Podcast appearances and mentions of Phil Twyford

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.

There's been growing debate concerning the status - and tax exemptions - of charitable groups. Followers of Destiny Church stormed an Auckland library to protest a drag storytime event and disrupted a rainbow parade last weekend, prompting calls to evaluate their status. Many have suggested Destiny Church's charity status should be revoked, with Labour's Phil Twyford writing to the Charities Regulator to get them struck off. Charity lawyer Sue Barker says the current Charities Act is not fit for purpose. "The original Charities Bill that went through Parliament in 2004 was widely regarded to be fundamentally flawed - and it was almost completely rewritten at the select committee stage and rushed through under urgency without any proper consultation." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour MP Phil Twyford has called for Destiny Church to be taken off the charities register after they targeted the LGBTQ community last weekend. Members of the church barricaded 30 people, including children, into a room during a drag-king event. Charites expert Michael Gousmet clears up confusion around the many Destiny Churches in NZ, and talks to Ryan Bridge about what justifies being deregistered. "What you've got to prove is serious wrongdoing ... the concept of serious wrongdoing is very, very hard to prove." LISTEN ABOVE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Labour Party says 18-year-old Daman Kumar should be given residence here. Labour's immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

The government, as you will have heard, is relaxing immigration settings to encourage migrants to invest in New Zealand businesses. While everyone was at the beach yesterday making the most of the golden weather the Prime Minister was suited and booted and spelling out the changes to the Active Investore Plus (AIP) visa category to the Auckland Business Chamber. The way it works is that there will be two “simplified” investment categories that will replace the existing “complex waiting system”, as set up by Labour. From April 1, the visa will be split into two categories: Growth and Balanced. The growth category applies to those making “higher- risk investments”, including those directly in local businesses and will require a minimum investment of $5 million for a period of at least three years. Visa holders in this category would have to reside in New Zealand for a minimum of 21 days. Not a long time. The balanced category focuses on mixed investment, allows for a minimum spend of $10 million over five years, and requires 105 days spent in New Zealand with the potential to get reductions if investments exceed $10 million. Several other changes have been made, including the stripping away of the visa's English language requirement, which demanded applicants have an English language background. Christopher Luxon said yesterday that the requirement had scared off many potential investors in recent years and the numbers certainly seem to support that. Since 2022, migrants entering New Zealand under the investor category have invested just $70 million. By contrast, in the two years prior to Covid-19 migrants invested $2.2 billion. There's a hell of a difference. However, Labour says by dumbing down the rules for the investor visa risks watering down the economic benefits for New Zealand. In his press release, Phil Twyford says “allowing people to buy residence by parking their money in a passive investment like property that won't generate jobs or sustainable economic development for New Zealand does not sit well”. And I guess that's the rub. Is it going to generate real jobs? Is it going to generate real growth? Or is it just going to be money washing around in the system? Simon Bridges talking to Andrew Dickens on Early Edition says it's a good move and most people don't realise just how important foreign investment is to the growing of the economy. “If you look at the results over time, under more permissive settings if you want to say that, the results pretty clear ... a lot of very wealthy came and I think history shows they invested in our best companies, our golf courses, they made bequeaths to our art galleries, they had an oversized contribution to New Zealand. Then we tightened them up, I think it was under the last Labour government. And we saw less of that right? You know, I think possibly New Zealanders don't quite understand how much good investment migrant settings can be really important to our economic success and we sure as hell need that at the moment.” Well, we certainly do. We certainly do need that kind of investment, but I think Simon Bridges from the Auckland Chamber is probably quite right. I don't understand how foreign investment is going to grow our economy. I can understand how bringing money in and just using it as an investment opportunity to offset your other investments if you're a wealthy foreign investor just allows you to slush money around. How does it grow it? It is it going to be the next Rocket Lab or the next Xero. How? Art galleries and golf courses are all very well and good, but they're lovely, gorgeous vanity projects and gifts to New Zealand from wealthy investors that don't really generate jobs. Where's the benefit to the ordinary Kiwi? So the government has banged the sign on the shop door and is sitting about telling the world we are open for business. But what sort of business? You know, where is it going to franchises? It going to nail bars? Is it going to fast food? Is it just money going round and round in a continual cycle within the economy? How do we ensure it's going into these businesses where we've got brilliant Kiwi entrepreneurs, brilliant startup businesses that need that extra capital to go to that next level? How do we direct it there? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So the Government's doing all sorts of things to try and get rich migrants into the country - except one thing. Which it should be doing. Former immigration minister Stuart Nash was on Newstalk ZB this morning saying it's time to lift the ban on foreigners buying houses. And I agree with him. The so-called 'golden visa' the Government announced yesterday is going to mean an end to the English language test for rich migrants. It will also give people residency if they invest $5 million over three years in a growth-type project or $10 million over five years in a more conservative operation. We're largely talking here about investing into a business, managed fund, commercial property or new property development. But if they want to live here - they have to rent. They're not allowed to buy. Which is a rule Winston Peters likes. But according to Stuart Nash earlier, it's a rule he might be prepared to see go. So too would the immigration lawyer saying today that, if these wealthy types can't buy a place here, then they're just not going to bother. Nick Mason's his name. And he's saying that if the Government's really serious about getting these people over here, then the ban on foreigners buying houses needs to be ditched. It came-in back in 2018. Remember that was around the time that Phil Twyford went through the phone book, noted down all the foreign-sounding names and claimed the place was being overrun by aliens. Which it wasn't. So eight or nine years down the track, this immigration lawyer is saying that it's a real sticking point and it will continue to be a sticking point if the Government doesn't get rid of it. He's saying: "Let's say we all have $15 million and I choose to invest that in New Zealand and I can get permanent residency. That's great, I can stay in New Zealand as long as I like but I can't own my own house until I've spent at least six months of a 12-month period here.” Now we might be thinking, what's wrong with waiting six months?. But that's the tricky bit. Nick Mason says people with this kind of money don't necessarily spend six months anywhere and he thinks if they can't buy a house on day one, then it will continue to be “a considerable barrier for many investors”. And let's get real. If a millionaire or a billionaire is coming here, they're not going to be buying the weatherboard and tile place or the brick and tile place from the 50s. They're not going to be denying first-home buyers their chance to own a place. So this thing about foreigners pricing New Zealanders out of the market - I don't actually believe that it's a thing. I reckon this ban is like something from the dark ages. It's based on paranoia and not much else. And it's not just Stuart Nash who thinks Winston Peters might not be as paranoid as he used to be about foreigners buying up all our houses and spoiling the quarter-acre dream. Nicola Willis was dropping similar hints on Newstalk ZB today as well. You can imagine what's going on behind the scenes though, can't you? Because this is something National and NZ First haven't agreed on in the past. NZ First has wanted it to stay and National has wanted it to go. I think it should go too. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The government is making it easier for wealthy foreign investors to get residency in New Zealand. Labour immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford spoke to Corin Dann.

Be very nervous. That's my advice regarding the Government's big re-set for state housing provider Kāinga Ora. Don't get me wrong. Some of the stuff it's doing makes perfect sense. But, overall, there's potential for it to be a real cluster. Let's start with the positives, though. It seemed to me that, under Labour, Kāinga Ora had become some sort of urban development agency. In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the pipedream old Phil Twyford had back in the day. Which, when you think about it, is somewhat ironic given it was Labour that came up with the plan in the first place to have the state provide a roof over the heads of people who can't afford their own place. You would think that Labour, of all parties, would have the basic gist of the state housing programme embedded in its DNA. So, tick: I'm all for housing minster Chris Bishop's plan to get Kāinga Ora to focus on its knitting - which is to provide houses and be a good landlord. The Government's also going to sell 800 or 900 state houses a year and demolish about 700. These will, generally, be the old-school weatherboard and tile jobs. The places that people talk about having “good bones”. Two hundred of the ones that are going to be sold are worth around $2 million each - which has more to do with their locations. Some of them are in places like Remuera. And that makes sense to me. Although, to be fair, Kāinga Ora has already been doing this. The Government's just getting it to do more sell-offs. And it's going to replace them with new builds. It's also going to do some alterations to other existing properties. And the upshot is - according to the Government, anyway - is the number of state houses will stay the same as it is now. Woohoo! Big deal! Because, when you think about the fact that there is a social housing waiting list with 20,000 people on it; plus 1,000 households living in emergency housing; the Government crowing about keeping the number of state houses the same is a pretty hollow. On top of that.. According to the last census, there are also 5,000 people living “without shelter”. So you take all of those numbers and, surely, it tells you that we should have more state houses than we do now. In fact, not should - we need to have more state houses than we have now. You'd think so. Well I would, anyway. Not Chris Bishop, though. Labour, of course, is ripping into the Government. Saying that this plan shows it's more interested in cost-cutting then housing people. Which I agree with. And it's one reason why I'm saying we should be very nervous about what the Government is doing. The other reason - in fact, the main reason why I'm saying we should be nervous about the Government's new plan for state housing - comes down to 14 seconds from the minister's interview with Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning. I heard him and thought 'hang on a minute'. He said: "Fifty percent of people on the register, they just need a one-bedroom unit. They don't need a three or four-bedroom unit, they just need a one-bedroom unit. And, actually, we can build that really cheaply and some of the stuff we're doing on the granny flats, for example, making it easier to build one or two-bedroom granny flats on properties will make a real difference there." He's right when he talks about what types of properties people need. This has been known for quite a while. Which is why we've seen Kāinga Ora demolish some of those big houses and replace them with more smaller homes on the same site. And the reason more and more people only need one bedroom is because we do not have as many large families anymore. Society is way different from back in the day when Michael Joseph Savage turned up at 12 Fife Street in Miramar in 1937 to open the very first state house. So yep I get all that. But when we get the housing minister talking about granny flats and state houses in the same breath, that's when we need to start getting nervous. Especially when you join the dots to the minister's announcement yesterday where he said: “Ministers are clear that Kāinga Ora should be building or acquiring simple, functional, warm and dry houses, as quickly and efficiently as possible.” Which, for me, is code for a whole bunch of one-bedroom granny flats built in a rip, shit and bust fashion. And we should be very nervous about that prospect. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renting in New Zealand today is more difficult than a decade ago, with fewer properties available, rents continuing to increase, and the quality of rental properties not much better, Shamubeel Eaqub says. However, the economist and co-author of the 2015 book Generation Rent, rethinking New Zealand's priorities, says it's not all bad news.Speaking in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's Of Interest podcast, Eaqub says the "lived reality of renting" has got harder over the past decade, but the regulatory settings are slowly improving."We need to ensure there's sufficient renters' rights ... because in New Zealand renting is so insecure and is such a problematic thing for so many people."One area giving Eaqub optimism is the rise of build to rent, where landlords must offer 10-year rental tenancy agreements."I've been a long time fan of institutional landlords rather than accidental landlords. When you are in the business of land lording, you want to have as little turnover as possible, whereas if you're an accidental landlord, you are much more interested in having quick turnover and being able to sell it off and all those other bits and pieces. The tenant is kind of incidental to the story and a bit of an annoyance, really."Eaqub says build to rent offers two types of security; tenure security and financial security."Because more often than not [build to rent] will come with contracts that will have a known level of [rental] increase for the next, say three years, so you can plan your finances. Whereas in a normal tenancy you have only certainty for 12 months and then you don't know what will happen next."Build to rent is adding new housing supply targeted for one particular use, which he says is unusual in NZ."If you look at what happens in New Zealand, or how it has generally happened in New Zealand in the past, it's the idea of filtering, right? You build houses which are for new homes and for rich people, and then the older homes that are secondhand, that kind of gets recycled into the rental market.""So I'm very encouraged to see this new supply that's coming in, that's very much targeted towards renting specifically. Because if you think about the pressures that we see in terms of emergency housing, social housing and all those kinds of things, that's happening because people are falling out of the rental market, because the rental market is short supplied and is very expensive. And so the more we can do to get more supply directly and retained in the rental market, the better it is," Eaqub says.He also talks about his disappointment at the fracturing of the Labour-National consensus on medium density residential standards (MDRS)."[The consensus] showed me for the first time the grown-up-ness of the way that our politicians can respond to structural problems, that we can put aside our political differences and just do something because it's the right thing to do, not because you're on one side of the House or the other. But that grown up moment of politics lasted very, very briefly, and we threw it away at the first chance when the election campaign started," Eaqub says.In the podcast Eaqub also talks about NIMBYS, the construction sector, what's driving rents, problems with local government, his views on rent controls, the accommodation supplement, emergency housing, what the rental market may be like for his kids' generation, and more.*You can find all episodes of the Of Interest podcast here.

I have got nothing bad to say about Chris Luxon demoting Melissa Lee and Penny Simmonds today. This is exactly the kind of performance management that the country deserves, don't you think? Obviously on a human level, I feel sorry for both of those ministers because this will humiliating - but don't tell me this wasn't deserved. Melissa Lee has done an appalling job of looking like she knows what she's doing with media, with senior commentators going on the radio to say - "She doesn't know what she's doing." And Penny Simmonds oversaw one of the biggest stuff ups for the Government, with the cutting of disability-related funding. So Melissa Lee's been stripped of the media portfolio and kicked out of Cabinet and Penny Simmonds has lost the disability portfolio - and she was already a minister outside of Cabinet. Now this does two things:  Firstly, it signals to voters that are there are standards in this Cabinet and incompetence will not be tolerated. That is a great signal to send to voters, it will likely lift the public regard of Cabinet. Secondly, it sends a very important message to other ministers that if you stuff up in public, this will happen to you. Luxon's made it clear we're going to see more of this as the Government goes along, and there is nothing like the threat of losing a job to make someone pull their socks up. What's happened today will shock a lot of people, because over the last few years we've got used to Prime Minsters just putting up with their ministers doing a bad job or behaving badly in public. Kiri Allan, Phil Twyford, Michael Wood, Clare Curran, even Nanaia Mahuta - the Foreign Minister who didn't like international travel. It took forever for Hipkins or Ardern to demote the under-performers, and they suffered for it - public opinion of them was tainted. That is clearly not how Chris Luxon operates, and it's a good thing. Because who doesn't want performance from the people that we pay to run the country? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has criticised the previous Labour government, saying they took immigration settings from way too restrictive to way too loose. Latest migration figures show a net gain of almost 120,000 people for the year to September. Luxon told Morning Report yesterday the the current settings unsustainable and immigration must be linked to the country's economic agenda and worker shortages.  Labour's immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Unanimous support for a Government motion calling on all parties involved in the Israel and Palestine conflict to take urgent steps towards a ceasefire. It came after the adoption of an amendment from Labour's Phil Twyford that a two-state solution must be maintained. Foreign Minister Winston Peters defended his motion, and hit out at fellow MPs. ZB political editor Jason Walls recapped the standout moments from this first session. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disappointment the Government hasn't gone further in its call for arms to be laid to rest in war-torn Gaza. Foreign minister Winston Peters put forward a motion calling on all parties involved in the conflict to take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire. It was supported by all parties. But Labour's immigration spokesman Phil Twyford says they urged the Government to agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire. "I mean for God's sake, 16,000 people have died, the incredible human suffering that's going on right now in Gaza- we got weasel words from the Prime Minster." LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour is calling on the government to help family members of New Zealand citizens in Gaza. Immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford says the government should be helping by adding names to the pre-approved lists at the Rafah border crossing, and should follow Australia's lead by offering visas so people can seek refuge with family here. Twyford spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

DescriptionWe're joined by Zarahn Southon to discuss the week's events relating to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We talk about Phil Twyford's fumble on the stage at last weekend's march, the attacks on Chlöe Swarbrick for the use of the phrase “From the River to the Sea”, and the appropriation of Māori indigeneity by people in the pro-Israel camp.This episode's co-hostsKyle, ZarahnTimestamps0:00 Introductions3:18 River to Sea and Protests and Speeches12:30 The Misrepresentation of Liberation Phrases19:27 The Media Approach and Zionism23:34 Maori Jewish Heritage in Aotearoa28:40 Indigenous Leaders Standing With Israel and Journalist Responsibility33:59 Demonising Resistance Groups in Media37:05 The Responsibility of Media Platforming46:42 Closing StatementsIntro/Outro by The Prophet MotiveSupport us here: https://www.patreon.com/1of200

New Zealanders have voted for change with National soon to be in charge of the country and ready to govern with ACT. Labour's promised surge never happened and red seats fell across the country, flipping not only to National, but to the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. New Zealand First is back in the house - set to take eight seats in Parliament. For National leader Christopher Luxon it was a night of celebrations.  Labour ended the night with 26.8 percent National took back 21 electorate seats won by the Labour Party in 2020. That included Mount Roskill, won by Carlos Cheung from former Labour Party minister Michael Wood. Te Pāti Māori also won three seats Labour won last time, with Nanaia Mahuta the biggest casualty, losing her Hauraki-Waikato seat to New Zealand's soon to be youngest MP, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke. Wood and Mahuta are two major casualties who won't be returning to Parliament, alongside another former minister in Phil Twyford. The Green Party added to Labour's pain, winning three electorate seats this year with Chloe Swarbrick retaining Auckland Central, while the capital turned Green with Wellington Central and Rongotai won by Tamatha Paul and Julie Anne Genter, respectively As well as Epsom, ACT also won Tāmaki. 

On today's First Up pod - the MP for Te Atatu, Phil Twyford, who represented the electorate when dairy owner Arun Kumar was killed in 2014 met his son on Sunday and is with us; Kaipara's mayor defends his decision to ban Karakia from council meetings; and as people are asked to reign in their spending to bring down inflation, we speak to a woman who doesn't need the Reserve Bank to tell her to have a thrifty Christmas - Lyn Webster from 'Pig Tits and Parsley Sauce' shares her pressie ideas. First Up - Voice of the Nathan!

Today on The Huddle: David Farrar from Kiwiblog and Cuira pollster and Ali Jones from Red PR joined in on a discussion about the following topics- and more! National has recently suggested military bootcamps to cut down on our youth crime problem- is this more trouble than it's worth?  Phil Twyford's hired a mediator to sort out Christchurch council not passing the housing intensification regulations, how necessary is this move? Wellington Council is ripping up a $900k cycleway after four years for drainage repairs following safety concerns. Is a four year lifespan for a cycleway good news? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Russell Burrell, a Youth Fusion associate, recently sat down with Minister Phil Twyford, from New Zealand, and Alyn Ware of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. Minister Twyford is currently New Zealand's Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control and State Minister for Trade and Export, and Alyn is PNND's Global Coordinator. In our chat with Minister Twyford and Alyn, we covered topics from their backgrounds to current state of international affairs and the disarmament movement. The most intriguing part of our chat, however, was the portion on Outer Space. In the context of today's global challenges, we discussed the difficulties and challenges outlined in the disarmament handbook, Assuring Our Common Future, and more, but the bulk of our discussion rested on New Zealand's own policies related to outer space; New Zealand has two primary policies, which Minister Twyford helped push forward: the 2017 Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Act and the 2019 Space Launch Guidelines, both of which aim to be in line with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. This podcast has been in support of the upcoming webinar “Ensuring that outer space remains a common good”, which takes place on September 29th, 2022. There will be two sessions: one at 7am CET for participants from the Indo-Pacific and Middle-East Regions, and one at 1pm CET for participants from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This webinar is in support of the disarmament handbook “Assuring Our Common Future”, which can be found at disarmamenthandbook.org. For more on the upcoming webinar, please see the PNND webpage or the IPU website's event page.

Every fortnight property expert and one of Wellington's biggest landlords Matt Ryan joins Nick Mills for Hot Property. This time he discusses changing mortgage repayment rates, how first-home buyers are feeling, Phil Twyford's housing fixes potentially coming to fruition and the Government's new KiwiSaver tax system.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand Herald Wellington business editor Jenée Tibshraeny joins Nick Mills for Tuesday Business. This week she discusses a Phil Twyford-era housing plan potentially making a debut in Porirua and the ongoing debate around whether mortgage rates have peaked.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The great tragedy, or sadness, for me out of the Nanaia Mahuta revelation is that we are being let down so badly by hopeless people.Forget politics and your personal view of the world, surely what you want in the leadership of your country is enquiring minds, experience, and institutional knowledge. You want people, who even though you may not agree with, at least you can see what they are trying to do and why.One of the great privileges of this job has been to meet everyone who has run this place for the past 40 years, basically from David Lange on.Lange was brilliant. He was bright, well-read, and articulate. Different world view from me, certainly, as it turned out from Sir Roger Douglas, but came to the job with some credentials. Sir Roger himself had a plan, had a vision, and saved this country from economic calamity by floating the dollar and cutting the subsidies.Ruth Richardson. Yes, a purist. But she could back the arguments up with fact, knew what she wanted to do, and had the intellectual heft to make it happen.Helen Clark. Say whatever you like about her, but you can't possibly argue she isn't connected, isn't well read, and understands vast swathes of the world and how it works.Sir John Key. Self-made, been out in the world, understood the markets, money, and therefore the economy like few others.And so they go.Fast forward to Mahuta, who can't even pick up a phone. She was an appointment you knew from day one was odd. You wondered, "How the hell did that happen?" And now, we have evidence of the greatest crime of all, whether in politics or not, the lack of an inquiring mind.The best excuse they can come up with is that's not the way it's done.What crap.What insulting, condescending, and embarrassing crap. When you are in charge, it's done the way you want it done.People who can't be bothered do my head in. I detest laziness. The higher up the pole you are, the more you can do, and that's a privilege. What a thrill to be able to make a difference, to change a course, to be hungry, to grasp the detail, to immerse yourself into something you can affect and improve.And yet look at them.Clare Curran, hopeless and gone. David Clark was sacked for being an idiot. Kris Faafoi is asleep at the wheel and desperate to get out. Phil Twyford is an abject failure. Poto Williams is a disgrace hiding behind a lack of interest and Mahuta-type excuses about operational matters. Mahuta herself is too lazy and disinterested to even pick up a phone.For those of us who long for better, this is a shabby and incompetent let down. Being useless is one thing, but being lazy and useless is the ultimate crime.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An intern in the office of the MP for Te Atatū, Phil Twyford, interviews him about his job and the decision-making process behind his job as a minister.

A rural medical centre that pleaded with the Immigration Minister to help retain their young migrant GP is baffled to see residency reportedly granted to convicted criminals.Ōtaki GP Dr Harding Richards, originally from Wales, left New Zealand in June after a year waiting in limbo to lodge a residency application.Because of Covid's impact on the immigration office, the Government suspended Expressions of Interest (EOI) selections for the skilled migrant category (SMC) last year, closing a pathway to residency for many migrants.Reeling from the loss of the young doctor – who had 1354 patients registered to him - Ōtaki Medical Practice was forced to close its doors to new patients over a busy winter.Last week Newshub reported Associate Immigration minister Phil Twyford had granted residency to three convicted criminals – with 10 convictions between them - since December.Ōtaki Medical Centre Chief executive Kiwa Raureti told Nick Mills he was baffled when he saw the news.'It was really heartbreaking,' he said. Raureti said if they cannot get residency for Richards and other migrant GPs the Ōtaki Medical Centre is at risk. 

In his capacity as Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford has granted residency to three convicted criminals. They have ten convictions between them: One conviction for producing a false passport, one for unlawfully being in an enclosed yard or area, six for drink driving, one for dangerous driving and one for driving while disqualified. To be fair we don't know the full details. These could be really old convictions, all three people might have found God since, changed their lives and become wonderful, contributing members of society   Or not. But either way, the problem is priorities. The government's rule is actually that it's NOT giving residency to people. It stopped taking applications in April last year. Which means a whole bunch of skilled migrants that we badly need to keep are leaving. They've had a guts full of waiting for Labour to give them permission to stay here.  And among them are foreign doctors and nurses who are moving home:  The very people we are going to need when Covid eventually spreads through the community. We know of a number of doctors who've gone home to the UK, but one in particular is important here: Harding Richards, the Welsh doctor, who was in the Otaki. He tried and tried and the Government wouldn't give him residency which meant he couldn't buy a house, he couldn't set up Kiwisaver, and he had no idea whether he would ever be allowed to stay in New Zealand make this his home. So he went back to Wales three months ago, leaving behind 1300 patients. Get this: his boss wrote to a Government Minister about this, asking for help in getting Dr Richards residency so he could stay. That Minister wrote back and said no. That minister was Phil Twyford. So Phil: not prepared to use his power to give a doctor residency but more than prepared to his power to give three criminals residency. How's that for priorities? 

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.

The government deserves a huge amount of credit for its decision on light rail. That wouldn't have been an easy announcement to make yesterday: that you're again stopping an already massively-delayed project, going back to the drawing board and starting again. That is essentially a public admission that they've wasted the last four years, and they know that that will attract ridicule. So credit to them and especially to new transport minister Michael Wood for having the courage to do that.That's a hell of a lot better than the alternative, which is what Phil Twyford was doing: forcing a bad piece of infrastructure on Auckland that many Aucklanders didn't want or weren't sure of.My opposition to this has never been to the idea of rapid transport to the airport. That's a great idea and something Auckland needs.My opposition was to Twyford's idea. It made no sense to plough the light rail down Dominion Road, which is busy enough without a train taking up space It was never going to be up and running in four years.It was almost certainly going to cost more than - maybe even double – the $6 billion the government said.Wood says he's open to rethinking the whole thing. The route might change, it might go underground, they're open to reconsidering ownership.Obviously, my hope might be completely misplaced and we end up with another terrible idea, but I'm going to give Wood the benefit of the doubt for now.And I'm going to give him the credit for doing the hard thing politically and starting again - because this is an important piece of infrastructure and if we get this right it'll invaluable to our biggest city.   

This story about Ricardo Menéndez-March travelling to Mexico has been completely blown out of proportion. If the facts are as we know them that he went back to Mexico to look after his sick dad and stepmother, and did that with the blessing of the Green Party and there are no other secret surprises to be learned, then what has he done so wrong as to warrant all this condemnation? There is nothing wrong with him travelling overseas. Yes, he did that despite the government's SafeTravel advice for Kiwis not to travel. But it's only advice, it's not a ban. There are thousands of people travelling in and out of New Zealand at the moment.  In just the last six months 7273 either came to NZ and then left again, or left and came back.  So he's hardly unique in what's done. And these people aren't just travelling because they have to – because of illness, death or work.  Plenty of them are travelling because they want to go on holiday, and often that holiday is here in New Zealand before they head back to London or whatever other cold spot they've come from. Now personally, I don't like that this is happening, that people who want to go on holidays are taking up spots that could go to skilled workers we need, but those are the rules and as long as he's acting within the rules, he's done nothing wrong. If we don't want this kind of travel, then let's impose a ban.  It's not a crazy idea. The Australians have done it.  Once you're in Australia you can't leave.  But unless we actually go to that step of preventing travel, people are able to travel. And as for the fact that he's missed parliamentary sitting days.  Let's get a grip on that too.  He's missed three sitting days.  By the time he gets out of the MIQ hotel and then does his extra cautionary isolation at home, he'll have missed another three sitting days. That is hardly the crime of the century.  MPs miss sitting days all the time.The Prime Minister is a case in point.  She's hardly ever in the house on a Thursday, including today. Phil Twyford missed all of parliament's sitting days last year after the election.  This week was his first back in the house since the election. I'm not advocating MPs not turning up for work.  I'm just pointing out it's not unusual and should be seen in the context of why, which is that there was – as far as we're told – a family emergency. We can hardly be so cruel as to insist Ricardo Menendez-March turn up for the first day of parliament given a family crisis on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Let's be reasonable.  He acted within the rules, he says there was a family crisis, unless there's more to this than that, I think we should give him a break. 

I see Trevor Mallard's started his back channel PR campaign to try to convince everyone he's really a good sort after all.He's told the NZ Herald he fought to have a clause included in the agreement he made with the man he wrongly labelled a rapist which allowed him to still be accountable to parliamentary processes like select committees and written questions. What a hero! Would've obviously been better if he fought his own urge to accuse someone of a crime they didn't commit.Anyway, I guess what we're all fascinated by now is whether he will survive in his job. And I suspect he will because he's got the backing of the Prime Minister.That could change. He might stuff up tomorrow's select committee appearance badly and lose her backing. National might have some real damaging information tomorrow - I doubt that, but if they did, that would change things. And maybe over summer she could lean on him to resign.But my gut says she's going to keep protecting him, based solely on the fact that that is what she always does. She always protects her mates longer than she should.She protected Clare Curran for ages, Phil Twyford, David Clark, Iain Lees-Galloway, the guys at Labour Party headquarters after they kept the Labour summer sex scandal from her. And then only got rid of people when it became absolutely untenable to keep protecting them.And if past behaviour is anything to by she'll protect Trevor Mallard longer than she should, until he basically starts costing them political points, which I think is almost certain given that the opposition will target him next year.The weirdest thing is that the Prime Minister absolutely refuses to use her political capital to make progressive and structural changes that are good for New Zealand, but is happy to burn it on protecting her mates when she shouldn't.  

I see Trevor Mallard's started his back channel PR campaign to try to convince everyone he's really a good sort after all.He's told the NZ Herald he fought to have a clause included in the agreement he made with the man he wrongly labelled a rapist which allowed him to still be accountable to parliamentary processes like select committees and written questions. What a hero! Would've obviously been better if he fought his own urge to accuse someone of a crime they didn't commit.Anyway, I guess what we're all fascinated by now is whether he will survive in his job. And I suspect he will because he's got the backing of the Prime Minister.That could change. He might stuff up tomorrow's select committee appearance badly and lose her backing. National might have some real damaging information tomorrow - I doubt that, but if they did, that would change things. And maybe over summer she could lean on him to resign.But my gut says she's going to keep protecting him, based solely on the fact that that is what she always does. She always protects her mates longer than she should.She protected Clare Curran for ages, Phil Twyford, David Clark, Iain Lees-Galloway, the guys at Labour Party headquarters after they kept the Labour summer sex scandal from her. And then only got rid of people when it became absolutely untenable to keep protecting them.And if past behaviour is anything to by she'll protect Trevor Mallard longer than she should, until he basically starts costing them political points, which I think is almost certain given that the opposition will target him next year.The weirdest thing is that the Prime Minister absolutely refuses to use her political capital to make progressive and structural changes that are good for New Zealand, but is happy to burn it on protecting her mates when she shouldn't.  

