Stuff reports:

The four largest private landowners in New Zealand are all foreign-owned forestry companies, an RNZ investigation has found.
Despite a clampdown on some overseas investment, including a ban on residential sales to offshore buyers, the Labour-led government has actively encouraged further foreign purchases of land for forestry through a streamlined “special forestry test”.
Since the government was formed, the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has approved more than $2.3 billion of forestry-related land sales – about 31,000 hectares of it previously in New Zealand hands.

And not just forestry land

Overall, nearly $5b of sensitive land has changed hands through the OIO since the government was formed.

Now personally I have no problem with foreign ownership of land. They can’t take it away and allowing foreigner buyers mean sellers (who are mainly NZers) get the best price for their land.

But Labour, NZ First and Greens have all campaigned vigorously against foreign land ownership. Labour basically promised to abolish it and instead they’ve approved $5 billion of sales.

The first two years of National Government saw just 31,000 hectares of land sold – a rate Labour claimed was awful despite it being 1/4 of the last Labour Government.

Now if $2.3 billion of forestry land sold is 31,000 hectares and total land sold has been $5.0 billion that suggests Labour has approved sales of around 70,000 hectares in two years.

Stuff reports:

The figures supplied to National by Police Minister Stuart Nash, show about 1400 more people have joined a gang since the Government took office in 2017 and National leader Simon Bridges blames a lack of action by the Government.

So which areas have had the biggest increases? In order they are:

1. Tasman +82%
2. Southern +62%
3. Waikato +44%
4. Bay of Plenty +30%
5. Central +30%
6. Eastern +30%
7. Waitemata +23%
8. Counties Manukau +21%
9. Auckland +19%
10. Canterbury +16%
11. Wellington +15%
12. Northland -2%

Quite a few people have asked for a voting guide for the Auckland Council elections. I’m not in Auckland but follow the Council closely, so happt to share my thoughts.

If you think the Council is doing a great job, then of course you’ll vote for Phil Goff, and his team. If however you want a Council that will be more fiscally responsible with your money, then here are my recommendations for each ward:

Mayor

It’s effectively a choice between Goff and Tamihere. Tamihere will shake up the status quo.

Albany

Wayne Walker and John Watson. Both these councillors have been tireless in holding the line against Phil Goff on issue after issue, including saving Western Springs and preventing the loss of marinas. They have worked to preserve some beautiful parts of Auckland, including Okura from land development.

Albert-Eden-Puketapapa

Christine Fletcher and Mark Thomas. This is a Ward where the Labour-City Vision-Greens machine has squandered their mandate. No one thought Cathy Casey would be under serious threat but she and local board allies like Peter Haynes are now facing serious headwinds on issues like Chamberlain Park and the disastrous Mt Albert town centre upgrade. If Mark Thomas joins Christine Fletcher, the centre-right’s majority will be greatly enhanced.

Franklin

Bill Cashmore is unopposed.

Howick

Sharon Stewart and Paul Young. Sharon Stewart will top the poll but Paul Young will face a tougher fight. He has been an outstanding warrior for his ward and is a strong ally on the centre-right.

Manukau

Efeso Collins is a worthy vote as he has shown real independence.

The second place is a choice between Alf Filipaina and a communist league candidate. I suggest you only vote once for Collins to send a message,

Manurewa-Papakura

Angela Dalton and Daniel Newman. Lucky voters in this ward have the option of these two candidates, both of whom are well known for putting their community ahead of party politics. Newman was rated the most effective Councillor by both Simon Collins and Bernard Orsman. Dalton is well respected for her work as a local board chair.

Labour has selected one candidate who refers to electing a woman to council as “… a crap statement” and another who lives in Remuera to run in this South Auckland ward.

Maungakiekie

Josh Beddell. Boundary changes in the form of thousands of voters moving from Ellerslie and St Johns coupled with a strong campaign from C&R now threatens the Labour majority up and down the ballot paper. Strategically voting for every C&R candidate (the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board is on the brink of being flipped as well).

