Podcasts about KiwiBuild

Now I'm a bit of a policy wonk. I don't care which party it is. If they come up with a policy, I like to break it down and see if it makes sense. Now I know politicians are addicted to announcements, attention and media coverage. Which means they sometimes say the first thing in their heads that sound like they'll get votes. No matter if it's deliverable or not. Labour had a bad case of it. Phil Twyford and his 100 thousand Kiwibuild fantasy. Michael Wood was the champion. Based on five minutes on the back of an envelope he announced a nearly $900 million bike bridge. Faced with backlash from Dominion Road businesses he stuck the light rail project underground. Tripling the price to an unaffordable $18 billion dollars. Now it seems like the National led coalition has a case of the same disease. Paul Goldsmith has it bad. This week he announced a change to citizen's arrest rules but had no idea of what the changes are going to be. Classic announcement of an announcement. But the king of wishful thinking is the prince of the provinces, Shane Jones. First, he proposed a special economic zone for Marsden point begging the question why not turn the whole country into a special economic zone. The whole place needs a hand. Then he proposed repairing Marsden point refinery. A fanciful idea that was shot down in hours as the enormous cost of nearly $8 billion dollars came to light. The reason why no Government has repaired the refinery ever since it was sold 40 years ago. The thing about leadership is that you need to make adult decisions and proposals. If you're a cabinet minister you can't just let the first Walter Mitty like thought bubble pop out of your mouth, when you know there's nothing there. That's the lesson Labour learnt last term. Hopefully the Government figures that out soon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop says six major changes to housing reflect the needs of a modern population. They'll let cities expand at the fringes by stopping councils setting fixed rural-urban boundaries, and requiring them to plan for growth 30 years ahead. Minimum floor area and balcony requirements are being abolished for apartments. ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper explains the benefits of these changes. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Love a target, love a list, and yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon released a new list of to-dos, this time in the form of targets. And while some on the left have roundly criticized him for having the temerity to set targets, what on Earth have they got against realistic goals? I didn't hear them shouting and jeering when Jacinda Ardern announced that her government was going to build 100,000 houses in 10 years. If that's not a target, and that's not a goal, I don't know what is. But if ever there was a time for jeering and shouting, that would have been it. Because even as somebody who can't hammer a nail in straight, even Bob the Builder, a cartoon character, knew that building 100,000 houses in 10 years was an impossible and unachievable target. But there was no jeering and shouting then was there? When the target was set?   Anyway, Kiwibuild has come and gone, and a new government has announced its own targets. These ones infinitely more accessible, ambitious but accessible. Christopher Luxon was in full statesman mode yesterday, despite the hard work of frontline staff like police, nurses and teachers, he said New Zealand has gone backwards. Our government is bringing back public service targets to focus our public sector on driving better results for New Zealanders in health, education, law and order, work, housing and the environment. He reiterated the targets were not going to be easy to achieve, but he said we're not here to do what's easy, we're here to do what is needed to reduce crime, shorten healthcare wait times and improve educational achievement, no matter how difficult.   Now the targets were on very nicely set out graphs. You know, if I was marking his homework, it would definitely be an A-, perhaps I would have put it up to an A if under the ‘How will we keep track?', the only thing I would have done would have been to say, now let's just see exactly how it's going to be delivered. How are you going to get that change? We understand why it's needed. How will we keep track? Well, that's just measuring the numbers. I wanted to know how it's going to be delivered. There's a little bit in there, but not nearly enough to satisfy my curiosity.   Nonetheless, the targets have been set 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker. 80% of students present for more than 90% of the term. 75% reduction of households and emergency housing, and so on. Other targets include those around greenhouse gas emissions. As the PM says, it is not going to be easy. What will it take to get BBQ man or Nature boy into paid employment? They were very happy, thank you very much, on the benefit and thought we were all schmucks for getting out of bed and going to work. When the borders were closed it became apparent that not only were there Kiwis who could not work, there were Kiwis who would not work. However, when you have a public service that's been instructed to go easy on those, drawing a benefit. Where on Earth is the impetus to go into paid employment?   Former WINZ boss Christine Rankin told Mike Hosking she absolutely sees value in setting targets.  “What the reality of this is, is a government that understands leadership and the fact that you have to tell people what you want them to do, and then you have to measure the hell out of it. And that's what they're doing. This can be done way under the time frame that they've put on it. The problem is with six years of a government that wanted people on a benefit, for what reason, I cannot work out, there are a lot of people who've been very comfortable for a long time and the benefit isn't much, but there's also ways to supplement it, and that's never been looked at either for a long time.”  That was Christine Rankin talking to Mike Hosking, and that's quite true. I mean, I always think what a miserable existence it would be to be on a benefit, to have to try and scrape by. It would be soul destroying. That grinding poverty is soul-destroying. But many people not all, but for many people they supplement their income in other ways. The benefit is not the only income coming into a house. And I accept that targets aren't the be all and end all. There are ways and means to finesse targets, to massage figures, to make them work for you, so that when you report to your manager, to your chief executive, to your Minister, you can fudge the numbers a bit so that you look better. But what happens when you don't have them? The last six years happen, that's what. When all the important metrics by which we measure the national well-being fall. And I totally understand trying a different way.   We've tried going softly, softly, being nice, appealing to people's better natures by treating them with kindness and respect and hoping that we get the same in return. Hasn't worked. So, we tried, it didn't work. An unfortunate experiment, if you will.   So, let's try setting expectations, goals and targets, and let's see where we end up.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins admits his party's Auckland light rail and KiwiBuild policies were “undeliverable” when proposed ahead of the 2017 election. Hipkins, speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, made the concession amid his reflections on the 2023 election campaign in which he believed Labour struggled to resonate with voters who had “decided it was time for a change”. The Remutaka MP joined ZB host Kerre Woodham for an hour of discussion and talkback. Woodham pressed Hipkins on Labour's woeful result in the last election, receiving less than 27 per cent of the vote. Hipkins accepted now was the time to rebuild and assess whether the policies Labour took to the election needed to be revised. Woodham questioned whether Labour's inability to implement some of its policies during its six years in government was a primary contributor to the party's demise. Hipkins then admitted not all of Labour policies as proposed ahead of the 2017 election were deliverable. “You can't always come in with delivery-ready policies in the way that I think we thought you could,” he said. “Auckland light rail and KiwiBuild were massive commitments, and the reality is they were too ambitious to do from Opposition. We shouldn't have gone into the campaign promising those two things.” Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB host Kerre Woodham his party needed to rebuild. Photo / Michael Craig In 2017 under then-leader Jacinda Ardern, Labour promised to build light rail from the Auckland CBD to the airport within a decade. However, progress stalled and any recent work on developing light rail in Auckland had been scrapped by the current Coalition Government. KiwiBuild promised 100,000 affordable homes across the country within 10 years, but that target had to be dropped as it was deemed overly ambitious. “Light rail is not undeliverable, but the way it was proposed in 2017 was undeliverable and KiwiBuild, the 100,000 [homes] in the timeframes that they were talking about was also undeliverable.” On the most recent election campaign, Hipkins argued it “didn't really matter” what Labour campaigned on as people wanted change. “That was a very difficult mood to shift.” At the party's recent caucus retreat, Hipkins said MPs would be discussing what tax policy platform Labour would run on in the 2026 election campaign after Hipkins' proposal to strip GST off fresh fruit and vegetables failed to impress voters. MPs David Parker and Grant Robertson, who last night gave his valedictory speech, had worked up a wealth tax proposal ahead of the election but this was shot down by Hipkins. Just this week, Hipkins conceded the Labour Government should have done more to address public concerns about unruly state housing tenants as the current Government seeks to use the threat of eviction to improve behaviour. He referenced the matter this morning, saying he thought Kāinga Ora was “too slow” to relocate people as an alternative option to eviction. Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The "cheer squad" make it hard to have a proper debate on housing, especially when looking to address the question of what we want from the housing market from a public policy perspective.So says Cameron Murray, Chief Economist at Fresh Economic Thinking, a new Australian think-tank. In the latest episode of interest.co.nz's Of Interest podcastMurray talks about housing and his new book The Great Housing Hijack. He describes the housing markets and attitudes to housing in Australia and New Zealand as "culturally very similar in terms of the attitude to housing."Murray, who has been a real estate agent, property investor and worked for FKP Property Group, says his book title essentially describes the state of the public debate in housing."There are so many vested interests, so many different groups and hobby horses that have lobbied, professionally or not for many decades, that it is very hard to have a straight conversation about housing in a public forum. So that is the housing hijack," he says."The housing hijack is all about what I call in the book the cheer squad, these noisy people on the sideline distracting us from the game of housing and, rather than understanding the plays and the strategy of the game, we're getting distracted by the noise of the cheer squad."In the podcast Murray talks about why we should acknowledge the post-World War II to mid-1970s period was an unusual golden age in housing, what he sees as the five housing market equilibria, why he doesn't believe simply freeing up land and loosening zoning rules to enable housing supply is the silver bullet, KiwiBuild and the politics of housing.Murray proposes HouseMate, a parallel public homeownership system alongside purchase and rental in the private property market. It would offer non-property owner citizens the option to buy a home from a public provider at a cheap price."The reason to propose this is simply that I couldn't find any examples anywhere in history or anywhere in the world where we'd sold housing for that group, that 10% or 15% of people who are renters, who are getting squeezed every time the market adjusts and people's incomes are rising. I couldn't find any examples where those people's housing had been improved without a public option of some sort. Whether that's regulated rental, like Vienna, where there's massive council housing and it's somewhat universal, anyone can access it. Or whether it's public housing home ownership, which is more of a Singapore type approach. Europeans have long term rental, but I think culturally, the Australians and the Kiwis would go for a home ownership type approach," he says."At the end of the day, we have to accept the economics that there is a subsidy exactly equal to the difference between the market price and what you get people into that home at. There is no sneaking around this economically.""If I could find a way to just change zoning regulations and taxes and make housing cheap for those people, I would do it. Like, who wouldn't? It would be so easy. But I've spent decades looking around trying to understand housing, and in the last four years looking for examples around the world, and I just can't find them. I'm sorry. So we have to do it the hard way," says Murray.*You can find all episodes of the Of Interest podcast here.