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she has 'huge faith' in her new Cabinet, which has been described as the most diverse in New Zealand's history. Māori now make up a quarter of the Cabinet, 40 percent are women, and several are queer - including the deputy Prime Minister. It's seen the rise of some MPs like Nanaia Mahuta, who will be the first woman to take on the Foreign Affairs role, while others have seen their prospects diminished, like Phil Twyford who will be a minister outside Cabinet, or Jenny Salesa who no longer holds any portfolios. Michael Wood, Jan Tinetti and Kiri Allen all picked up roles and brand new MP Ayesha Verrall has been parachuted straight into Cabinet. David Clark and Meka Whaitiri are both back after previous demotions. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report thought hard about each and every decision made about who would get what portfolio. "I can speak to each of those individual decisions, whether it's Phil, whether it's the second chance there of Meka [Whaitiri], those, again, I give clear direction to my ministers on what I expect to see and then I make decisions based on that." Overall though she is happy with the team, even if it will include some fairly new ministers. "It is not just whether or not you've been a long-standing politician that brings what you need to be a well performing Cabinet minister. It takes much more than that. "I have huge faith in this team because the majority have had experience in politics, but they also bring good solid life experience outside of this place and that's exactly what a good cabinet should do."

Well what a relief Friday was.The right result in the cannabis referendum – although it’s preliminary and given how this year’s gone I wouldn’t rule anything out in terms of upsets or dramatic swings... it could still tip over to a yes with specials, but it’s a very very long shot.Chloe says she’s proud of her campaign, but critics would argue she didn’t have one – apart from her appearing on every media platform she could. For a Greens backed referendum it probably needed more Greens than just her pushing it.I found the pro-campaign heavily one sided. It was bolstered by the Drug Foundation and Helen Clark... all of whom put out endless amounts of information, or should I say misinformation – from it being about medicinal, to it coming out of the hands of gangs -which was never going to happen. There was a lot of propaganda peddled and I worried New Zealanders would fall for it if they didn’t do their own research. The preliminary results reassuringly show Kiwis didn’t fall for it. Although Chloe argues it’s on a knife edge – 53% to 46% is not a knife edge.. it’s a gap of 7 percent. She also lashed out at Jacinda Ardern for not stating which way she’d vote, that in some way the acolytes of Jacinda would've followed her like sheep if she’d promoted a yes vote. But the PM didn’t want to alienate centrist voters, she sat on the fence with it because that’s what populists do. Jacinda wanted to win votes more than she wanted to win the cannabis referendum and that’s the result she got.Decriminalisation may’ve worked, but I think legalization was a bridge too far. I don’t know why we’d want to rush something as serious as this, I would’ve thought waiting to see how other countries go, would be the smart move. Why would we want our little nation to be guinea pigs for something as serious as drug reform?But the fact it got pitched in the first place as a do or die ultimatum of the Greens supporting the Coalition government last time round, shows the sort of stuff the Greens are obsessed with. It only reinforces how important it is they’re nowhere near the reins of power this time round. And Jacinda Ardern knows it. The greatest thing those soft centre voters offered the country by ticking red this year to keep the Greens out, is that we don’t have Julie Anne Genter in charge of anything. For that we should be eternally grateful.The new cabinet line-up gets announced today and you have to wonder if Phil Twyford will remain in charge of economic development. Hopefully he doesn’t, but the PM seems to back him, even though he’s failed at pretty much everything he’s turned his hand to. And that will be the true test of this new government… how much progress actually gets made, how much delivery we actually see, how much they abandon ‘transformation’ for treading water. But also, how much hustle they put up with from the Greens… who’re still promising to push their wealth tax agenda. It’ll be an interesting 3 years. I’m just grateful there won’t be more Kiwis stoned than usual to witness it.

Being on a week’s leave was weird, mainly because I didn’t have to listen to the news, or read it, or watch it, and what I discovered in having a week out of the daily news hustle, is that I didn’t miss anything. It’s all predictable at the moment.This election build up has been one of the most boring ever.  All favourable coverage has been given to the incumbent. The usual predictable stories of throngs gathering to fan girl Jacinda Ardern, much the same way Key was mobbed when he was Prime Minister.It's a thing we do, the cult of celebrity is alive and well. We see a familiar face, a camera crew, a security entourage, we go nuts. I’m not sure how much of it has to do with the policies, the party or the person; it seems we just get excited by a fuss in our main street and we go crazy for selfies.But you have to hand it to Labour, they’re marketing has been slick. Not entirely a surprise given their leader is a communications graduate – making things look good is what they do, tapping into the right places and saying the right things is something they’ve nailed, and National’s failed.If ever a party smacked of boomerism and outdated profile, it’s the current Nats. The in fighting they haven’t managed to stop, the leaking, the undermining of their leader who to be fair to Judith, has worked her butt off and thrown everything at it.But I can’t help think she’s been undermined every step of the way. She’s been surrounded by lightweights. From the bad advice early on to tone herself down, to missing accurate timings for key diary appointments, to the drop kicks in her caucus who still think it’s advantageous to leak and whine. They look shambolic and for that reason alone they don’t deserve to win.They haven’t proved anything, and they needed to. They needed to look fit to govern, cohesive and a solid alternative to a party big on buzzwords, short on delivery.Labour, a party arguably more stacked with lightweights, has been smart enough to keep them all at arms length. Anyone seen Phil Twyford, Kelvin Davis or David Clark this campaign? Me neither. It’s Jacinda 24/7. She’s hanging on every billboard in every mall, she’s all over your social media feed, and if she isn’t, her media savvy fiancée is. She’s all the places National isn’t.If the budgets for campaign marketing are the same, Labour wins for spending theirs more wisely in better places – it’s saturation coverage. And that’s before we get to the adoring media. How can Judith compete with that? She’s given it her best shot, I genuinely feel sorry for her. She needs the Denise Lee’s of this world like a hole in the head.But the big winner out of all of this? Chris Luxon. He'll be making mental notes here. Who to surround yourself with, who not to, how to play a campaign, how much advice to take, how much you trust your gut, how to unite a caucus. I don't doubt he'll be raring to go as soon as he gets the opportunity.

