Posts by Sacha
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The baby has not quite made his appearance yet, Sofie. And no, you can't have my Pixies ticket.
For tonight then (or tomorrow)..
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Joyce is adamant, says the Herald.
Mr Joyce hit back at calls to shelve the transport CCO. "There hasn't been anything so far which suggests that it is the wrong move overall because this is a delivery agency ... Auckland will need a good agency focused on delivering the projects that have been agreed by council.
CCID: 29921"The council controls the funding, the council controls who the directors are, the council controls the regional land transport strategy and the council will control the annual statement of intent.
I presume we can now expect changes to the 3rd bill to match these assurances.
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"Fuck the average viewer!"
Now there's a tee-shirt
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Reading all the yummy beer talk, it seems a shame you can't get sponsored by one of the local suppliers. Be great word of mouth, by all accounts.
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horse, pig, roflnui
and the sign could say "Shhh Haydn" or just "NSFW"
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On a roll. Discussion of the Campbell Live interview on Joshua Arbury's transport blog. He also asks what's driving things and whether changes are likely before the 3rd Bill becomes law.
Government agencies including Treasury advised against putting the crucial transport function into a CCO, not integrated with planning of growth and built form - but Joyce apparently pushed Cabinet into ignoring them. Joyce's funding changes last year to build more highways at expense of maintenance and public transport including cycling and walking are already becoming apparent - and expect to see more potholes in your travels.
Hide and Joyce in today's Herald don't mention the Water CCO at all - look over there at the Waterfront Development Agency instead, folks. It all sounds plausible unless you've been paying attention to what's proposed in the Bill.
Consultation on the implementation of transport activities will also occur under the Resource Management Act and other regulatory requirements that will impose their disciplines on Auckland Transport, as well as giving process rights to those affected by an activity.
Ah, that would be the same RMA weakened with Ministerial call-in provisions to avoid irksome local consultation for major transport developments like the Waterview highway. And with more "efficiencies" on the way, no doubt.
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Note to self - practice mime
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I wonder if many of our decision-makers/politicians have either never been poor or chosen to forget it. Choices become rather different in ways that are hard to abstractly imagine. Right now there are an awful lot of New Zealanders without jobs, and yet our leaders see that as a "lagging indicator" not worthy of any actual short-term effort to address. The market will provide, just like it did so well in the glorious late 80s and 90s.
Unadjusted abatement thresholds are a form of fiscal drag you don't hear much about, so it's good to see at least some action on that from this government. The last one were far more right wing on such matters than most want to believe.
I remember reading in some dusty policy paper that the marginal rate for some beneficiaries approaches 100% - hardly an incentive to do what you can to improve your lot, though I understand the cross-spectrum desire to get people completely off benefits. I believe most people on them want that too, but there has to be something to move to - which is not going to be magically created by dropping company or top personal tax rates a few percent.
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has anyone else noticed how Stephen Joyce is always interviewed in super close-up?
So you don't see the wires..
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Richard, if you paste the url straight - without any square brackets - it embeds automatically, like this: