And possums, stoats and rats. It will take many years. similarly with Labour/Green party gaining power.
This absurd enouncement sure won't help them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11682323
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And possums, stoats and rats. It will take many years. similarly with Labour/Green party gaining power.
This absurd enouncement sure won't help them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11682323
At least you're starting to get your head around the problem, FP. More than the National govt has, they don't expect anyone to think deeply about their make-believe policies. Predator control by 2050 is just a new one of those.
John Campbell was talking to Nick Smith today. He was outside the site of a 1500-home complex being developed privately just off Mt Eden Road. My daughter flats up there, and so I know the area's traffic reasonably well, in the weekends. John was saying, how are the vehicles from 1500 homes going to fit onto Mt Eden Road? No worries, says Nick Smith, there's a regular bus service around there. Many of these households apparently won't use a car to get to work. What will they do in the weekends, just stay home?
This is a nightmare! You can't just throw more traffic into Auckland, it's not coping now, it can't cope anytime soon. Surely the answer is to push most of the population growth out into the regions, where there is more like a vacuum. But that would require some understanding, some policies to make it work. National has been ignoring the regions, by and large.
I thought Andrew Little made a sensible response to the Green Party announcement. It would be great for those without property for the prices to crash by 50%, but it would undo a lot of bank funding for businesses too, options for growth. I just want to see more people take a risk with a business idea, one that employs people. At the moment, that relies mostly on spare equity in real estate.
So its ok for Auckland housing to go up by 80% in four years but not gradually reduce them by approximately the same amount?
I don't necessarily agree with the 50% figure, although that is probably where the reasonable affordability level is.
One of the major issues in Western World democracies in he last 20 years or so is at any cost governments and central banks keep creating and sustaining asset bubbles in housing and stock markets etc. So called free market! Yeah right. High wealth socialism if I ever I saw it.
We are now going to see Auckland keep expanding, housing built over productive land.
Traffic congestion will only get worse and all because National's only plan for economic growth is immigration and a much larger population.
And they blame everyone else for the consequences they have created.
Where was the National policy that said they were going to grow the population by 600,000 over 10 years ?
I've just had a look at the Unitary Plan, and it has clobbered most of the RMA-type restrictions, just at a council level for Auckland, but National has got what their backers wanted. Was that the big picture? Make such a mess up there, that the rules would have to be relaxed?
Shamubeel Eaqub has more housing details covering most of NZ. The implication is that people should start to prefer a more interventionist government by 2017.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/mone...y+28+July+2016
Well this government has taken over councils by stealth. How many councils are now under Central Government control? They pushed hard to consolidate the councils in Northland, but thank god they backed down. Mind you it may have been an improvement on our Far North District Council but that wouldn't be difficult.
Headlines from the other day about an 'official' 3% of house purchases are from overseas buyers. The real figure is much higher than that.
Listen to this interview with Nick Smith. Refuses to answer the question.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Why-wont-...7/Default.aspx
EZ, You'll enjoy this article
One day (after 2017 sadly) parties like NZ National will get their comuppance. The populus are starting to turn against them - a political revolution is coming
http://thespinoff.co.nz/featured/06-...en-by-finance/
Extract:
This is why the idea of truth and of the individual in finance and in the politics exemplified by John Key is in profound contradiction to the most ancient wisdom of this country and with the socialist and social democratic politics that marked its more recent past.
This is why the idea of truth and of the individual in finance and in the politics exemplified by John Key is in profound contradiction to the most ancient wisdom of this country and with the socialist and social democratic politics that marked its more recent past.
In 1960 I lived at the top of Sugarloaf Road in Brooklyn, Wellington, Elderly couples were having to move from homes that they had live in for decades because they could not afford the rates. To those unfamiliar with the area, the road and its residents had panoramic views across the botanic gardens and out across the harbour. Once it had been a backwater of the city steep and inaccessible and probable cheap and affordable. Now? Idon't know but it's probably well outside my budget.In more recent times, my son bought a house in London, a terraced house, a two up, two down style labourers residence. The elderly residents found they could get a price that allowed them to move to the sea in Margate and have a much better life. My son had to gut the place and build up and out at great cost but now he has a home worth a million pounds or so, close enough for him to cycle or run to the City where he works (He's a distance runner) and its close to paid off. The house is worth over a million and in due course he will move on. This is the story of every big city or population centre throughout the world but you don't hear the same whinge in other places. "Why does the government not provide me with a cheap house close to my workplace?" Most of us have to do the best we can and lever ourselves up from there.
EZ - your mate Grant likes twitter
@grantrobertson1: Just a reminder that Steven Joyce has been Econ Dvlpmt Minister for 8 yrs and exports as % of GDP gone backwards on his watch. @NZQandA
I should remind Grant that this is generally what happens under neo-liberalism
And My gut feeling is that Labour would not achieved a ifferent outcome - neo-liberals in their own right?
W69, maybe you should change your label to RedBaiter, although someone else has that, on The Standard. :)
Anyway, I will comment. Grant Robertson has been doing a lot of research into the future of work. He probably understands more than most, how nimble NZ businesses and their staff will have to be in the future. One policy that Labour had at the end of their term could have done more towards increasing exports as a percentage of GDP(in other words refocusing our manufacturing and design/IT industries) than any other.
It was a simple thing called R&D Tax Credits. National stupidly crushed that policy when they finally got into office, and have been careful to sling off about it ever since. Big mistake. Labour still have that policy, and hopefully will bring it back in 2017.