James Tapp talked to Trusts' Arena CEO Mark Gosling about the future of the events' industry. Justin spoke to Labour's Phil Twyford about the party's policy on rail. On their weekly chat, Justin and Justice Minister Andrew Little talked about the Pike River mine, rent freezes, a Chinese database containg the contact information more than 700 prominent New Zealanders, and a Labour pledge to give government contracters the living wage. Justin also chatted with Zoe on Neighbourhood Watch about a campaign to make the aboriginal flag free for public use, a lawsuit against the Victoria government over the legality of the Melbourne curfew, and a failed rocket launch in South Australia.

Justin spoke to Labour's transport spokesperson Phil Twyford on the party's stance on rail.

The government is announcing this morning that it's altering the rules around its $42 billion spend on goods and services. One-hundred-and-thirty-eight departments and agencies must now actively consider how they can create quality jobs when making decisions around spending. An emphasis will be placed on employment for workers displaced by Covid-19, and traditionally disadvantaged groups such as Maori, Pasifika, people with disabilities and women. There'll also be a greater focus on sustainable construction practices. Phil Twyford is Economic Development Minister. He speaks to Susie Ferguson.

As New Zealand marked 100 days without community transmission of Covid-19, National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee says the Government's warning of an approaching second wave is "very puzzling".The Ministry of Health announced the milestone on Sunday, with no further new cases in of the deadly virus reported for the fourth consecutive day.There remain 23 active cases of coronavirus nationally, all in managed isolation facilities, while the number of New Zealand's confirmed cases remains at 1219.Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield thanked every person who had been tested for Covid-19, saying Sunday marked a "significant milestone"."However, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," he said in a statement."We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand. Every person in the team of five million has a role to play in this."But Brownlee told Newstalk ZB the Government's warning of an imminent second wave of Covid-19 in New Zealand was "puzzling"."People have made a big effort on this and they expect to get all the relative freedom," he said."None of us are complacent about it, I believe, it is something that is going to be with the world from this point on."In recent days Bloomfield urged Kiwis to "be ready" and have a stock of masks on hand in household emergency kits should we see an outbreak similar to the one sweeping through Victoria.Health Minister Chris Hipkins last week announced Kiwis would be encouraged to wear masks in public places if New Zealand moved back to level 2, and encouraged them to prepare some in the meantime.And public health expert Michael Baker suggested a mask day – in which New Zealanders all wear masks to work, as a trial run for a time when Covid might return.The advice comes after months of officials saying there was not yet enough evidence that mask use protected the public from Covid-19.Hipkins said the evidence had changed, and that "we are now in a different situation to where we were previously".After renewed warnings from Bloomfield in the last week about a potential outbreak, Brownlee called on the Government to "come clean" on the rate of Covid-19 infections in New Zealand."We have had three months of no community transmission, then inexplicably, the director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield tells the nation that a second wave was a likely prospect," he said in a statement."It doesn't add up. Why announce this now when there are few cases?"But surges of Covid-19 have been seen recently in Victoria, Hong Kong and Vietnam - all regions which had previously kept the virus contained.On Sunday Victoria recorded the highest number of people to die in a single day in Australia since the pandemic began - 17 people, with another 394 infections announced.Of the new cases announced, 43 people were in intensive care, and 26 were on ventilators.Meanwhile on the heels of the National Party's list release, Brownlee said he believed National MP Alfred Ngaro could beat Labour's Phil Twyford to return to Parliament.Ngaro, who dropped 10 places on the list to Number 30, will almost certainly have to oust Twyford in Te Atatu to return."I think he can win that seat," he told Newstalk ZB."You're up against Phil Twyford, who, despite being the architect of much of the non-delivered policies from Labour – KiwiBuild and light rail, etc - is number four, so he's going to be in Parliament anyway."He is also confident that Christoper Luxon, who is at number 61, can win his seat of Botany. 

As New Zealand marked 100 days without community transmission of Covid-19, National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee says the Government's warning of an approaching second wave is "very puzzling".The Ministry of Health announced the milestone on Sunday, with no further new cases in of the deadly virus reported for the fourth consecutive day.There remain 23 active cases of coronavirus nationally, all in managed isolation facilities, while the number of New Zealand's confirmed cases remains at 1219.Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield thanked every person who had been tested for Covid-19, saying Sunday marked a "significant milestone"."However, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," he said in a statement."We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand. Every person in the team of five million has a role to play in this."But Brownlee told Newstalk ZB the Government's warning of an imminent second wave of Covid-19 in New Zealand was "puzzling"."People have made a big effort on this and they expect to get all the relative freedom," he said."None of us are complacent about it, I believe, it is something that is going to be with the world from this point on."In recent days Bloomfield urged Kiwis to "be ready" and have a stock of masks on hand in household emergency kits should we see an outbreak similar to the one sweeping through Victoria.Health Minister Chris Hipkins last week announced Kiwis would be encouraged to wear masks in public places if New Zealand moved back to level 2, and encouraged them to prepare some in the meantime.And public health expert Michael Baker suggested a mask day – in which New Zealanders all wear masks to work, as a trial run for a time when Covid might return.The advice comes after months of officials saying there was not yet enough evidence that mask use protected the public from Covid-19.Hipkins said the evidence had changed, and that "we are now in a different situation to where we were previously".After renewed warnings from Bloomfield in the last week about a potential outbreak, Brownlee called on the Government to "come clean" on the rate of Covid-19 infections in New Zealand."We have had three months of no community transmission, then inexplicably, the director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield tells the nation that a second wave was a likely prospect," he said in a statement."It doesn't add up. Why announce this now when there are few cases?"But surges of Covid-19 have been seen recently in Victoria, Hong Kong and Vietnam - all regions which had previously kept the virus contained.On Sunday Victoria recorded the highest number of people to die in a single day in Australia since the pandemic began - 17 people, with another 394 infections announced.Of the new cases announced, 43 people were in intensive care, and 26 were on ventilators.Meanwhile on the heels of the National Party's list release, Brownlee said he believed National MP Alfred Ngaro could beat Labour's Phil Twyford to return to Parliament.Ngaro, who dropped 10 places on the list to Number 30, will almost certainly have to oust Twyford in Te Atatu to return."I think he can win that seat," he told Newstalk ZB."You're up against Phil Twyford, who, despite being the architect of much of the non-delivered policies from Labour – KiwiBuild and light rail, etc - is number four, so he's going to be in Parliament anyway."He is also confident that Christoper Luxon, who is at number 61, can win his seat of Botany. 