In this episode, we discuss 12 predictions and forecasts for what could happen in property investment in 2024. This includes what could happen to house prices, interest rates and inflation. We also chuck in a few odd-ball forecasts about what could happen to KiwiBuild and developers during the new year.

Remember the old Ministry of Works? Reckon we need it back again? I reckon we do. Because we have another example today of what happens when you rely on governments and individual organisations to run big infrastructure projects. So think of all the drama over the new stadium in Christchurch. Think of all the money wasted on the Auckland Harbour Bridge cycleway that went absolutely nowhere. The City Rail Link blow-outs. KiwiBuild. You name any big infrastructure project in recent times and it seems that we have just become hopeless at doing stuff we used to be brilliant at. So the latest example that we're hearing about is the big Scott Base rebuild. Which has been put on hold because the Government and Antarctica New Zealand can't agree on a deal with the contractor. What's happened with this particular project, is Antarctica New Zealand got just over $500 million from the New Zealand Government to rebuild Scott Base. But, as always happens with these things, the cost of the whole thing has headed northwards and they haven't been able to come to an agreement with the contractor. This is Leigh's Construction, by the way. A very successful Christchurch-based outfit, which really came into its own after the earthquakes. And it is the preferred contractor for the work. Which involves the new structures for the base being built in Timaru and eventually being shipped down to Antarctica. And the reason this work is all happening in the first place, is because Antarctica New Zealand wants to make sure it's set-up for research work at Scott Base for the next 50 years. So it's come up with this plan for three new inter-connected buildings and to upgrade the wind farm down there. I do get the sense that maybe they've done the usual thing and gone for the gold-plated option and told themselves that they'll make it work come hell or high water. But that wing-and-a-prayer approach doesn't seem to be working and we're finding out today that things have come to a halt. And they're going to do a review - not exactly sure yet what that's going to involve - but it is going to be done by internal and external experts. Which, as you and I know, will involve more money. It's amazing that work even started in the first place without an agreed contract. Which is why I reckon these big public projects need to be run by an outfit that knows how to run these kinds of things. An outfit like the Ministry of Works. Because, back in its day, the MOW did all sorts of stuff. It built railway lines, tunnels, hydro dams, motorways. It was also involved in other things like airport developments. It was originally known as the Department of Public Works. Eventually it became the Ministry of Works. And it operated from 1870 until 1993 - when Jim Bolger's National government dished out its policy work to other government departments and created a new State-Owned Enterprise, with two divisions: Works Consultancy Services and Works Civil Construction. Three years later they were sold off and that was the final chapter in the Ministry of Works story. But who says it couldn't make a comeback? Because, when you think about it, it is crazy that we expect the likes of Antarctica New Zealand to run its project and do all the negotiating and procuring. Then we expect every other outfit using public money to do the same with their big projects. All working in complete isolation from each other. We've got Waka Kotahi doing the roads. We've got Transpower doing all the electricity infrastructure stuff. We've got local councils doing their thing. And we've got outfits like Antarctica New Zealand and the government running the big Scott Base rebuild project. But if we had something like the old Ministry of Works, that could all be co-ordinated. I'm not saying it would be free of political interference. That would be impossible. But how many more examples do you need, to show that we have lost our way when it comes to big infrastructure? Waka Kotahi is a prime example of an outfit trying to do too much and failing. Imagine if its job was just the road safety stuff and we had another nationwide infrastructure agency building and maintaining the roads. Building all the state houses the government wants to build. Building new motorways. And, yes, even building the new base in Antarctica.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we reflect on the —let's be frank— end of this government's tenure, I can't help thinking about all the stuff they dropped the ball on, that I wonder if they regret.   Mental health, the $1.9 billion none of us know where it is. Light rail. Child poverty. Kiwibuild, a tangible disaster. Not taking the country with them when they had a majority, an unheard of opportunity to take us with them, and they blew it.   The MIQ shenanigans, the shutting of the borders for so long, the crime levels, the co-governance, three waters, they had so much promise, and they just dropped the ball on it all. Too many consultants, too many reviews, too many ministers with scandals and issues that saw them off one by one, just too much chaos.   But I wonder if we only feel acutely about the stuff that affects us directly. I was in the car yesterday and heard a caller ring Kerre when she had Hipkins on. He had a question for the PM, who was sitting in his hotel room, doing the interview over Zoom. But this guy sounded really mad, he sounded emotional and he sounded angry, and you just got the sense he was speaking from the heart. And his question was about vaping.   Now I don't know for sure if he was the Dad of some young vapers, but he sounded like he might be. He sounded personally affected by it. He started by saying to the PM – “I really don't think you or your party have any idea what goes on in the real world.” So, a bold start to the question. He told the PM he thought he was “detached from reality”. He went on to say that one of the things that “disgusted and perplexed him the most about the Labour party was the lack of will to follow Australia's lead around hardening up on vaping.” He said it was “akin to child abuse” in his view. He said the “fluffy regulations” they'd put in place were “a detachment from reality.”   You've got to ask yourself at this point if Hipkins is thinking twice about doing Zoom interviews from isolation. I mean personally if I was him and tanking in the polls like they are, and stuck in a hotel room isolating with Covid, I'd just hunker down and watch the Beckham doco on Netflix and be done with it. So you've got to hand it to him that he's even still bothering turning up virtually for this stuff.   But this caller said he reckoned they'd ‘passed the buck here —passed the responsibility onto others— palming it off to retailers,' he said. Hipkins replied with Labour's policy on it – limit the number of vape stores nationwide to 600, and keep them away from schools etc. But he then defended not going any harder than that because he said he didn't want people going back to smoking tobacco.   I think Hipkins missed the point, in that this caller was talking about youth access to vapes, the epidemic now so prevalent among that cohort who're taking up vaping. So maybe they were talking at cross purposes, the PM was more interested in adults who're giving up smoking and switching to vaping. Which perhaps made this caller's point. A slight detachment from reality here in terms of who vaping is really harming.   And it made me think about how much of this stuff the government's misread. And whether in their quiet moments they regret not doing more with the mandate they had from this country in 2020.   If being in politics is all about legacy, I just wonder what this past term government's really is. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I suppose, officially, it's all underway.  Parliament has finished and the two major parties have kicked off their campaigns.  So far it is sooo depressing.  New Zealand First over the weekend promised, in a “made it up on the spot” sort of way, to compensate the vaccine injured and the vaccine mandated. How they would do that, I don't know.  It will never come to pass because they need to get 5 percent, be on the right side of the ledger in terms of Government and then even if they were involved in some sort of arrangement, get that policy across the line, which of course would never happen.  So, once again, it's a depressing outworking of MMP, where minor players get to say anything with no real accountability.  Other minor players, like the clowns who protested at Labour's and National's launches, get to make dicks of themselves by yelling and screaming and generally looking uncouth and out of control.  But none of that is as bad or as depressing as watching a desperate Labour party reach into their grab bag of fantasy promises and tell us that free dentistry is coming, when no such thing can happen.  I think I am right in saying that I can't remember, in any election campaign, a promise of this sort being made that would not be delivered for so many years.  Here we are in 2023, about to vote, and the latter part of Labour's free dentistry doesn't arrive until we are about to vote in the following election. A whole election later, a whole term of Government passes before what they promised gets delivered.  That's before you get to the real problem - not only is it years away, it's promised by the KiwiBuild and light rail and cycle bridge specialists, the people who make announcements and that's the last you ever hear of it.  We all get roads and highways and bridges are multi-year projects.  But dentistry? How far out from the present does an election promise have to be before it becomes little more than fantasy?  That's how bad it has got. Desperation from a broke Government, mad ramblings from a geriatric, fringe player, yelling and screaming from conspiratorialists and revengeful sideliners.  This is all at a time when most of us, I hope I speak for the majority, are actually interested in sorting this place out, getting a bit of professionalism and aspiration back, getting the old New Zealand back and having a bit of a rockstar economy as a reward for hard work.  Remember any of that? Or are we all just down in the mud with the tragics and attention seekers looking to be the loudest bottom dweller? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I cannot for the life of me work out why the Government is deciding to legislate to make all schools teach reading, writing and maths the same way. We have the best education system in the world turning out kids fully equipped to deal with...oh wait, no we don't. That's right; our standards in the aforementioned areas are slipping and have been slipping badly for years. Attendance in the first place is a major. Kids leaving without NCEA Level 2 is alarming and kids leaving with no qualifications at all is even more alarming. The teacher shortage is beyond a joke. The endless meddling with the curriculum around Te Reo is infuriating. All in all, one of a Government's key areas of performance is education and it's in a dire state. And yet, or maybe because of that, we get yet another announcement about the magic that will be created if only you give them another three years. In that is the trick here. Normally after two terms a Government has a record that speaks for itself. This one does too, but just not the sort of record you can talk about. So in order for you to be distracted from that record they are averting your attention with a big bag of shiny, new stuff they hope will suck you in. My rule of thumb is simple - first term you bag the previous lot and install your changes. In the second term the changes come to fruition and you get a third term simply by saying "look what we've done works". A Government is basically judged on three key things - the economy, the health system and the education system. On those measures, you can see why they are desperate because every one of them has, and is, going backwards. Not that they will find out, but trainspotters might remember the problem for a three term Government looking for a fourth, i.e the John Key government. You run the risk of looking like you've run out of ideas, complacency sets in. For this lot there is no such pressure. Their ideas are either not delivered (think Kiwibuild and light rail), bogged down (think Ten Waters and the RMA) or complete failures (crime levels, violence and recessions). Therefore, you've got a twofold issue on new promises. One is they are only announcing them to side-track you and the second is that given their record, why would you think they could deliver them anyway?