North Shore

Grant Gillon and Danielle Grant. Gillon is a fomer Alliance MP and Grant a National Party member but they have shown how to put the community ahead of party politics, working as part of the More For The Shore team.

Orakei

It can only be Desley Simpson.

Rodney

Greg Sawyers is unopposed

Waitakere

Whomever wins here will vote with Goff. Linda Cooper is the least bad candidate.

Waitemata and Gulf

There are three candidates who could win. City Vision’s Pippa Coom, C&R’s Sarah Trotman and incumbent Mike Lee.

If the election was STV I’d say vote Trotman 1 and Lee 2. But it isn’t. It is FPP and if City Vision pick up the seat, Goff is more likely to be able to push through big rates increases.

Mike Lee as the incumbent is most likely, in my opinion, to beat Coom. Lee is a leftie, but Lee has support from all sides, including Don Brash on the Right and Lisa Prager on the Left. No one councillor has done more to stand up to Phil Goff more than Mike Lee. He is also a fierce advocate for small business operators, heritage and water quality.

I think Sarah would be a great Councillor, but I’ve not seen any polling that suggests she can beat Coom. So this is about voting strategically.

Whau

Tracy Mulholland. Tracy is a sensible middle-of-the-road candidate who stands a real chance of beating Ross Clow, which would be another massive blow for Labour. The Whau Local Board may also flip if she wins.

Stuff reports:

NZ First voters would have preferred National to be in Government than Labour by a large margin, newly released survey results say.
The new public survey data shows 44.5 per cent of NZ First voters answered “National” when asked to pick between Labour and National leading the Government, with Labour 10 points behind at 34.1 per cent. …

This is one of the reasons why NZ First is now polling so badly. Their voters feel betrayed that Winston put the Greens into Government, rather than the largest party.

Stuff reports:

A second complaint involving the conduct of disgraced Catholic bishop of Palmerston North Charles Drennan has been referred to church officials in Rome. 
Pope Francis accepted Bishop Charles Drennan’s resignation, which was announced on Friday night, over a complaint made by a young woman in regards to “unacceptable” behaviour of a sexual nature. 

Drennan must be one of the few Catholic Bishops to resign over sex with a woman, rather than young boys.

Trump is now calling on China to also interfere in the elections, demanding they also investigate the Bidens. There seems to be no limit to his character flaws.

These are spelt out in an excellent analysis by George Conway. Conway is an attorney who has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court. He is a Republican and one of Paula Jones’ lawyers against Bill Clinton. He also happens to be married to Trump Counsellor Kellyanne Conway.

His article is very long, but the numerous examples of Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder are compelling. But he makes the case that Trump goes beyond that and also has sociopathic tendencies.

The Herald reports:

A raft of internal NZ First documents have been leaked to the media and National, revealing internal discontent about the way the party ran the last election campaign and coalition negotiations. …

Members were upset about the fact Peters had filed to sue the National Party over their alleged leaking of his Superannuation information just one day before the 2017 election.
A member sought an explanation from Peters as to how true and fair the Coalition negotiations were, given Peters was in the process of suing National while attempting to hammer out a deal to be in Government.

In response, Martin said in an email she was “deeply disappointed” by the comments.
“None of us were aware of the papers filed by the Rt. Hon. Winston Peters because that was his private business and nothing to do with the formation of a government. None of us, particularly the Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, are that shallow,” the email went on to say.

What absolute nonsense. the leader of one party files a lawsuit against the leader of a party they claim to be negotiating with, and Martin thinks this was a private matter.

Martin also appeared upset at the implication that Peters conducted the coalition negotiations without seeking advice from his caucus.
She also said she was “deeply offended” that members questioned not only the character of the Peters but had, by implication, suggested she, NZ First MPs and board members were puppets in these negotiations.

Repeat after me – “We are not puppets”, “No, we are not puppets”

The documents reveal members felt the party’s list showed disrespect for hardworking, loyal, hardworking and long-serving members, and favoured candidates who had personal relationships with those who select the list placement.
Members also complained the list process was sexist, as only three of the candidates in the top 18 were female.

