More to Ponder Over

Posted on December 23, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Needing Help?

While I have one “Thought” post on ice as I check that it won’t land me in the crap here is something else to think over while on holiday:

From NZ Herald:

Kerre Woodham: Nats run out of petrol

In what should have been a lovely, relaxing wind-down to the year, I found myself getting wound up instead.

Normally, talkback in the week before Christmas is full of callers ringing in with lovely stories of family get-togethers and their own personal Yuletide traditions, and we wish each other well for the holiday season. Nice, warm, fuzzy stuff.

This year, however, the news of a fuel tax hike on the same day the Remuneration Authority announced a pay rise for MPs – backdated to July 1, what’s more – had us incensed.

Bill English said he needed to impose an extra 3c a litre on petrol six months from now because he wanted to meet his target of a surplus by 2015. Growth has slowed right down, mainly because of rising unemployment, hence the tax.

I thought John Key said that by cutting income tax rates we would be able to stimulate the economy. Guess that didn’t work. I thought Key said that he would be able to stem the flow of New Zealanders to Australia by building a competitive economy and offering after-tax earnings on a par with those across the ditch. Well, that hasn’t worked, either.

There are now more people moving to Oz under National than there were under Labour. But instead of ‘fessing up and conceding nothing the Government has come up with has worked, the Prime Minister has produced a classic example of Orwellian double-speak.

Akshally, says Key, moving to Australia is a GOOD thing for New Zealanders to do. They’ll see the world, gain experience – no, just like everything else, Key is comfortable with the numbers of Kiwis farewelling this country.

Well, I’m not. Why can’t he just concede that this politics lark is a darn sight more difficult than he thought it would be? National was voted in because they promised voters they had the answers. They’d be a breath of fresh air. They were business people who knew a thing or two about making money, not academics who’d spent most of their lives in ivory towers.

Well, they may know how to make money for themselves but they don’t seem to have any answers when it comes to making the country richer.

If, after four years of government, the best strategy they can come up with to produce a surplus is to raise the fuel tax, they are devoid of initiative and bereft of imagination.

Prices will rise because of the increased cost of transportation so the fuel tax will affect everyone in this country, not just motorists.

And don’t give me that nonsense about needing the money for roads of national significance – most roads of national significance are tolled. So we already pay a fuel tax. That will be increased. And then we pay a toll. Fabulous.

There are those who say it’s only going to be an extra $3 a week for motorists – not even the price of a cup of decent coffee. That just shows how wide the gap between the haves and the have-nots has become. Many people on low incomes haven’t been inside a snazzy cafe for years.

Why doesn’t the Finance Minister ask his parliamentary driver to use the fuel card to fill up the Beemer and take him for a drive to areas where people are really doing it tough? I’d like to see him tell those people that an extra $156 a year coming out of their pockets is neither here nor there.

I really hope 2013 is the year that National stops blaming the country’s poor performance on the recession and starts coming up with the innovative initiatives they promised us.

So some thoughts:

Are we stuck for a lemon for a Government
Is National on Empty and if so how long on empty
Can anything be done by government to move this nation actually forward
Are voters ready to make the hard choices including maybe weaning ourselves on big items like Working for Families?
What are your ideas to move us forward.
Are we ready to maybe swallow that dead rat and do something requiring some sacrifice short-term for long-term gain – even if it goes against one’s ideology (The City Rail Link being the prime example)

I have a few ideas but will go into them sometime in the future. But for starters as I said above: “Are we ready to maybe swallow that dead rat and do something requiring some sacrifice short-term for long-term gain – even if it goes against one’s ideology (The City Rail Link being the prime example)” – I am ready to commit to that sacrifice and go with moving the CRL forward. Call it the Gibbs gut feeling knowing the CRL is the most logical and pragmatic start in a range of options to be rolled out over the next thirty years to move Power Shift Auckland Forward.

But I shall leave you with those thoughts and maybe some ideas to help the government or more to the point getting this nation forward.

In the mean time, hopefully the ex-cyclone system otherwise was known as Evan doesn’t drown your Christmas out.

