Patrick Carroll writes:

Simply put, the primary reason housing prices are soaring is because the supply is being limited while the demand is growing.

With respect to supply, there are basically two ways to expand: up and out. On the one hand, cities can build taller, higher-density residences. On the other hand, they can build on new land at the outskirts of the city.

The problem is that both of these options are seriously unpopular. With respect to building up, many people are fiercely opposed to high-density developments in their local communities, and as a result, most municipalities have strict zoning laws that prevent or at least limit these kinds of initiatives.

If you suggest building out, however, you quickly encounter the wrath of environmentalists who are on a mission to mitigate urban sprawl, and the environmentalists have passed many land-use regulations, too.

And just doing one isn’t enough. You need to be able to build both up and out. But sadly many of those who support building up bitterly oppose building out.

Karl du Fresne writes:

As I said in a recent letter to the Times-Age, New Zealanders need to decide what type of government they want: one that serves all citizens equally, or one that recognises a minority racial group as having rights that trump those of the majority.

This doesn’t mean sweeping aside Maori rights. But it’s one thing to treat Maori fairly and respectfully, as is their due, and quite another to undermine the fundamental democratic principles from which all New Zealanders – Maori, Pakeha and everyone else – benefit.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that people of Maori descent enjoy the same rights as the rest of us. These include the right to stand for councils and to get elected, as many have done. That would provide the opportunity to be represented in the running of a legitimately constituted Three Waters governance structure. But the powerful iwi interests that influence the government (and in particular Labour’s Maori caucus, which is a power centre in its own right) want to bypass that process and enjoy a seat at the table as of right.

To put it another way, the Three Waters project, as it stands, involves replacing democracy with another form of government for which we don’t have a name.

Actually I think there is a name for it. If you make representation dependent on race and members of one race get 5.7 times the voting power of all the other races, there is indeed a name for it.

Newshub reports:

Despite thousands of state homes not meeting healthy homes standards, Newshub can reveal Kāinga Ora’s spent millions doing up its own offices.

While Housing Minister Megan Woods says that’s a good thing because it means the agency is growing, National doesn’t agree.

Kāinga Ora’s spent $24,354,759 of taxpayer money over the past four years on itself on office renovation.

They have around 2,300 staff so that is a spend of over $10,000 per staffer just on office renovations.

Easy when it is our money they are spending. I doubt may private sector companies would spend $10,000 per staff on office renovations.

While Kāinga Ora spends millions on itself, it admitted in its last annual report just 21 percent of its homes met the Healthy Homes Standards – meaning 54,000 homes failed.

“And yet housing officials are prioritising upgrades to its corporate offices,” Willis says.

And the Government wonders why things are getting worse despite them spending more money.

Oliver Hartwich writes:

The Cold War era is often associated with the arms race between East and West. While that military confrontation between the two blocs was a key element of the Cold War, it was not the defining one.

At its core, the Cold War was a philosophical divide: liberalism vs socialism, democracy vs totalitarianism, freedom vs oppression. …

Thus, Western countries reconfirmed their adherence to their set of liberal values through their common institutions. Meanwhile, despite political differences, there remained a common core of values spanning almost the entire domestic political spectrum.

In a way, it did not matter if the Republicans or the Democrats governed the US. Or whether the Social Democrats or the Christian Democrats led West Germany. Or whether the socialists or the conservatives ran France. Their countries’ basic adherence to the Western values set was never in question.

During the Cold War, the old West remained highly coordinated internationally, and it was relatively cohesive domestically.

But just as having a common enemy unites, so the lack of a common enemy can drive apart. And that was the story since the end of the Cold War.

This is spot on. We have focused too much on what divides us, rather than what unites us, having lost that common enemy.

That is the backdrop to Putin’s aggression on Ukraine. Putin had perceived the West as divided – because he had helped divide it where he could. And he saw a West that was so weak it barely demurred when Russia swallowed Crimea in 2014. A West that liked Russian money, needed Russian gas and was not prepared to stand up for its own values. A West that allowed Putin to get what he wanted.

Despite that, Putin seems to have miscalculated. Instead of humiliating the West once again, Putin’s war is – so far – achieving the opposite: it is reviving it.

This is thanks to the heroism of the Ukrainian people and their President, Volodymyr Zelensky.

A CNN commentary summed it up perfectly: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his courageous nation have already done more to transform the West’s policy toward Russia than 30 years of post-Cold War summits, policy resets and showdowns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

The invasion of Ukraine may go down in world history as just as significant as 9/11.

