InternetNZ has welcomed a move by ICT Minister Amy Adams to top up the six-year, $300 million Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) with $100 million more in contestable funding if National is re-elected.
Ms Adams has also promised $50 million to boost mobile phone coverage in remote areas.
The policy would be funded by extending the Telecommunications Development Levy, currently due to expire in 2016, for another three years.
The Levy (successor to the old Kiwi Share Levy that used to go straight into Telecom’s pocket) extracts $50 million a year from telecommunications companies, proportionate to their revenue (see Commerce Commission table right).
As the law stands, the levy will reduce to $10 million a year after 2016.
Funds from the levy go toward the RBI build, which is being carried out by contract winners Vodafone (building new cell towers fixed wireless broadband leg) and Chorus (fibre). Unlike the $1.35 billion the Crown is investing in various companies involved in the urban Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) rollout, the money does not have to be paid back, and Chorus and Vodafone get to operate RBI infrastructure on a commercial basis (with the proviso they give all retailers equal access).
The fact the new funding is contestable is a blow for Chorus, which had been feeding off rumours that National will put more money toward public-private broadband.
I think it is a good thing that the funding will be contestable, so rural regions get the best bang for the buck.
Today’s policy announcement has also put Labour on the backfoot.
National has already comprehensively out-spent the previous Labour government on broadband; Labour’s ICT policy promised new spending in the region of $21 million.
Again, David Cunliffe and Clare Curran find themselves out-Laboured by Steven Joyce and Amy Adams.
Labour need all the spare money to pay families on welfare more money for staying on welfare.
Former World Bank principal planner Alain Bertaud, who visited Christchurch this month, has more than 30 years’ experience in urban planning. Now based in New York City, he has worked in places as diverse as France, the United States, Central America, Yemen, and Thailand. …
Providing affordable accommodation, according to Bertaud, is not that hard.
“The solution is to increase the supply of land. I would not bother so much on the construction of the housing itself, I think that can be taken care of fairly easily by the private sector.”
The opposite of what Labour is proposing. Labour has been against increasing the urban boundary in Auckland to allow more land to be used for housing.
Let’s figure it out. Look at your latest property valuation, or that of someone you know. Compare land value and “improvements” (the house). I bet land value accounts for over 30 per cent of your total property value. In some desirable areas, like coastal areas, land value may be over 50 per cent.
That is crazy. Bertaud says the rule of thumb is that land should be no more than 30 per cent.
In Houston, Texas, it would be only 15 per cent. “It’s strange because normally when the land prices are very high it’s a very dense country like Japan or Holland. This is not a dense country.”
Exactly. Unless we expect farms to take over the whole countryside, New Zealand has plenty of space for houses. “It’s a self-inflicted problem, frankly.”
It is, primarily by local government. From the point of view of local government, they like to restrict land, as it makes life easier for their planning departments. So land supply restrictions work well for the entity which decides them, but punish those seeking to buy a home.
Restricting land supply and imposing too many controls also stifles business growth, especially in the central city, Bertaud warns.
“I think it’s so inconsistent to put restrictions on height and say at the same time we want a compact city, we don’t want sprawl. If you put a restriction on height, it means you want people to use more land but you don’t provide this land.”
You need to allow growth to be both vertical and horizontal.
From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars?
The total cost of the conflict is massive.
The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.
These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars.
Israel is a convenient diversion for many rulers in the region.
Many Arabs don’t know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab World. Wasn’t one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail is an Israeli-Palestinian?
The region would do much better if there was peace with Israel.
Hi David. The Anglican and Methodist churches appear to have entered the election campaign, at least in Chch. These huge 3-hoarding wide landscape erections (all with “Oops” but variant wording) have appeared at numerous church sites in the city, with various anti-Govt messages (such as national debt etc not just social policy or poverty as canvassed by the Sallies sometime sin a political framework). Haven’t seen this before. I have sited them at two main Anglican churches and one Methodist one, so it is obviously coordinated.
That reminds me that I must find time after the election to work on a members’ bill to remove tax free legal status from churches in New Zealand. They should have no special status beyond that of any other NGO.