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Failed promises by Labour may be contributing to their slip in the polls. The latest 1 News Verian poll sees the party drop to 29 percent -- and National rise to 37. The Greens are up two points to 12 percent while Act is up one, to 13. Political commentator Peter Dunne told Kate Hawkesby there's a series of big pledges made before the 2017 election that haven't been fulfilled, like KiwiBuild and Auckland light rail. He says now Labour is making some big aspirational promises and people must be wondering, why should we believe you this time? LISTEN ABOVE    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So Chris Hipkins' big roll of the dice has happened. Two months out from the election. 61 days if you're counting GST comes off fruit and veg, Working For Families gets even more money and higher thresholds. It's a 2 billion dollar giveaway for poor vegetarians and breeders. The rest of the poor are left out. And this is it. The economic situation, both local and global, preclude any more big spend ups. We've heard Grant Robertson say that. But we've also heard Grant Robertson say many other things only to be guzumped by political expediency, so who knows? So will this do the trick? I don't think so. Nicola Willis got the GST debate out early stealing its power. Meanwhile, the increase in In Work Tax Credits and Working For Families cash is being largely ignored as it benefits only 160,000 families. Still a big number but not big enough. There's a lot of other poor people getting nothing And it's very hard to vote for Labour in 2023 after their six years in power, for two main reasons. I'm reading a book by Dylan Jones, the former GQ editor. It's all about the Nineties. Cool Britannia, Britpop, Young British Artists and politics. New Labour. Tony Blair and the Third Way. In it he talks to a former advisor to Gordon Brown who pointed out that New Labour became more obsessed with the presentation of an idea than the idea itself. The catchy phrase. The snappy nonsensical slogan. It killed them. The same malaise has befallen New Zealand's Labour since they came to power. 100,000 Kiwibuild houses. Light rail by 2021 was incredible. They seemed to have no idea how long it takes to build a piece of kit like that. Or The Road to Zero, which fails because unless you hit zero, which we won't, then the policy fails. It's in the name. This is not to say this government has achieved nothing at all, which is a common complaint. They have achieved a lot but even they seem unaware of exactly what it was. And secondly, the problem with Tony Blair became that nobody knew who he was, or where he came from, or what he stood for. Unlike his predecessor John Smith, a campaigner for the working class, Tony was just a kinder Thatcher or a more interesting John Major. But at the end of the day, you just didn't know what he was about. Other than lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction on behalf of the Americans And that's what's happened to Chris Hipkins. He's rolled back so many policies he has nothing left except a desperate desire to keep the right form having a crack, and that's not enough. What does he stand for other than sausage rolls and Barkers suits? But you can have the same criticism of Chris Luxon and the right, who are running on a campaign of repealing everything Labour has done and then giving you an inflationary tax cut. One of the slogans in play this election is Let's Take Our Country back. It's slightly depressing that six years after being promised a transformative government we've ended out with all our politicians promising a return to the policy settings of seven years ago. As if nothing has changed in the world in nearly a decade. When we ask whether New Zealand has lost its mojo and its ambition, should we really be starting with our politicians who seem to be content competing in a lightweight personality poll? And mistrust of the cynicism of politicians who will say anything to get a vote is at its peak. With our leading party polling just 34% right now you have to ask if they will really have any mandate at all come October.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I love the Auckland harbour transport plan, don't you? Who doesn't want to get across the harbour more easily and doesn't want some more roads for cars? But surely no one believes Labour's going to do this. Not only because they can't deliver jack- do I need to mention KiwiBuild or Light Rail or Let's Get Wellington Moving- but mainly because no one rational believes Labour actually wants to build expensive roads for cars. Come on.    Labour's spent the last six years cancelling roads and trying to convince New Zealand to build a bike-only bridge across the harbour and trying to convince us to get out of our cars. Does anyone actually believe that they've suddenly changed their minds and they're all in on roads for cars?  Not a chance. So what's going on here? This is straight out populist politics. They're just announcing what they think we want to hear. Their heart is not in it. Their heart is in trains and bikes and cycleways. Which means it's not worth the paper it's written on. And you're a sucker if you fall for this. Because they pulled this trick once already. January 2020- before most of us had even heard of Covid- Labour was on track to lose the election later that year. They wheeled Grant Robertson out to announce the big New Zealand upgrade programme in which he announced a whole bunch of roads we desperately need. But then they won the election. And what happened? By July of the next year, two of the big projects were cancelled, two more have been slow walked so we don't actually know if they're going ahead of or not, and only one was started. One out of five. These guys are like the online Nigerian princes of transport projects. They asked you for money in 2020 to unlock your inheritance, you sent it and didn't get your inheritance, and now they've come back three years later promising that this time you will get your inheritance. Good luck if you think voting for them will unlock that tunnel for cars under the Harbour Bridge. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's a small insight into how these things work. The Government, now in full panic mode as they head towards election defeat, rounds up all the stuff they look weak on and then sets about making announcements about how what they have been doing for six years doesn't count. That's what led to getting part two of the law and order reset. The trick is to spread the news so you get, in this case, three days worth of headlines. Plus, the best is first, which is why announcement number two was so sad. It unfortunately doesn't bode well for thought bubble number three tomorrow. Anyway, thought bubble number two was to build some new youth justice centres. Two of them. They want to separate out 17-year-olds from younger kids. It's not really original and something they could have done anytime in the past six years. But guess what? They didn't. So, when are these new facilities going to get built? Answer - there is no timeframe. So it's a sort-of KiwiBuild approach to youth justice. Then, enter Kelvin “let them out and give them ankle bracelets” Davis. He is changing a couple of things. One is that police can automatically refer a kid to a family group conference after a ram raid, as opposed, I suppose, to just letting them go. But I am wondering, given our experience of these conferences where nothing happens, whether that actually changes crime, or just produces a lot more conferences? And Kelvin's other big reveal was that young thugs can be searched. This was a surprise because, call me foolish and old fashioned, but I had assumed all thugs get searched automatically. But given they weren't and, as it turns out, the rules say basically no one could, guess what? A whole bunch of illegal stuff got smuggled in. Who would have thought? So, we got an announcement of some building with no deadline and more meetings. Watch the ram raids stop and the criminals quake. Or not.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's a prediction for you: I think there's a big surprise in the Budget tomorrow.  We just got the Budget's title today, and the hint is right there in black and white. Support for today, Building for tomorrow.  We know what building for tomorrow is, Grant and Chippy have been hinting at that for a month. That's just a big spend up on crucial infrastructure and rebuilding after the cyclone. But what's ‘support for today'? That's what we don't know. It's got to be something that happens right now. It's not in the future; the cost of living crisis is right now. So think money in hands now. It's not a tax, Grant's ruled that out on the show on Monday.  If you were guessing, you'd include options like- bumping up Working for Families payments, subsidising necessities like health visits, something that makes families' budgets easier to balance. And whatever it is, it's got to be significant. Because it is the last big thing Labour's got to save its bacon before election time. It's got to make voters love the party just a little bit more, so it can pull ahead of National. Labour knows it can't rely on the infrastructure spend up to that, voters aren't impressed by that anymore. We've had our expectations dashed too many times by this party. 100,000 KiwiBuild homes, Light Rail, $1.9 billion for mental health. We're probably not going to fall for a big spending promise again. For all Labour's faults, you should expect these guys to pull a rabbit out of a hat when it's needed. Remember, Grant was one of the guys who helped dream up interest free student loans for Helen Clark back in 2005. He and Chippy are very good politicians. They've been playing this Budget down all month, probably so they can do the old ‘under promise, over deliver' on the day. So I reckon, brace yourself for a nice surprise in tomorrow's Budget. I suspect it's not going to be as boring as they've been pretending it will be. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to embarking on the property journey, the first question that often arises is: "How much do you actually need to buy property?" In this episode, Amy and DJ take you to the second step of the property journey, where the focus shifts to exploring the concept of affordability. Understanding how much you need to secure your dream home is crucial, and there's a myriad of options to consider when assembling your deposit. From leveraging your Kiwisaver, utilising your savings and income from investments in shares, to exploring programs like Kiwibuild and Kainga Ora, this episode meticulously dissects the array of choices available to you. Discover the strategies that can empower you to achieve your property ownership dreams and calculate the ideal amount you need to make it a reality. With valuable insights into these diverse deposit-building options, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the affordability landscape and embark on your property ownership journey with confidence. Don't miss this episode – your key to unlocking the path to your dream home.