The West, which after 1989 lost sight of its values, may have found them again. By confronting the external enemies of liberal democracy, it may regain its own liberal-democratic strengths.

If that is the outcome of this conflict, the West will be ready for the next geopolitical challenges to come. And President Xi will think twice about his ambitions in the South China Sea.

I hope this does give China pause, but we have to seriously consider how we become less reliant on China, so that if China does invade Taiwan, we can take action without being economically crippled.

A free trade zone between the US, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada would be a good start.

The West may also rethink its own domestic priorities again. It has taken a brutal and existential challenge to sort out what matters – and what doesn’t.

If that is the outcome, then at least out of Putin’s atrocity, out of his monstrous and barbaric war, may come something good. And that would be a comeback of a strong West, committed to its values. And with Ukraine as a free, liberal, democratic nation under the rule of law – just the kind of country the NATO Treaty talked about and that the EU should want to have as its member.

Putin’s war on Ukraine, and Zelensky’s heroism, force us all to take a stand. It leaves no room for neutrality, even if dressed up as an independent foreign policy.

When ever-neutral Switzerland joins the EU in their sanctions against Russia; when Finland and Sweden now think about joining NATO; when Singapore firmly puts itself behind the West; when pacificist Germany and Japan rearm themselves: As all of this is happening, times have fundamentally changed.

The only choice left for countries to make is which side they will be on.

There are 84 countries defined as “free” by Freedom House. We should be doing more with them and less with the others.

Stuff reports:

Drug use, violent behaviour, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour on a daily basis is “destroying our city”.

That’s what Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick told Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni about Rotorua’s emergency housing motels, in a letter obtained by Stuff via an Official Information Act request.

So a former Labour MP and Minister has said that the Government’s emergency housing programme is destroying Rotorua.

Good on her for telling the truth in her letters to the Government. If only she would say the same out loud.

This is beyond pathetic. To try and instigate a boycott of a company, because an individual involved with that company made a donation to a political party you disagree with. This sort of US-style cancel culture will destroy New Zealand politics.

First of all Xero itself has not donated to anyone. It is one of our most globally successful companies that have taken on the world and dominated. It has created jobs for thousands of New Zealanders and generated immense tax revenue for the Government. It also has been a godsend for many small businesses like myself. It has made running the company accounts so easy. To try any boycott an iconic New Zealand company because of a personal donation of one individual associated with it, is nasty. It is designed to intimidate people.

The smear that Drury’s donation to ACT is about white supremacy is malicious. First of all Drury himself is Maori (Ngai Tahu through his father) and the ACT leader is Maori (Ngapuhi through his mother). But even if they were not, it is ludicrous to smear people as white supremacists because they don’t agree with the Maori Party’s stated desire to change New Zealand from being a democracy.

But the attack on Drury is even more despicable considering his other donations. In December 2020, he donated $1 million to a local iwi’s charity to clean up Lake Hayes. Yep ten times what he donated to ACT.

Drury also personally funded a 5 year full boarding scholarship to Woodford House for Ngai Tahu families. That would be around $125,000 per student. And yet this is the guy the Maori Party smear as a white supremacist or supporting white supremacy. They should be ashamed.

Stuff reports:

Tauranga’s four commissioners have earned more than $1.1 million in the year they have been leading the council. …

Mahuta set remuneration at $1800 a day for the commission chair and $1500 for commissioners.

According to the council’s remuneration figures, Tolley was paid $358,200 for 200 days work between February 2021 and February 2022.

Selwood earned $261,000 for 174 days, Rolleston worked 174.5 days and was paid $261,750 and Wasley earned $275,250 for 183.5 days work.

Tauranga City Council democracy services manager Coral Hair says the reason for the difference in the days worked by the commissioners is because of their different duties and responsibilities.

These include appointments to regional joint committees, and they may also be asked to attend different events or meetings on the commission’s behalf, says Hair.

So if a Commissioner attends some function, then they get paid more money. Nice work.

Shouldn’t the Commissioners get salaries, instead of hourly or daily rates?

Stuff reports:

An Auckland man hid more than four million undeclared cigarettes in Gib board pallets. …

Customs investigations manager Cam Moore told Stuff this conviction is further evidence that it’s not just organised criminal groups who see large-scale tobacco smuggling and money laundering as a profitable crime.

Moore said the high retail prices for cigarette and tobacco products makes New Zealand a lucrative market.

