Open Mike 19/08/25
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6:00 am, August 19th, 2025 - 32 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
Dirty Politics Star Rachel Glucina Is Behind Nicola Willis PM Rumours
National Government will have increased gross debt by over $100b – Who benefits ?
New Post up:
Dirty Politics Star Rachel Glucina Is Behind Nicola Willis PM Rumours
New Post up:
National Government will have increased gross debt by over $100b – Who benefits ?
Government media release of 14 August 2025 states "RMA reforms to deliver jobs and growth": https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/rma-reforms-deliver-jobs-and-growth.
No mention of the environment on which we all depend.
This is part of a letter I am sending to the Queenstown Lakes District Council today:
The sole reason the Minister has given for work on planning instruments to be stopped is that it would be a waste of the Council’s resources because the work being carried out would be likely to be incompatible with new planning legislation that will replace the RMA.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop states:
“The new planning system legislation will be introduced to Parliament before the end of this year, pass into law next year, and be in effect by 2027.”
There is an election in 2026. There is no guarantee whatsoever that this government’s planning legislation will ever come into effect, or that if it does come into effect, that the excellent information contained in the Upper Clutha Landscape Schedules Variation (UCLSV) would be incompatible with the new planning legislation.
A Labour led coalition, if elected in 2026, would be likely to find the information contained in the UCLSV consistent with the planning legislation it wrote to replace the RMA prior to the 2023 election.
It is nonesensical (and probably legally challengeable) to abandon the exceptional work the Council has done on the UCLSV on the basis of as yet unseen planning legislation that may never come into effect.
Bishop talking about handbrakes – is he taking the piss?
NACT1's multi front War on NZ continues apace…..
Ex Health, now Science Minister (wtf) , Dr Shane ciga Reti ,reveals the reasoning… and oh, the Irony of solving ?!
When they are in actuality fuelling the real world problems . And of course….it is all about the money.
Enough of Dr Reti. From his Health Minister days, IMO a particularly slimy creep ….
Instead let some Scientists speak.
Previously, from the Coalition of Money is Everything .
Totally unsurprising the support from ACT's Parmar…
This decision is akin to the ferries. Good trope there “The Coalition of Money is everything”. Do you mind if that is used?
Hi PB, If useful…you can indeed. Take care of you and your Family.(and I know you always Keep Left : )
‘ “Right now, councils are hesitant to sign off on building consents and inspections because they could be held liable for all defects, leaving ratepayers to foot the bill,” construction minister Chris Penk said.’
We prefer consumer guarantees that are essentially worthless and likely to dump unsafe and expensive property on unsuspecting buyers, like our leaky home debacle! Remember? We already did this crap before!
That quote from Penk sounds like the change is about protecting the consumer.
[Link required]
Anyone else admiring Julien’s optimism?
That is almost exactly what was said back in 1998.
The way to prevent a repeat of the leaky homes would be to make shoddy building a criminal offence for directors of building companies with mandatory minimum prison time for convicted offenders.
That will bypass any escape into bankruptcy or company closures. It would also allow recoveries from proceeds of crime.
The reason that councils are hesitant is because of the legal principles of the "Last entity standing" copping all of the blame for a leaky building that they signed off on. Everyone else having disappeared between the end of the build and when the problems start appearing a decade later.
The insurance and fines dies with the company bankruptcy or closures or just developers, builders and contractors skipping offshore. So that is a complete waste of time and about as useful as Julien Leys inane advice.
Needless to say, I wound up spending a lot of money and time getting our apartment block fixed for leaky building issues back in the late 00s and early 10s for a building finished in 1998.
The council was the last entity standing in court only because they'd done the building inspection, and it wasn't done by a 'fully insured' private building inspection company.
Yep, it needs a big stick. Also need to stop the pricks from setting up new 'companies' to avoid liablities.
