Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics

[Worried2Death]

So your solution to crime is to slightly increase the maximum sentences on the most serious offending....

Also its not a buffet you basically get you choose one and your choice doesn't achieve your stated aims.

I know that Sarge, I haven't got any answers but trying to deal with present political realities here, we're not Singapore. More preventative detention for worst offenders, less reductions for cultural background reports, although they're very helpful in revealing why someone becomes a psycho, raped and abused as a child etc then go on to repeat the cycle. A less lenient and risky attitude to parole after psych programs and rehabilitation seems preferable to some of the horror stories we see frequently.

What's the answer to achieve protection of citizens since we don't have executions? A referendum on capital punishment would be interesting, might surprise us. Anyway who says it's not a buffet with a mixture of solutions to achieve better outcomes.

What's your primary aim regarding serious offending and solution to achieve it, shoot them in pits? It'll never happen in this Judeo-Christian anglo saxon colony. (unless Xi ends up running the place in the multipolar world order, in which case I'll be in Glasgow being a Scotsman).

 

[MrFrankWhite]

I know that Sarge, I haven't got any answers but trying to deal with present political realities here, we're not Singapore. More preventative detention for worst offenders, less reductions for cultural background reports, although they're very helpful in revealing why someone becomes a psycho, raped and abused as a child etc then go on to repeat the cycle. A less lenient and risky attitude to parole after psych programs and rehabilitation seems preferable to some of the horror stories we see frequently.

What's the answer to achieve protection of citizens since we don't have executions? A referendum on capital punishment would be interesting, might surprise us. Anyway who says it's not a buffet with a mixture of solutions to achieve better outcomes.

What's your primary aim regarding serious offending and solution to achieve it, shoot them in pits? It'll never happen in this Judeo-Christian anglo saxon colony. (unless Xi ends up running the place in the multipolar world order, in which case I'll be in Glasgow being a Scotsman).

I’m just asking questions and encouraging people to think. I’m an optimistic nihilist, so I don’t care what people do. But at least be honest so people can make an honest decision.

Politicians would have you believe it’s more humane to perpetuate generations of child abuse than to just shoot a few rapists. That Pike River dude should have copped one too.

 

[Worried2Death]

I’m just asking questions and encouraging people to think. I’m an optimistic nihilist, so I don’t care what people do. But at least be honest so people can make an honest decision.

Politicians would have you believe it’s more humane to perpetuate generations of child abuse than to just shoot a few rapists. That Pike River dude should have copped one too.

I'm a not so optimistic nihilist, doubt anything much will change with the current nz coalition.

 

[MaybeTop8]

fyi - tough on crime - I call bullshit

National froze police funding almost the entire time they were in power last time, which contributes greatly to what has been discussed as a crisis on these pages

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[MaybeTop8]

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

fyi - tough on crime - I call bullshit

National froze police funding almost the entire time they were in power last time, which contributes greatly to what has been discussed as a crisis on these pages

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

The article you posted:

‘She credits intelligence gathering and "smarter" deployment for a 20 per cent fall in crime over four years.’

Thanks for posting this highlighting how this government will get better results while not wasting money.

Really highlights the incompetence of throwing more money at things with worse outcomes from Labour…

I want better and more efficient; I don’t understand why people want worse and costlier

 

[MaybeTop8]

The article you posted:

‘She credits intelligence gathering and "smarter" deployment for a 20 per cent fall in crime over four years.’

Thanks for posting this highlighting how this government will get better results while not wasting money.

Really highlights the incompetence of throwing more money at things with worse outcomes from Labour…

I want better and more efficient; I don’t understand why people want worse and costlier

It's from 2014. They froze funding.

You keep moaning about where we are now. There's a clue.

 

[miket12]

I’m pretty sure Nationals youth Boot Camps aren’t the answer but heaven help us if we think this is……

'He's had no punishment': Mum despairs as ram-raiding son plays Monopoly for rehab

“He’s a danger to himself and the public and something needs to be done.”

www.nzherald.co.nz

 

[marv.]

I'm a not so optimistic nihilist

i’m an optimistic hedonist.
what time is kick off? i think i’ll have another mimosa.