Have a Good Christmas Folks

And see you all next year!

Housing, Housing, Housing

Posted on October 31, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Is The Housing Situation in Auckland That Hard to “Solve?”

I see the Main Stream Media and Central Government have got on the bandwagon about Auckland’s housing affordability situation. Much as I hate to say it, the MSM I am having no issues with reporting the news (when they do) but I am having issues with Central Government interfering in what is a debate between Council and its ratepayers.

I say that as two particular articles have cropped up from the NZH in regards to housing affordability:

First article

Govt to open up more land for houses

By Adam Bennett , Kate Shuttleworth

Prime Minister John Key says fast-tracking the supply of land will help solve the housing affordability crisis.

The Government is to work with councils to open up more land for development as it seeks to rein in New Zealand‘s high house prices.

Finance Minister Bill English will unveil the Government’s response to theProductivity Commission’s inquiry into home affordability after the Cabinet meets today.

He said it would act to address one of the main issues identified by the commission – a lack of land for building new homes – but the package was a broad programme.

“There isn’t really one simple initiative that changes the way the housing market works.

“It’s a very complicated beast so I wouldn’t get expectations too high about changing the trajectory of house prices next week.”

The commission focused on the need to free more land on city fringes for home-building, but Mr English said some of the best opportunities for development, particularly for low-priced housing, were within cities.

And the second article – actually an opinion piece

National’s affordable housing package lacks any substantial detail

By John Armstrong

Package? What package? No wonder National avoided over-selling the contents of their plan to make housing more affordable. The plan looks more like a rough first draft.

As Annette King, Labour’s housing spokeswoman noted, the Government’s long-awaited announcement was a combination of “considering new ways”, “undertaking more inquiries”, “doing more work” and “undertaking evaluations”.

The lack of detail serves to illustrate one thing: when it comes to increasing the housing stock, there is not a lot central government can do unless it is willing to spend big bikkies.

The two parts I am going to raise were both in bold in the first article:

“Prime Minister John Key says fast-tracking the supply of land will help solve the housing affordability crisis.”

Opening up supply of the land will help and was mentioned in the Auckland Plan, Long Term Plan and the Civic Forum (that I attended) for the Unitary Plan. What it needs is Council to follow through with the plans and get opening up that land now rather than later. So no need to worry John, already ahead of you there mate.

And from the Minister of Finance:

“The commission focused on the need to free more land on city fringes for home-building, but Mr English said some of the best opportunities for development, particularly for low-priced housing, were within cities.”

Well that seems to be more hitting the point on the head there. And the easiest way to accommodate what the Minister is saying is to:

Zone appropriately
Lower the cost of construction
Lower the regulation hurdles to build

Get on top of those three points via adopting the Keeping It Simple Stupid philosophy and you might find the above points going some distance (but not all) into helping get on top of our housing affordability and supply situation.

I was pondering over my coffee this morning a few things. First of all acknowledging that a house is deemed affordable when the price of purchasing your house is not more than three times above the total gross income of the people going to be paying the mortgage for that house. Four times above the income is indicating stress but still okay, but anything above five times the income (Auckland is at 5.3-6.0 times) is deemed unaffordable and the situation needs to be addressed FAST!

The second thing I was pondering over was; who is actually getting in the way of solving the housing affordability situation here in Auckland. Traditionally I would stick my boot into our planners, however after the Civic Forum on the Unitary Plan last Saturday I concluded that actually our Planners can and are redeeming themselves here are actually not the ones in the way for the most part. I told our planners at the Civic Forum that the biggest hinderance to urban development were our planners and they simply need to get out of the road. That point still stands in my eyes but to a lesser degree now after talking to them at length on Saturday. Planners have their shot at redemption if they can work with the Local Boards and ratepayers in a multi-way partnership as urban development occurs. Saturday showed the potential there from our planners in working with that partnership with the Local Boards and the ratepayer and I am hoping that potential can develop and flourish (rather than go backwards and me having to stick the boot back into them again – which I don’t honestly want to do as I do that enough with our beyond hopeless CCOs).

