say 90% of landlords as well, then the law is not being used in its original purpose? I suspect an increase from 5 to 10 years, it will just further slow rented properties from being sold.
  
  On a different note though, what is stopping landlords from putting each individual home they own into its own company, and selling the company? Capital gains on the company aren’t taxed. It might limit the potential market to another property investor, but I’m sure that’s a viable market.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:12am
  - DeepBlue
    
    ‘Original purpose’, that is so yesterday’s news.
    
    I’m waiting for Megan Woods to say NZ are going to start drilling for gas to stop importing coal.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:35am
    - Maxx
      
      Plenty of gas in cabinet. Maybe they should start drilling that.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:39am
    - Paulus
      
      Who ? the invisible lady !
      
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      March 23, 2021 11:02am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The brightline test was welcomed because of the interminable arguments between IRD and property sellers as whether the profit on real estate sale was taxable or not.
    
    The two year test was not unreasonable. The CIR has discretionary power of hardship, if some unforeseen situation arose causing a forced sale, to relieve the tax burden if needed. (A little known provision but it helps fix tax irregularities.)
    
    I don’t agree with the blanket extension to 5 years. A lot of people change homes within that period. I would agree to a progressive rebate so that the taxable amount was reduced proportionately to nil between 2-5 years. The longer the property is held the more likely it is to be an investment.
    Any further extension is an unjustified envy tax.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:25am
    - Homas
      
      Genuinely asking here, but which discretion is it you’re driving at? Just seems odd given that the land provisions expressly contemplate taxing disposals resulting from forced acquisitions such as by way of the Public Works Act.
      
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      March 23, 2021 1:22pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I was referring to the power of the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to write off taxes on the grounds of hardship. Higher amounts can require Ministerial authority.
        A useful facility as it allows for unintended consequences, law drafting errors etc. I have also seen it used in the event of genuine hardship.
        
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        March 23, 2021 5:43pm
  - Paulus
    
    Bright Line tax will be factored into the sale price anyway – as it is now.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:02am
  - Ed Snack
    
    On your last question, quite possibly using separate companies could be caught by an “intentions” clause in legislation. Could be tricky, but define it carefully and it could work. You’d need a company that wasn’t setup to do rental housing or property management to try to elude scrutiny, which gets tricky.
    
    However the tax accountants and lawyers are salivating at the thought of what might be in this announcement.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:34am
    - Homas
      
      S GB 52 of the Income Tax Act targets such arrangements specifically. In the event that it didn’t apply, the general anti-avoidance provision would blow any such shenanigans out of the water before second breakfast.
      
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      March 23, 2021 7:48pm
- surfing
  
  People look at ‘prices’ compared to ‘income’.
  
  But, the other major factor is the ‘interest rate’.
  
  Prices increase when there is limited supply situation and buyers can afford a larger debt due to falling interest rates.
  
  The party will end as soon as interest rates start rising — although, I suspect that there will be a giant global financial collapse when we reach that point.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:17am
- I remember when
  
  More money for building houses.
  Watch the price of building houses increase.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:00pm
lazza

Happy Interminable Annouincements Day.
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March 23, 2021 8:14am
- I Hate Wordpress
  
  Where was the announcement warning of this announcement?
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:49am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The Announcement Committee has yet to convene.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:01am
    - SB2
      
      MW, They already have a short time ago,
      
      “Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s housing package to ’tilt the balance’ to first-home buyers”
      
      Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says today’s highly anticipated housing announcement will “tilt the balance” of the housing market towards first-home buyers.
      But she has also sounded a warning to property investors – saying the package will help “curb rampant speculation”.
      
      Ardern, alongside Housing Minister Megan Woods, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Revenue Minister David Parker, will this morning unveil details of the first tranche of the Government’s housing plan.
      
      Sleeping at your post again!
      
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      March 23, 2021 9:47am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        We don’t get the news direct from the Fraser House basement.
        
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        March 23, 2021 10:27am
      - The Fifth Elephant
        
        I’m waiting for DPF’s announcement of a package to curb rampant stalking.
        Having read this blog for almost a year now I am convinced that Maggy is a saint to put up with you.
        
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        March 23, 2021 11:52am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Maggy is a saint to put up with you.
        
        I don’t think atheists are allowed into the saintly club..
        I’m content to be named after one.
        
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        March 23, 2021 1:32pm
      - The Fifth Elephant
        
        @Maggy – I don’t believe in atheists. Therefore, they don’t exist ?.
        
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        March 23, 2021 2:48pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      That is because the government has announced what the Terms of Reference for the said working group will be. Please stay tuned for further announcements about this announcement.
      
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      March 23, 2021 10:10am
peterwn

Supposed to be an announcement about housing tomorrow and the DomPost is getting into a frenzy about it. The announcement will most likely be just a promise of future announcements (which will merely promise even more announcements). The final announcement is most likely to be a promise that Labour will do something about housing if re-elected in 2023. Even if there is some actual ‘meat’ in the announcement, seasoned property investors will probably laugh their heads off.
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March 23, 2021 8:15am
- Tall Man
  
  Disallowing interest only loans will have minimal effect when overall interest rates are so low.
  
  Should banks, at the government’s behest massively increase investor interest rates then expect others to re-enter the market and again rents to rise 🙂
  
  Supply and over-supply are the only solutions which ain’t rocket science although it seems to be to ardern and the numpties.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:31am
  - Maxx
    
    What they don’t take into account is the non-bank lenders who have overseas money that you can borrow at near to bank interest rates with non of the bank restrictions. They’re quite happy to structure a loan on a 5 year term with interest only
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:21am
  - peterwn
    
    No, there is a major difference – with no ‘interest only’ bank loans, borrowers would still need to pay the loan off over 20 years or so. Assuming minimal interest this means 5% capital repayment a year. But as Maxx points out, second tier lenders are available.
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:08pm
- Simon
  
  Demand side plans to handle the housing crisis in the next budget. The middle class are now concerned about their children being able to afford housing now and in the future. Labo will make a move. For sure.
  
  Rent controls – probably not
  UBI – too early
  Capital gains tax – not on Cindy watch
  annual land tax on renters – maybe
  vacant land tax – likely
  Mickey mouse tax rules on renters – likely
  
  All demand side, Not on supply which would mean for e.g putting Auckland Shitty Council into Admin – which is long over due.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:37am
  - PeeJay
    
    The problem is there are some options in that list that can nudge supply but they always take the stick approach. There are times when just the carrot is sufficient and others where you need both the carrot and stick.
    
    As an example from the above list, vacant land tax.
    
    Now I’m generally not in favour of taxing land – road to hell is paved with good intentions and too many ways this can be abused by unscrupulous Councils, but they could look at other options to encourage land bankers to develop. If vacant land is going up at astronomical levels, why would you as an owner develop with the costs involved if you can just sit on it and bank capital tax free gains until it’s maxed out? If your holding structure is right you can hold it practically cost free and with interest rates not going up any time soon, its a win to sit and hold.
    
    Why not encourage the development – not through tax but through less tax – the carrot if you will? Cut the financial and development contributions, cut the consent fees, waive infrastructure growth charges, guarantee smooth processing, throw in rates holidays for the new development. Now obviously not foolproof and I’m sure I’ll get loads of abuse/comments telling me the error of my approach, but this suggestion is by no means the only way to solve the issue. This suggestion is to show there are other ways than to merely throw another tax or regulation at the problem in the hope it will go away.
    
    The problem I see with Council/Government in the property/construction sector is that they are actually, at heart, anti-development. Sure they might talk about encouraging growth, but their policies and charges are actually punitive in nature.
    
    I appreciate there are no easy solutions, but I fear this current clown show are far too much out of their depth on this issue – they will no doubt make the situation far worse I fear. Difficult problems require hard work – this clown show government does not do well with hard work. I suspect we will end up with yet another tax or regulation that does not do anything to address the issues.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:38am
  - The Fifth Elephant
    
    A basic consideration of the situation reveals that a small shift in demand is not going to be sufficient or even advantageous. If the government can (successfully) push against the market – a mechanism much older and more wily than they – and reduce demand, it will simply result in people without houses.
    The only demand side policy which could work is reducing New Zealand’s population. Perhaps COVID-19 can help here…
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:56am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Labour will do something….?
  Are they resigning to enable that?
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:41am
  - Simon
    
    Labour will do something….?
    Are they resigning to enable that?
    
