Hard News: Crowded houses
137 Responses
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Sacha, in reply to
and 'unaccountable' in Thorndon-speak sometimes just means 'we can't make em do what we want'.
Not necessarily a bad thing if the results are good. But hey, who measures results? Too busy inserting caveats about intervention logics into purchasing agreements.
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Marc C, in reply to
Yep, but our (mostly commercially sensitive) MSM have already closed the Panama Papers chapter of "news", so we get no more reporting on such topics, I fear.
Business as usual, and Key loves it, it is all going according to plan, fourth term ensured now.
All he has to do is hoodwink enough, pull the wool over most people's eyes, keep immigration going, and after that, once he is ready to retire in Hawaii, it can and will all fall to crap pieces, us picking up the pieces.
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llew40, in reply to
With respect, the creation of an environment for massive bias towards investment in property for both domestic and foreign investors predates the current government by many years. Granted, it's now hitting an extreme but this has been a generation in the making
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izogi, in reply to
My daughter spent the morning helping a young man get some photo ID. You can't seem to get photo ID without photo ID to prove it is you. It is extraordinarily difficult for people without a passport, drivers' licence or other identifying certification.
Would anyone happen to know of any clear write-ups on this (NZ-based, preferably online) which I could reference next time someone tries to argue with me on how reasonable it is to require regular people to have ID to do regular stuff that's meant to be accessible and easy to do?
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I feel whole thing - the economy - is so out of whack it could collapse.
It's been said before, but much as a collapse would be Irish or Icelandic-level ugly, it's one of the few things not involving mass deaths that'll push Generation Rentier out of the housing market and pave the way for meaningful reform. Politicians are either in the pocket of Generation Rentier, or too chicken to confront it for fear of being unelectable for a generation.
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Having been near suicidal and up for "review" by WINZ I am near explosive (after previous experiences), and hate the thought of even going to WINZ. I may keep you posted, but I do not like to spread out my own complex issues. I coped for a while, and the less WINZ intererence the better, but knowing the regime, it only makes things so much terribly worse, there must be a better way.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I took a voluntary pay cut in order to qualify for a Community Services Card, so that treatment for a rare dental condition wouldn't break the bank. It also qualified me for the Accommodation Supplement, not because I want it, but because it's the least worst solution in the circumstances. In each case I got decent treatment because of the very fact I was in work. Even then, WINZ is more like a police interrogation room for many others, and it need not be like that.
Personally, my biggest issue right now is the future of work, the prospect of jobs like mine being Internet-ted into obsolescence, and the new jobs having no pathways except "who you know".
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Tubers or not tubers...
I can't believe that they are thinking of building subdivisions on Pukekohe soils, as intimated on TV1 news last night.
That would be the height of stupidity and blinkered short-term thinking.
There must be poorer soils that can be built on near to National's upgraded Highways of National Significance, or dare I even suggest a rail link... -
The president of Horticulture NZ was interviewed on Morning Report today and said that if this happens then the price of vegetables would go through the roof and we would have to import them from China. It seems that Pukekohe's unique soil and climate combination means that it is the only place in NZ where leafy greens and other vegetables can be harvested in the spring months.
Increasing the price of fresh vegetables at a time when those at the bottom of the economic heap are having enough difficulty making good nutritional food choices would seem to be madness - but of course this government and its cronies have always been at war with Public Health. See this recent piece by John Roughan in the Herald for example.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
laborers who work the Pukekohe land are not going to get a look in. N
We stopped off at the petrol station in Pukekohe a couple of weeks ago. Lots of lush growth in the rich soil....but also lots of lifestyle blocks peppering the foothills.
As an indication of the socioeconomic status of the area....a two litre flagon of non Anchor milk was twice the price we would have paid at the petrol station at Drury, and more than twice what we'd pay at our local dairy in Hamilton.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I can't believe that they are thinking of building subdivisions on Pukekohe soils, as intimated on TV1 news last night.
The Pukekohe area was the setting for many of the stories in Roderick Finlayson's unfortunately neglected Brown Man's Burden. The dispossessed Maori that Finlayson knew and wrote about in his IMHO often superb short stories had, in the wake of the land wars, been reduced to servitude to mainly Chinese market gardeners.
Te Puea Herangi made it her mission to better the lives of those she saw as her people. "I want the people on the land,. I want land in order to draw my people back from Chinese gardens. Maori women are living with Chinese gardeners. I had some stolen from me at Ngaruawahia. If the men cannot get a living many of them go to the Chinese. There are about 400 of my people at the Chinese gardens around Auckland, and 300 at Pukekohe. They have gone there to work because they need food and clothing. My scheme will help to bring people back to their land.”
While most of these events happened back before WW2, their effect is being felt right now as the Te Puea Marae open their doors to the homeless.
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Hilary Stace, in reply to
There was a good article a couple of days ago from a journalist about accessing Work and Income. Photo ID was required to get in the door and her press pass was not good enough. So if you don't have photo ID from a passport (very expensive), 18+ card (which requires photo ID to get) or a drivers' licence (unlikely for many disabled or young people) you literarily can't get in the door of Work and Income
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Further to the CCC and Government changing the game with 'Social Hosuing' in Chchch - a new Press Release from KOA (Keep Our Assets):
Christchurch City Council Is Flying Blind On The Impact Of Its Changes To Council Housing
The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the second biggest landlord in NZ (after the State). So, any changes with the city’s publicly-owned housing portfolio are a big deal.
Just such a major change is about to take effect from July, when the Council becomes a Community Housing Provider (transferring its social housing to a Trust of which the CCC is a 49% shareholder).
