Posts by Rich of Observationz
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On the technical front, I don't quite see what "dark fibre to the home" actually consists of, and you can bet that the government doesn't actually know.
The fibres are going to go to the "home", or somewhere nearby, but from where? Cabinets? Telecom exchanges? "Exchanges" built by the LFCs? Is this going to be direct fibre (a link from each home to the exchange), passively split or actively split? What standards are going to be required (given that it's reckoned that fibre follows Moores Law, any active technology will rapidly fall behind and need upgrading).
This isn't just geek detail, if it's got wrong, then the fibre could be a white elephant as end users stick with copper or wireless solutions. (There's a fairly good chance this'll happen anyway, especially if incumbent telcos upgrade their infrastructure in high-uptake areas).
Also, this *is* a subsidy-based model. The government is offering to provide investment at a lesser return than the commercial partners, that looks to me like a subsidy.
Still, I guess it's a reasonable stimulus to the economy. Keynes suggested we could:
fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths ... and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory)
This seems to be the shiny, 21st century version of that, down to the leases..
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there's something truly authoritarian about Te Papa
It's true. If Helengrad had been elected for a fourth term, she was going to incarcerate all the ACT MPs in a room within Te Papa. One of the smaller ones.
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I find museums having vast collections of art bizarre, as I think that's what art galleries are for, and never the two should meet.
You're not a fan of the Louvre, then?
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Here in the UK we have recently moved to PR for local elections
According to Wikipedia England is still determinedly undemocratic and sticks to FPP. Only Scotland has a PR system for local and national government, and it's a lot better governed as a result.
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Auckland City Council wears an awful lot of annual expense for things like MOTAT and Auckland Zoo, because they're located in Auckland City.
The arts budget is a pretty small (< 5% in Wellington) part of council spending. Also, city centre councils get the benefit of rates from CBD property, don't they?
I don't see any reason why community councils shouldn't provide many local services, either. I doubt there is much economy of scale in having a Auckland-wide garbage contract, for instance.
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The Commission makes no recommendation on this, because it was not persuaded that the adoption of this voting system would assist in solving Auckland’s problems.
I think that says it all.
I had the funny idea that the idea of a democratic system was to represent what people want, not deliver outcomes?
Just because The Powers That Be consider that Auckland has various issues (like failure to build a shiny enough rugby ground) doesn't mean that the people agree with them..
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Anyway, seriously:
- is there going to be a referendum on this, or is it just going to be foisted?- I think the system of local democracy being presented is deliberately majoritarian. I'd suggest having a proportionately representative council (with maybe 60 councillors, similar in electorate size to NZ MPs) electing a mayor from their number. That would ensure that the mayor had the support of a majority, rather than the grudging support of a plurality.
- Local bodies should have control of their own budgets and taxation, including the form of tax (rates, local income tax, tourist tax, development taxes). They should also have autonomy and be accountable to their voters, not the tier of government above.
- People should be able to choose their local body and the nature of services it provides. For some places (like Waiheke) it's likely that the community would want to have the local body provide most services. Others may be happy with a central council and a minimal community board. It should be up to people to choose.
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Something I saw was:
As part of the proposed changes, an area currently in the Waikato region, including Tuakau, Pokeno and Mercer, would be included in the new Auckland region.I thought they could also add the rest of the Waikato, the Manawatu and the South Island. They could call the resulting supercity "New Zealand".
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Manners Mall today contains a billboard promoting Earth Hour, towed by an SUV that pours out 3.5 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Good eh!
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Can't big polluters like Rio Tinto make their own greenwash?
Tiwai Point only exists and makes money for RTZ because consumers buy stuff made of aluminium. If it closed, other (possibly fossil fueled) smelters would take up the demand. So while closing the smelter would make the *NZ* energy equation look better, it might actually send world CO2 emissions up.
If you want to cut emissions from aluminium smelters, buy less stuff.