    Comrade the pressure is too great. For better or worse Cindy and Labo will make a move. They can’t build or implement anything themselves. But they sure can fuck with people. They will go down the fuck people over route. For sure.
    
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    March 23, 2021 8:50am
New Zealander

Great letter in SunLive Tauranga
In response to Peter Dey (The Weekend Sun, March 12, page 24)

I see Margaret Murray-Benge, a voice for the silent majority has been misinterpreted.

The crux is we are one people because our ancestors of both races chose not to remain separate, hence early Maori and European inter-racially mated.

It is what it is yesterday, today and probably tomorrow.

No-one refutes Maori have their separate identity in historical culture, as do European and other New Zealand races.

Our inter-racial bonds are unique and beautiful. To try and peddle an open-ended demand of ownership and privilege by piggy-backing on one’s Maori ancestry smacks of greed and apartheid.

I question the calculated refusal to stop using the Treaty of Waitangi as a crutch. Both races have shaped our nation.

Let’s ponder the uniqueness of descendant Maori with European surnames and vice-versa.

This serves as a reminder we are a nation aptly called New Zealanders.
To purposefully drive a wedge between races is insidious and divisive.

Our genetics undeniably tell the story and no-one can refute that.
So let’s play fair in the game of privilege and entitlement.

Lana Te Wiata-Wright, Ohauiti.
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March 23, 2021 8:22am
- Unity
  
  She’s absolutely right. We are all now a blended people and one part of one’s ancestry should not be elevated over others. We should stop all these racist divisions and special treatment based on race. People can follow whatever culture they feel most comfortable with but we are now all ‘one people’ and we should get on with our lives together. The Treaty served its purpose so long long ago and should have been filed away before now. Chief Justice Prendergast called it a ‘simple nullity’ way back in the 1800’s!! It’s incredible how it’s been so utterly reinvented today. It is not our founding document as we were still run from NSW when it was signed. Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent of 16 November 1840 is our true founding document. It annexed us from NSW, gave us our legal system, Governor, flag and Constitution.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:40am
- hookerphil
  
  I get an email every morning called Breaking News which causes me to shake my head every day over what is happening to our Country.
  It is a list of what is happening in Maori World with links if you so want. If you have not realised how relentless this march is I would suggest you request to receive this daily, a weeks worth will give you some reality on the transformation that, like rust, will not stop.
  [email protected]
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:04am
- Nickc2
  
  Totally agree NZer. Your line about driving a wedge between races being divisive is very very true.
  
  Politicians, school teachers, talking heads on TV, Govt Depts and our MSM in general need to be continuously reminded of this. I have just finished watching our Govt of clowns announcing their measures to control housing prices in NZ and what I found appalling was that each of these clowns preceded their diatribe with words of Te Reo but the main body of their diatribe was delivered in English. Why FFS?
  
  Is Labour’s Maori Caucus running a hidden agenda here?
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:47am
lazza

Boy … was Hosk excercised this AM .. or not?

His throwaway lines on “Announcements .. Ho Hum … Yeah Right … What again!” … were withering.

Also, there seems to be a stand off now that Lady Muck has refused to front on Monday AM.

Hosk may be reluctant to give her the opportunity to bullshit some more on his show.

She may just flounce off in a huff and avoid any public utterence within a mile of his program.

Not good for transparancy … and for the greatest most transparent honest Government evahh!

Hahh! … Not!
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March 23, 2021 8:29am
KH

The population explosion made house prices ridiculous. But politicians determinedly look the other way.
It’s time for a population policy.
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March 23, 2021 8:31am
- KevO'Brien
  
  That was due 10 years ago.
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:43am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Have to say the Key Govt. totally stuffed up on that one.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:50am
- MCos
  
  I’m all ears, KH.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:26am
- Nickc2
  
  What do you think Covid was designed to do?
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:56am
all true

This government has nothing to show other than miserable failures. Whatever they touch will fizzle out and ending up in a massive failure and all this with the compliments of the taxpayer.
Wondering how long NZler are happy with these clownery and their money wasting.
No point complaining and whinging afterwards and still sitting on the hands.
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March 23, 2021 8:31am
artemisia

Wellington City councillor Rebecca Matthews opens up about panic attacks and stress

In the Herald, another elected official who can’t take the heat but not offering to resign. RebeccaMatthws is just an ordinary councillor, but is “consumed with hopelessness” about Wellington housing, as reported yesterday in Stuff.

This quite definitely sounds like a councillor not up to the job who needs to resign and allow someone actually capable to be elected.

However, I expect the salary and perks will prevail, and no doubt the kind council will supply therapy and more as well. Which they are required to do for workplace stress.
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March 23, 2021 8:32am
Maggie Pie

My partner was checking NZH Twitter earlier on.
Started shaking his head and muttering something about ‘soft cock dudges’.

Assume it must have been this.

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1373916079416864768
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March 23, 2021 8:34am
- kowtow
  
  And Kelvie says the Prisons dept need to treat the naughty girls better than how they treat the boys .
  
  “It’s inappropriate for women in prison to be treated as if their needs were the same as male prisoners.”
  
  Silly me thinking they all wanted to be equal .
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/438898/corrections-minister-orders-urgent-overhaul-review-of-women-s-prisons
  
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  March 23, 2021 8:41am
  - Nickc2
    
    I had a chuckle when Hosking asked what time was the Cock-Tail hour in woman’s prisons.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:00am
Tony Stuart

From the “When Your Words Come Back to Bite You on the Bum” Department:

Jacinda Ardern
@jacindaardern

Conor English calls National the ‘most caring government’ we’ve had for sometime. Kids living in cars & motels is not a sign of care

10:25 AM · Jul 22, 2017

If the expenditure of $90,000 per day was “not a sign of care”, how would she categorise the explosion of the number of people now in motel, hotel or backpacker accommodation, which now costs the taxpayer $1,000,000 per day, a more than tenfold increase?
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March 23, 2021 8:36am
- PeeJay
  
  Unfortunately, she still seems virtually bullet proof to the majority of the electorate. Shine slipped a bit, but still popular. Can you imagine if a National or Act politician had been on record saying just a few of the things she’s said and then being as hypocritical?
  
  I fear that the only thing that will shake enough people from their slumber is either a catastrophic policy decision that is universally despised (and they seem generally too cowardly to do anything), she leaves mid-term like Key (possible but not likely), or a significant economic decline.
  
  Of the three, the economic decline is looking the most likely at this stage and never something that should be hoped for!
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:58am
lazza

Today’s RA RA fanfare (trumpets off) …

“HOUSING ANNOUNCEMENT” … DOHH!

Prepare to be disappointed.

Unless … Cindy shows political courage-statesmanship-leadership-maturity and reverses her stupid irresponsible mindless stance … on a CGT for real estate profits.

Anything less will prove to be more whistling in wind … & Utter Bullshit.
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March 23, 2021 8:38am
- kowtow
  
  It’s been shown amply from abroad that a CGT has no effect on controlling house prices. All it does is increase the gubmints’ tax take.
  
  There’s too many people chasing too few houses .
  
  Either cut the numbers wanting houses ( immigration) or get more houses built , or a bit of both.
  
  This is a govt created problem, they have the solution but won’t pull the trigger.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:24am
  - kevn
    
    @Kow… How does ‘Not allowing interest on investment properties to be tax deductible’ sound?
    Expect the worst.
    
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    March 23, 2021 9:52am
  - surfing
    
    There would be no need for the ‘brightline’ test if people didn’t make investment decisions based on tax.
    