Now I know there are planners reading this who I talked too on Saturday and my message is this: Lets work together (planner, ratepayer and Local Boards) in developing an outcome forward for Auckland and its development through to 2040. The foundations were laid on Saturday and a lot of good faith and will was set at that Civic Forum. I extend my hand as a ratepayer to you – our planners as I don’t want to stick the boot in no more to you guys. I have ideas, you have ideas, we all have the same outcome as the Civic Forum showed, lets work together rather than apart. And that I make as a serious genuine offer. As for the ideas I have, you can read my rather extensive submission to The Auckland Plan which I will translate over to submissions for the Unitary Plan in due time. Oh and even though I am advocating the decentralisation of the urban development processes, Planners will be still flat-out if not even more flat-out as they buddy up with the Local Boards in delivering and providing advocacy during urban development phases !

So then if Planners are not getting in the road, then who is?

Sorry hate to say it but it is our Councillors and Central Government Politicians and in my next post, I am dedicating my boot to you both and how YOU are causing the housing affordability situation…

For Auckland Council Planners Consumption – My Submission to the Auckland Plan, and due to be translated to the Unitary Plan submissions

View this document on Scribd

NBR has something to say on the Government

Posted on March 17, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Key follows failed Blairite formula | The National Business Review.

Rather interesting article from Matthew Hooton who is a Centre-Right supporter. I am mentioning this article here at VOAKL as this comment struck a point – it was:

John Key was the best thing that happened to NZ politics in a 100 years – we voted him in and we watched him run a great PR programme for the first term – but little else.

He was the one guy who could transform NZ with new innovative world leading legacy policy. By the beginning of last year pre the last election it was evident that he had the intellect but not the balls to deliver.

He scraped in at the last elections but very nearly got the old proverbial caning from a group of opposition party lightweights.

Now we are well into his second term and still waiting for his legacy policy. The new Ministry is a lame aggregation of numerous lame ministries who never deliver and never will until they have a clear direction and focus.

Nick Smith restructuring Local Councils is another joke. Local Councils have only accumulated such large debt because successive Governments have transferred responsibility and costs for infrastructure like roading and social responsibility to the Councils – reduce Government debt increase local body debt ( net benefit nil to the taxpayer/ratepayer ). Now that lunatic Nick Smith is endeavouring to be the saviour to ratepayers by restructuring inept councils – give us a break Nick – you are an idiot.

So we all ask ” when is John key going to transfer his energy from good guy/great public speaker at business functions ( which by the way isn’t representative of the majority in the street who don’t get free corporate functions to listen to John ) into the “REAL DEAL” – we want and deserve a period where NZ Inc has once again led the world with legacy policy – once again in the upper levels of the OECD wealth tables.

We need a number of new ” Fisher & Paykel“s ” ( which once had world leading technology and all production was based here ) – Rakon’s etc etc. We need exports full stop. That is the only way to get this country forward.

So things like Nick Smith juggling money between local councils and central government and creating a new Ministry are pathetic examples of what little this National Government is achieving so far – absolutely no innovation or visionary thinking

The Doctor | Saturday, March 17, 2012 – 8:45am

The comment is worth its weight in gold – but it was the bits I have put in bold that are worth their weight in platinum! Why? Because what this person said is beyond 110% true in regards to Central Government reforming in a meaningful manner Local Government. Look Auckland alone is facing some nasty rate rises pushing 10% and debt blowing out to $8.4b by 2021. Effectively (according to Cllr Cameron Brewer) in the year 2021 $521m of our ratepayer’s money is going to pay JUST the interest of $8.4b debt – or 25% of my rates bill for that year. Central Government needs to reform Local Government to get costs and debt under control.

Black and white prescriptions need to be set out on what councils can and can not do: starting with an extremely close look on “social” aspects of council responsibility and doing away with this ‘Powers of General Competence (or rather Incompetence as the late Owen McShane would say) crap. Look if the Rates, Road and Rubbish philosophy (and battle cry of the Centre-Right) was ever carried out – automatically $5.5b of expenditure (from the Culture and Lifestyle budget line) would be wiped off the Auckland Council main budget. The savings could be used for that City Rail Link or giving us a rates decrease.