Your list place has a 100% correlation to what Winston thinks of you.

Stuff reports:

Porirua mayor Mike Tana’s “potentially unusual” petrol card transactions have led the council’s chief executive to contact police.
In an email to the city’s councillors, chief executive Wendy Walker says “some unresolved queries” about Tana’s transactions led her to speak with the Auditor General’s office who recommended she consult the council’s auditors, Ernst and Young.
Tana did not provide the auditors with the information required and they had now closed the investigation, suggesting the next steps would be to take the matter to the Serious Fraud Office, the police or the Office of the Auditor General, she said.

It is important to note that Mike Tana also had his Council credit card taken off him due to concerns about his spending, and cash withdrawals.

The request for information related to a number of times over three months when he refilled the 60 litre mayoral car in a two-day period, he said.

An car on average will do 100 kms every 12 litres in urban areas. So Tana would need to be driving 500 kms every two days to be refilling that often.

It’s 40 kms return between Porirua and Wellington so 500 kms would be 12 return trips over two days.

No wonder the Council is seeking more info.

There was more than one two-day refill period that the council sought clarification for: “I think there’s probably five, but it’s not like those are out-of-the-box things, but that’s what I do as a mayor.”

It would seem nigh impossible to go through a 60 litre car in two days if just driving around Porirua or even between Porirua and Wellington.

In Friday’s email which was sent to councillors – and copied  in Tana –  Walker wrote she was “alerted to some potentially unusual transactions” on the petrol card Tana used for fuelling the mayoral car.
“This matter was first raised with the Mayor on 16 September 2019 when I sought an explanation from him for those transactions.  I did not receive any explanation from the Mayor despite follow up.

16 September was almost three weeks ago. If I was a Mayor and my CEO raised an issue of my expenses, I’d respond within hours, not weeks.

If the concern is that Tana may have been using his petrol card for other vehicles, then the Police should be able to quickly determine if this is the case. They just need to ask the service stations to check their videos to match the date and time on the receipts.

They could sort this out within 48 hours, if they move quickly.

The Herald reports:

Documents reveal just how frustrated and concerned Treasury was behind the scenes of Wellington’s $6.4 billion transport plan.
An email leading up to the finalisation of the Cabinet paper for Let’s Get Wellington Moving shows Treasury asked why a second Mt Victoria tunnel had been put on the backburner.
“Why is the Minister [Phil Twyford] proposing to build the second Mt Vic tunnel after rapid transit has been delivered? There is no explanation for this sequencing”, April 18, 2019 email said.
The sequencing of projects is the subject of a secret letter Julie Anne Genter, Associate Transport Minister and Green MP, penned to Twyford just a few weeks before on March 26, 2019.

The refusal to publicly release it has heightened speculation over how much influence the Greens had over the transport project, in particular, the decision to push back construction of Wellington’s second Mt Victoria tunnel.

The explanation for the sequencing seems obvious. The Greens would have had a temper tantrum otherwise.

Treasury was also concerned the benefit of projects was largely unknown and that wasn’t made clear in the paper.
“Given that the Minister is asking Cabinet to endorse a large and costly package of investments, we consider it important that Cabinet is aware that the benefits may not justify the costs.”
The email criticised the paper for having little detail of what the package consisted of and for not explaining why the proposed investments would solve the city’s problems.

So the package had no idea of the benefits, and no idea of whether it would solve the city’s problems.

We shouldn’t be electing DHB members, as the reality is the Government controls the funding, so DHBs tend to shelter the Government from accountability.

But as we do elect them, better to get competent people on there.

There are 23 people standing for seven positions.

Let’s start with the ones you should avoid at all costs, current members of the Wellington Regional Council. Can you imagine what would happen if they duplicated their “success” with the buses to say the emergency department. So don’t vote for Roger Blakeley or Sue Kedgley. Also don’t vote for those standing for Labour as their job will be to help Labour, not make the best decisions for the DHB.