    All my life people have said to invest in property because of the tax free gains.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:06am
  - Paulus
    
    The time it takes to get to a CGT or similar will be outweighed by the Staff Department there to calculate and collect it.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:09am
I remember when

Has/is MIQ being used as the start of our ‘Great Reset’?
The MIQ lockdown has especially affected an interesting list of what the left see as major problem areas. Tourism, farming of all types, education, citizenship and CO2 levels.
The lack of tourist has meant less flights into and out of NZ.
A greatly reduced number of available motor homes/tour vans and virtually no ‘freedom camping.’
Was the ‘Le Laperouse’ really denied entry because of the 61 crew positions.
Is a trans-tasman bubble really that hard to get started.
Stuart Nash’s speech on the future direction of NZ tourism fits in nicely. Less tourists again means less flights so less CO2.
Was the education lack of MIQ space a means of making the education sector more dependent on the Government . As a bonus it may help control the backdoor citizenship problems.
The migrant worker difficulties may help farmers, who may already be influenced by Three Waters, to think about less cows.
The migrant workers visa renewal problems may help by making the workers reconsider NZ as the place to work. Again less cows and in horticulture perhaps less nutrification. Win,win.
All of this is assisted in farming and horticulture by the desire to reduce those out of work, employ more New Zealanders.
It has also, of course, reduced the number of NZers flooding home and further exacerbating the shortage of housing.
All the while, it controls the virus at the border while vaccination hopefully opens up the world again.
In fact, does MIQ affect any sector that the government want to get under greater control.
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March 23, 2021 8:40am
- kowtow
  
  You’re assuming that this thicket of idiots had a plan other than Ardern watching the tv news last March and being panicked by a phone call from a ‘friend’ that the health system was going to collapse.
  
  Beyond that what might be happening is various far left interest groups knocking on her door to use this scamdemic for their own nefarious agendas.( Cos these Muppets have very few ideas of their own)
  
  In the UK Daily Telegraph , Lord Sumption ‘s latest is excellent.
  
  We’re in the midst of people who are ruled by the “sunk cost fallacy” ( can’t admit they’re wrong/must continue the present course) and “are addled by the so called precautionary principle , which holds that if we have no evidence of something, we should assume the worst. This marks the extreme point of our risk averse world.
  The alternative view is that you must have good reasons backed by evidence if you are going to stop people satisfying the basic human need for social contact, destroy their businesses and jobs and wreck their children’s lives.
  If you don’t know , don’t do it.”
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:16am
Homas

In his contribution to the Wellington CBD safety issue in Stuff, I see that Dave Armstrong hasn’t “… noticed a marked increase in patched members in central Wellington recently”.

As someone who has spent recent months witnessing the precipitous decline of the Te Aro Park area, might I humbly observe that Mr. Armstrong should’ve gone to Specsavers.
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March 23, 2021 8:49am
nathie

It has been 328 days since Sir John Key stated:

“I think they should get up every single morning and say what could we do, how could we get the economy growing faster, how could we get people back into work and into their businesses and do that in a safe way.”

“Instead of [the Government] saying what we can’t do… I think they’ve got to say to themselves what can we do.”

So how many of those 328 days has Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern woken up “every single morning and say what could we do, how could we get the economy growing faster, how could we get people back into work and into their businesses and do that in a safe way?”

What’s the bet the answer is “zero”?

And that instead Jacinda Ardern has woken up “every single day”, procrastinating?

And instead planned visits to primary schools and kindergartens?

And instead spent more time with her speech writers, crafting “announcements”?

Because that’s exactly what happened yesterday when she made her long awaited announcement, at a 4pm press conference (instead of issuing a media release like any other normal PM would have), ready for the 6pm news … simply to say that another announcement will be made in the future (which when it comes to pass will likely be another delay until she makes a new announcement).

Jacinda Ardern, you are a disgrace to hard working NZ’ers (many of whom are suffering due to unnecessary closed boarders between the covid-free Pacific Islands and Australia). Apparently tourism is losing $50M/day, but you don’t seem to care.

Please just go away and step down from politics (and better now whilst “opinion polls” have you in fairly high regard, before they get worse), because you are not waking up each day determined to fix NZ and its weakening economy (which will impact on poverty and disadvantaged families and children and make their situations worse)!

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/04/coronavirus-sir-john-key-calls-on-government-to-open-the-economy-more-while-in-lockdown.html
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March 23, 2021 8:49am
- MCos
  
  John Key said this, Joyce said that, Peter Dunne says something else. Jim Bolger said Todd Muller should be Leader of the Opposition.
  All these people have had their time and chose to move on.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:39am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    Given Muller was one of Bolger’s henchmen he would support him. I worked for Nat HQ during that period and was often delivering things to parliament and can’t remember Muller which probably says something about him.
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:46pm
    - Batman
      
      Or it says something about you ?
      
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      March 23, 2021 1:16pm
kowtow

The Cops being upset about being called racist should serve as a wake up call to all the Wokists out there , but it won’t and they’ll probably double down on their wokery to try to show even more how unracist they are. The Cops are among the Wokist of the Woke , they even dressed up a Samoan in a Sikh turban hoping Sikhs would sign up and allowed illegal Maori roadblocks as Covid is racist and kills more brown people than whiteys.

The lesson is ; stop trying to be woke and just do your job and no matter how fair and unbiased you are there’ll be no end to pollies , activists , NGO’s , academics and general wokists ,who have no evidence of racism who just say “systemic” to get you to do their bidding .

Answer ; “Put up or shut up”

Who hasn’t been accused these days of racism ? They tell us the whole of society is .
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March 23, 2021 8:50am
- Adroit
  
  The most powerful, and only appropriate response to accusations of racism is ‘and what?’. Any attempt to deny racism or prove that is not the case is wasted, and actually further evidence that you are in fact a racist. Accusations of racism are all that is required to prove racism exists. It is a self fulfilling prophecy.
  
  The only way to break the cycle is remove the power of the accusation.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:16am
KevO'Brien

IBM gearing up for world ID. The Great Reset is underway?
A most informative and thoughtful article by Dr Joseph Mercola.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/ibm-partners-moderna-covid-reset/5740531
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March 23, 2021 8:52am
lifesgood

Fed up to the back teeth with all this talk if racism. That Meng Foon is a clown. The facts are simple, Polynesians are over represented in the crime stats. My daughter in law is polynesian, well educated with an excellent job. I asked her if she has ever suffered racism in any form. She said “no, never in her life.” The point is people dislike anti social behaviour not the colour of someone’s skin. We need to stop making excuses for bad behaviour. It is too easy and lazy to toss “racism” around
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March 23, 2021 8:58am
Goon

Kate succinctly sums up why the blue team isn’t worth a knob of goatshit as long as they stick with the likes of prince Harry from middle management.

https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2021/03/todd-muller-fast-becoming-nationals.html

Ohhhh, so brave telling us all his personal ‘battles’. Fuck off, flick the likes of him or suffer the same fate as the Liberals over the ditch. Conservative voters don’t like winging, poor me, covid/climate change, anti-racisss weenies…who woulda guessed??

And like Kate further notes:

“https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300255388/national-needs-permanent-mori-board-member-review-finds

That this is even being considered tells you everything you need to know about the National Party today”
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March 23, 2021 9:07am
- surfing
  
  I thought Muller’s rolling of Bridges was awfully miscalculated. The timing was as bad as it gets and I seriously doubled his political judgement/intuition.
  
  You’re pretty harsh on the guy, you don’t have to read about it. Not like he is ever going to be relevant again.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:41am
  - gravedodger
    
    @ surfing, No but the silly bugger is still keeping someone who might actually make a difference out of the loop. He must have marketable skills, read the history, but we need people with big cojones who will fight for the best. Compare Key Joyce and English with the current on offer across the Parliament, very few with management skills or a history of successful achievement beyond a state funded trough.
    W S C comes to mind about a short conversation with an average voter.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:01am
Yabster

brightline test extened to 10 years but new purchases after 27/3 and from 2025 will not be able to deduct interest- shes a fuckin witch- if thats the case why then do other businesses including commercial builds get to deduct interest as a business expenses- this government are fuckin clowns
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March 23, 2021 9:14am
- Jack5
  
  That’s an interesting point, Yabster. According to the Radio NZ web site, “the Government will remove the ability for property investors to offset their interest expenses against their rental income when calculating tax.”
  
  Property is a wide field. Will this apply to those building say a mini-shopping strip, or, say, a medical centre? Will it apply to retirement village builders?
  
  I wish politicians were clearer and more detailed when they make such important announcements.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:37am
  - oldfella
    
    Jack, they’re not more detailed because they’re making up this sh*t as they go along.
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:33pm
surfing

I have to laugh at Jacindas attempts to fix the housing crisis. After all the jaw boning, the announcement is a joke.