1 Rt Hon Winston Peters 2 Tracey Martin 3 Richard Prosser 4 Fletcher Tabuteau 5 Barbara Stewart 6 Clayton Mitchell 7 Denis O’Rourke 8 Pita Paraone 9 Ron Mark 10 Darroch Ball 11 Mahesh Bindra 12 Ria Bond 13 Mataroa Paroro 14 Romuald Rudzki 15 Jon Reeves 16 Asenati Lole- Taylor
Andrew Williams has dropped off the list entirely, after he criticised his draft ranking of 13. I must say that I don’t see what he had done to deserve his demotion (unlike Lole-taylor who had made numerous blunders). Williams did some dumb stuff as Mayor of North Shore, but had been pretty restrained as an MP.
A huge promotion for the MP for Wogistan, Richard Prosser.
If NZ First make 5% then Fletcher Tabuteau and Clayton Mitchell will be MPs. It is good to see NZ First bringing some new blood in.
Fletcher Tabuteau is their Rotorua candidate and has run a marketing and communications company. He is now a educator in business teaching.
Clayton Mitchell is their Tauranga candidate and a local City Councillor. He has said he will carry on doing both, if elected.
Ron Mark would get in if NZ First gets close to 7%.
Labour voted against the three strikes legislation, and off memory were committed to abolishing it in 2011. Does anyone know if this is still their policy? They are saying nothing publicly, which makes me suspect it it – but they know it will be unpopular, so keep quiet on it.
The Herald reviews law & order policies, yet doesn’t mention the three strikes law once. Will a change of Government mean repeat serious violent and sexual offenders continue to get parole?
Once the review was completed, Labour would consider several changes which improved the court experience for sexual assault victims. It would look at changing cross-examination rules to make sure victims were not “put on trial”. Specialist courts could be established which trained judges, lawyers and staff in the dynamics of sexual violence and dealing with victims. And the definition of consent could be amended so the burden of proof was shifted from the Crown to the accused. This provoked some public discomfort as critics felt it could impinge on a person’s right to be presumed innocent.
Yep under Labour you will be presumed to be a rapist, ad will have to prove consent, if there is no dispute that sex occurred.
Spraying graffiti on a National Party billboard and resisting the police officers who caught him has led to a community work sentence for a Christchurch man.
It is the second time Luka Emerson De Spa, 21, has had National in his sights.
Four years ago he was arrested for jumping on top of Prime Minister John Key’s car at an event in Christchurch where De Spa was with a group of protesters.
As a first offender aged 17, he was granted diversion for that charge, which meant he escaped having a conviction on his record.
He pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court today to charges of defacing a National Party billboard, unlawful possession of a spray-paint can and resisting arrest.
Resisting arrest. Not a peaceful chap!
She said he was a student training to be a chef and had no proper income. He had a 3-year-old child for whom he paid child support.
If he has no proper income, then I suspect the taxpayers are in fact paying for the child he fathered when he was 17.
Teacher and mother of nine Marama Fox and former party parliamentary staffer Chis Mckenzie are leading the Maori Party’s party list behind Co-Leader Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell.
The list released this evening has Mr Flavell at number one, Ikaroa Rawhiti candidate Mrs Fox at number two, Te Tai Hauauru candidate Chris McKenzie at number three and Tuhoe activist Tame Iti at number seven.
Co vice president Donna Gardiner said youth was well represented on the 24 strong list with six of the top ten under 45.
The two youngest on the list, Reverend Te Hira Paenga who is facing off against Hone Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau and Anaru Kaipo standing in Whangarei were both 32 years of age.
Maori Party List
1. Te Ururoa Flavell (Waiariki) 2. Marama Fox (Ikaroa Rawhiti) 3. Chris McKenzie – Te Tai Hauauru 4. Te Hira Paenga (Te Tai Tokerau) 5. Ngaire Button (Te Tai Tonga) 6. Nancy Tuaine (Whanganui) 7. Tame Iti 8. Eraia Kiel 9. Anaru Kaipo (Whangarei) 10. Raewyn Bhana (Manurewa)
It is possible the Maori Party may get some List MPs. If they only retain one electorate seat, then a 2.0% party vote would get them two List MPs on top of that.
BBC Season 8: Episode 1 (Peter Capaldi, new Doctor).