Ng’s case is another example of large-scale tobacco smuggling.

Government policy has led to this huge black market. The tax increases have pushed the price up to a lvel where the black market is booming.

And sadly future Government policies look set to do the same. If you ban people from legally being able to purchase regulated and taxed tobacco, they will turn to the black market to buy unregulated and untaxed tobacco.

One News reports:

The issue of Māori co-governance is set to be a big talking point at the next election with ACT campaigning for a referendum on the issue.

Revealed exclusively to 1News, party leader David Seymour says it would be a bottom line if forming a Government with National.

“Over the last 40 years a combination of the Waitangi Tribunal, the courts, and successive Labour and National governments have quietly but progressively changed the definition of what the Treaty means,” Seymour said.

I certainly think that major constitutional changes such as the push for co-governance at the highest levels of government should be a matter decided by the public, not done by politicians with no mandate.

ACT proposes that the next government passes legislation defining the principles of the Treaty, then ask the people to vote on it becoming law.

The Treaty Principles Act would say:

1. All citizens of New Zealand have the same political rights and duties
2. All political authority comes from the people by democratic means, including universal suffrage, and regular and free elections with a secret ballot
3. New Zealand is a multi-ethnic liberal democracy where discrimination based on ethnicity is illegal.

The second one is key. Political authority does not come from the Treaty of Waitangi, or the US Declaration of Independence or other founding documents. They are important documents but political authority comes from the people via democratic means. This is what separates out democratic and free countries from other countries.

A nice little protest in Wellington that will annoy the Russian Embassy. But one step up is what some building owners did in Madrid:

They projected the colours of Ukraine onto the Russian Embassy. The local Ambassador is reportedly apoplectic with rage.

Bristol World reports:

Staff at the University of Bristol are being given guidance on neopronouns and emerging gender identities such as ‘catgender’.

The university’s ‘Using Pronouns at Work’ guide advises staff to include their own pronouns such as he/him or she/her when introducing themselves to students and other staff, helping others feel comfortable and ensuring the institution is a ‘welcoming and supportive’ place for all.

It also links to a website that says some people may use ‘emojiself pronouns’ or nya/n pronouns (’nyan’ is the Japanese word for meow) as they identify as ‘catgender’, a xenogender in which one strongly identifies with cats or other felines.

This will be invaluable in dealing with all the feline identifying students.

An OIA to MBIE has revealed that 11 NZ citizens entered NZ by way of transit. I blogged on how desperate families did this to get home – book a flight to Fiji, and simply don’t get back on the plane in Auckland.

The most interesting thing is that not a single one has been issued an infringement notice by the NZ Police. I recall the Government warning people they may be arrested and charged – but it was all scaremongering.

Jon Johansson writes:

Temporary relief at the pump shows how nimble government can be when sufficiently motivated. Same with border openings happening sooner and vaccine passes going too. Polling had nothing to do with fuelling Labour’s motivation, according to the Government.

Nevertheless, Labour’s poll reversal has it in good company for a government four-and-a-half years in. Only Sir ‘Teflon John’ Key bucked the trend, selling high to retire undefeated, with National never once behind in TVNZ polls while he was Prime Minister.

This got me wondering how Governments normally fare at this stage of the electoral cycle. So here’s the One News poll for all the MMP Governments at this stage:

• May 95 – National Govt 13% ahead of Labour
• Feb 04 – Labour Govt 6% behind National (1st post Orewa poll)
• Feb 13 – National Govt 16% ahead of Labour
• Feb 22 – Labour Govt 2% behind National

So it is rare for the Government to lag at this stage. The only other time they did, was just after the Orewa speech which saw National climb 18%.

The PM announced:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today that New Zealand will provide a further $5 million contribution of non-lethal military assistance to support Ukraine, and are making available a range of surplus defence equipment to share with Ukraine at their request.

Funding will be primarily directed to the NATO Trust Fund which provides much needed fuel, military rations, communications and military first aid kits to support Ukraine.

So we will be assisting Ukraine to the level of 10% of what the Government spent on wanting to do a cycle bridge in Auckland. It’s less than a quarter of what they are spending on a train service from Hamilton used by 30 people a day. And for a country of 44 million fighting off a vicious invasion.

Australia is giving A$96 million of military assistance. That is 20 times as much as New Zealand.

Stuff reports:

Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says there isn’t a mental health crisis despite a new Government report finding ballooning specialists wait times for children and adolescents, and increased antidepressant and antipsychotic medication dispensing for young people.

