Chris Bishop announced:

“I have agreed with the Council’s alternative recommendations in nine instances, relating to development around Adelaide Road, the walkable catchment around the City Centre Zone (including Hay St), character precincts, building heights and controls on the interface of the City Centre Zone and Moir and Hania Street, setbacks for 1-3 residential units, the Johnsonville train line and its walkable catchments, the Kapiti train line walkable catchments, and hydraulic neutrality as it applies to the City Centre Zone.

“The reasons for accepting these recommendations vary depending on the precise issue, but in general, the Council’s recommendations give better effect to the National Policy Statement on Urban Development in that they provide additional capacity for housing and business land, will better achieve a well-functioning urban environment, will better provide for a competitive development market and provide for a more efficient use of land.

“The Council asked me to not upzone the Kilbirnie centre, as was recommended by the Hearings Panel, to allow them to undertake a plan change within one year. I have not accepted this recommendation and have instead accepted the Hearings Panel recommendation. This will apply a 10-minute walkable catchment around the Kilbirnie centre and consequently mean a High Density Residential Zone will apply.

This is great. There were 10 areas where the Council and the Hearings Panel disagreed. In all 10 cases Bish has gone with the option which will be best for allowing more housing.

“The Council also asked me to remove ten buildings from the schedule of heritage buildings in the District Plan. However, the question of whether a building should be on the heritage schedule is an evidential one. In the original District Plan that was notified for public consultation, the Council’s position was that the ten buildings in question should be on the heritage schedule. The Council’s own heritage expert and planning officer supported this and provided evidence to this effect to the Hearings Panel. The Hearings Panel therefore recommended the ten buildings be listed or retained on the heritage schedule.

“The Council has not pointed to any evidence to support its reasons for rejecting the Hearing Panel’s recommendations. No expert heritage evidence was lodged by buildings owners.

“Given the evidence before me, and without the ability to seek further evidence, I have therefore agreed with the recommendations of the Hearings Panel in relation to the ten heritage buildings.

“That said, I understand the Council’s position regarding the ten buildings and I have received separate correspondence from the Mayor around making it easier to delist heritage buildings. I have already asked for advice on this matter and I look forward to conversations with her and other councils regarding the issue of heritage and how it impedes development.”

Basically the Council made the right decisions on removing the heritage provisions, but did so without an evidential basis so Bishop can’t legally go along with their decision. Instead a law change is likely allowing Councils to remove buildings from heritage listings more easily.

So all in all a great outcome for more affordable housing in Wellington.

Gullible media have reported that Hamas has accepted a ceasefire deal. They have not. They rejected the proposed ceasefire deal and proposed their own one. And what are some key aspects of it:

Hamas shall release three Israeli detainees on the third day of the agreement, after which Hamas shall release three other detainees every seven days, starting with women as much as possible (civilians and female soldiers).

If there are fewer than 33 living Israeli detainees to be released, a number of bodies from the same categories shall be released to complete this stage.

So Hamas has only agreed to release three hostages a week, and they don’t even have to be alive!

Time magazine did a detailed interview with Donald Trump. Here’s some of what Trump said he would or might do if re-elected, as is likely:

• Build migrant detention camps
• Deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland
• Let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.
• Withhold funds appropriated by Congress
• Fire U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone
• Pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.
• Deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit
• A tariff of more than 10% on all imports

Going to be an interesting four years!

The Auditor-General’s report into the incorrect vote count for the general election is polite but damning. They found:

• There were 25 incorrect vote totals at polling places
• One ballot box went missing and wasn’t counted
• Some electorate managers didn’t check the data from their electorate
• National Office also failed to check data submitted
• There is no verification of data against source material
• There was no system for documenting and verifying that data entry checks or reasonableness checks had been carried out. 
• The Electoral Commission had not fully documented the quality assurance data checks that National Office staff were expected to perform
• Some electorate managers told us that they signed off final result certificates for their electorates, indicating that reasonableness checks had been completed, without doing the checks or verifying that they had been done. 
• Not all dual votes were removed from the count

These are not minor issues. This is a systematic fail. It is luck, not good management, that the errors didn’t cumulatively impact the allocation of seats.

I’d say we need some new appointments to the Electoral Commission Board – at least one should be an audit or process expert.

Stuff reports:

MPs from both major parties are calling for political debate to cool, after a Te Pāti Māori MP said the Government’s changes to Oranga Tamariki showed a “mission to exterminate Māori”.

The MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mairiameno Kapa-Kingi, made the comments during Wednesday’s general debate. Speaking about the removal of Treaty principles from the Oranga Tamariki Act, she said this showed the Government wanted to remove Māori children from their whānau, iwi and hapū.

“This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori,” she said. …

Radio NZ also reported:

Kapa-Kingi repeated her comments about extermination on Morning Report and said that previous words she used like colonisation, seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“If [extermination is] the word that has people sit up and take notice of what it feels like for our mokopuna and our whānau, what it sounds like, the tone of the discussion on a daily basis in the house.

So this MP thinks colonisation and extermination are interchangeable terms.

While it is good the media are finally covering what she said, she is still getting little pushback.

There are some people who push a theory called the Great Replacement Theory which is that white people in Europe and the US are being replaced by non-white immigrants as a deliberate policy to eliminate the white race.

Anyone who says such a thing is labelled a far right conspiracy theorist, and generally will be shunned by all media outlets.

What Kapa-Kingi said is the equivalent on the left of the Great Replacement Theory. Yet all she gets is a story mildly saying some have criticised her language.

Kapa-Kingi seems to be implying she just uses the term extermination as hyperbole. Apart from the insult that does to people who have faced actual extermination via government policy, consider what the likely impact is on some people who hear her rhetoric.

If you genuinely believe the Government is set on exterminating your race, then violent resistance would be morally justified. So her words are effectively an incitement to violence. You can’t say that the Government wants to exterminate 600,000 New Zealanders, and expect that the only response is for people to sign a petition.

Simeon Brown and Wayne Brown announced:

The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining local control of water assets.

If the Council which ranges greatly in opinions supports this unanimously, it must be a pretty good plan. And keeping local control and reducing projected increases sound good to most.

“The previous government wasted $1.2 billion over several years to deliver a water reform plan that was wasteful, took away local control, and was divisive. It was resoundingly rejected by voters.

$1.2 billion flushed away on an ideological experiment.

The new model means Watercare will be able to borrow more money for long-term investment in water infrastructure and spread the borrowing over a longer period rather than front-loading the cost on to current ratepayers.

The common way to do infrastructure.

The Taxpayers Union points out:

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Government to end the rort that sees millions of dollars funnelled away from motorists into the inefficient and expensive Te Huia Train Service.

A recent review of the train service between Auckland and Hamilton reveals that it has budgeted a $5.45 million contribution from the NZTA for the current financial year. Roughly 90% of NZTA’s Land Transport Fund comes from fuel, registration and road-user charges.

The Minister of Transport recently said that subsides equate to approximately $90 per passenger for each leg of the journey, or $180 per return trip.

The fares from passengers only cover 3% of the operating expenditure, so it is 97% subsidised.

The number of daily passengers is around 250, so around 1% of those who travel on the expressway.

There are nine daily bus services between Hamilton and Auckland.

Radio NZ reports:

A council proposal to build a $55 million four-star hotel and carpark is dividing opinion in Whanganui.

The project is included in the city’s draft long-term plan alongside proposals to cut services and sell $16 million worth of assets.

Mayor Andrew Tripe says current tough times should not preclude council from having bold aspirations, but not everyone is so sure.

The draft long term includes average rates increases of 10.6 percent – which are picked to go even higher – but that hasn’t stopped the Whanganui District Council floating the idea that it get into the hotel business.

This is just nuts. Ratepayers should not be funding hotels.

Tripe said the time was right.

“There’s no doubt that a four-star hotel is needed. We had a market demand study done completed by Horwath HTL hotel consultants who suggested that a 60 plus room four-star would be strongly desired for Whanganui.”

Of course the hotel consultants concluded a hotel is needed.

If there really is demand for a four star hotel in Whanganui, then one of the dozens of hotel chains will build one. That is how they make money. As they are risking their own money, they will weigh up the actual likely return vs cost.