Global simulcast and cinema screenings 23/24 August 2014.
I was tempted to take a rubber toilet plunger with me to DR WHO 8:1 (the 12th Doctor, well sorta the 13th or maybe the 15th) that opened worldwide yesterday as Season 8, Episode 1 (ok, both the numbering of the Doctors and episodes is as confusing as the time continuum). In New Zealand it was featured at Hoyts cinemas. I attended the sunday 10am session (both sessions completely sold out) with Sky Goddess and Off Spring 2. Here’s the official trailer as an appetizer before we get in to it…
Dr Who, Romance and Same-Sex Marriage
This outing is written by Who master Steven Moffat, responsible for much of the genius of the revived franchise and was directed by Ben Wheatley.
It returns several old favourites: Strax the Sontaran (who opens this meal), the Silurian Madame Vastra (in a same-sex marriage) and companion Clara (whose ‘romance’ with 11Dr Matt Smith is well and truly ‘put to bed’ [pun intend]. Capaldi 12Dr: “I’ve made some mistakes, but I intend to do something about that…I am NOT your boyfriend!” “I miss Amy…” “WHAT?” “Nothing.”).
Well, I’m glad we got that sorted out: no more ambiguous metro-sexual shenanigans in the Tardis, thank you, we’re British! And being an older man (“who worried these wrinkles on to my new face?”) it’s nice to re-establish the Hartnell plutonic-ness of an older Doctor hanging about in Police Boxes with young attractive women in public places. Rolf Harris and all that.
And as if to reiterate the point, Capaldi 12Dr wears a… but we’re getting ahead of ourselves (how very Time Lord of me).
The Opening (Strax)
Episode 8: 1 opens with a humorous video report to camera by Strax recapping the respective reincarnations of the Doctor, which is very useful for new entrants. Lots of tongue-in-cheek references to chins, ears, scarves and Strax continually mistaking Dr Who’s gender. Hilarious. I’ve never really liked Strax, he’s kind of like Pumba from LionKIng, and as a military race(“Kill them and melt them with Acid!”), Sontarans should have deeper more menacing voices, like the Zygons. They’re like happy Mr Potato Heads in armour.
And Strax is rendered permanently cartoonish when 12Dr’s opening lines are to confuse him with “Grumpy?” “Sleepy?” “Dopey?” of the Seven Dwarves.
This ability to laugh (and Strax roars with laughter) at the previous actors has always been an ease of the Dr Who writers and an accepted playfulness.
The Previous Doctors
Previous doctors have been nicknamed by other Doctors, as:
11Dr. Chinny -Matt Smith
10 Dr. Sandshoes -David Tennant (married to 3Dr’s daughter in real life).
8.5D.r Granddad -John Hurt, to which we might add:
3Dr. Dandy –Jon Pertwee
4Dr Scarfie –Tom Baker
5Dr Cricket-Colin Baker.
12Dr Capldi will perhaps win the moniker “Eyebrows.” “Look at these eyebrows. These are attack eyebrows! They could take off bottle caps!”
Capaldi as 12Dr
Peter Capaldi is brilliant: quirky, sexless, eccentric, old(er), darker, all hands and legs and YES a Scottish accent that wafts in and out. 12Dr: “You all sound… English! You’ve developed a fault!” He is a conscious move away from the younger Dr Whos of the past decades This is reinforced by the new costume, a throw back to the coat tails of the 1Dr (Hartnell) and 2Dr (Troughton) but with contemporary accessories (Dr Martin type shoes and a red inner lining). Capaldi pulls this off. I would place him as a combination of Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee.
Capaldi has been in Who before, as a Roman character, but is perhaps best known to us as the scientist at the back end of World War Z with Brad Pitt.
This 12th Doctor is confused and ‘lost’ in the ruin of his latest transformation, and dashes about like a concussion patient, rambling manically, but eventually gets to the crusade. That helps to establish this character as a bit darker a bit more unpredictable (doesn’t Dr Who always reflect his age, as in era)? The girlies are left abandoned and gasping, only to be saved and reunited “just as friends” in time to hold the female audience (who after all, like older men?).