Some of the things that have scuppered the Labour Government are their use of hyperbole, and exaggeration, and magical word salads that are easily debunked and ridiculed The good old favourites like the 100,000 houses from Kiwibuild or the light rail that would be started by 2021. Too many times the words and promises have not matched the deeds and that reduces trust in their ability to govern. So with this quite obvious it's a gimme for Opposition parties in their campaigning. All they have to do is project competence, and common sense, and achievable goals and aspirations and we'd consider them a government in waiting. So on Friday, Chris Bishop launched National's Electrify NZ policy. This is designed to create more renewable electricity to power on a green future away from oil, gas, and coal. I was doing Drive so I got the first crack which is always hard because you haven't had long to digest the policy. But right from the start, I realised that the policy principally involved shortening the resource consent process. I asked and Chris confirmed there was no financial help for generators. I wondered whether this was just a resource management policy repackaged as an energy policy because Labour had just released its Second Harbour Crossing policy. I wondered whether this was just a piece of political flannel. So Chris Bishop turned up on Q+A yesterday. By then questions had been asked of generators about what they needed. Turns out there are 8 wind farms already consented, but the generators are waiting for favourable market conditions. So consenting is not the immediate problem. Now look, I have no problem with streamlining of resource processes. Nobody does. Minister David Parker has been wrestling with that for the past year. And Bishop's policy is not of itself bad. But… it's not a clean energy policy. It's time for all politicians to realise that we're not stupid and present policy to us that makes sense and to back away from the bluster.   We've had too much of it over the past 6 years and we won't want to vote for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Hipkins is getting credit for his handling of the cyclone and I think that's fair enough. Newly into the role of PM and he's had to hit the ground running —literally— with a crisis. To be fair though, in the immediate aftermath of a disaster an elected leader does get a free kick. All you have to do is be present and visible, have a ton of empathy and own the communication around the media updates. Labour did this during Covid, and now they're doing it again.  But —and here's the rub— that halo effect can fade as failings in the response from public and private entities start to surface. The longer there's no power or access, the worse the looting and the gangs get, then the worse this whole thing gets for the government.  People have an enormous amount of scope, patience and understanding in the direct aftermath – but the longer it goes on, the more that patience fades. Add to that, contributory negligence like bureaucrats squabbling over whose responsible – Council arguing with Waka Kotahi, local government arguing with central government, private agencies scrapping with public ones and it gets even worse.  So up until now, this phase of the response is right over Labour's home plate - visibility, empathy, a lot of media noise, reactions and promises aplenty. But the next phase is its Achilles heel: delivery and accountability. Will they do what they say they're going to do? Can they deliver it? Will they step up on what they can do at a central government level? Will they be honest about what they can't?  Today's impressive response is tomorrow's Kiwibuild, or child poverty, or mental health, or vaccine rollout or MIQ management. Looking good up front and saying all the right things is one thing, getting it right after the fact is another. The honeymoon phase Labour's been basking in with its new leader and a fresh immediate crisis to respond to is fading. So how long before the issues that have plagued this government and its inability to deliver are laid bare once again? How much listening to people is being done or not done?  Locals in Hawkes Bay being ransacked by looters and gangs will tell you they don't really feel listened to. They're crying out for more police. The Police Minister says he's sending in an extra 145. As Act pointed out, that's a fraction of the 600 extra cops they sent into the protest on Parliament's lawn. Where're the military many are asking.  This is a time for decisive strong leadership – for putting words into action. But the PM says there is no law-and-order crisis. Is he gaslighting locals? Telling them what they're seeing and experiencing isn't real? Trust and confidence is starting to wane as Police Minister Stuart Nash himself said.  It's ripe time for action, for good bold decisive leadership. For getting tangible outcomes for beleaguered communities right now. The advantage is already Labour's, but the execution from here will be what counts for them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Light rail may be set to join the list of incomplete Labour party projects. Right next to the abandoned Harbour Bridge cycle way, the axed four lane highways and Kiwibuild. $72 million has already been spent on light rail, but as part of the Government's refocus, the project is under review. National Party spokesperson for Transport Simeon Brown joined Mike Hosking. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, after failing miserably with Kiwibuild, the Government thinks the solution is to let people squeeze more places onto single sections. Which is why it wants councils around the country to start letting people build three, three-storey properties on one site. Which is something the last Christchurch City Council - before the recent local body elections - flipped the bird at, and told the Government it would not be approving and implementing the new housing density rules. Not surprisingly, the Government hasn't taken “no” for an answer and has brought in what it's calling a “mediator” to work through the issues. But we all know, don't we, that when a government says it's working through the issues, it actually means it's doing what it needs to do to get what it wants. So we've got something of a stand-off. The Government wants people to be able to build three, three-storey properties on a single section and the Christchurch City Council doesn't. It thinks Christchurch is a special case and needs to be treated like one. And the mediator - or the enforcer - has been brought in by the Government to bang some heads together and get its way. And we are learning a bit more about the enforcer's terms of reference. As part of his “investigation” (as the Government's calling it), the Enforcer is only being required by the Government to speak to three groups of people: city council staff, city councillors and Ngāi Tahu. But residents - or, in particular, residents groups, appear to have been left out. More than 20 residents' associations wrote to the city council a while back, calling on it to reject the Government's intensification plan. And, to its credit, the council did just that. But it appears the Government isn't quite as interested as the council was in what the residents' associations have to say because they're not included in the terms of reference for the investigator or “the enforcer's” work. Which I think is wrong. On several fronts. Firstly, because the Council that said “no” to housing intensification just over two months ago isn't the same council today. There are six new councillors around the council table following the recent local body elections and we have no idea what these six new councillors think about intensification. They're going to be able to tell the Enforcer where they stand, but we will be none the wiser. Secondly, if it wasn't for the residents' associations banding together and lobbying the city council, we possibly wouldn't be in the situation we're in at the moment because it's quite possible that the Council wouldn't have told the Government where to go if it hadn't had a rev up from residents groups. And, therefore, it's only right that these groups have their chance to have some sort of input into the Government's investigation process. Tony Simons from the Riccarton Bush-Kilmarnock Residents' Association is in the news today saying he doesn't expect the Government's investigator to consult every resident but thinks at least a group representing residents' groups should be included. And I couldn't agree with him more. The other reason why I think residents need to have input, is that I'm not seeing any evidence of this new open and transparent council we were promised ahead of the local body elections. Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger is saying he thinks there should be some form of public participation, but he doesn't want to do widespread consultation. Let me quote the Mayor: “If you open it up, the next thing you've got 300 residents coming forward to you. You would be an old man before you ever got anything finished.” Well, I'm sorry Phil, you saying there “should be” some form of public consultation isn't enough of a reassurance for me. Because we've seen before, haven't we, how good the Government is at getting well ahead of itself - even when everyone else thinks it's still in a consultation phase. Three Waters is a prime example. Remember former Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel being blindsided by the Government pressing on with Three Waters when she thought it was still considering the views of the advisory group she'd been a part of? And that is exactly what will happen here, if we're not careful. It's all very well the mayor saying there “should be” public consultation, but what he needs to be doing is demanding that the Government include it in its terms of reference for its Enforcer. Because, at the moment, it's only requiring that council staff, city councillors and Ngāi Tahu be spoken to. There's a line in the terms of reference about the Enforcer talking to other stakeholders - if relevant. Which is just weasel words, isn't it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A couple of weeks ago, I warned you that Winston is back and I was right. The latest political poll by Horizon Research released today finds New Zealand First with 6.75% support – and in a position to decide which parties would form a Government. This result would deliver the party 9 seats in a 120-seat parliament. So, Horizon finds Labour would win 40 seats, the Green party 15. A total of 55.  Not enough to form a Government. Meanwhile, National would win 37 seats and ACT 17. A total of 54.  Again not enough. Meaning that NZ First would be the kingmaker once again.  To get back into parliament the party needs either an electoral seat or 5% of the vote and on this poll it does that. Horizon is a company that involves Graeme Colman, ex of NBR, and other professionals with 30 odd years of experience so I don't feel it is biased. So the coalition partners are stable. ACT continues to be strong with 13% of the vote but that seems to be coming from National voters.   This result should worry both the main parties.  Labour has continued to track down while National has stalled in tracking up. There's a feeling that both parties are under performing. Labour's problems are well documented. Grand promises, poor achievements. For instance, 100,000 Kiwibuild houses promised 5 years ago.  As of the end of last month we were at 1430 Kiwibuild houses. It's a better picture for all public social housing with nearly 10,000 built in 5 years.  But remember that 4800 public houses have been sold or demolished in the same time. And so it goes on. It should be a free ride for National but it hasn't been. Perhaps it's that the electorate can see the emperor has no clothes on. Tax cuts are not a cost of living policy. They inject more money into those above the median wage and very little to those below. The wealthier continue to fuel the inflating prices while the poor suffer.   It's economics 101 and the electorate can see it, they saw it in real time in the UK, and so centre right voters continue to leach to ACT. Of course National voters get conniptions whenever Winston hits kingmaker level because of the perceived treachery of his Labour coalition deal 5 years ago. But on the evidence of this poll perhaps they need to get over that because it doesn't look like Winston's going away. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many initiatives and schemes to solve the housing crisis have we heard from the government?  In 2017, it was KiwiBuild the plan to build 100,000 houses over 10 years. They've built 5,000. That's a fail.  Since then, there have been reviews, market studies, funds for Māori housing, funds for infrastructure, funds for affordable housing and state-house rebuilds too.  It's hard to quantify whether these are working but when you look at the figures of those living in emergency housing motels, it doesn't look promising.  So will the latest new housing initiative help those who need it most?  It will see tax breaks given to property developers who build at least 20 dwellings with the sole purpose of long-term leasing them to tenants. The aim is to give rental tenants some housing security.  Housing Minister Megan Woods spoke to Lloyd Burr Live.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GREG O'CONNOR to the Minister for Building and Construction: What recent reports has she received on competition in the market for residential building supplies? NICOLA WILLIS to the Minister of Revenue: Can he confirm that the reason overseas New Zealanders have received the cost of living payment is that "the Inland Revenue Department has a New Zealand address for that taxpayer rather than an overseas one"; if so, how many people does he estimate fail to change their address with Inland Revenue when they leave the country? CAMILLA BELICH to the Minister of Education: What support has the Government contributed to help schools to provide learning environments for their students that are warm, dry, and fit for purpose? Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH to the Minister of Justice: Does she stand by all her statements and policies? CHLÖE SWARBRICK to the Minister of Education: Does he agree with the Prime Minister's statement that "education is the greatest enabler in society"; if so, has he seen the People's Inquiry into Student Wellbeing, which found thousands of tertiary students are living in poverty? TAMATI COFFEY to the Minister for Maori Development: What recent reports has he seen on the Maori economy? BROOKE VAN VELDEN to the Minister of Housing: How many KiwiBuild houses were built in June 2022, if any, and was this more or less than the number of KiwiBuild houses built in January 2022? Hon LOUISE UPSTON to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she agree with the Prime Minister that "it does matter to us as a Labour Government that we have people in the dignity of work"; if so, why are over 50,000 more people receiving jobseeker support as at the June 2022 quarter compared to the September 2017 quarter? SHANAN HALBERT to the Associate Minister of Health: What announcement has the Government recently made about HIV? ERICA STANFORD to the Minister of Immigration: Does he stand by the former Minister's target of ten working days for job checks for Accredited Employer Work Visas; if so, can he confirm that only 20 percent have been processed in that time frame? TANGI UTIKERE to the Associate Minister of Education (Pacific Peoples): What recent work has the Government done to enhance Pacific languages and bilingual learning in Aotearoa? PENNY SIMMONDS to the Minister of Education: Does Te Pukenga have a detailed plan focused on the underlying financial issues facing some of its subsidiaries; if not, why not?