Tripe said a new hotel would also allow Whanganui to bid for more conference business which it was currently missing out on.

That, plus a monorail!

Rates would need increase $30 a year per property though until 2039 to pay for it.

Only then was it envisaged the hotel would begin to make a return of $4 million annually.

LOL a business plan that it will take 15 years to make a profit is just nonsense. So much can happen in 15 years.

The Herald reports:

New Zealanders could find their power cut tomorrow morning just as temperatures are expected to drop below zero after a warning that electricity generation may not keep up with demand.

Power grid operator Transpower issued a warning notice this morning saying there were “insufficient generation offers to meet demand” between 7am and 9am on Friday.

Kiwis have been asked to not use heaters or lights in rooms they are not using, not to charge electronic devices and vehicles and to delay using washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers.

This is what happens when the (old) Government failed to ensure we have sufficient electricity generation by banning gas exploration etc.

Newshub reports:

New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.

The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax in New Zealand was 4.5 percent higher last year compared with 2022. 

That was only behind Australia, where taxes rose 7.6 percent in the same period.

Single Kiwis earning the average wage were paying tax at a rate of 24.9 percent in 2023, up from 23.2 percent a year prior, according to the OECD data released on Thursday.

This is the impact of high inflation and no indexation of tax brackets. Every year every worker pays more tax, even if their wages stay constant in real terms.

The Free Speech Union announced:

Free Speech Union proud to be New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council 2024 named-sponsor 

In line with the Free Speech Union’s commitment to invest in a culture that values free speech and debate, we are excited to announce our partnership with the New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council (NZSDC). We will support them in presenting their finals debate at Parliament this year at the end of May, says Nick Hanne, the Union’s manager for education partnerships. 

“Alongside our work in high schools around the country through our ‘Speak Up’ programme, and supporting events at universities (such as the free speech moot we hosted yesterday with the Auckland University of Technology Mooting Society), we are excited to help champion the important work of the Debating Council. We’re pleased to join our name with theirs in championing a new generation of critical thinking, free speaking, debaters.

“The work of the NZSDC aligns with our own organisational mission of promoting a culture of free discourse and independent critical thinking amongst young Kiwis.

This gives me some hope for the future, that at least school debaters still want to actually debate. Already at university level you have the Auckland University Debating Society refusing to take parts in any debates involving the FSU. So it is great to see the NZSDC in this partnership. Debate is the enemy of censorship, and we should welcome it.

The Post reports:

Molly Malones in Courtenay Place served its last beer in 2015, yet was one of the “just under 200” licensed premises health authorities used to justify opposition to a new central Wellington bar.

Te Whatu Ora Health NZ has released the full list of the 87 phantom licences – all either expired, for past one-off events, or now-closed venues – it originally claimed existed.

Medical Officer of Health Stephen Palmer said he never used the erroneous figure, which came from a shortfall in the computer system, when he objected to liquor licences to the Wellington City Council District Licensing Committee.

But two owners of multiple bars said health authorities cited the number before the official body, which decides on liquor licenses.

In early March, Te Whatu Ora, which confirmed it spent $22,750 opposing the licence for new bar Saint Diablo, justified its opposition to The Post because “the number of on-licences located within 500 metres of Saint Diablo is just under 200”.

When asked to supply a list of the 200 premises, a Te Whatu Ora spokesperson asked, “are you actually questioning that there aren’t 200 licensed premises in this region?”, before treating it as an Official Information Act request.

That eventual response showed there were just 142 premises within the radius – leaving 58 phantom licences. Te Whatu Ora has now released that list, which actually includes 87 premises.

They include Molly Malones, which closed in 2015, Strawberry Fare, closed since 2016, and Reading Cinemas, closed since 2019.

This is pretty disgraceful. These license hearing are quasi-judicial and the Medical Officer of Health has been supplying misinformation which is nine years out of date, and exaggerates the number of licenses by around 40%.

The MOHs are given special status under the law to submit on alcohol licenses. If they use false information, they should lose that status.

I’m not sure if Duncan Webb is trying to spell Hamas or hummus, but it’s pretty pathetic either way.

He implies that David Seymour is anti-homos.

A fairly nasty smear, and a ridiculous considering Seymour has an extremely liberal voting record or moral issues.

The Daily Mail reports:

Scotland Yard was facing yet more anger from Jewish groups on Saturday after a Holocaust memorial was covered up over fears it would be vandalised by pro-Palestine activists.

Officials in Hyde Park yesterday hid Britain’s first public memorial to the six million victims of the Nazi genocide under a blue tarpaulin in a move one Holocaust survivor called ‘shameful’.

The monument was then guarded by Metropolitan Police officers to stop it being targeted by pro-Palestine protesters who marched through London in yet another demonstration against the war in Gaza. 

Protecting the Holocaust memorial is a good thing. Covering it up is a very bad thing.

After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy.

He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017.

He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour were in power.

Tinetti took over in February until the election. Together, I believe, they oversaw the worst education oversight by government in living memory.

Whenever the recent six years of Labour government are referred to Labour avoid discussion of two personnel situations.

1. Ardern as Prime Minister (also 88% of the time).
   
2. Hipkins as Minister of Education.

Up until the books were opened he had only two legacies. They are; killing a Charter School model that was helping struggling children to succeed and the ditching of National Standards, although they were supported by parents, with no replacement.

He has two new legacies.

1. The appalling and deceitful oversight of the proposal to combine Marlborough Girls and Boys Colleges. This BALOONED to $450 million and he not only hid it from Cabinet but instructed the Ministry how to increment the amounts to disguise the extent of cost increases.
   
2. Grant Robertson made it apparent the whenever Hipkins did not get his way in a budget process he would threaten to throw his toys.
   
   “Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson in his recent valedictory speech also revealed facetiously that Labour leader and former Education Minister Chris Hipkins threatened to resign each year.
   “I also want to thank Chippy for not following through on his annual threat to resign during the education budget process,” said Robertson.

With the decline in all education measures during the Labour party it would have been better if Hipkins had resigned. The nation should be always reminded of his role and the effect on NZ young people and their families.

Alwyn Poole
Innovative Education Consultants
www.innovativeeducation.co.nz
alwynpoole.substack.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alwyn-poole-16b02151/

There is a legal fight between Elon Musk and the Australian Government over footage of the stabbing of an Australian Assyrian Bishop by a radicalised young Muslim. The Government has demanded that it be removed from all social media platforms, including Twitter.

At first glance one might think that this is comparable to the footage of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Very few people would argue that the footage of that attack shouldn’t be freely available on the Internet.

But there are some key differences.

1. The video wasn’t filmed by the attacker, as a way to glorify or boast of what he was doing. It was captured on the church’s livestream.
2. The victim in this case, Bishop Emmanuel has called for it to be available
3. The Australian Government isn’t just demanding it be removed in Australia, but globally

So in this case, I think the Australian Government is in the wrong.

Luke Malpass writes:

OPINION: Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Andrew Bayly has announced that the Government will be revoking the affordability regulations contained within the Credit contracts and Consumer Finance Act. …

The new CCCFA made getting a mortgage far more onerous and made people looking for mortgages feel like they were in front of some sort of star chamber. …

In one of the really stunning — but largely unacknowledged — own goals of the Ardern government, the CCCFA introduced some 11 pages of prescriptive instructions to banks and financial institutions. Taken together they were called affordability regulations. …

Prior to the changes being brought in, the Government was warned by the banking sector that the new requirements would add to the cost, time and complexity of new lending as well.

It was a rare instance where the politically inept meets the practically stupid. Credit became far more difficult to get while the legal small money lenders suddenly found compliance costs — time primarily — driving them out of small loans.

The thing meant to spare vulnerable people from predatory lending, opened up a new market for loan sharks, while middle class people out for a mortgage — first home buyers especially — were made to feel under cross-examination.

Bayly seethes at the idea that the previous regime helped protect the most vulnerable.

“At the moment, there is no discretion: If you front up and say ‘I want 500 bucks’ or if you fronted up and said ‘I want a million dollars to buy that that’. Lenders should be able to use their judgment on a case-by-case basis and we’re going to reinstate that,” Balyy said.