The wrinkles and gravitas coupled with the Matt Smith and David Tennant acting physicality is a perfect blend.
The Tardis and its Arrival.
The Tardis arrives creatively, caught within the throat of a ginormous roaring female T-Rex godzilla-ing herself around Edwardian London and threatening to knock over Big Ben. “Sorry, I brought you over accidentally…I’m not flirting…but you are a big sexy female…” Momma T.Rex eventually gets roasted from within by the bad guys.
The Tardis is re-decorated for this new Doctor, evoking the eternal script line, “You’ve re-decorated! I don’t like it.” “Yes, I miss the roundy things, I need more roundy things.”
Clara
Is awesome. There is a very moving phone call between Clara and 11Dr Who (Matt Smith) through time and space that helps embed the transition to Capaldi…but no spoiler on that.
Let’s get to the baddies.
Rubbish Robots from the Dawn of Time
A new alien beastie. A half man half robot restaurateur, not a cyborg exactly, who makes a ghastly Edwardian air balloon out of human skin. He’s all ‘borrowed’ eyeballs and clanking clock wheels, oh, and a blow torch on his Hellboy fist stump. None of them breathe, thus the episode’s title “Deep Breath.” His minions evoke the scary Weeping Angels but with slashers. BothOff Spring 2 and I thought we were witnessing the origins of the Cybermen.
Like the Snowmen, and the Weeping Angels before them, these clockwork cyborgs tap the rich Dr Who vein of childhood fairy tale creepiness (Victorian clockwork dolls).
Oh and head Rubbish Robot looks like Liam Neeson. More of that Scottish theme again, to go with Clara’s tartan mini skirt.
Brick Bats
I did not like the new theme version, it was a bit ‘soft.’ Bring back the grimy mechanical earlier versions.
I’m a bit tired of the London period pieces, and Matt Smith’s Western episodes were a bit kitsch. I’d like some more alien planet stuff (cue some obligatory BBC CO2 smoke). But 8:1 I guess sets off from where it began, London, and British Victorian and Edwardian stables. British Empire and all that hurrah! Dr Who is re-colonising the world, including the USA.
Extra Features
There were some extra features, and we got to view Who and Clara (Jenna Coleman) at the first script reading of Episode 8:1 with the other actors. You see here just how brilliant these actors are and how much talent is required to pull this stuff off.
The real hero for me was the writing. The dialogue is quick, witty and fun. The show is able to be hilarious, almost cartoonish, yet sinister and moving. Not many shows can achieve that (and over 50 years?): Dr Who does this in Zygorian spades.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from the first episode.
•12Dr and Silurian Vastra: “I never bother with sleeping. I just do standing-up cat naps.” ”And when do you do that?” ”Generally, when everyone else is talking. I like to skip ahead to my bits [of the script].”
• “I could use it to blow this whole room if I see one thing I don’t like, and that includes karaoke and mimes.”
• “He’s seen stars fall to dust. You might as well flirt with a mountain range.”
• “I need clothes. Yes, clothes and a big, long scarf. No… never mind that. That’ll look stupid.”
• “Have you ever looked in a mirror and thought, ‘I’ve seen that face before’?”
• Re the same sex marriage between Vastra and Jenny…”I don’t like her, ma’am, I love her. And as to different, well, she’s a lizard.”
Great relaunch and reincarnation. Full of change and re-setting, with lots of back to the Future and framing the future with the Past. Dr Who just keeps us guessing. We-oo-o-ooo.
John Key has been the most centrist moderate National Prime Minister in the history of the National Party. While he has implemented a centre-right agenda, it has been more center than right.
Take the current policy offerings. The big news in the Budget was free healthcare for under 13s. The big news in the policy launch was taxpayer funded grants for aspiring home owners. Also National is going into the election saying there will be no further partial (or full) asset sales, and National is not even promising tax cuts.
Yes there are differences to Labour. Labour will try and nationalise a few industries, and give unions heaps more power. But the point I am making is that the policies of John Key are not hard right, not extreme. He is not a Thatcher or Richardson.
Which makes the hatred and hysteria against him from some on the left so inexplicable. They chant FU Key. They burn him in effigy. They plaster anti-Semitic slogans on his billboards and now they even have a song about killing him, and even worse having sex with daughter. This is a level of hatred that I have not seen before.