We're going to be doing a fair bit of driving over the next few days, and how many cops do you think we'll see on patrol? I'll say not many - if any. Which is kind of what the Ministry of Transport's Bryan Sherritt was saying when he spoke earlier this morning about the road toll going up, when it should be going down. The latest Road to Zero monitoring report says there were 320 road deaths last year and 2,323 serious injuries. This is up from 318 deaths and 2,175 serious injuries the year before. Which gives the impression doesn't it that the Road to Zero thing is well on track to becoming Kiwibuild on wheels. And “diabolical” is how Bryan Sherritt from the MOT is describing the situation. That's a direct quote. He's saying it's diabolical. Which I don't think too many people will disagree with. And he's putting it down to three main things: Lack of infrastructure - in particular, a lack of things like median barriers which we all know would make a world of difference. Too many clapped-out cars being on the road - they're just not safe. But the one that's really made me sit-up and listen - is a lack of enforcement by the Police They're just not out there as much as they should be, pinging people for doing stupid things behind the wheel or behind the handlebars. Here's what he says: “It's lack of police effort in terms of the regular enforcement around road infringements." He's refusing to go as far as saying the police aren't doing their job properly, but I think it's pretty clear isn't it - the cops aren't out patrolling the roads as much as they should be and it's one of the three main reasons why the road toll isn't going down. I don't think I've ever heard an official from the MOT or Waka Kotahi - or any of those outfits - say the cops aren't doing the enforcement they should be doing. But lack of enforcement is one of the top three reasons being given for the road toll not going down. Which says to me that something needs to change if there is any hope of the Road to Zero getting anywhere near zero. I've referred to the Ministry of Transport already as the MOT which, if you're of a certain age, you will remember being the name we used for the outfit that was dedicated to policing the roads. Officially, it was known as the Traffic Safety Service but we all knew it as the MOT. They had truckloads of cops on motorbikes and also used to drive around in the black and white patrol cars. They were merged with the Police in 1992 and I think the old traffic cops had a bit of a hard time of it at the start. I think some of the police crew thought the traffic cops were a bit second-rate, but that's all history and today we have the one police force, responsible for everything. Chasing crims, writing tickets - the whole shebang. But listening to Bryan Sherritt from the Ministry of Transport talking on Newstalk ZB this morning, I couldn't help wondering whether bringing back a dedicated road or traffic police force might be the answer. Or part of it, anyway. Because I don't think anyone will argue that our Police are stretched at the moment. And part of that is because they are involved in so many things that perhaps, in years gone by, they wouldn't have been involved in. Mental health call-outs for example. They've gone through the roof and, of course, they're going to prioritise that over sitting on the side of a highway somewhere looking out for people driving like idiots. So this is not a beat-up on the Police. But I certainly think something needs to change, and we must have more cops out patrolling the roads if we think we're going to do anything about the appalling road toll stats in this country. I'll be honest with you. I turn into the perfect driver whenever there's a cop car behind me, or if I see one on the side of the road. That has far more influence on what I do behind the wheel than any Road to Zero TV ad. They're a total waste of money as far as I'm concerned. And I reckon that, when it comes to how we behave on the roads, nothing is as effective as the threat of the big stick. I know we'd all like to think that with the right encouragement with TV ads, we can make a difference. But it won't. What makes a difference, is knowing there's a pretty good chance you're going to get stung if you drive fast, or cross the yellow line, or do anything stupid on the road. And the only way that's going to happen, is to have more cops patrolling the roads. It's been acknowledged today that a lack of police on our roads and highways is part of the problem, so let's fix it. And that can be done either by insisting that the Police up their game and make sure road safety work isn't a nice-to-have, or bringing back the old MOT so that we have cops who turn up to work every day - and their only job is to get out there and wave the big stick and make our roads safer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, A stronger than expected CPI figure led to some economists changing their forecasts for the OCR, however Kelvin ponders whether it was necessary. He also delves into some of the detail behind the strong inflation result and of course considers whats next. Has inflation peaked?A similar question is asked regarding constructions costs, off the back of the latest CoreLogic Cordell Construction Costs Index (CCCI). The state of the construction industry remains a hot topic, which last week included an increase in the KiwiBuild price to caps, intended to deliver more houses in the programme.And in Kelvin's broader market overview he reviews the latest NZAC result for June and looks ahead to filled jobs data, confidence survey results and June lending figures.On Wednesday look out for an update to the comprehensive Quarterly Property Market and Economic Report.Check out all our regular CoreLogic research insights at https://www.corelogic.co.nz/research-news and get in touch on LinkedIn, twitter @NickGoodall_CL or @KDavidson_CL or send us an email on nick.goodall@corelogic.co.nz or kelvin.davidson@corelogic.co.nzPlus, you can sign up to receive any or all CoreLogic releases here.