Sadly theres still planty of shit building work going on. Certainly be very careful about buying anything with an upstairs bathroom or ensuite with walk in shower or wet floor. Even if installed correctly plenty of the 'cheap' tanking systems use only have a 10 year life span and a slow leak can cause a huge amount of damage to internal framing before its actually evident.
When I was working in Queenstown/Arrowtown in that era, as a humble Builders labourer , there was some smoko discussion about a new, different Apartment design….Mediterranean style they called it. Also some talk about the Building Inspection and perceived lack of…
Anyway….
Geez was that a major mistake. $Multimillions mistake. One outfit I was working for had to fix some dumb shit very early on. Apartment built against a bank,water pouring through unsealed concrete blocks, and no drainage !
Tenants had moved out, as the downstairs carpet was completely soaking and rotten.Could have grown mushrooms in there.I got the lovely job of scraping it off with a spade….
Just around the QLDC area there were/are many similar..incl balconies unsafe as they were quite dangerous, almost falling off the side of multi level apartments, Arrowtown school had to be rebuilt etc….
And yes..who ends up paying for this? Ratepayer/Taxpayer…
Does anyone else watch Bernard Hickey on The Kaka?
It's explicitly about the political economy of New Zealand concerning poverty, housing, and climate.
Certainly doing an enjoyable job of generating graphs and facts that hold the government to account.
this one?
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/memo-to-pm-your-strategy-is-not-working
also on youtube
https://youtu.be/G5l4ixrBKW0?si=6t4v12ge5_GXxAEy
Yes Bernard Hickey and Mountain Tui do a great job of showing what is happening, and often why and who. Nick Rockel catches the mood and tenor of things.
CBL Insurance use to cover the cost of fixing faulty building work on new homes.
They were placed into interim liquidation by the High Court in Auckland.
It was rising claims costs in CBL Insurance's similar, but much larger, building guarantee business in France that tipped CBL Insurance into trouble.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112674846/cbl-corporation-once-worth-750-million-put-into-liquidation#:~:text=CBL%20Insurance%20was%20the%20third,were%20fully%20licensed%20by%20RBNZ.
Anyone know what's going on in Tauranga re parking meters?
Is this (in the link below) merely one or two bad apples or a case of failing to get the public onboard?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570176/frustrated-locals-lash-out-tauranga-parking-meters-vandalised
Why is this vexing you?
Not vexing. I'm just inquisitive.
Then flex your inquisition skills and find out for yourself for once. Use AI if you have to; TS is not a FAQ, search engine, or AI Chatbot for lazy people, but for robust well-reasoned debate between people who act in good faith.
A good way to start a good debate is when you offer a reasoned argument with some supporting evidence so that others can respond and grow the debate and hopefully everybody learns something from it. Ideally, you leave bias & prejudice out of it and focus on the heart of the matter or ‘essence’.
I was looking to hear directly from locals to see how they view things – not AI
Paul Newman didn’t die in 2008, he moved to Tauranga, New Zealand.
Understandably he had became bored to death, who wouldn’t living in Tauranga?
One evening, after a 3 day booze and cocaine bender, he decided to relive a scene from Cool Hand Luke.
He'd have needed more than just a pipe-cutter to deal to those beasts – unless he simply clubbed it.
“Merely one or two bad apples“? You could try asking the MP for Tauranga
I posted this on Bernard’s blog this morning.
“I know this is off topic, Bernard, but I am incensed by Luxon’s failure to attend the Coalition of the Willing’s phone link.
His argument was that a 1.00 call, that lasts for a couple of hours, was too much for him to manage, as he had the morning media round to do.
We pay this guy $400,000 a year, and he can’t be bothered to get out of bed. This is the guy who bragged he was such a hard worker who needed little sleep. What a wanker. /rantl
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360795765/willis-london-visit-gentle-whispers-shes-nzs-next-pm
Has the coup started, ?
Let’s hope so. There’ll be another coup in 6 months time.