 

[Mr Drag]

Opinion piece is from middle of last year but an interesting read.


I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV. There are sound environmental reasons not to jump just yet

Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be largely based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are nearly 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweight electric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries. Hydrogen is emerging as an interesting alternative fuel, even though we are slow in developing a truly “green” way of manufacturing it. It can be used in one of two ways. It can power a hydrogen fuel cell (essentially, a kind of battery); the car manufacturer Toyota has poured a lot of money into the development of these. Such a system weighs half of an equivalent lithium-ion battery and a car can be refuelled with hydrogen at a filling station as fast as with petrol.

If the lithium-ion battery is an imperfect device for electric cars, concerns have been raised over their use in heavy trucks for long distance haulage because of the weight; an alternative is to inject hydrogen into a new kind of piston engine. JCB, the company that makes yellow diggers, has made huge strides with hydrogen engines and hopes to put them into production in the next couple of years. If hydrogen wins the race to power trucks – and as a result every filling station stocks it – it could be a popular and accessible choice for cars.

But let’s zoom out even further and consider the whole life cycle of an automobile. The biggest problem we need to address in society’s relationship with the car is the “fast fashion” sales culture that has been the commercial template of the car industry for decades. Currently, on average we keep our new cars for only three years before selling them on, driven mainly by the ubiquitous three-year leasing model. This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in. When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced. Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible. A sensible thing to do would be to speed up the development of synthetic fuel, which is already being used in motor racing; it’s a product based on two simple notions: one, the environmental problem with a petrol engine is the petrol, not the engine and, two, there’s nothing in a barrel of oil that can’t be replicated by other means. Formula One is going to use synthetic fuel from 2026. There are many interpretations of the idea but the German car company Porsche is developing a fuel in Chile using wind to power a process whose main ingredients are water and carbon dioxide. With more development, it should be usable in all petrol-engine cars, rendering their use virtually CO2-neutral.

Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give, while simultaneously promoting a quite different business model for the car industry, in which we keep our new vehicles for longer, acknowledging their amazing but overlooked longevity.

Friends with an environmental conscience often ask me, as a car person, whether they should buy an electric car. I tend to say that if their car is an old diesel and they do a lot of city centre motoring, they should consider a change. But otherwise, hold fire for now. Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.

Rowan Atkinson is an actor, comedian and writer

I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV, says actor Rowan Atkinson

www.theguardian.com

I still got my 2007 Honda CRV, done 300,000 kms and I bet will do another, only problem I had with It was a flat tyre!

 

[MrFrankWhite]

The article you posted:

‘She credits intelligence gathering and "smarter" deployment for a 20 per cent fall in crime over four years.’

Thanks for posting this highlighting how this government will get better results while not wasting money.

Really highlights the incompetence of throwing more money at things with worse outcomes from Labour…

I want better and more efficient; I don’t understand why people want worse and costlier

Uhhh pretty sure National did a massive re-org in classifying and recording crime didn't they? Wasn't that the whole zero burglary response debacle? Reclass recording of crime stats is a trick old as time.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

'Ghost crime' stats may be probed

The Independent Police Conduct Authority may yet step in to investigate revelations that police altered burglary statistics.

www.odt.co.nz

 

[MaybeTop8]

For those who have lived through this ad nauseum in the last 45 years, and those that haven't or weren't aware, here's the pattern to privatisation - softening, sell, socialise the cost, privatise the profit:

1. Claim that there are roadblocks, regulatory or otherwise and that the country is being held back or:
1a: From out of nowhere come up with reports to say that everything is broken and can't be sustained (reports are often based on consultants hired by the political party that produces them)

2: Also, miraculously, have a prepared solution that involves one of the following - must be sold, must downsize immediately and allow "competition" a fair chance, must make a fake "market" to allow competition a fair chance, must sell of large portions of it's books to gain a return regardless of social cost, must immediately start operating at a profit or else be sold etc etc. The solution will miraculously involve some kind of private enterprise ready to step into a ppp, or outright purchase to privatise, one that we find out later has been there all along

3: What doesn't get socialised is the actual social cost and whether this provides any benefit at all. But hey, as long as we move the debate right this will never get raised.