The Government is making yet another attempt to fix our housing issues with its multi-billion dollar fund for housing infrastructure. Now officially up and running with seven regional schemes to put in all the basic infrastructure needed to support subdivisions. You've just heard the Minister insist this isn't doubling up or even tripling up on work that should be paid for by developers, or by the local bodies that charge the earth for building consents. If you've ever gone down that road, you'll know you pay a development contribution that's meant to cover your slice. Anyway, it's expected to basically lay the groundwork for about 8000 homes over the next 20 years. Heck of a long way from that KiwiBuild promise of 100,000 new homes. So far, six years in and we've got how many? Well the most recent number the Minister gave last month 1,365 New Zealand families are actually in KiwiBuild homes. Another 856 are currently under construction, just waiting for the GIB. Against a target of 100,000 in ten years. If I was going to be mean-spirited about it I might do the maths and project how many homes we might expect this new approach to achieve. But I won't, all I'll say is that we might have done a lot better overall on new builds if we'd gone this way from the very start.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Wonders Never Cease/Here Comes the Next Disease/Heard of Gerd?/What Killed the Video Store?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MPs Megan Woods and Mark Mitchell joined Tim Dower to wrap the week's political news.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OPINION: Three leaders. Three countries. One week. Boris Johnson's resignation felt like a rare little win for the convention. There can be no doubt Donald Trump's leadership style inspired him, and the way Trump just thumbed his nose at all of the previous standards of behaviour for world leaders. Scandal after scandal, Boris Johnson managed to duck and dodge and deflect and survive what would have been politically fatal for most other leaders in the pre-Trump era. The temerity of having had your staff caught out partying, defying lockdown rules, and drinking together at Downing Street at the same time as the Queen was forced to sit alone at her husband's funeral! In one sense it is astonishing Boris Johnson survived as long as he did. But in another, I'm still surprised he announced his resignation. Entertaining he may be, but the man clearly isn't burdened by any great sense of integrity. I'll only fully believe he's gone when he's gone. But it's interesting to compare Johnson with Trump. In the end, it wasn't the public that forced Johnson's resignation. It was his own party. His political colleagues stood up and decided he'd gone too far. It's interesting to compare that with the Republicans in the United States, many of whom continue to undermine their democracy and deny the election result to stay onside with Trump. In a way, Johnson's resignation shows us just how messed up America really is. I think it's pretty evident Jacinda Ardern is much more popular overseas than she is in New Zealand. Overseas, they focus on what her leadership represents rather than the detail of what she has (or hasn't) achieved. They see a charismatic, empathetic young woman. Kindness. Stephen Colbert isn't digging too deep into KiwiBuild, child poverty stats, healthcare workforce shortages, and gang shootings etc. That being said, I think even Ardern's harshest critics have to give her credit her for this overseas trip. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo / Getty Images The pathway to citizenship changes announced for Kiwis in Australia, and Anthony Albanese's new 'common sense' approach to deportations should have a really significant impact on the future of 501s. Keep in mind, there's very little domestic political upside for Albanese to stop the deportations – his political opponents would immediately accuse him of being soft. He couldn't announce he was flat-out scrapping the policy. But from our perspective, he's done the next best thing. They're changes that were never going to happen under Scott Morrison and all come down to the relationship between the two current Prime Ministers. With the change in government across the Tasman, Ardern has managed to soften the impact of the 501s policy about as much as is politically possible in Australia. Well done. Finally, Shinzo Abe. What to say? Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo / Getty Images I lay in bed last night tossing and turning and thinking about it. I was a bit stunned. It's just awful, truly shocking. We're fortunate to live in an age where political assassinations are relatively rare – especially in big, developed economies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Anna Burns-Francis, Chris Hipkins & Rau Hoskins.

Questions to Ministers Angie Warren-Clark to the Minister for Disability Issues: How is the Government delivering change for disabled people through Budget 2022? Chris Bishop to the Minister of Housing: Does she stand by her statements that "KiwiBuild is alive and well" and that "Since Labour took office at the end of 2017, it's been one of our government's top priorities to fix the housing crisis"? Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Health: What recent announcements has he made about the Government's response to the independent review of Pharmac? Hon Gerry Brownlee to the Minister of Foreign Affairs: Does she stand by all her statements and actions with regard to New Zealand's relationships with Pacific Island countries, and China's moves to build a closer China-Pacific Island countries community? Shanan Halbert to the Minister for Economic and Regional Development: What announcements has he made on transforming the advanced manufacturing sector? Dr James McDowall to the Minister of Immigration: Does he agree with the Productivity Commission's finding that the immigration system "does not undergo the same level of transparency, public scrutiny and robust policy assessment that most other public policies require", and how can he be confident that his Government's immigration rebalance will alleviate workforce shortages? Arena Williams to the Associate Minister of Housing (Maori Housing): How is the Government partnering with iwi Maori to deliver new homes for whanau? Rino Tirikatene to the Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare): How does Budget 2022 support Maori agribusiness and Whenua Maori Programme land users? Erica Stanford to the Minister of Immigration: Does he stand by his statement regarding why engineers are on the fast-tracked 'straight to residence' pathway that "those skills are at high demand"; and why are nurses not on that pathway, when Hon Andrew Little, Minister of Health, recently admitted that New Zealand hospitals are around 4,000 nurses short? Ricardo Menéndez March to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Is she concerned some of our most vulnerable tamariki in benefit-receiving households are going to miss out on the $350 cost of living payment? Glen Bennett to the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector: What recent announcements has she made about proposed amendments to the Charities Act 2005?

Former Wellington Mayor Dame Fran Wilde is always up for a challenge, and boy has she got one on her hands with her brand new role! She’ll be leading the board charged with delivering the fraught Auckland Light Rail project from the Auckland CBD to the airport… AKA (according to the National and ACT parties) Kiwibuild 2.0. She joins us now to discuss!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A promise of no more red tape, more housing development and up 105,000 new houses in more than eight years.It sounds like a new KiwiBuild headline, but it's actually the Government's bipartisan plan to boost housing supply.Under the new rules, three homes of up to three storeys can be built without the need for resource consent.Property developer David Whitburn told Andrew Dickens it'll see a few extra houses being built, but it will take time."This won't kick in until at the earliest August 2023. So it'll actually take quite a few years to notice any effect from it."LISTEN ABOVE

A Lower Hutt property developer and a collective of Māori-owned businesses are sacrificing millions of dollars in profit to help first home-buyers. The Koru Kainga project started in 2018 as a KiwiBuild scheme - until escalating costs threatened to turn it into yet another high-end expensive project. But then the developers listened to the community and turned away from the cash.

Ockham Residential co-founder Mark Todd is not your usual property developer. Over the years Ockham has helped make Auckland a more compact and liveable city by building the kind of apartments people actually want to live in and have as neighbours. The company is pioneering build to rent, Iwi partnerships, offering more Kiwibuild options than a bank manager might recommend and giving back through their foundation, the Ockham Collective. But it might be the example they are setting, and the uncomfortable conversations they are starting, that will have the most impact. To talk about his journey, Ockham's mission and how they're changing the conversation, Mark joined Business is Boring via Zoom.Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I extend thoughts and prayers for cyclists this morning.It looks like their precious bridge crossing may be confined to the scrap heap.As is was predicted moments after it was announced, and got an almost unanimous negative response – gosh even some cyclists thought it was a dumb idea, it's likely now it'll never happen.Grant Robertson yesterday wouldn't confirm or deny the cycle bridge, only to say that they ‘continually look at the transport network to see it works well'.That's politician speak for – it's toast.So what does this tell us?Well like I said yesterday, it tells us very clearly this Government hates bad press. It tells us a 10 point drop in the polls really sharpens the mind, and it tells us they'll move like a wind sock under the gales of public pressure.Seasonal workers are in, the cycle bridge is out.What can we expect next? And more importantly, is this a precursor to what we can expect as we head into the next election?Are flip flops, false promises and knee jerk reactions good for us?Well not if you want some stability and consistency from your leadership, some long term strategic management. I would've thought good leadership is about properly doing the work up front before you leap into announcements.Costing and canvassing something to the hilt, before you throw out the press release and roll out the Minister. And then once you have your plan, sticking to it.Obviously in this case a back down is the only and best course of action - but we shouldn't have been put through this farce in the first place.The cyclists will rightly be annoyed, although did they really believe this would actually ever get off the ground?The announcement came with no formal detail or specifics; the Government hadn't done the homework on it, and it became increasingly hard to justify.Add to that the public backlash and you can see how they'd now like to pretend this never happened.So it really should surprise no one that it's going to fizzle into the ether alongside Kiwibuild, Lightrail, and any number of infrastructure projects you want to name.So let's recap the telling way this has unfolded:A bad poll for the Government and two specific questions come out of that poll.One, about loosening the border for seasonal workers and two, the cycle bridge.24 hours later, seasonal workers are in.24 hours after that, the cycle bridge is on the ropes.Almost 82% of people in the poll said the bridge was a dumb idea.So what we're seeing here, therefore, is less of a government governing, and more of a reactive popularity contest based on poll data.Is that good solid leadership? Or is that just amateurs winging it?Sadly I think it's the latter.