Tinkering with limits and thresholds. I would argue the new rules will suppress the supply side, while throwing money at the demand side.
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March 23, 2021 9:18am
- Mobile Michael
  
  Costs for landlords increased, so rents will increase.
  
  Landlords taxed for releasing houses to the market.
  
  No new rules for flipping – that is buying a run down property, doing cheap renovations while living in it and selling for profit a year later without attracting tax (because you lived in it.)
  
  Weaker than a cup of tea made only with water.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:44am
  - Yabster
    
    yep- as usual they have no idea Robertson is a liar (like most politicians) and The Gaunt Witch of the East is out of her depth.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:40am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    The Govt. is taking a hammering on the airwaves over their determination to force landlords out of business and consign renters to motels funded by you and me.
    As someone brilliantly said on here last week: ‘Putting Robbo in charge of the economy is like putting a rabbit in charge of a lettuce’.
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:48am
- Maxx
  
  Yep. All I see is accountants will be suddenly be doing a lot of restructuring work.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:20am
Kiwi_in_Paris

5000 pound fine for anyone leaving the UK now without a good reason. Even though the cases and deaths are down, and 25 million of the good sheep have taken the jab, Boris has warned that the UK should be prepared for a third wave. This was never about a flu, it was always about government control.
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March 23, 2021 9:19am
- SB2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  “This was never about a flu, it was always about government control.” ??
  
  Absolute nonsense!
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:02am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Another of the many of Stupidboy’s comments about to be despatched into oblivion.
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:06pm
RW Capitalist

I must have miss heard (TV on , me not in room) AM Show talking, it seemed, about releasing someone from Jail,who killed his wife, so he could be a god father to his son.
Because children need their father.
Please tell me I miss heard (seriously).
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March 23, 2021 9:26am
Tony Stuart

September 2020: Grant Robertson rules out increasing the time the brightline test applies:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1374091107508703234

March 2021: Grant Robertson doubles the length of time the brightline test applies for. But he says he wasn’t “definitive” when he ruled out the increase. How definitive is “No”?
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March 23, 2021 9:27am
- Swifty
  
  They’re in panic mode now.
  
  This reeks of desperation.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:44am
  - Bullion
    
    Good. Let them panic and try and fix what is huge problem.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:33am
  - artemisia
    
    Yes it does look like panic. Watch the numbers on the social housing waiting list and transitional housing (motels) for clues to the consequences of panic.
    
    Also interesting to see what happens to the many high density developments consented but not started yet or in the early stages of buying off the plans. Many potential buyers are investors. Will they still buy? Plenty will not.
    
    Banks will not be happy to fund developers who cannot make enough sales off the plans. An unhappy bank is not a pretty sight to a (once was) developer.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:56am
- alex Masterley
  
  Having seen the famous interview when he was asked as to the whereabouts of Alf, we all know that Mr Robertson sometimes has truth issues.
  
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  March 23, 2021 9:52am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    he was just being too definitive in that interview.
    
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    March 23, 2021 1:04pm
- SB2
  
  Tony Stuart the National Party poster boy , well he has extended the brightline test, and why not?
  
  What would the Nats do to de-incentivise property speculation in favour of first home buyers given property speculators are an important segment with your party’s voting constitunecy
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:08am
  - Yabster
    
    hmm because he said he wouldn’t- you may not be someone that lives up to his word but surely we can expect that from the pollys? The test was brought in by National to capture speculators (flippers) -there is a difference between speculators and investors something you and MSM appear to ignorant of.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:32am
    - Okahu
      
      “…you may not be someone that lives up to his word but surely we can expect that from the pollys”
      
      Perhaps you’re young or old or a wee bit confused? Times change. Pressures change. Ideas change. and whadayou know? Policy changes.
      
      As to the Nats role. Grasping for a soundbite Collins has declared the adjusted bright line test a CGT! OK. so when you made it law you had no such concerns? Doesn’t Collins have corporate experience in taxation? Surely the significant philosophical and practical considerations are set by having a test much more than just where that test occurs. Your ‘big’ decision is to give Grindr a go as much as the girth it supplies. Collins pulled your panties down Yabster. Labour are just making sure you notice. That is why you are squealing as you are.
      
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      March 23, 2021 12:57pm
      - Batman
        
        When we made it two years, that was a targeted rule which only hit one sort of buyer.
        
        Ten years is very much an effective CGT on property.
        
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        March 23, 2021 1:27pm
      - Yabster
        
        you clearly have been smoking the weed huh okkkie- what on earth has Grindr- got to do with it? Is that an app you regularly use- maybe you prefer to smoke meat pipes huh?
        
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        March 23, 2021 3:48pm
  - Bullion
    
    Yeah, I don’t understand how anyone can think that the amount of money invested in housing, not to live but to profit from, is a good thing for the country.
    
    It just makes some wealthy NZers very rich off of other poorer NZers, when there should be some incentive to invest in business which is much better for the economy.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:39am
- Maxx
  
  At what point does the transparent and open Government get labelled as pathological liars? What have they said that they haven’t had to back track, clarify, spin, obfuscate, or just out right deny that they even said in the first place?
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:13am
- Local Miller
  
  What a bunch of snakes with forked tongues:
  “Ardern said the Government was “silent” on the bright-line test before today” – No, in September 2020 Robertson specifically said they’d not increase it!
  “Robertson said he was “too definitive” when he ruled out changes to the bright-line test.” – In other words he was talking out of turn, or simply lying!
  “Robertson ruled out the changes in September last year and Ardern said making the change now was not a broken promise.” So doing something Robertson (i.e. the Liebour gubbernment) expressly said they’d not do isn’t breaking a promise? So how do they define breaking a promise?
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:21am
  - Swifty
    
    They’re lying.
    
    And now they’re lying about having lied.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:48am
    - oldfella
      
      Swifty, soon they’ll make an announcement about a forthcoming announcement that will announce that they have not actually lied. Basically Cindy will then announce that she refutes the ‘mistruths’ that have forced them to make the announcement, and will announce that there will be no further announcements on the matter.
      
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      March 23, 2021 12:27pm
- Saks
  
  [a double whammy of abuse about physical characteristics and using the banned word. One month suspension – Mod
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:26pm
Maggie's partner

Listening to our leaders discuss their solutions for the housing market, I am struck by the following statements:

1. We were told (and we accepted) housing would go down – but that was wrong.

Hmm – so if there was any wisdom in this, how come investors and others continued buying houses?

2. We have now learnt….

Hmm – what is the point of having all these highly paid people if they are learning on the bloody job?

3. We want houses to become more affordable but not to go down….

Hmm – so the answer is grab some more tax?
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March 23, 2021 9:39am
Jack5

A push for New Zealand to take Uighur refugees.
They’ll have a good chance of getting in because they are Muslims, and NZ’s refugee intake is heavily biased in favour of Muslims.

I’d prefer to see priority given to Hong Kong Chinese fleeing the encroachment of Beijing on the former colony. Mostly they speak English, and these folk will be educated, knowledgeable, and would fitter far more easily into our society than Muslim Uighurs.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/stuff-circuit/124614348/call-for-new-zealand-to-take-uyghur-refugees
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March 23, 2021 9:57am
- Jack5
  
  Meanwhile Meng the Merciless trumpets “racism” against Asians in New Zealand.
  
  There are loose cannon, then there’s the big gun, Meng. This cannon is so loose it’s broken free, smashed through the wooden hull, and is overboard.
  
  You have to wonder whether the young Asians in Auckland who are yelling about racism in New Zealand, have spoken about – have done anything at all to protest about – China’s crushing of the people of Hong Kong. It’s anti-democratic on a scale, immensely vaster than the murders by a sex-mad gunman in the brothels of Atlanta.
  
  It wouldn’t be a surprise if the “Asian hate” marches that have begun in America are being supported and gingered up by pro-Beijing forces.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:14am
  - Jack5
    
    Wow, let someone put this to the organisers of the copy-cat “Asian hate march” in Auckland:
    
    “Do you support the democracy protesters of Hong Kong who have been imprisoned?”
    