The regulations were a debacle, and a great example of how good intentions and a lack ion real world understanding can lead to awful outcomes.

The Heraald reports:

NYU Stern Professor of Marketing Scott Galloway practices what he preaches. The prolific podcaster and Algebra of Wealth author has founded a string of tech, branding and education start-ups, which have pushed his estimated wealth to over $100 million. The Herald asked him for his verdict on New Zealand’s mobile phones-in-schools ban.

The ban kicked in this week and covers breaks and class time, as per National’s campaign pledge.

Will it be good for students?

“There are probably some apps and some tech that they won’t be as apt at,” Galloway said.

“But on balance, I think it’s a fantastic idea. New Zealand gets it right again.” (The academic and entrepreneur was also a fan of NZ’s move to ban most semi-automatic weapons after the Christchurch Mosque massacres.)

“I’m friends with and colleagues with Jonathan Haidt, who catalysed this global movement. It’s inspiring to think that, in academia, we might occasionally get it right and have an impact,” Galloway added.

Haidt – also a professor at New York University – is a social psychologist and author of a seminal 2019 essay called “Get phones out of schools now” – which associated a rise in teen anxiety and depression with the use of mobiles in schools.

“Getting students’ attention was harder because they seemed permanently distracted and congenitally distractible. Drama, conflict, bullying, and scandal played out continually during the school day on platforms to which the staff had no access,” Haidt wrote after talking to teachers and principals.

Many schools wanted bans but feared push-back from helicopter parents.

Galloway said he liked to think his colleague’s work helped to inspire New Zealand’s move.

He added, “It just makes sense. A 13-year-old girl doesn’t need the high school cafeteria following around 24-7. Look at what’s happened to teen depression and suicide. The moment it started escalating it was when social went on mobile.”

Nice to have international support for the move.

While hard evidence was “weak and inconclusive”, anecdotally, schools that implemented the ban before the deadline have reported positive changes in attention and learning. The head girl of Hornby High School in Christchurch said the grounds were now “almost louder during intervals and lunches”.

Her principal said, “I wish we had done the phone ban five years ago.”

And, responding to a Herald article on LinkedIn, Freeview general manager Leon Mead said, “It’s made a difference at Rangi [Rangitoto College – the biggest school in the country]. Last year fields were empty at lunchtime. Now kids are off phones and out having fun.”

Will be really interesting to assess after say 12 months, what impact it has had.

NewstalkZB reports:

Former deputy prime minister and senior Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni is understood to be one of the contestants on the new season of Celebrity Treasure Island. 

A sure sign she is running for the leadership!

1 News reports:

Carterton’s deputy mayor is “disappointed” and “disgusted” at the response to a proposal to erect a memorial sculpture of the late Georgina Beyer.

“I’m just really disappointed at how some people have expressed their views by tearing apart a deceased person and their character when they can’t defend themselves,” Carterton’s Deputy Mayor Dale Williams said.

Beyer, who died last year, was elected mayor of Carterton in 1995 — making her the world’s first openly transgender mayor.

Williams said he was “disgusted” by the comments his council had received regarding a proposal to erect a life-sized bronze statue of Beyer.

Carterton councillors met on Wednesday to discuss the proposal, but decided to seek public feedback on the idea and potential location before supporting the project further.

The sculpture would be externally funded and has been endorsed by the executors of Beyer’s estate. The estimated price to complete the sculpture is between $300,000-$500,000.

Beyer became the world’s first transgender Member of Parliament and was celebrated for her courage, sharp humour, and fierce advocacy of the communities she represented.

Georgina Beyer was a good Mayor of Carterton. She got re-elected with 90% of the vote. And her election as both Mayor and MP was significant, especially in such a rural area. She wasn’t elected because she was transgender, or in spite of it. It just wasn’t an issue to locals who judged her on her performance.

I think it is quite appropriate to honour a former Mayor, who attracted significant attention nationally and globally.

But a $500,000 statue is way over the top, especially in a district of 10,000 people. That is $50 per person or over $100 per household.

Naming a street or a park after her, with an appropriate plaque would be far more sensible.