And why all the hatred? Because he gave free healthcare to under 13s? Grants for home buyers? The hatred can not rationally be linked to the fairly moderate policies he has pursued. My conclusion is that it is just because he is from the wrong party, and he is blocking their preferred people from power.
Stuff reports:
An Auckland hip-hop crew have released a song with lyrics that threaten to kill Prime Minister John Key and have sex with his daughter.
Kill The PM, by @peace, depicts a golfing, luxury car-driving Key, and says he should die – “ain’t doin’ nothin’ so I’m gonna kill the prime minister”.
It continues: “I been tryin’ to get a job but they got none/so I instead I got a sawnoff shotgun/and ‘pop’.”
The crew is fronted by Tom Scott, formerly of Homebrew, along with Lui Tuiasau, Christoph “El Truento” James and Hayden “Dick Dastardly” Dick.
In the leadup to the 2011 election, Homebrew released a track attacking tax cuts for the rich and a low minimum wage.
The latest offering also refers to having sex with Key’s daughter, Stephanie.
I recall one female Labour MP saying how much she adores Homebrew. This was when they put out anti Key songs and calling him a c**t. Now that one of the band members (now independent) has moved on from hatred to actual encouraging violence, will anyone from Labour condemn them?
And to include Key’s daughter in the song is beyond vile.
Kill the PM, which is available for download, is also being hosted on Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom’s file-sharing site Mega.
Last month, Dotcom encouraged a crowd at Internet’s “party party” in Wellington to chant: “F… John Key.”
@peace received $6000 in funding from NZ On Air last month to make a music video for their track Gravity.
So wonderful that our taxes go on supporting this band.
Allegations that the author of a report on Chatham Rock Phosphate (CRP) signed a Greenpeace petition has led CRP to ask the report be withdrawn.
The demand comes after CRP criticised the content and timing of the Environmental Protection Authority’s staff report, which was issued last week.
The report said it could not recommend a marine consent for CRP to vacuum phosphate nodules from the seabed of the Chatham Rise, about 450 kilometres east of Christchurch.
Chatham Rock holds a mining permit over an area off the coast of New Zealand with significant seabed deposits of rock phosphate.
CRP’s managing director Chris Castle said a new and potentially more serious basis for concern about the validity of the report and its conclusions had emerged.
“It has come to CRP’s attention that one of the key authors of the EPA staff report appears to have been a signatory to a Greenpeace petition in 2010 seeking the Government permanently stop all plans to open up New Zealand’s coastal waters to offshore oil drilling and stop any expansion of coal mining in New Zealand,” Castle said.
“If this is the case, it raises very serious questions over the objectivity of the report and its conclusions.”
CRP considered the report to be potentially biased and therefore totally unreliable. It intended to seek the formal withdrawal of the report, Castle said.
How serious this is, depends on how key a role this person had in deciding and authoring the report.
Generally any evidence of pre-determination is grounds for review, and signing a petition against offshore exploration may suggest that the author was influenced by his or her own views, rather than the evidence submitted.
This is one of the challenges of conservation and environmental agencies. Many of their staff have passionate views on their subject areas, which can interfere with their requirement to not let those views affect their professional judgement.
THIS WEEK ON PRIME TV’s “BACK BENCHES”-ELECTION 2014: Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and special guests discuss the week’s hottest topics!
SELLING YOURSELF: The political parties got the chance to show us what they are all about during their opening election statements on Saturday night. But was anyone paying attention with the All-Blacks walloping the Wallabies? Who sold themselves the best? Did the messages come across? What effect did the allocated time and budget have on the parties?
GETTING INTO YOUR FIRST HOME: National has announced their plan to get kiwis into their first home which has been rubbished by the opposition who each have their own plan. So, who has the right plan? How do we make homes more affordable? Do we need to build more homes? Dip into our kiwisaver? Introduce a Capital Gains Tax?
There are two ways to get in on the political pub action: First, you can join the live audience in Wellington’s iconic Backbencher Pub on Wednesday, 27th of August at 6pm. Filming begins around 6:15pm.