So who would I vote for? The seven I would pick are:

1. Chris Kalderimis – strong health sector knowledge
2. Glenda Hughes – strong leadership and goverance skills
3. John Apanowicz – has governance and health sector experience
4. Ana Coffey – current board member. Sensible.
5. Simon Marsh – has served on WCC, useful experience
6. Letitia O’Dwyer – strong health sector knowledge
7. Vanessa Simpson – strong health sector knowledge

The Herald reports:

The number of people waiting for public housing has grown to more than 13,000 for the first time, despite the Government’s home-building efforts.
Latest official figures from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development show the waitlist had reached 13,167 households in August – up from 12,644 a month earlier.
The record (from 2004) was first broken in June, when the queue passed 12,000.

The waitlist was 5,844 when National left office. It has more than doubled in less than two years.

The Herald reports:

An information booklet published by the Labour Party and signed off by the Prime Minister has been pulled after the party was busted for plagiarism.
The guide to services for people aged over 60 years contained at least 50 apparent breaches of copyright, Newshub reported.

50 breaches!!

The Herald reports:

The president of New Zealand First has quit after just a year in the job – and the long-time member says he is walking away from the party altogether.
But it remains unclear why Lester Gray has decided to leave, after being elected at the party’s annual meeting this time last year.

Mr Gray had taken medical leave, and health issues would be a logical explanation for standing down as President.

But there is no way health issues would be why you are quitting as a party member. That strongly suggests there is more to this story that it seems.

The party president is the most senior volunteer in a party. To have a party president quit as a party member is unprecedented in my memory.

UPDATE: Stuff further reports:

NZ First party president Lester Gray has quit the party, citing his refusal to sign off financial reports for ‘moral’ reasons. 
A resignation letter reveals Gray took his stand against signing the party’s 2019 reports with a claim he has been kept in the dark over party expenditure and donations, leaving him unable to put his name to them with confidence.
The shock departure raises concerns about the internal financial arrangements of one of the government’s crucial coalition partners as election season looms in 2020.

It seems Lester Gray is an honest man.

NZ First have (off memory) never ever disclosed a donation. Yet everyone knows they get significant corporate donations from the industries they represent in Parliament – forestry, fisheries and racing.

The party office holders often get left in the dark, with Winston or his office or lawyers actually controlling the donations or money. A former party secretary filed numerous incorrect donation returns which she had to correct.

The Electoral Commission is charged with ensuring party’s donation returns are accurate. They should be talking to the former President to ascertain what his concerns were.

A few brief endorsements for the regional mayoral races around Wellington.

Hutt City

It’s really a race between incumbent Ray Wallace and Labour’s Campbell Barry. Labour are desperate to gain control of the Council. A vote for Ray Wallace is a vote for an independent Mayor.

Upper Hutt

Incumbent Mayor Wayne Guppy has done a good job in my opinion and speaks sense on transport issues. I’d vote for Guppy.

Porirua

Incumbent Mayor Mike Tana has not been impressive. He’s spent up large on Council credit cards and thinks his spending shouldn’t be scrutinised.

There are a number of credible challengers. The one who I think would be the best Mayor is former Deputy Mayor Ana Coffey. She’s experienced and impressive. I’d rank Anita Baker as No 2 after her.

Kapiti Coast

My vote would go to challenger Gwynn Compton. He’s run a smart campaign focused on the issues that matter around economic development and transport for the area.

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below.

Stuff reports:

For years scientists have been predicting the measles outbreak which has infected 1541 New Zealanders. Their requests for a catch-up campaign to plug immunisation gaps have been ignored. 

Measles cases are rising daily and 118 babies have been admitted to hospital this year. So far none have died, but it’s believed some have come very close.

Terrible trauma for the families involved.

There’s also a vaccine shortage. Children are being immunised but others are being turned away. Two additional batches of vaccine have been ordered to cope with demand. One batch is weeks away from arriving, the second is months away.

Just like meningitis outbreak also!

New Zealand has now had more cases of measles this year than the United States. Along with the United Kingdom and Australia, the US has warned citizens planning to travel to New Zealand of the risk.

Unbelievable that we have had more than the US, but it is true. They have had 1,243 only. And they seem to be declining in number now.

She said it would be a “miracle” if New Zealand did not lose its status of having eliminated measles. 
“It’s a reputational impact. New Zealand had said to the world we can control measles and now we’ve shown we can’t.”
To achieve what’s referred to as herd immunity – where enough of the population is immune to stop it being passed to those who are too young to be immunised or are immunocompromised – around 95 per cent of people need to be vaccinated. 

And vaccination rates are falling, after years of increasing.

Inside Wellington has scored the Wellington City Councillors, giving them both a personal and portfolio scores. I’ll average them out, so we can see how they look overall:

• 8.00 – Sarah Free
• 7.50 – Simon Woolf, Nicola Young
• 7.00 – Fleur Fitzsimons, Justin Lester
• 6.5 – Iona Pannett
• 6.33 – Brian Dawson
• 6.00 – Andy Foster
• 5.50 – Peter Gilberd, Malcolm Sparrow
• 5.00 – Simon Marsh
• 4.75 – Chris Calvi-Freeman
• 4.25 – Diane Calvert
• 4.00 – Jill Day
• 0 – David Lee

HDPA writes:

I don’t think we should for one minute tolerate what Shane Jones has just done.

And what the PM enables him to do.

Shane Jones has now threatened revenge against whoever it was who complained to the Herald about his comments at the forestry awards evening.
He says he knows who went to the Herald and he’s going to “deal to them”.
“When the election comes around and the Cabinet restrictions have been loosened, then I am personally going to deal to these National Party sympathisers who thought that it was a smart idea to try and have me quivering in a corner by racing to the media,” he said.
“At the appropriate time, I will deal to them as a big-time, New Zealand First wrestler.”
That is not OK.
It is not OK for a minister in Cabinet to threaten utu.
He is one of the most powerful politicians in this country which means the impact that he can have on a single person or their business could be devastating.
I don’t know what he’s planning… he hasn’t been clear about it… but threats like that are intolerable.

Basically a cowardly bully.

Now he’s admitted he told the forestry awards audience to vote for him if they want billions in funding  and when they complained about what they call bribery, he’s threatened them with utu.
Jones’ behaviour would not have been tolerated by previous governments.
Can you imagine Clark, Key or English making excuses for this kind of nonsense?

He would have been sacked long ago by any other Prime Minister.

Idiot/Savant blogs:

Yesterday the High Court released its decision in Moncrief-Spittle v Regional Facilities Auckland Limited, on the (alleged) decision by the Auckland Council and Mayor Phil Goff to deny use of a public venue to a pair of visiting nazi grifters. Based on the information available back then, I said that I found the decision disturbing: freedom of speech is the foundation for any democratic change, and the idea that a council or council-controlled organisation could deny it because they didn’t like what was being said was chilling (to point out the obvious, while everyone hates nazis, its not just nazis such powers could be used against).

But the court ducked the question:

Instead, the court found that the decision was unreviewable, because Regional Facilities Auckland – a Council Controlled Organisation, established for the benefit of the people of Auckland and subject to the LGOIMA – was not “public”, but acting in a purely private and commercial capacity.

Andrew Geddis has pointed out the irony here, because the decision was basicly made on the basis of National’s supercity “reforms”, which privileged “efficient” (privatised) public services over public control. But while enjoying that irony, I agree with Dean Knight that a finding that a CCO has no public duties and its decisions are unreviewable is disturbing to say the least. To point out the obvious, judicial review is a keystone of public accountability, but the effect of this decision is apparently to make a large (and growing) chunk of what was previously public business “private” and unaccountable.

So basically the CCO escapes the public duties of the Council.

Fran O’Sullivan writes:

It would be a travesty if the Norwegian committee plumps for the environmental activist de jour Greta Thunberg as the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize over Jacinda Ardern or even Donald Trump.

I agree that Ardern is a better choice than Greta. Trump of course won’t win.