And the Council is flying blind into it without having any idea as to the impact.
Keep Our Assets Canterbury (KOA) asked the Council, under the Official Information Act, for: “any analysis, working papers and reports addressing the impact, of the establishment of Otautahi Community Housing Trust, on;
a) Council’s Social Housing Strategy and related Council polices and obligations
and
b) Staff currently employed in the City Housing unit at CCC.
Council declined the request because it “would require a considerable amount of collation and research to complete”.
So, it seems glaringly obvious that the Council has done no such impact assessment.
It is utterly outrageous that Council has pursued the establishment of the Community Housing Trust without even a cursory glance at what that may mean for Council’s ongoing rights and obligations (to the community (let alone its’ own staff).
An “impact assessment” is management 101, particularly on a matter as fundamental as surrendering control of an asset as important as our publicly-owned housing and which affects so many people. Yet we are assured that it has not been done.
This is the managerial equivalent of demolishing your house without having given any thought as to where you’re going to live.
Not only is the Council flying blind into this, it is doing so deliberately.
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Murray Horton
Convenor -
Another expert commenting on the housing market and situation in Auckland:
'Poverty crisis or housing crisis?'
Economic commentator Grant Cleary saying it resembles the Irish bubble that burst.
It is out of control and will end badly is the assessment.
But it will offer little consolation to those already struggling to pay rents or buy a home, and particularly those without homes.
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John Farrell, in reply to
There's a thought - perhaps the government is expecting a burst, and they are positioning themselves to avoid blame when it happens.
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On Planet Bennett there is NO HOUSING CRISIS:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201801510/no-housing-crisis,-says-paula-bennett"I would certainly not call it a crisis" she answered to a question by RNZ's Queenstown based reporter. She was there today, after avoiding RNZ and other media for four days, apparently not keen on answering any questions.
This time she talked, about her "pipeline" into housing, there in her view not being a national housing crisis and about consent issues, nimbyism and what other excuses she could come up with. She conceded Bill English is the one behind National's housing and social policies, and she claimed she was showing "leadership".
Well, where was that leadership after having known for over a year that social housing was not functioning:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/304288/emergency-housing-sector-'unaccountable' -
Crisis? What Crisis?
Is National creating Supertramps perhaps?But seriously I think they’re well past “the time a difficult or important decision must be made" and well into the phase where "an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death" a "time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger"
- all textbook crisis definitions. -
Kumara Republic, in reply to
There's a thought - perhaps the government is expecting a burst, and they are positioning themselves to avoid blame when it happens.
If a bubble burst really is impending, I wager it'd be far too big to spin for whoever's in power. Either those who think "our PM is a great guy to drink with" will realise the whole house of cards for what it is... or they'll sink further into denial and go a little bit Trump.
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izogi, in reply to
Either those who think "our PM is a great guy to drink with" will realise the whole house of cards for what it is... or they'll sink further into denial and go a little bit Trump.
Or a bit of both. People start looking for excuses to claim that they never really liked that guy anyway. Every scandal from the last 5+ years will get an airing, but of course the alternative at the time was so much dreadfully worse, and so that justified voting and expressing support as people did.
It's hard to know how long this government's going to last. When it finally goes, though, I doubt many will be accepting any great personal mistakes in keeping it there so long. Which is fine, as long as the majority who voted against it actually wanted it gone.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
People start looking for excuses to claim that they never really liked that guy anyway. Every scandal from the last 5+ years will get an airing, but of course the alternative at the time was so much dreadfully worse, and so that justified voting and expressing support as people did.
Just like with Rob Muldoon.
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
Paula Bennett flexes her comedy chopsNone of the solutions in this space are easy or quick. But the Government has a plan to address housing needs right across the housing market and it will help those in need.
We are absolutely committed to providing social housing for those who most need it, but ultimately, we want people to get ahead and live independent lives. That’s why the good economic growth we’re seeing with rising incomes and a record number of jobs available is the best way this Government can help New Zealanders.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11642132
Carrion regardless? -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
They are capable of making some very crappy kitchen ware, but I'm trying to keep an open mind on the food production skills.
An adage worth repeating: Food from China that isn't Chinese food, isn't food. Then again, there's Wuchang rice.
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andin, in reply to
her comedy chops
Nah that's her deliberate ignorance and arselicking stupidity.
But nice of you to suggest she has a possible career after politics.Wuchang rice.
jesuus! 9 million tons of plastic rice... and its getting eaten!
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Alfie, in reply to
jesuus! 9 million tons of plastic rice… and its getting eaten!
And passing through people on its way to the sea, where it poisons fish en masse. Humans really have been a shit addition to this planet.
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There is one thing that has been going on since Labour bought in Working for Families over 10 years ago and that is that families, students, super annuitants and benficiaries are having to pay to access the extra money they need to pay these high rents. Just one example is a single parent with 2 children under the age of 9 pays $320 a week rent and only gets $265 to cover it so has to apply for Temporary Additional Support to get the extra only when she applies she finds that she has to pay the first $55 of her hardship out of her standard costs which are set at 70% of her unabated benefit. So in short she is paying the 25% that the government states she has to pay and then on top of that she has to pay another 5% of her benefit plus an accommodation loading of $25.49. Now if you look at a pensioner they are paying similar amounts to access TAS and the lowest amount a person has to pay is around $35. How insane and cruel is this?? So these landlords are making extra money at the expense of children going without food, warmth, school trips etc especially if they come from a large family as the cost to access goes up and can be as high as $80 a week!
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