Plus, Follow us on Facebook (BackBenchesTV) or on Twitter @BackBenchesTV.
Our Panel: Green Party Candidate for Wellington Central James Shaw, Labour Candidate for Rotorua Tamati Coffey, Maori Party Candidate for Ikaroa Rawhiti Marama Fox and National Candidate for Taranaki-King Country Barbara Kuriger.
” This show is shaping up to be essential election year viewing ” – Paul Casserly, NZ Herald 3/6/14
Tame Iti, the larger-than-life face of Maori radicalism is now aiming to become part of the establishment, and will stand for the Maori Party this election.
The man best known to some for his activism, his imprisonment on firearms charges and his participation in military-style training camps and to others for his fight for Maori sovereignty, his art and his work with youth, has revealed his intentions to Fairfax Media.
Speaking in the home he built himself in Ruatoki, Iti said he had always supported the Maori Party and had decided to stand to boost the party’s support and because he endorsed the work it had done in government.
“Not very long ago I wouldn’t have thought about it but I see there’s more achievement… with National in terms of the treaty settlements so we have come a long way,” he said.
Having a Maori voice in power had led to gains in areas such as health and social services for Maori and it was important for Maori “to be sitting on the table rather than across the road throwing rocks at each other”.
My first reaction was that I am not sure that having Tame Iti praise the National Government is a good thing.
But actually it is. I’d much rather those with radical views become moderate and work within the system, than run around the bush playing war games.
And his words about how it is better to be around the table rather than throwing rocks, are sentiments I agree with.
Act Party leader Dr Jamie Whyte said the party wants to see Youth Court and Family Court open to public scrutiny.
Dr Whyte said in a policy announcement today that there should be a right to access Youth Court and Family Court records.
Media should be able to report on cases through the Youth Court and Family Court in a similar way they can report on District Court proceedings, he said.
“The Act Party is campaigning to end secret courts” Dr Whyte said.
“There is no way of analysing and understanding what is going on in the family court.
“There are disturbing stories that evidence in Family Court cases is unreliable.”
Dr Whyte said the “secrecy” of the Youth Court was the biggest problem in the youth justice system.
“It is a wholly unjustified violation of the principle of open justice.”
The party supported names and identifying details of parties remaining suppressed, Dr Whyte said.
As I understand it the default mode for these courts is not to be public, but media can apply for access. ACT seem to be saying they would reverse the default setting so that access is the norm.
So long as names are suppressed, I favour all courts having a default setting of being open to the media.
Greens co-leader Russel Norman was literally up in arms about public transport yesterday – but he still missed the bus.
Norman was heading from a TV3 appointment in Mt Eden to Auckland Airport and, as a good Green, opted to use the Airbus Express service.
But he could not attract the attention of the driver, who drove straight past.
Venting his frustration, he tweeted: “Hey Airbus, you know how you just drove past me on Mt Eden Rd even tho I was waving my arms rather vigorously, it doesn’t help PT [public transport].”
Norman then plugged an airport rail link.
“Oh boy we need a rail link to Auckland airport. 45m plus wait for an Airbus that wd stop. Greens will transform Auckland transport.”
I’m not sure that a bus refusing to stop for Russel is a good reason to build a rail link to Auckland Airport.
That’s another $1.5 billion added onto the Greens spending promises!
A Christchurch City councillor hopes the Government will set up a national register of residential rental properties, as a local scheme could prove too costly.
In March, councillors voted unanimously to explore options for setting up a register in the city.
It was the idea of the Tenants Protection Association and part of measures being considered to help address the city’s rental accommodation shortage.
Council housing committee chairman Cr Glenn Livingstone said the register could cost up to $1.5 million a year, which would be offset by charging registration fees.
Would be a total waste of money.
Trade Me is our effective register of properties.
The register would contain information on the availability of rental properties, whether houses were fit to live in, and on which landlords and agencies were charging letting and renewal fees.
People want to know what it will cost them, not if someone is on commission. And whether a house is fit to live in is something they generally like to decide for themselves by viewing it.
It is an “open” secret that the Health and Education numbers work this way – as both Labour and National want to announce increases in spending on these items on the day. [Note: It is just like “tax cuts to get rid of fiscal drag” – political marketing all the parties do].