4: Never ever allow any kind of independent analysis to find out if such privatisation has ever had any benefit to the citizens of New Zealand, or wherever it takes place (hint: it doesn't)


AND HERE'S THE NEXT STEP TO PRIVATISATION IN THIS GOVERNMENT'S TERM

Sell an asset? Lose it forever. Why sell something providing benefit to our society. It's madness. Meanwhile, they're softening us up and moving the terms of debate further right.

The Post

www.thepost.co.nz

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Wellington
20°C
21°C / 15°C
Log InSubscribe

NEWSPOLITICSLIFE & CULTUREOPINIONBUSINESSSPORTPUZZLESSUNDAY STAR-TIMES

Documents reveal Kāinga Ora floated sell-off of more than 10,000 state houses​

Andrea Vance

February 18, 2024

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will deliver his first State of the Nation speech as premier on Sunday.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Kāinga Ora was threatening to sell more than 10,000 state homes to balance its books, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will claim in a keynote speech.
The assertion has opened up a tit-for-tat with Labour, with the Opposition suggesting the proposed fire sale was down to National’s underfunding of public housing.


But while both parties are trading blows, it looks unlikely any sale will take place.
In his first State of the Nation address as premier on Sunday, Luxon will continue to hammer the previous government for its lack of delivery and spending. That was a key theme of the party’s election campaign, and since the Cabinet was sworn in, in November.
Late last year, Housing Minister Chris Bishop launched a review of Kāinga Ora’s financial situation, procurement and asset management, citing concerns about the the agency’s debt levels. It is led by former prime minister Bill English.
Official advice suggested the debt was expected to rise to $29 billion by 2033.
On Sunday, Luxon will reveal the agency was contemplating flogging off 10,200 state homes to raise $6b. It is an assertion that is especially politically charged: housing affordability continues to be squeezed, with over 25,000 households on a waiting list as of October.
The claim is based on a December report from Treasury to Finance Minister Nicola Willis. The advice, dated December 8, said: “Kāinga Ora's borrowing is driven by investment in the public housing portfolio, which Kāinga Ora's forecast assumes will be offset by $6 billion in revenue from the sale of 10,200 public homes over the forecast period.
“These sales partially offset the new public houses built, such as that Kāinga Ora forecast no change in the size of public housing portfolio between 2025/6 and 2027/8... The Treasury does not consider this to be a reasonable assumption.”
But Labour has cried foul, saying it never sighted nor signed off on any sell-off proposal and suggested Kāinga Ora has been forced into the situation because National hasn’t committed to public housing beyond 2025.

Kieran McAnulty says National plans to underfund state housing.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said National wasn’t funding extra income-related rent subsidies (IRRSs). The payment allows housing providers to charge market rates for rent: tenants pay as much as they can depending on income, and the Government tops up the rest.
Those rents generate more money for social housing providers who use that to build more homes.

Chris Bishop asked Bill English to review the state housing landlord.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Labour also pointed to its election manifesto pledge to build an extra 6,000 public and transitional homes.
“New Zealand badly needs to keep building public houses,” McAnulty said. “The Labour government delivered one in six public homes within New Zealand's entire public housing stock between 2017 and 2023, and were planning to do more. National said during the campaign they would build houses too, not sell them off and stop building.
“We have a proven record and seek reassurance from National that their poor record isn't about to be repeated.”
But Housing Minister Chris Bishop said Labour’s claim was “ludicrous”.
“Labour’s last Budget in 2023 funded IRRS places only until June 2025. National came to office and this report landed on our desks showing that the Government inherited a system where KO [Kāinga Ora] was forecasting to sell 10,200 houses under Labour’s management. It’s as simple as that.”
Gareth Stiven, Kāinga Ora’ general manager of strategy, finance and policy, said the advice was Treasury’s report.
“We have submitted to Treasury ... scenarios for the renewal and growth of our housing portfolio.”
“This includes options to continue upgrading our older houses – 45,000 over the next 10-15 years – and the number of new public homes the Government requires us to supply, which is determined as part of the Budget process.”
The asset management strategy includes redeveloping sites, demolishing older state homes and replacing them with two or three new homes.
“With our large-scale projects we also redevelop and sell surplus land, which enables more public and market homes to be delivered.”
Forecasting “shows our public housing portfolio will not reduce, while enabling the supply of more housing”, Stiven said.
Luxon will deliver his State of the Nation speech in Auckland’s Mt Wellington on Sunday morning.
- Sunday Star Times