However I seriously doubt we will get any meaningful reform so issues such as: rates, road, rubbish and even urban/transport planning are still going to earn the ire of Auckland.

VOAKL does push for meaningful reform to local government powers and responsibilities – as we do seem to have the Power of General Incompetence at the top.

Asset sales out of Auckland transport debate – Politics – NZ Herald News

Posted on February 14, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Asset sales out of Auckland transport debate – Politics – NZ Herald News.

The Traditional Left vs Right cock-fight has begun on how to fund Auckland‘s Transport projects (whether road or rail) in the wider community. You can fathom the two camps with Len Brown and Mike Lee cheer-leading the Left and John Key (notice how I can not put an opposition Councillor in here – wait Councillor Quax) cheer-leading the Right with all the same bull crap ideological throw away lines. Throw away lines which are My Way is the ‘Only Way and Your Way will Ruin the Nation Way’ and ‘You just can’t because ideologically it is wrong!’ Congratulations now I know why things never get done in New Zealand. One thing I do admire in US Politics (when either side is not being partisan jackasses as the far-right wing of the Republicans currently are) is bi-partisanship and consensus do actually come up often when both sides of The House or Senate work together for a mutual beneficial outcome for the USA. Germany seems to have the same as well if The Chancellor can assemble a Grand Collation which did not quite sink Germany during the Global Financial Crisis.

Me personally I am not interested in cock fights and quickly get bored with them, I am more of a progressive person who has a knack of seeking out the best of both worlds and getting a deal that often suits more then what either side could with their deals. Also (whether this is the Christian coming through in me) I am a selfless person especially in the work and political arena and always put the good of the greater need of others before myself. Simply put it means I do not feather my own nest (unless it’s from my own toils) at all and from time to time could be a detriment to me personally.

So lets take a look at the linked article and see what we can make from this – paragraph by paragraph.

Mayor Len Brown posted 13 revenue raising options to fund Auckland’s Transport Links – they were:

general rates
targeted rates
development contributions
regional income tax
regional payroll tax
regional sales tax
tax increment funding
regional fuel tax and RUC diesel levy
tolling new roads
road pricing on existing roads
additional car parking charges
visitor tax
airport departure tax.

The Right led by Prime Minister Key called for selling Council Owned Assets or abandon the ideas. Others Like Councillor Quax and some Right Wing commentators (who called Len’s proposals the JAFA Tax) said Council needs to slash costs.

Congratulations to both sides for pointing out the flaming obvious from your camps while not considering the others – you have just contributed to the Cock Fight when the only winners are The Losers – us ratepayers for another 20 years of nothing done.

Look Mayor and Prime Minister, The Long Term Plan is up for debate and consultation, it is the LTP that sets the Budget for Council activities for the next 10 years thanks to the Local Government Act 2002. I for one do not give a Royal Flying Monkey’s Toss about your ideology, I do give that same toss when you try to frame the debate and have glaring omissions in The Draft LTP. Put all thirteen “JAFA Taxes” into The Draft LTP with some benefit and cost figures (which has been done), put in the range of selling down options for Port of Auckland and Auckland Airport and other assets, put in some projects that can be PPP’ed, put in which areas need a budget trim or rebalance so that; all of Auckland read all the options, have a good think and debate, write a submission and then base the final LTP based on the submissions which will be ratified in the Local Elections next year by us voters. Once that is all done then both Central and Local Governments must do as the wishes of their masters – US RATEPAYERS! No if’s, but’s or maybe – we have spoken and made our choice (even if that means to the hell of bankruptcy). But least we made our choice and have to stick with it rather than some Government’s crap decision which none of us wanted.

So I repeat, stop framing the debate – shove all the options in there (which is going to make one very long document) and let us decide for you.

It is rather simple and simple to do – thanks to Excel Tables

Right that is my rant over for today