In that context, saying that the real value of spending is going to fall on these items is empty rhetoric.
So what do we have here? For each line, we have the expenditures by spending area. For example, health rises from $12,368m in 2009(actual) to $15,274 in the 2018 forecast. BERL then goes and deflates that by expected inflation; the Greens then claim that there’s a real cut in spending.
Now take a look at the line reading “Forecast for future new spending”. That’s the line where Treasury makes its best wink-wink-nudge-nudge guess as to future operating spending announcements, some of which it’s possibly already had to cost for future government policy announcements, and some of which will be based on expectations of future inflation adjustments.
When BERL runs its inflation adjusted accounting on Core Crown Expenditures, it finds a 9.9% nominal and 2.8% real spending increase over the next three years. That total Core Crown Expenditures categoryincludes the future spending increases. Those future spending increases have not been allocated across spending categories. If it were allocated proportionately across all categories, the weighted average of the different categories’ increases would wind up being 2.8% real. But BERL doesn’t assume that. It just takes each line from the BEFU and inflation adjusts it while ignoring the forecast future new spending.
This sort of manipulation does not help the credibility of BERL or the Greens. They knew they were being misleading.
Mike Johnston’s mother was a public-school teacher. So were her mother and father. And his godfather taught in both public and private schools.
So when he expresses the concern that we’re not getting the best teachers into classrooms or weeding out the worst performers, it’s not as someone who sees the profession from a cold, cynical distance.
What I hear in his voice when he talks about teaching is reverence, along with something else that public education could use more of: optimism.
He rightly calls teachers “the single most transformative force in education.”
But the current system doesn’t enable as many of them as possible to rise to that role, he says. And a prime culprit is tenure, at least as it still exists in most states.
“It provides no incentive for someone to improve their practice,” he told me last week. “It provides no accountability to actual student outcomes. It’s the classic driver of, ‘I taught it, they didn’t learn it, not my problem.’ It has a decimating impact on morale among staff, because some people can work hard, some can do nothing, and it doesn’t matter.”
I sat down with Johnston, a Democrat who represents a racially diverse chunk of this city in the State Senate, because he was the leading proponent of a 2010 law that essentially abolished tenure in Colorado. To earn what is now called “non-probationary status,” a new teacher must demonstrate student progress three years in a row, and any teacher whose students show no progress for two consecutive years loses his or her job protection.
Sounds wonderful. What will be interesting to assess over the years is how states that passed laws like this compare to states that do not, in terms of student achievement?
The Internet Mana election launch has ended in disaster, with Kim Dotcom running from the building as journalists were sworn at.
And his bodyguards trying to physically block journalists from following him.
It all started after Dotcom made reference to hacking in his speech, and when journalists wanted to ask him more, whether it was linked with Dirty Politics, it turned ugly.
Internet Mana press secretary Pam Corkery was not happy journalists wanted to talk to Dotcom.
“You puffed-up little s**t,” she said. “He doesn’t want to. He said three times, ‘I don’t want to give you an interview.’ He’s not a candidate. He doesn’t owe you anything. When will you glove puppets of Cameron Slater just piss off?”
So were the media being unreasonable?
Dotcom denies he’s the hacker behind Dirty Politics, but at the party’s campaign launch today said this.
“I hacked our German credit rating system and put our Prime Minister’s credit rating to zero because I didn’t like the guy,” said Dotcom. “You have all figured by now there’s another Prime Minister I don’t like.”
So Dotcom gives a keynote speech to their campaign launch, boasts how he once hacked the German Prime Minister because he didn’t like him, and then mentions how he doesn’t like John Key.
Of course the media will want to interview him about this, no matter how much Pam Corkey yells abuse at them. He wasn’t a spectator at the launch, he was a keynote speaker.
As for whether Dotcom had anything to do with the hacking, well he clearly knew what was in the Hager book before it was published, and has not been able to answer the question how.
But he didn’t want to talk about his comments afterwards.
The abuse started when we were filming, explaining Dotcom was in hiding.
“We’ve talked about jobs today and people living in poverty.” said Corkery. “You want to interview Kim, who said no interviews, about a 19-year-old story. You work in news!”