The $8.1 million government purchase of a local motel has been labelled a "game-changer" by one local MP.But another says it is "deeply disappointing" and a step back for Rotorua.This week the Government announced its housing arm Kāinga Ora was in the final stages of buying the 30-unit Boulevard Motel at 265 Fenton St for $8.1m.The Ministry of Social Development has no record of the motel previously being used for emergency housing. It will be turned into transitional housing for 80 people.In the announcement, the Government said the "warm and dry" short-term housing would be managed by Wera Aotearoa Charitable Trust and provide residents with 24/7 wraparound support.It said the 0.66ha site also offered "longer-term redevelopment potential" for more public housing in the region.Kāinga Ora Bay of Plenty regional director Darren Toy described the purchase as "good news" for those in need of housing."Around 80 people and families, will soon have a warm, dry and safe place to stay, including a fenced play area and green space, following upgrade work to convert this property."Toy said the location was also convenient for long-term public housing because it was close to transport and services.Residents were expected to start moving in from late September.Upgrade and maintenance work would take place first to reflect its new use for transitional housing and in line with its new resource consent, the Government said.Under the Public Housing Plan Kāinga Ora was working to deliver about 190 extra public housing places in Rotorua by 2024.Labour list MP Tāmati Coffey. (Photo / Andrew Warner) Labour list MP for Waiariki Tāmati Coffey welcomed the news of the purchase. He believed it would be a "game-changer" for more than 80 individuals facing housing struggles in Rotorua."It is going to make an immediate difference for people in our community."Unfortunately this is the situation that presents itself, and there is no magic solution. We need to come up with our own innovative solutions."Coffey said wraparound support from Wera Aotearoa Charitable Trust in the motel would play a key role in supporting those with mental health and addiction issues."People with mental health and addiction issues should always be treated with as much support as they can get."And that is what Wera is stepping in to be able to do. It is to help that cohort within the wider homeless category to get that support they need."He reiterated not all homeless people were in the same situation."We need to debunk the myth that all homeless people are the same. We should take every opportunity not to lump them all together."Rotorua MP Todd McClay. (Photo / Andrew Warner) Rotorua MP Todd McClay said the purchase was "deeply disappointing"."The Government should not be owning motels, they should be owning houses. They are turning Rotorua from a tourist town to a homeless town."He believed a motel could not be a transitional home, and the $8.1m should be used to build houses."It is actually taking Rotorua backwards, not forwards. A motel is not a house - it cannot be a transitional home. The Government owes the people of Rotorua much more."The Government has land available to it through council. They should not be buying motels in Rotorua, it is not a good use of taxpayers' money."They should be building houses, however as with KiwiBuild, it is a failure of a policy. They keep announcing more and more money to move people from motel to motel - and people in Rotorua are getting very, very angry."He said the housing situation in Rotorua was getting worse because of "government inaction"."The Government have had four years and they have hardly built any houses at all. Putting people into motels long term is not a solution."Rotorua district councillor and Whānau Ora chairwoman Merepeka Raukawa Tait. (Photo / NZME) Rotorua district councillor and Whānau Ora chairwoman Merepeka Raukawa-Tait was pleased housing solutions were being explore...

What I'm enjoying most about the discussion over the proposed harbour cycleway is that we're discussing this like it's actually going to happen.Have we forgotten this particular Government's record on delivering any kind of build?Kiwibuild… 934 houses at last count so that's only 99 066 short of the 100,000.Light rail… supposed to be finished this year… still not even started.The $12 billion worth of projects announced last year that was ‘shovel ready'? Not half of them started yet.So, what makes us think that a project has big and as complicated as a bridge over Auckland's harbour is going to be the first infrastructure promise they actually manage to deliver.I am booking a front-row seat for the Michael Wood show because he is auditioning hard to be the next Phil Twyford.And we all know how that show ends. And are those lycra-clad protestors from the North Shore going to be grumpy?I am ready for that too because that is going to be a time if they're even half as outraged cray as they were on Sunday while they stormed the harbour bridge.I am hugely surprised the Government thought announcing this was a good way to solve the grumpy cyclists situation.Not only are they running the risk of doing a Kiwibuild back down all over again, but also because they've just told Ashburton and any other rural town begging for a bridge how unimportant they are.How can you announce this in the same week that Ashburton has its town cut in half, asks for a bridge and you don't say yes?You could build 26 bridges for Ashburton for the cost of this cycling path.And then the Government just chopped mill road today… so it also just gave the finger to couriers, truckies, businesses relying on freight and commuters coming in from south of the city who might've been relying on that road as a second way to drive into town from Drury.The good news is at least South of Auckland and Ashburton aren't going to end up having their hopes dashed. Can't say the same for any north shore cyclist actually pinning their hopes on the dream bridge though.

In this episode, we discuss whether property investors should be worried if your property developer goes bankrupt and what happens in this situation. This comes off the back of the developer behind Ormiston Rise, a KiwiBuild development going under, with purchasers left asking questions. We also mention our upcoming tour to Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland and Wellington where we are taking out 10 investors in each city + partners. To enter, leave a review on your favourite podcast listening app, follow us on Instagram and share something to your story. Then email us on podcast@opespartners.co.nz.

Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions? SHANAN HALBERT to the Minister for Infrastructure: What recent reports has he seen on infrastructure? CHLÖE SWARBRICK to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing): Is she aware that nearly all commercial lease agreements include transparent criteria for rent reviews; if so, will she consider requiring residential tenancy agreements to include agreed criteria for rent increases? ANGELA ROBERTS to the Minister of Education: What is the Government doing to address wage inequality amongst early childhood education teachers? ANDREW BAYLY to the Minister for Infrastructure: How many shovel-ready infrastructure projects have not yet begun construction, and what is the total number of shovel-ready projects? Dr EMILY HENDERSON to the Minister of Health: What recent announcements has he made about new hospital facilities in Northland? Hon LOUISE UPSTON to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she have confidence that every single recipient of the Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant is staying in safe and humane accommodation? TANGI UTIKERE to the Minister for Building and Construction: What recent reports has she seen regarding building consents? CHRIS BISHOP to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: Does he agree with the Prime Minister, who said yesterday, “In part, that is because, yes, we really were at the front of the pack in terms of securing agreements with companies for the delivery of vaccine”, and is he satisfied with the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out? INGRID LEARY to the Minister for Pacific Peoples: What recent announcement has he made about supporting Pacific languages in New Zealand? DAVID SEYMOUR to the Minister of Finance: Will Budget 2021 cut taxes for middle-income New Zealanders? NICOLA WILLIS to the Minister of Housing: Is the Government on track to deliver the 800 KiwiBuild houses she estimated would be built in the 2020/21 financial year, and will that include completion of the 176 KiwiBuild homes contracted by Kāinga Ora for construction by Ormiston Rise Development?

House prices in New Zealand increased last month by more than any other month in the last 25 years. More than any other month since March, 1996.Just think about that. We’ve had a residential housing crisis for years. House prices have been rising and rising and rising. We have our borders closed, our single-biggest export industry has been turned off and shutdown overnight. And yet... with inflation pouring into asset prices, median house prices increased more last month than in any other month since Braveheart won best picture at the Oscars.According to the Real Estate Institute, the median house prices in Wellington and Auckland increased by about $100 thousand dollars in February. The median price in Porirua – Porirua! – increased more than $270 thousand. Ten thousand dollars a day.When I hear those kind of numbers, I have a couple of reactions. Selfishly, I feel grateful that I have the security of already owning my own place. Secondly, I feel for people who don’t, and who’ve just seen their deposit requirements increase by tens of thousands of dollars.But most of all I wonder this: how will this end?Three years ago, Labour came to power promising to address the housing crisis. They failed. Kiwibuild was a disaster. House prices increased 27% in their first term before this even-crazier spike. They didn’t introduce any tax changes policies that meanfully changed the equation. No person in a position of political leadership publicly supported any policy that would significantly reduce house prices.And truthfully, that was the time to do it. I’m talking about the difference between policies that would simply slow price inflation and policies that actually go further and reduce property value. I accept that introducing dramatic changes now and wiping 15 or 20 percent off house values could be disastrous for our economy in what is already a temultuous moment. Cliches abound, but the horse has bolted. There is no putting the genie back into the bottle. You can reform the RMA and address supply-side issues. You can call on the Reserve Bank to consider loan-to-debt ratios and limits on interest-only loans. But it’s too late. House prices are already way too expensive.So. Back to my question.How will this end? What’s the end game for a nation with some of least affordable housing in the world, where according to the ASB Housing Confidence Survey, a record 73% of people expect house prices will keep rising over the next year? I will repeat this again. Last month, the median house price in Porirua increased ten thousand dollars a day. Nothing against Porirua, but does that sound right and balanced, to you?At some point there has to be a correction. Our politicians might not be prepared to take on the middle-aged voters who own all the assets, but corrections take many forms.Regardless of whether you own property or not... this will affect you. It will affect all of us.I worry it will be very ugly, indeed.

After the shambles of KiwiBuild, now the government's proud track record on new social housing is being questioned.It turns only half of the so called "new" public housing places are actually newly-built additional houses.The government says it's on track to source 6850 places for families in need by the middle of the year.But Stuff has crunched the numbers, and it turns out only 3500 are actually net new builds.The rest are sourced from community housing providers and leased or bought on the private market.Scott Figenshow, the Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, told Heather du Plessis-Allan that this is a problem the Labour Government has inherited from the National Government. "It's actually good news that the new public housing plan sort to address this problem and focus on new builds, but it's endemic that we thought we could address the housing crisis  by working on places rather than ensuring we were adding new, affordable housing supply."He says that the Government is allowing income related rent to go into community housing provider places, which has been going on for years. He says that it's not a surprise to his group that this is a problem. "We're glad to see decisions have been made that mean they are going to stop doing it." LISTEN ABOVE

A Kiwibuild development in New Plymouth has defied the naysayers and sold out the first tranche of 33 properties in double-quick time. The Discovery Development in Marfell only went on the market in October and there's already keen interest in the outstanding 35 homes which are nearing completion. Taranaki Whanganui reporter Robin Martin went and met some of the new homeowners.

Tell you what: I don't know implementing this report form the Climate Change Commission is doable.I'm going to hit you with two numbers that sink this for me.The first is 400 percent. That's how much we need to increase the number of wind turbines by. The second is one percent. That's how much we will lose in GDP growth. Every year. So let's take a look at that.  A 400 percent increase in the number of wind turbines in this country.  We have to do that by 2050. We need to do that to plug the gap that'll be left by banning coal and gas fired electricity, and to meet the needs of all the electric vehicles that we'll need to buy because carbon cars will be banned. And by carbon cars, I'm talking about cars with internal combustion engines. Hands up who wants a wind turbine outside your house? Exactly. Good luck getting those past communities so they get consented, and good luck even getting those built. With respect, we've seen what happens when a government tries to build 100,000 KiwiBuild homes. The second number. One percent. That's how much we lose in GDP growth if we implement this report. That's every year.Now let's just remember that our GDP growth is only two-three percent a year.  So you're taking one percent off that. You're dropping a third to half the annual growth of this country. We're not a rich country as far as developed countries go.  We're actually poor when you look at our wages.  So now, you have to, if you're the government, convince Kiwis that they should stay poor compared to others because of a moral duty to clean up our 0.18% of global emissions. See the trouble there? That's a hard sell politically. Now, I'm not saying climate change isn't an issue.  It is.  And it's going to become a bigger issue, not just because of the real world climate impacts, but because when you've got the investors like Blackrock – the world's largest asset management firm - saying they're not putting their money in companies that aren't cleaning up their climate act, then it's becoming a major economic issue for countries falling behind. So we have do something, if only to be seen to be pulling our weight. But this, I see practical problems in terms of actually getting things built. And I see political problems in convincing Kiwis to give up some of their incomes. And that's just two problematic numbers.  This report is full of numbers, many as problematic as that. 

In this epiosde, we discuss KiwiBuild and the benefits of purchasing a KiwiBuild home through the ballot system. This is because first home buyers, in some cases, are purchasing their first homes up to $300,000 under value. Throughout the show, we give an example from Ormiston in Auckland. Here, a first home buyer paid $650,000 for a property that is expected to be worth $950,000 at completion. First home buyers in these situations are then able to purchase an investment property using the equity within that home. If you've got a topic you'd like us to speak about on the show, then send us a text. Our number is 5522. It would be great to hear from you.

The 53rd Parliament opened this week, and two key topics were established during the opening debate: climate change and housing.Leader of the House Chris Hipkins revealed that the Government would be moving a motion to declare a climate emergency in New Zealand.The motion, as it turned out, would be moved by Ardern herself next Tuesday.Speaking to reporters on her way to the House this afternoon, Ardern said Labour has always considered climate change to be "a huge threat to our region"."[It's] something we must take immediate action on."Unlike previous attempts to move such a motion – which was done by Green MP Chloe Swarbrick – the motion expected next Tuesday will come from the Government.As Labour has an outright majority in the House, the motion will pass.Although there were a number of jibes thrown across the House during the climate change debate, the chamber was by far the most heated when both Collins, then Ardern, talked about housing."It's a disgrace," Collins said, attacking the Government on the failed KiwiBuild policy.She laid the blame of New Zealand's soaring house prices at the feet of Ardern's Government.Collins added that there needed to be a "reality check" for the Government when it comes to its house-building programme."It was never foreign buyers or people with Chinese sounding names," she said, referencing a line of attack Labour had prior to the 2017 election.But Ardern was clearly not having a bar of it – "I will not be lectured by the leader of the Opposition [whose party] left us a housing crisis".Listen above as Shane Te Pou and Liam Hehir discuss the week's news with Tim Beveridge on The Sunday Panel

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her political rival, National's Judith Collins, have kicked off the 53rd Parliament with a fiery debate which cumulated in a scrap over housing.Ardern accused National of "leaving us a housing crisis," while telling Collins she refused to be lectured by her when it comes to this issue.Collins, who spoke before Ardern, took aim at what she said was a poor record of Government spending."We will hold this Government to account," Collins repeated close to a dozen times during her 25-minute speech.The debate was heated even before the two leaders' speeches started – the Māori Party's two MPs walked out of the chamber after they said they were denied the right to speak in the address in reply speech.But House Speaker Trevor Mallard clarified later in the day that the Māori Party had asked for two speeches in the address in reply – something the current rules do not allow for.Yesterday was the official State Opening of Parliament, when Parliament began in earnest.The day started with the Governor-General's Speech from the Throne – the traditional speech which sets out the policies and promises of the Government.That speech, which was written by Ardern, revealed the Government's plans to make sure any Covid-19 vaccines would be free for all New Zealanders.Throughout both the Speech from the Throne and her speech in the House – Ardern's first major one in Parliament since she was re-elected – Covid-19 was the clear centre-piece."New Zealanders have taken it in their stride," she said of the country's fight against the virus.She said the collective action of New Zealand has been one of the most humbling experiences of her life.For that, she said, "we owe them [New Zealanders] our ongoing action".It was a similar story when it came to climate change – "Our generation cannot sit still while there is a climate crisis," Ardern said in the House.Just hours beforehand, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins let slip that next week, the Government would be moving a motion to declare a climate emergency in New Zealand.The motion, as it turned out, would be moved by Ardern herself next Tuesday.Speaking to reporters on her way to the House this afternoon, Ardern said Labour has always considered climate change to be "a huge threat to our region"."[It's] something we must take immediate action on."Unlike previous attempts to move such a motion – which was done by Green MP Chloe Swarbrick – the motion expected next Tuesday will come from the Government.As Labour has an outright majority in the House, the motion will pass.It is understood that Labour's old coalition partner New Zealand First blocked a Government motion last term.But it didn't take long for the Government to come under fire for the commitment.Act leader David Seymour said that the Government's motion will amount to nothing more than a "marketing stunt that won't stop a tonne of emissions".In her speech, Collins was also critical of the Government's climate change record.According to figures from the Ministry of the Environment, current efforts are falling short of the country's international commitments and forestry offsetting accounted for a large chunk of any gains.Although there were a number of jibes thrown across the House during the climate change debate, the chamber was by far the most heated when both Collins, then Ardern, talked about housing."It's a disgrace," Collins said, attacking the Government on the failed KiwiBuild policy. She laid the blame of New Zealand's soaring house prices at the feet of Ardern's Government.Collins added that there needed to be a "reality check" for the Government when it comes to its house-building programme."It was never foreign buyers or people with Chinese sounding names," she said, referencing a line of attack Labour had prior to the 2017 election.But Ardern was clearly not having a bar of it – "I will not be lectured by the leader of the Opposition [whose party] left us a ho...

Labour newbie Dr Ayesha Verrall has been catapulted straight into Cabinet, taking on the roles of Minister for Seniors, Minister for Food Safety, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister of Research, Science and Innovation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed her Cabinet this afternoon. Two of the losers are Jenny Salesa & Phil Twyford, who have been demoted out of Cabinet. Salesa has lost all her ministerial warrants. Twyford, who was the Minister responsible for KiwiBuild, now holds the portfolios of Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth, Associate Minister for the Environment and Associate Minister of Immigration. But all are outside the inner circle of Cabinet. Andrew Little is Health Minister, while Chris Hipkins takes on the new job of Minister for Covid-19 response. Epidemiologist Dr Verrall is a first-term list MP and the only newbie to be brought inside Cabinet. She tells Lisa Owen she found out about her new job at the weekend.

A steady stream of potential buyers - along with the merely curious - have taken advantage of the first advertised open homes for Kiwibuild properties in the New Plymouth suburb of Marfell. The first 17 of 68 properties are now on the market and five are under contract already. Taranaki Whanganui reporter Robin Martin went along.

The Labour Party promised to reduce homelessness, boost state housing stock and build thousands of homes during its first term. But with a record high waitlist for social housing and the creation of just under 600 of its promised 100,000 Kiwibuild houses, how far has it got with some of its major policies? Housing reporter Eva Corlett with this story.