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    March 23, 2021 10:52am
- kevn
  
  @Jack5… What about the white South African farmers driven from the land? Bound to be useful migrants.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:28am
SB2

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
“Government announces plan to help first-home buyers”

The government plans to help first-home buyers into the market, by increasing the caps for financial support, and extending the bright-line test to 10 years.

It has unveiled its long-awaited plan to tilt the balance towards first-time buyers and to turn down the heat in the market.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the plan is a package of both urgent and long-term measures to relieve pressure.
“The housing crisis is a problem decades in the making that will take time to turn around, but these measures will make a difference.

“There is no silver bullet, but combined all of these measures will start to make a difference,” she said.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/438941/government-announces-plan-to-help-first-home-buyers

But one decisive move is the government funding infrastructure development with housing developments formally the province of property developers and or with Council.

The latter is often reluctant to partake.

At least the package is an attempt to screw the scrum in favour of the first home buyer. Not property speculators and the such like as the PM ’s naysayer appear to want .
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March 23, 2021 10:00am
- rouppe
  
  Screw the scrum
  
  Interesting that you use a metaphor for an illegal act to promote the governments measures.
  
  Investors will just hold on, since this government won’t last forever. I have 2 rentals, held for over 20 years and no debt. Makes no difference to me.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:37am
- Paulus
  
  Whatta a pathetic laugh !
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:13pm
NoCash

Re new tax rule changes to rentals, especially the removal of mortgage interest deductibility against rental income, a few things will likely to happen, some landlords will be forced to exit as the numbers won’t add up. Rents will like increase for the ones that can still make it work and also due to the reduced supply of rentals.

Renters won’t be happy as they likely will have to pay more.

First home buyers will still try to outbid each other even without investors.
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March 23, 2021 10:02am
- skyblue
  
  This may set a precedent as what will be the next sector to lose tax deductability. Oil companies, fizzy drink companies…..
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:46am
- Ian Boag
  
  Non-deductible interest. If you do the sums on a $600k property, 3% interest rate, 40% deposit the extra cash cost is about $5k per year. $100/week.
  
  If as an investor you want things to be cash neutral you will need more deposit and/or higher rent. The arithmetic of using equity from other properties will be similarly whacked as the interest on that will not be deductible either.
  
  Arguably when property is geared up to produce zero yield and purchased for long-term non taxable gain there is a case for holding costs to be non-deductible.
  
  One might even treat rates/insurance/maintenance the same way. After all, that’s how homeowners do it …. 🙂
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:48am
  - NoCash
    
    Fair enough… but being a landlord is a business. My question to you is that without private landlords to provide rentals to people who can’t afford or don’t want to own a home, is the govt going to step in to replace thousands of landlords?
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:32pm
  - Yabster
    
    so you will be applying that to all businesses Ian?
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:41pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Only to ones affected by National’s Bright Line tax. Think of it as a bipartisan approach to something started by Key.
      
      What was that for anyway? Surely not to “cool the market” ….
      
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      March 23, 2021 1:15pm
      - Yabster
        
        keep informed Ian it was to stop flippers -look it up if you are unsure of what that is… so the Labour Govt is discrimination against a portion of the population not very pc/socialist is it Ian?
        
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        March 23, 2021 3:51pm
Local Miller

So this gubbernment thinks that injecting $3.8 billion to build infrastructure and accelerate home building is suddenly going to fix the housing crises. Do they realise that it’s going to take 2 – 3 years before the first new land, ready for building houses on is actually released onto the market. Between a developer identifying, buying, planning, getting resource consent, getting approval for infrastructure spend, building infrastructure… before the first house can be built.
In the mean time they are making it easier for first time buyers to buy which will put more pressure on prices. By their own calculations another 13,000 buyers will be unleashed on a market where there aren’t enough houses, and now landlords won’t sell because – bright line. Plus, by removing the “interest tax break” and extending the bright line test, they are encouraging landlords to increase rents to cover the tax and effective CGT.
I see things getting worse, before they get better, that’s assume they are going to get better.
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March 23, 2021 10:15am
- surfing
  
  Where is the money for infrastructure? Already schools in our area are bursting at the seams, need a new hospital (tauranga) to service population growth. Water is an issue .
  
  3.8 billion across the entire country is very little — tauranga just built a new sewage line which cost 300 milllion on it’s own. Multiple that across the country , then add new hospitals, schools, roads, and so on.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:20am
- alex Masterley
  
  Unbelievable.
  On infrastructure developers have to set up infrastructure on subdivisions.
  The problem they face is the link into existing district infrastructure which may not be able to accept the new loadings.
  In inner city Auckland the 3.8 would be swallowed in a heart beat upgrading existing infrastructure to cope with the development already taking place.
  The removal of the tax deduction for interest will have many effects: small scale residential developments will be halted as tax deductablity is part of the financial considerations, the price of those small developments will go up; Rents will go up to counter the effect of the loss of deductablity. rentals will be sold and tennants will lose their places.
  The law of unintended consequences will kick in.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:31am
  - Swifty
    
    “The law of unintended consequences will kick in…”
    
    I beg to differ Alex.
    
    They will not be ‘unintended consequences’ – they will be perfectly forseeable effects.
    
    I go up to the dairy and say to the owner “I see your jet planes are 5c each. Give me all you’ve got and I’ll be back next week and do the same.”
    
    If I go back next week and Mrs Patel has put jet planes up to 6c or 7c each – is that an unintended consequence or a perfectly forseeable effect of my behaviour?
    
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    March 23, 2021 12:10pm
- alloytoo
  
  Gosh, what if they had actually started building something in the Kiwibuild program, say 3 years ago?
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:56am
- KevO'Brien
  
  You think! Why can’t they see the bloomin’ obvious?
  
  This “govt” needs to be removed now, before they announce anything more.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:14pm
Colville

Can anyone find anything substantive on the “$3.8b put into a Housing Acceleration Fund”

Is there a cabinet paper or anything to read?

Or are they going to play catchup on it later?
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March 23, 2021 10:19am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Look on the back of Robbo’s lunch wrap 22 Mar 21.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:16pm
Inandout

Hosking was talking to an actor out of ‘New Amsterdam’ this morning. I don’t have Neon but apparently the show covers ‘racism, climate and gender’ and the chap interviewed says he works with ‘incredible, amazing, great’ people. I had to smile when Hosking asked if the show would last 20 series and the guy said ‘heck no, I would be in a walker and be dribbling’. Some critics say the show is cliche ridden and super liberal, others love it.
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March 23, 2021 10:23am
rouppe

“Extending National’s bright-line test and removing interest deduction loopholes for investors will dampen speculative demand and tilt the balance towards first home buyers,” Robertson said.

IT. IS. NOT. A. LOOPHOLE.

Deductability of expenses against income has been in the tax code since forever. Warehouse owners can do it. Dairy owners can do it. Luxury launch owners can do it.

To carve one sector out really is Marxism at its worst.
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March 23, 2021 10:25am
- Yabster
  
  correct but the left wing dheads and the MSM are either ignorant or willfully ignoring that fact.
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:34am
  - Nickc2
    
    Yep, that’s what happens when people are elected who have never had a real job. The was it was explained, one would have thought Robertson had just discovered a loop-hole in the tax system when all he was announcing was a new tax.
    WHY CAN’T THESE BASTARDS TELL THE TRUTH?
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:45am
- Colville
  
  So if your investment/rental property is subdividiable then the interest costs are deductible as your not in the rental game you are a land developer?
  
  who is to say you wont redevelop the land in say 50 years time? (flatten it and start again)
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:49pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  It’s of doubtful legality too.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:17pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    The Government can change tax laws as they want to, so I’m not sure why there would be any doubt about the legality. But it’s totally disingenuous of them to call the current law a loophole – all they’re trying to do is paint landlords as nefarious rich pricks who are “getting away with something”, tax avoidance if not tax evasion to the uninitiated, and the politics of envy. It’s disgraceful.
    