First of all press secretaries don’t dictate to the media who they are interested in interviewing. He was a speaker, not an observer. Secondly Dotcom is the one who referred to the 19 year old story, so it is natural to want to ask him about it.
But he didn’t want to talk about his comments afterwards.
The abuse started when we were filming, explaining Dotcom was in hiding.
“We’ve talked about jobs today and people living in poverty.” said Corkery. “You want to interview Kim, who said no interviews, about a 19-year-old story. You work in news!”
But he didn’t want to talk about his comments afterwards.
The abuse started when we were filming, explaining Dotcom was in hiding.
So the Internet Mana launch ended in disaster, with talk of hacking, Dotcom running off and media abuse
I don’t know if Dotcom was behind the political espionage hacking, but what we do know is this.
Dotcom has convictions for hacking
Dotcom is very wealthy
Dotcom hates Slater and Key
Many ex Dotcom friends and staffers were giving information to Slater
Dotcom yesterday boasted that he hacked the German PM because he didn’t like him
Dotcom’s chances of not being extradited to the United States are hugely enhanced if he managed to change the Government
It’s not proof, but it is certainly means and motive.
John Key gives an example in his speech of how it might work:
Let’s imagine a couple are both earning $40,000 a year – they might, for example, be living here in South Auckland.
They’ve been in KiwiSaver for five years, and are looking to buy a first home that’s under the price limit.
Under our changes, they could together withdraw up to $29,000 from their KiwiSaver accounts, and get either a $10,000 or $20,000 HomeStart Grant, depending on whether they’re buying an existing or a new home.
In total, that means a deposit after five years of almost $40,000 – or almost $50,000 if they are buying new.
That would be enough on its own to get a Welcome Home Loan for a house costing up to $400,000 or up to $500,000 if new – depending, of course, on their ability to service the mortgage.
Our changes will give a lot more people the confidence that if they join KiwiSaver, and keep saving, they can put together a deposit on their first house.
It’s important to note that most of that deposit will be their own savings.
We want to help people into their first home, but they have to help themselves first.
I much prefer that to the Government borrowing $3 billion more per year to try and become NZ’s biggest property company!
All these changes I’m announcing today will take effect from 1 April next year, if we are re-elected.
Not too long after that, the first people to benefit from these changes will be unlocking the front door of their own home for the first time.
The new policy will cost $218 million over the next five years.
That’s a fairly modest cost compared of around $35 million per year compared to borrowing $3 billion a year.
The package comprises three changes: Replacing the KiwiSaver First Home Deposit Subsidy with a KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant, doubling the support for buying a new home and increasing the house price limits; Enabling larger KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawals by including the member’s tax credit (meaning first home buyers will now be able to withdraw all of their KiwiSaver savings except the $1000 kick-start); Expanding eligibility for Welcome Home Loans by aligning the house price caps with the new KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant.
“We are roughly doubling the number of people receiving a Government grant to buy a first home from 10,000 per year to 20,000 per year, and doubling the Government grant they are eligible for if buying a newly-built home,” Dr Smith says.
“The focus of this package is to increase the supply of new housing and to encourage housing companies to build homes in a price range affordable for first home buyers.
“The house price limits for KiwiSaver HomeStart and Welcome Home Loans will be $550,000 in Auckland, $450,000 in Wellington, Christchurch and other similarly-priced housing markets, and $350,000 for the rest of the country.”
Currently, first home buyers are eligible for a grant of $3000 after three years in KiwiSaver, $4000 after four years and $5000 after five years. Under KiwiSaver HomeStart, this grant will double to $6000 after three years, $8000 after four years and $10,000 after five years for the purchase of a newly-built home.
The changes to the KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawal in enabling access to the member’s tax credit will increase the maximum withdrawal amount by $512 per year for each year a member has contributed.
The KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawal is limited to members buying a first home, who have been contributing for a minimum of three years. The KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant and Welcome Home Loans have additional criteria of people having an income below $80,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a couple, and the house being purchased must be below the regional house price limits.
I wasn’t at the campaign launch, but I underatand there were 2,000 to 2,500 people there making it the biggest political gathering in a few decades I’d say – and it was a National Party meeting in South Auckland!