Share​

• Manage your subscription
• Contact us
• About us
• FAQ
• Editorial code of practice and ethics
• Advertise with us
• The Post e-reader
• Stuff.co.nz

BREAKING NEWS? Send your photos, videos and tip-offs to [email protected], or call us on 0800 697 8833

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy

Copyright © 2024 Stuff

 

[MaybeTop8]

Oh, this too:

 

[dean]

For those who have lived through this ad nauseum in the last 45 years, and those that haven't or weren't aware, here's the pattern to privatisation - softening, sell, socialise the cost, privatise the profit:

1. Claim that there are roadblocks, regulatory or otherwise and that the country is being held back or:
1a: From out of nowhere come up with reports to say that everything is broken and can't be sustained (reports are often based on consultants hired by the political party that produces them)

2: Also, miraculously, have a prepared solution that involves one of the following - must be sold, must downsize immediately and allow "competition" a fair chance, must make a fake "market" to allow competition a fair chance, must sell of large portions of it's books to gain a return regardless of social cost, must immediately start operating at a profit or else be sold etc etc. The solution will miraculously involve some kind of private enterprise ready to step into a ppp, or outright purchase to privatise, one that we find out later has been there all along

3: What doesn't get socialised is the actual social cost and whether this provides any benefit at all. But hey, as long as we move the debate right this will never get raised.

4: Never ever allow any kind of independent analysis to find out if such privatisation has ever had any benefit to the citizens of New Zealand, or wherever it takes place (hint: it doesn't)


AND HERE'S THE NEXT STEP TO PRIVATISATION IN THIS GOVERNMENT'S TERM

Sell an asset? Lose it forever. Why sell something providing benefit to our society. It's madness. Meanwhile, they're softening us up and moving the terms of debate further right.

The Post

www.thepost.co.nz

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Wellington
20°C
21°C / 15°C
Log InSubscribe

NEWSPOLITICSLIFE & CULTUREOPINIONBUSINESSSPORTPUZZLESSUNDAY STAR-TIMES

Documents reveal Kāinga Ora floated sell-off of more than 10,000 state houses​

Andrea Vance

February 18, 2024

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will deliver his first State of the Nation speech as premier on Sunday.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Kāinga Ora was threatening to sell more than 10,000 state homes to balance its books, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will claim in a keynote speech.
The assertion has opened up a tit-for-tat with Labour, with the Opposition suggesting the proposed fire sale was down to National’s underfunding of public housing.


But while both parties are trading blows, it looks unlikely any sale will take place.
In his first State of the Nation address as premier on Sunday, Luxon will continue to hammer the previous government for its lack of delivery and spending. That was a key theme of the party’s election campaign, and since the Cabinet was sworn in, in November.
Late last year, Housing Minister Chris Bishop launched a review of Kāinga Ora’s financial situation, procurement and asset management, citing concerns about the the agency’s debt levels. It is led by former prime minister Bill English.
Official advice suggested the debt was expected to rise to $29 billion by 2033.
On Sunday, Luxon will reveal the agency was contemplating flogging off 10,200 state homes to raise $6b. It is an assertion that is especially politically charged: housing affordability continues to be squeezed, with over 25,000 households on a waiting list as of October.
The claim is based on a December report from Treasury to Finance Minister Nicola Willis. The advice, dated December 8, said: “Kāinga Ora's borrowing is driven by investment in the public housing portfolio, which Kāinga Ora's forecast assumes will be offset by $6 billion in revenue from the sale of 10,200 public homes over the forecast period.
“These sales partially offset the new public houses built, such as that Kāinga Ora forecast no change in the size of public housing portfolio between 2025/6 and 2027/8... The Treasury does not consider this to be a reasonable assumption.”
But Labour has cried foul, saying it never sighted nor signed off on any sell-off proposal and suggested Kāinga Ora has been forced into the situation because National hasn’t committed to public housing beyond 2025.