All mental health services for children and adolescents are short at least a quarter of clinical roles, with the deficit as high as 40 per cent in Wellington, despite a huge $1.9 billion investment in mental health from the Labour Government as part of its wellbeing budget in 2019.

This is a great example of Labour’s legacy – huge increases in funding, yet worse outcomes.

Some Ministers think that all you have to do to fix something is agree to spend money. The reality is that fixing complex problems requires a Minister to drive changes in their agencies.

Tony Ryall in Health showed how you can improve things. Rather than try to do 100 things poorly, he set around six health targets which would make a difference – reduced ED waiting times, quicker cancer treatments, more vaccinations etc.

This Government has shown that you can spend almost $2 billion on a problem, and have things get worse. They have managed the same in housing and education also.

The Herald reports:

Act will declare $850,000 of donations on Monday from some of the wealthiest New Zealanders, including a $100,000 donation from billionaire Graeme Hart, who tops the rich list.

Act leader David Seymour says the donations are part of a drive by the Act party which has raised almost $1 million. The remaining roughly $150,000 has come from smaller donations, which do not have to have their donors declared.

Alongside Hart, the big donors are Rod Drury, Craig Turner, Graham Edwards, Dame Jenny Gibbs, Murray Chandler, and John Harman, who donated $100,000 each.

Stephen Jennings, Grant Baker, and Mike Thorburn donated $50,000 each.

Seymour said the donations were from people who were not “particularly political”, and he did not know conclusively whether any of the names on the list were Act party members.

He said the donors were “worried about two things: the state of democracy, the rushed legislation and the uncertainty it creates; and the policy direction which they see as being anti-aspirational and I think the reason they have connected that with Act is they want to see meaningful change in New Zealand”.

That is a huge amount of money to collect from one donation drive. To me that indicates two things:

1. The donors see ACT as performing well and pushing policies they like, and are donating as they want ACT to do well at the election and maintain or grow their number of MPs
2. The donors think a change of government is likely or at least quite achievable. You don’t donate $100,000 just so a party can be in opposition. You donate as you think that party could well end up in Government, and you want them to have a greater influence on the future Government.

So great to see people willing to donate to parties they support, and that under our good electoral laws their donations are disclosed promptly.

The Herald reports:

A New Zealand-born father of five with a criminal history spanning 23 years in Australia has failed in a last-ditch bid to remain there.

The man, who was sent to Australia to live with an aunt after being physically abused as a teen, pleaded with authorities to let him stay in the same country as his children.

He said he wanted to be a father to his kids and be there for them when they needed him.

“I always said I would never disown my kids like my dad did with me.”

On the face of it, this is very laudable. Kids do much better if they grow up with both parents.

The man was sent to Australia when he was 15 after suffering physical abuse from his father and stepfather. He has never been back to New Zealand.

His criminal offending began when he was 18 and has continued almost yearly since.

While characterised by property and dishonesty-related crimes, numerous traffic offences and breaches of court-imposed orders, his list of previous offences also includes some that resulted in extended prison terms.

He was jailed for two years and seven months in 2006 for a grievous bodily harm charge, in which he fractured a man’s eye socket.

In 2008, he received a three-year prison term for his part in a phony robbery set up to steal about $40,000 from his employer.

He was warned by immigration officials in 2010 that his visa was in jeopardy but continued to offend regardless.

So his entire adult life has been crime, and he was warned explicitly 12 years ago he might be deported if he continued. He had kids then, so if he really wanted to be in their lives he could have stopped.

In 2015 and 2020, he was subject to domestic violence orders after incidents involving his current partner – the mother of his three youngest children, some of whom were present as he issued derogatory taunts, damaged and destroyed property.

If his partner took out domestic violence protection orders against him, then it is quite possible his kids are safer without him around.

It was accepted the man had a parental role in the lives of his three youngest children, but the Tribunal was concerned about how genuine the man’s evidence about his children was.

He made similar claims about his older children to the Department of Home Affairs in 2010 but he now had little if any contact with them.

Not entirely surprising.

It would be interesting to do such a poll here. I am sure we would also over-estimate, but surely not so badly.

If you groups responses together, then Americans think:

• 20% are millionaires
• 59% are gay, lesbian or bisexual
• 57% are Jewish or Muslim
• 97% are Black, Asian or Native American
• 92% live in Texas, NY or California