Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today the general election would be deferred by 4 weeks, from 19 September to Saturday 17 October.
Read more →Politics
Environmental Defence Society outlines stewardship & planning law it wants to replace RMA
The Environmental Defence Society released a report today outlining the key points of phase 3 of its resource management system reform project.
Read more →Building an effective team, and applying that to governance
This story takes you on a ramble, starting with a bad experience, moving on to perseverance, and throwing in some thoughts on how to base your vote at the September election…
Read more →Back 55 years, then forward 55 to the same dilemma
A newsletter, Tom Dispatch from US writer Tom Engelhardt, sent me back to 1965 today, to the era of the US war on Vietnam (as distinct from the French war there and the war between North-South, South-Viet Cong).
Read more →Small step on lease arbitration long time coming – and maybe wrong option
The Property Council sees the Government wasting time in not ensuring a temporary measure suggested 3 weeks ago to support arbitration between landlords & tenants would be put in place.
Read more →National’s construction spokesman suggests measures to unleash sector
As the National Party began the caucus meeting on Friday that resulted in Todd Muller replacing Simon Bridges as party leader, building & construction spokesperson Andrew Bayly issued a release suggesting measures the Government might take to unleash the construction sector’s ability to employ thousands more people.
Read more →Bridges hunts down some easy targets
National Party leader Simon Bridges & finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith issued a list on Monday in their campaign to show they’ll be aggressive in changing things if elected to govern in September.
Read more →One year to unveil a crisp new Resource Management Act
The Government has set in motion a comprehensive overhaul of the Resource Management Act, which has successfully hindered clear decisionmaking since it was enacted in 1990.
Read more →Too much talk, not enough action on construction sector, says Bayly
While the Government was introducing more people to ministerial roles related to the housing sector, Opposition building & construction spokesperson Andrew Bayly said yesterday: “The real problem is that there is too much talk and not enough action from the Government.
Read more →Government adds a few ministers to housing roles
The Government went yesterday from having a housing minister with too much on his plate, to having a bigger team of housing ministers.
Read more →No capital gains tax – but land speculation & landbanking rules to tighten
The Government canned a capital gains tax yesterday after the coalition parties failed to reach consensus on it, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the coalition had agreed to tighten rules around land speculation and work on ways to counter landbanking.
Read more →Sector accord with Government a start towards better construction
Government & construction industry leaders signalled a shared commitment yesterday to transform New Zealand’s construction sector as they signed a construction sector accord.
Read more →Twyford creates new housing & urban development ministry
When the new Government allocated portfolios last October, Labour’s Phil Twyford won housing & urban development and the separate transport role. On Friday, he announced that housing & urban development would get its own ministry.
Read more →Robertson introduces the new rules of play on economy
Finance Minister Grant Robertson laid out, in his first Budget, the new set of platitudes that will set the framework this government will work under. He’d already done that in his December mini-budget, and the Labour Party had made clear in its election campaign that it wanted a change in emphases. The annual numbers game […]
Read more →Inaccurate name-calling – the stuff of rising partisanship
Whacking communism as the enemy of US-style capitalism may be in order, if those 2 political concepts are what you’re talking about.
Read more →Populist politics, the backlash of unfettered globalisation
2 weeks into the 2019 financial year, there are some very important trends emerging & playing out in the world which I believe will be affecting our lives, and investments, for some years to come.
Read more →Ardern announces pregnancy
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this morning that she & partner Clarke Gayford are expecting a baby.
Read more →Collins raises scare about “road tax” diversion, but government fund already $½ billion in red
Former Cabinet Minister Judith Collins, now the National Opposition’s transport spokesperson, raised a scare this week that the new government would divert National Land Transport Fund money from major road projects to rail. 2 things she neglected to mention…
Read more →National talks new urban planning laws, business & environmental alliance says “Go further”
The National Party has been working steadily towards its latest election policy for most of its 9 years in government: new urban planning laws. Resource Reform NZ said yesterday the National proposal didn’t go far enough.
Read more →Ardern follows well researched overseas thinking on rentals, some responses over-edgy, and 5-year-old Ahuri research is helpful clarification
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern announced a set of new terms for residential tenancies yesterday, and was immediately – and predictably – told this would badly affect landlords and would have the opposite effect on New Zealand’s housing crisis to that she intended.
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