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    March 23, 2021 3:57pm
raven

My thoughts on the consequences of today’s announcement by the PM that Bright Line will double to 10 years and mortgage interest not deductible phased in by 2025:
1. Grant Robertson appears to have lied when he said the Bright Line test wouldn’t be extended. I thought if a member of Parliament lied, they had to resign?
2. Investors thinking of selling won’t sell, in the assumption that once Labour/Greens decimate the economy that voters will see how crap they are and will swing back to National/Act, who will hopefully repeal this.
3. Rents will go up. Hard and fast.
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March 23, 2021 10:26am
- Philview
  
  The concept of the portfolio changes. A loss making property is now better left empty. Why rent a property to students in Dunedin who kick the walls in every year and cause $50K of damage etc The flow on effects of today will be significant.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:42pm
kevn

10’s of thousands of new housing builds…. lol
Hear that you tradies? 24 hour shifts for you and too bad that that much of the hardware you need, is on container ships parked up in the Auckland Harbour.
All this while the overseas skilled container crane drivers needed here, are still waiting for a spot in MIQ and have been for months, while all the other entertainment/sports/rich pricks/mexicans jump the queue.
Oddness extremeis.
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March 23, 2021 10:26am
- DeepBlue
  
  And now that gas appliances are obsolete, we can see any houses built waiting for Code of Compliance while 10,000’s of old school hot water cylinders are stuck offshore.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:19pm
Rich Prick

Hey Labour voters, get ready for significant rent increases. You voted for it.
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March 23, 2021 10:34am
- Philview
  
  You beat me to it. Landlords losing interest deductibility will be facing massive tax bills and they will have to source the cash flow from some where.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:38am
mikenmildagain

I hadn’t heard about this before.
After the UK post office brought in a new, flawed, accounting system, it prosecuted over 900 postmasters for fraud. Some went to prison, many lost their jobs and found difficulties getting employment with criminal records.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/22/former-subpostmasters-begin-court-appeal-to-clear-their-names
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March 23, 2021 10:38am
- burt
  
  So you do understand how stupid decisions have unintended consequences. There is a glimmer of hope.
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:55am
- Swifty
  
  That was an utter disgrace.
  
  Totally innocent postmasters and staff charged and convicted for non-crimes. Lives were destroyed.
  
  Meanwhile the CE at the time has gone on to receive a CBE for her services….
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:00pm
mtamati

I have just read the comments written by David Garret (6.51pm) last night in the post on Wellington Police staff feeling unsafe. They reminded me of an Australian garden programme that I had watched, where the gardener/presenter was answering viewers questions. One asked whether it was OK to use eucalyptus leaves for compost as a friend had told him that they were toxic.

The presenter’s answer was, “write that friend’s name in a pocket book, and add a notation, ‘don’t believe a word this person says’…”

For Mr Garrett’s information, it was rastafarian leader Christopher Karaitiana Campbell that was shot and killed at Makarika by Luke Donnelly not “Dick Diesel”.

‘Deisel Dick’ Maxwell was murdered at least a year later near Te Araroa.

DG.. ” “Maori” buildings, including at least one church.” Churches burnt down by the rastafarians included the Hiruharama Church, the Ngati Porou Marae church and one at Managahanea Marae.

DG..”the local cops too terrified to do anything, and the Gisborne cops – not much better – two hours’ drive away.” DG, does your source have any information on how the Gisborne Police investigating this lawlessness took over the Manutahi Hotel in Ruatoria for months on end and then the Te Puia Hotel after an attempt to burn the Manutahi Hotel down.

I suggest to DG that it wasn’t local cops or Gisborne cops who were too terrified to do anything…it was the government at the time who were too weak to give the Police or the Military the special power to sort it.

Had that been done a number of your too terrified Gisborne cops would not have been charged with kidnapping and aggravated assaults for their alleged ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods on the rastafarian hierarchy, that included DG’s ‘Diesel’ .
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March 23, 2021 10:39am
- Rocky Jnr
  
  Did you watch Stallone movies in the Gisborne Police club, apparently I did?
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:18pm
- Rocky Jnr
  
  No response to your comments mtamati. Must be driving lessons with the young fella today.
  
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  March 23, 2021 3:06pm
- Rocky Jnr
  
  Hey mtamati, here is the reply I got to my post, play the ball DG, not the man.
  David Garrett
  And talking of orgasms…Rocky…which of the Stallone movies gave you the biggest hard on? Did you watch them on video down at the Gisborne Police bar?
  
  Still pumping a bit of iron I’m guessing…Maybe taking a few roids to try and compensate for the years? But probably no longer in “the job”
  
  Thumb up 3 Thumb down 4 REPORTMARCH 22, 2021 8:55PM
  
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  March 23, 2021 5:14pm
Maggie Pie

One of the girls from tennis just txt to say the jury is out in the case of ….. ‘The wealthy Auckland businessman’ who is up on sexual assault charges.

She’s been taking a keen interest in proceedings because she lives just a few doors down from his house. But due to him having been granted name suppression, hasn’t been able to tell the rest of us who it is.

It’s all getting quite exciting …..watch this space.
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March 23, 2021 10:43am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I guess it will be impossible to keep his name suppressed if he goes to jail, but if he is acquitted his name will probably be secret for ever.
  
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  March 23, 2021 10:53am
  - RalphT
    
    Except I suspect half of Auckland knows who it is.
    
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    March 23, 2021 11:35am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie of course she wouldn’t tell you (chuckle).
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:05am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Looks like the jury has returned a guilty verdict.
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/prominent-businessmans-trial-rich-lister-found-guilty-of-all-indecent-assault-and-corruption-charges/6TU54JWCSNTRNOXMHICYRL4G5A/
  
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  March 23, 2021 4:40pm
Yabster

yep- even though they restricted that to once a year its inevitable rents will now go up. Not all kiwis want to own a home so they will be stuck if paying more in rent, the Gaunt wicked witch of the East strikes again……
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March 23, 2021 10:46am
Fletch

Was talking to someone in Oz today about the possible travel bubble and how cautious our govt is, and the response was, “dunno why she’s saying at their own risk. There are hardly any covid cases in Aus and most states have 0 cases”…
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March 23, 2021 10:48am
Maggie Pie

Heading back from home from the city earlier and saw a guy vaccinating himself under the K’Rd overpass.
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March 23, 2021 11:09am
- MCos
  
  When I was young I used to use copious quantities of beer as a stomach cleansing agent right there in our grotty flat on Mt Vic.
  Who needs to go to those trendy detox facilities in India.
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:21am
MCos

Some light relief from the weighty business of NZ politics.

“Sidney Powell . . . argues that when she accused Dominion of being part of an election-rigging scheme with ties to Venezuela, “no reasonable person would conclude” those “were truly statements of fact” “ https://twitter.com/zoetillman/status/1374100890181902340?s=21

What have you conspiracy theorists got to say to that?
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March 23, 2021 11:15am
- Inandout
  
  MCos, leave it. You got the person you wanted, albeit temporarily.
  
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  March 23, 2021 11:53am
  - Batman
    
    Sounds like sour grapes.
    
    You don’t get to put democracy in danger and end up with five people dead with insane lies and disinformation and then say “leave it” as a convenient excuse to avoid accountability.
    
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    March 23, 2021 1:31pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  A bit similar to Fax News arguing in court that no reasonable viewer could take Tacker Carlson seriously.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:48pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Or your good self mikey 😉
    
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    March 23, 2021 2:31pm
New Zealander

Lifting the house price cap for government support just means there will be another surge in house prices until housing supply catches up with demand (not happening any time soon).

At this rate it increasingly looks like there are only a couple of things that could bring down house prices. They all end with very sad people rushing to sell their houses because they can no longer afford mortgage payments.

This government simply found it too tough to make hard decisions and by always choosing the middle option they’ve really boxed themselves into a tight spot politically. Their legacy is going to be very negative.
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March 23, 2021 11:16am
lazza

The number one earner, MCentral Apartments in Manukau, was paid $6 million – an average of $444 a night. It’s advertising rooms to the public starting at $170.
Quote from Motelier currently ripping of Arderns dopey useless Gummint.

“We have to charge more than we charge corporates because there’s more damage to deal with, there’s more hassle to deal with, it’s just more difficult,” said a director who spoke on the condition he wasn’t named.

“It’s part of the sort of ‘danger money’ that we factor into it.”

Oh Dear.