Kieran McAnulty says National plans to underfund state housing.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said National wasn’t funding extra income-related rent subsidies (IRRSs). The payment allows housing providers to charge market rates for rent: tenants pay as much as they can depending on income, and the Government tops up the rest.
Those rents generate more money for social housing providers who use that to build more homes.

Chris Bishop asked Bill English to review the state housing landlord.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Labour also pointed to its election manifesto pledge to build an extra 6,000 public and transitional homes.
“New Zealand badly needs to keep building public houses,” McAnulty said. “The Labour government delivered one in six public homes within New Zealand's entire public housing stock between 2017 and 2023, and were planning to do more. National said during the campaign they would build houses too, not sell them off and stop building.
“We have a proven record and seek reassurance from National that their poor record isn't about to be repeated.”
But Housing Minister Chris Bishop said Labour’s claim was “ludicrous”.
“Labour’s last Budget in 2023 funded IRRS places only until June 2025. National came to office and this report landed on our desks showing that the Government inherited a system where KO [Kāinga Ora] was forecasting to sell 10,200 houses under Labour’s management. It’s as simple as that.”
Gareth Stiven, Kāinga Ora’ general manager of strategy, finance and policy, said the advice was Treasury’s report.
“We have submitted to Treasury ... scenarios for the renewal and growth of our housing portfolio.”
“This includes options to continue upgrading our older houses – 45,000 over the next 10-15 years – and the number of new public homes the Government requires us to supply, which is determined as part of the Budget process.”
The asset management strategy includes redeveloping sites, demolishing older state homes and replacing them with two or three new homes.
“With our large-scale projects we also redevelop and sell surplus land, which enables more public and market homes to be delivered.”
Forecasting “shows our public housing portfolio will not reduce, while enabling the supply of more housing”, Stiven said.
Luxon will deliver his State of the Nation speech in Auckland’s Mt Wellington on Sunday morning.
- Sunday Star Times

Share​

• Manage your subscription
• Contact us
• About us
• FAQ
• Editorial code of practice and ethics
• Advertise with us
• The Post e-reader
• Stuff.co.nz

BREAKING NEWS? Send your photos, videos and tip-offs to [email protected], or call us on 0800 697 8833

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy

Copyright © 2024 Stuff

So is this what the 84 Labour Govt did to strip us of everything we thought was ours?
KO will have to repay it's debt some how eventually.

 

[MaybeTop8]

So is this what the 84 Labour Govt did to strip us of everything we thought was ours?
KO will have to repay it's debt some how eventually.

Both Labour and National have implemented this, more consistently National, as the 80s Labour was thrown out in the 90 election if I recall correctly. That was the last time they attempted anything of any scale.

Most of that group of Labour politicians were hard right and form the basis of the act party - douglas and prebble being the most prominent.

Read Bruce Jesson's book Only Their Purpose Is Mad - it outlines this in detail

 

[MaybeTop8]

And here come the antivax antiscience fuckwits again - https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350...ses-and-doctors-launched-anti-vaccine-figures

What do they all have in common? All are driven by right and far right thinking.

 

[marv.]

And here come the antivax antiscience fuckwits again - https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350...ses-and-doctors-launched-anti-vaccine-figures

What do they all have in common? All are driven by right and far right thinking.

i deplore antivaxxers and the whole angry uneducated toothless type, but i went through those protests here in wellington a handful of times. the people there were an overwhelmingly majority green māori and labour voters.

also take a breath bro. just relax. the end of the world through neoliberalism can wait, not long till kick off.

 

[MaybeTop8]

i deplore antivaxxers and the whole angry uneducated toothless type, but i went through those protests here in wellington a handful of times. the people there were an overwhelmingly majority green māori and labour voters.

also take a breath bro. just relax. the end of the world through neoliberalism can wait, not long till kick off.

yeah fair point marv. Stepping back

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

yeah fair point marv. Stepping back

Join the Fantasy or, if you want to get really serious, SuperCoach comps to take your mind off things. Lots of fun.