WHEN CAN YOU EVER REMMBER? SUCH CRAP.
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March 23, 2021 11:28am
- Bobba Fret
  
  If I was a motel owner, I would definitely charge a premium or ‘danger money’ for these tenants.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:57pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Extra commercial risk –> extra costs.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:22pm
Fletch

Veritas has obtained photos from inside the border illegal migrant centres.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xff5mHG2hy8

https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-photos-leak-from-inside-bidens-border-crisis-at-detention-facilities
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March 23, 2021 11:28am
Swifty

Ethiopian woman, got a visa and then arrived here in 2009, adopted 5 of her then husband’s relatives and brought them out, became a citizen in 2015, then met a new husband on a holiday back to ‘war-torn’ Ethiopia (that she fled from) in 2015, then in 2018 began a new campaign to adopt and bring over here 4 of her new husband’s relatives – none of whom read, write or speak English.

Her and new hubby work as cleaners, live in a 2-bed Kainga Ora (taxpayer funded) home and concede they’ll need a bigger Kainga Ora home if successful in bringing latest bunch out.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is this really what we need right now given all else that is going on?

The refugee service’s own figures say that EACH one of these new refugees will require $1M of support over the next ten years i.e. $100k per person per year.

Has the woman received any compensation from either the old or new husband or their families for these adoptions? Is this a business for her? How much income did she receive from the NZ taxpayer for the support of the first five adoptions?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/aunt-battles-to-adopt-kids-living-in-poverty-overseas-but-one-niece-misses-out/57AMXSVTGXJWQGFO2M6NLY6TZU/

Let’s see who is the first to label me as a racist for asking these questions……
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March 23, 2021 11:45am
- surfing
  
  So, 1 refugee was accepted in 2000, and 12 others tagged along.
  
  For every refugee accepted into New Zealand, you could easily have 10 or more others following along. Meaning, a quote of 1000 could be closer to 10,000 when allowing for tag-a-longs.
  
  I wonder what the true figures are.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:16pm
  - kowtow
    
    And they all need houses .
    
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    March 23, 2021 1:23pm
    - Jack5
      
      The thing about Somali refugees I’ve met, and some of them are really nice people, is that they can’t wait to move on to Australia, where there is a bigger Somali community.
      
      With New Zealand, it’s the back door to Australia that’s the attraction.
      
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      March 23, 2021 1:49pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Bingo. Same for a few other ethnic economic immigrants.
        
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        March 23, 2021 2:28pm
      - fightingtemeraire
        
        Jack5
        
        There has been a Somali community for many a long year in the NE of England.
        
        Somali seamen were employed on NE Coast tramp ships and eventually settled there and married local girls. As far as I know there was very little problem with them.
        
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        March 23, 2021 4:37pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Saw one case where 1 became 17.
    
    Look at how Ahmed Zaoui “grew” the family.
    
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    March 23, 2021 2:30pm
Maggie Pie

SPRING BREAK 😀

I thort the lack of masks was a bit disturbing….

https://twitter.com/mcm_ct/status/1373993723147780097
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March 23, 2021 12:01pm
- Nickc2
  
  Must be a new dance craze sweeping America.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:07pm
- graham
  
  And people just standing by and filming it.
  
  What is wrong with these idiots?
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:16pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Ever tried to break up a brawl? Thought not. Even the police stand back for a few moments these days.
    
    See how they run out of puff? Not many can throw multiple punches without getting a bit tired 🙂 Then you move in with a few ear slaps 😉
    
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    March 23, 2021 2:25pm
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… Pent up energy?
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:19pm
- Swifty
  
  Black Lives Matter!
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:34pm
lazza

Oh Dear, St J said …

“The Government will now stop landlords claiming interest on loans for rental properties as an expense against their income from those properties and other forms of income such as wage and salary earnings”

Hulloooo.

Unforseen(dopey) conceqences Dept:

Renters weep.

You are screwed.

Suggest: Go buy a tent and rush to the Domain … to reserve a nice warm winter “site”
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March 23, 2021 12:01pm
- DeepBlue
  
  Or hit the streets in protest. Time for accepting the ‘be kind’ message has passed.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:14pm
alloytoo

The Stats NZ quarterly employment survey has added “Other” to the breakdown by gender.

It occurred to me that if employers started putting everyone in other then we would have sorted out the gender pay gap.

I would encourage everyone to put their gender as other on any future official or employment forms. Perhaps a campaign in time for the next Census?
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March 23, 2021 12:02pm
- Cinematic
  
  Heh, very good.
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:00pm
- I remember when
  
  We can expect Health outcomes for Others to deteriorate rather rapidly.
  Perhaps they will be put in a priority class.
  Looks like a must join.
  
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  March 23, 2021 4:04pm
lazza

CGT in disguise.

Yep

Just further distortions and Madam/Robbo boondoggle … to hide that fact.
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March 23, 2021 12:03pm
- MCos
  
  It’s not in disguise an never has been since it was instigated in 2015.
  It’s always been a tax in sheep’s clothing.
  Both main parties have an interest in avoiding a CGT and accusing the other of introducing one.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:39pm
Libertarians are right

Have they done BORA reports on the interest deductibility changes yet? The way I see it this is definitely discriminating against one group (residential rental investors) versus another (every other type of business).
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March 23, 2021 12:05pm
- skyblue
  
  Who is to say other types of businesses will be not be affected going forward? Oil companies say as FF is evil, just like landlords.
  
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  March 23, 2021 12:28pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Have they even spoken to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue about it?
  
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  March 23, 2021 1:29pm
Spam

It’s also not clear if this applies to new builds or not.
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March 23, 2021 12:50pm
Swifty

Payday as a Samoan, from a Samoan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLczoKI_Ifo

🙂
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March 23, 2021 12:52pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Fa’asamoa has helped that remote small Island nation thrive. Give and get given too.
  
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  March 23, 2021 5:54pm
Maggie Pie

YOU GO GURL!!

Nanaia issues ‘Joint Statement’ on Human Rights abuses in Chynaa.

https://twitter.com/NanaiaMahuta/status/1374128644243685378
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March 23, 2021 1:04pm
- SB2
  
  This would satisfy most people including you
  from Nanaia,
  
  The New Zealand and Australian Governments today reiterate their grave concerns about the growing number of credible reports of severe human rights abuses against ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. In particular, there is clear evidence of severe human rights abuses that include restrictions on freedom of religion, mass surveillance, large-scale extra-judicial detentions, as well as forced labour and forced birth control, including sterilisation.
  New Zealand and Australia welcome the measures announced overnight by Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. We share these countries’ deep concerns, which are held across the New Zealand and Australian communities….”
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/joint-statement-human-rights-abuses-xinjiang
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:10pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    “Plagiarism squad reporting for duty”
    
    “Copy that”
    
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    March 23, 2021 2:51pm
- Tall Man
  
  Yes please …. go … just fucking go 😉
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:20pm
Master Mariner

Sorry pay walled. The list that keeps on giving.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/stranded-kiwi-seafarers-frustrated-with-new-pacific-visa-miq-spots-for-foreign-fishers/W32FHJBTJVACZQM47FY6A66HCY/
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March 23, 2021 1:33pm
I remember when

There have been a number of articles lately expressing concern at the stress ‘climate change’ debate is causing young children.
Much of the problem could be solved almost overnight at no cost whatsoever.
Instead of increasing heat (or predicted future heat) being shown on graphs with deepening shades of red, change it to light blue or a pleasant shade of green.
Problem solved.
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March 23, 2021 1:44pm
- Tall Man
  
  Turn them upside down, won’t make any difference to the reality though 🙂
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:18pm
- kowtow
  
  yer ,if they stopped the panic porn the problem would go away over night .
  
  They’re simply ensuring they get another generation of voters who’ll do the gubmints’ bidding through fear and ‘safety’.
  
  And they have the cheek to call this democracy.
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:56pm
SB2

Dr Siouxsie Wiles tweets,

Makes me sad to see people who have fallen for the idea that being “woke” is bad rather than something to aspire to. Why wouldn’t you want to understand & fight injustice? (Well apart from the obvious wanting to keep benefiting from them…). Or do they not know what woke means?

https://twitter.com/SiouxsieW/status/1373807721678446595

As she remarks what’s wrong with fighting injustice and I would add being decent and kind to each other?
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March 23, 2021 2:07pm
- alloytoo
  
  There’s nothing decent, just or even kind about wokism
  
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  March 23, 2021 2:53pm
- Swifty
  
  SB2 has, unwittingly I’m sure, stumbled across what is actually a very important question – ‘why would anyone be against fighting injustice?’
  
  Well, I’ll bite – if only because this gets to the heart of why many people are so deeply skeptical of this whole ‘woke’ and ‘injustice’ movement.
  
  My thoughts:
  
  1. Not everything people claim as an ‘injustice’ is such – in fact many I see these days are just the natural results or consequences of life choices.
  
  Example – “It is an injustice that Group X has an average income below that of Group Y!” No, that is a function of the fact that, as a whole, Group Y places a higher emphasis on income generation than Group X. Let Group Y be Chinese NZers and Group X be Irish NZers and you’ll get my drift.
  
  2. Injustice is a word now often used to portray anything some on the left personally disagree with and want changed. These frequently are not ‘injustices’ at all, merely judgements as to how best arrange society.
  
  Example – some highly shouty lefties want the ‘wealthy’ taxed at 70 or 80%, or more, and that ‘it is an injustice that they are not’ – and never once mentioning the downsides if such a policy were enabled.
  
  3. Attempting to remedy ‘injustices’ by government action frequently does no good and often hurts the very people the actions were meant to help.
  
  Example – minimum wage laws hurt the young, unskilled and ethnic communities by increasing barriers to employment.
  
  4. Remedying many of these these ‘injustices’ as claimed by the left often involve even more restrictions on the liberties and freedoms of NZers.
  
  As a person once said “Elevate freedom over equality and you’ll end up with a great measure of both – but elevate equality over freedom and you’ll likely end up with neither….”
  
  I could go on and on – but there’s a few reasons to be getting on with.
  
  So forgive me if I can’t jump on this ‘injustice’ bandwagon as readily as some of my fellow citizens.
  
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  March 23, 2021 3:10pm
- Nostradamus
  
  SB2:
  
  Dr Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist, not a sociologist. Perhaps she perceives that she has acquired celebrity status and that, as a result, the public are interested in her opinions on matters that stray outside her area of expertise. Incidentally, it’s a low-level debating tactic to take one concept “woke” and sprinkle it with fairy-dust like “fighting injustice”, and then to say that if you’re “woke” then you must be against “fighting injustice”. Such low-level debating tactics seem to have worked on you!
  
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  March 23, 2021 4:04pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The pink hared one is a fucking knowall, who thinks she is important. Bullshit just seethes out of her
    
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    March 23, 2021 4:14pm
- graham
  
  Dr Siouxsie Wiles seems to have a rather vague view on what being “woke” means, and what it has come to mean in 2021.
  
  Words change their meaning, or have their meaning changed, all the time and woke certainly fits into that category. Through a fair old journey from the 1940s, being “woke” has come to pretty much be equivalent to “cancel culture” now. Rather than actually effecting change, the wokerati are becoming more concerned with simply judging others, calling them out for having the so-called “wrong” attitude, and bullying people into apologising for deeds done or words spoken long ago that they judge to be wrong. And the wokerati become increasingly strident, bullying and petty in so doing.
  
  Maybe Dr Wiles would be interested to see what ex-President Obama had to say on the issue.
  
  There is also, by the way, a school of thought that the word “woke” was appropriated from African-American vernacular – William Melvin Kelley used the term in 1962, in a New York Times article that suggested beatniks had appropriated slang from African-Americans. He went on to say that, “Black slang, awkwardly placed in white mouths, sounds like white audiences clapping on the wrong jazz beat, first and third instead of two and four.”
  
  This school of thought also suggests that for white people to use the term “woke” is nothing less than cultural appropriation – something Siouxsie Wiles has been accused of previously, having changed the spelling of her name for no other reason than to mimic the singer Siouxsie Sioux.
  
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  March 23, 2021 4:22pm
I remember when

Article in ‘New Scientist’ 13 March under ‘The border problem.’
With some countries nearly covid-free, the only safe way to reopen borders may be to wait for herd immunity from vaccines.
So the reward for elimination of covid is that you must vaccinate everyone before you have complete freedom of movement.
A sort of ‘Hard, fast and early,’ followed by a ‘slow, cautious and last.’
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March 23, 2021 2:19pm
I remember when

That Australian flooding.
Let’s start with the fact that Australia is a great flood plain.
Then there is the rain.
Is it caused by ‘climate change’: is there more of it and more frequent than it used to be.
When it gets warmer there is more evaporation therefore likely more water vapour available for precepitation.
As there is no need for CO2 to be involved who knows.
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March 23, 2021 2:29pm
I remember when

Sorry Batman thought it was reply.
Was just going to mention that I knew a people who was very involved with Pars and prisoner assistance.
He had more locked door and bolts in his house than anyone else I know.
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March 23, 2021 3:29pm
Maggie Pie

BREAKING – a beztie from Colorado retweetz….

Ten dead in Boulder shooting – heaven knows how many injured.

Video from inside store….all seems a bit weird??

https://twitter.com/ArtValley818_/status/1374188518411358209
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March 23, 2021 4:10pm
- Fletch
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300259874/ten-people-including-a-police-officer-killed-in-shooting-at-us-supermarket
  
  Wow.
  Probably an illegal alien that Biden let in.
  
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  March 23, 2021 4:20pm
Maggie Pie

My partner retweetz from the Viaduct… 😀

“Key & Clark team up to save Ardern”
How come JK is acting like such a ponce?’

https://twitter.com/Jamienzherald/status/1374203389593067523
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March 23, 2021 5:21pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Comrade Helen in high viz? She even wanted to get noticed by bird kiwis.
  Take note from Mother Jaspinda – fucking milk it all you can until it all crashes
  
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  March 23, 2021 5:46pm
  - Inandout
    
    SO, a Bright Line jacket?
    
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    March 23, 2021 6:42pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Maggie Pie:
  
  While your partner is focused on previous NZ prime ministers, he may want to check out Jenny Shipley and her contribution to an Oxford Union debate last year, speaking in support of the proposition “The British Empire Is A National Disgrace”. In political terms, she’s wetter than the water sloshing around at the Viaduct!
  
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  March 23, 2021 6:01pm
  - Swifty
    
    That disappointed me I must say.
    
    I thought Shipley would take a more balanced approach.
    
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    March 23, 2021 6:28pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Couldn’t agree more Nostra!!
    In fact my partner was wondering if Jenny found that ‘6 mill’ down the back of her couch for the Mainzeal damages? 😀
    
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    March 23, 2021 6:37pm
- Tall Man
  
  They “say” they saved it ……. Heh heh heh…..
  
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  March 23, 2021 6:36pm
Benedict Yu

“Pike River ‘inherently’ unstable and can’t have unlimited budget – Andrew Little”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124628993/pike-river-inherently-unstable-and-cant-have-unlimited-budget–andrew-little

There are not enough laughs and emojis that I am familiar with to allow me to respond to this.
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March 23, 2021 5:42pm
surfing

Is the Commerce Commission lazier than Marama Davidson?

Possibly, based on their apathy and refusal to follow up on repeat offenders of the CGA. Even when there are official disputes tribunal rulings that show the big companies simply refuse to honour their CGA obligations.

The ACCC (aussies version of the commerce commission) seem far more onto it, because they do their job!
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March 23, 2021 6:01pm
lazza

My observation from 21/06/20

Jacinda’s unwise promise ” CGT … Not on my watch” and Robbo’s … “No & No” … to the brightline test, will at some time “soon” be shown to be so much bullshit and cynical outright lies.

QED.
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March 23, 2021 6:25pm
Tall Man

Almost 9pm and most of my comments are still in moderation……

Wow is all I can say.
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March 23, 2021 8:56pm
surfing

Police just issued a racist media release. . .

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/watch-police-ask-public-for-help-in-identifying-waitangi-day-dirt-bike-riders/ar-BB1eREFZ?li=BBqdg4K

A bit weird they issued photos, usually they don’t identify race offenders to the media (probably gets a bit embarrassing).
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March 23, 2021 10:56pm

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