text by Belinda Feek and Michael NeilsonA new report that prefers Manukau Harbour over Northland for a new port is being slammed with the Government being urged to get back the $2 million that it paid for it.The Government officially today released the major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland's freight operations, but deferred any decision on the issue to future government.While Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has welcomed the report, that recommends relocating the port within the region, the author of the Government's original report, and others in the shipping industry, say Manukau is not an option due to both logistical and ecological issues.Wayne Brown authored the first report - Upper North Island Supply Chain Study (UNISCS) - and said those involved with the latest investigation should give the taxpayers their $2m back."I'm very disappointed because the Manukau harbour is a very shallow harbour with a dangerous shifting sand bar at the entrance ... and the Maritime Insurance won't insure boats going in there, so we didn't spend any time on that."It's on the wrong side of the coast. The ships like to come down the other side because it's between China and South America."Brown, who is chairman of Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, was also annoyed to last night discover the authors of the $2m report - Sapere - were health economists, and not involved in the transport sector unlike himself and the other 80 who contributed to his findings.He was also aggrieved at not being given a heads-up about the findings from the Government."This is a disgrace ... The Prime Minister's done a good job of Covid but she's got to get rid of that idiot [Twyford]," a "grumpy" Brown told the Herald today.His report recommended the port should be moved to Northland, starting now and finishing within the next 10-15 years.This was largely due to a loss of social license to operate and expand further into the harbour, "intolerable congestion" around the port, and the opportunity to re-develop the area along with boosting regional economic development in Northland.Brown told the Herald there was important land at the port that was being used as a dumping ground for empty shipping containers up to six storeys high.The 2017 Coalition Agreement between New Zealand First and Labour agreed to"commission a feasibility study on the options for moving the Ports of Auckland,including giving Northport serious consideration".Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones told Newsroom they had delivered what was promised in that coalition agreement."However, the ability to find consensus about where, when and how the port would be relocated ... I have not been able to get it over the line."Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Transport Minister Phil Twyford approved $2m for the Sapere report, after stating Brown's study had left unanswered questions about alternatives and timeframes.On the Sapere report, Twyford said the port issue had significant fiscal, economic, social and environmental implications.But as policy analysis was still to be completed, with officials focused on Covid-19 response, any decision would be deferred until after the election."Because officials have been focused on Covid-19 response and recovery work they have not yet been able to provide advice on Sapere's assessment of the benefits, costs, risks and uncertainties associated with the options."The new report considered five relocation options: Northport, Manukau, the Firth of Thames, the Port of Tauranga and a shared increase in capacity at both Northport and the Port of Tauranga.It found the port's current downtown Auckland location had about 30 years' capacity and there was a 10-15 year window for making a final decision on relocation, which meant it was not as urgent as the previous finding.For all five options, engineering and consenting could be difficult but Manukau Harbour was the highest-ranked option, with th...

Police are now involved in a fast-moving scandal swirling around Team New Zealand and its events arm, America's Cup Events. Investigators are working with overseas authorities to get to the bottom of an alleged Hungarian bank account scam that targeted the sailing syndicate. Meanwhile, the unnamed contractor who tipped the Crown off to alleged mishandling of public funds earmarked for the event has gone to ground. Checkpoint reporter Nick Truebridge filed this report.

Two America's Cup syndicates have been granted special exemptions to get through our closed borders, but international spectators might be watching from their couches rather than New Zealand waters because of Covid-19. American Magic will bring 206 workers and family members with it while INEOS Team UK is bringing 87 workers, including a nanny and 128 family members. They are expected to stay on for nine months, with the final America's Cup race due to be held in March 2021. The government says the syndicates alone will pump $100 million into the economy but any thoughts of equaling past gains would be "heroic". And super yachts bringing spectators and other overseas visitors might still be locked out due to our strict coronavirus border controls, which basically mean only New Zealand citizen or permanent residents are allowed into the country - without exemptions. Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says the Cup syndicates had to meet a tough set of conditions.

Green Party co-leader and government minister James Shaw admits he's always disappointed in New Zealand First, after RNZ revealed the coalition partner won't support Auckland light rail before the election. The project, which would see light rail built from Auckland city to the airport, was a core promise of the Labour Party going into the 2017 election. But it is a promise that's set to be broken as Labour would need coalition partner New Zealand First to get it through Cabinet - and that won't happen before this year's election. RNZ political reporter Katie Scotcher has the story.

The Auckland light rail project looks dead in the water with coalition partner New Zealand First refusing to back it before the election. The National Party says the Government has broken a key promise by not delivering light rail in Auckland. While the official line is that negotiations are ongoing, RNZ understands New Zealand First will not back the proposal and has sent a letter to the Transport Minister Phil Twyford saying just that. RNZ has been told New Zealand First does not support the cost or scale of the plan to build light rail from the city to the airport, as well the potential involvement of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The opposition transport spokesperson Chris Bishop is demanding Twyford release the letter from New Zealand First - and told RNZ political reporter Katie Scotcher he's confident it contains bad news. Twyford declined to be interviewed when contacted by RNZ.

The skipper of the UK's America's Cup sailing team says he may not be able to prepare properly if the crew can't arrive in New Zealand soon. Sir Ben Ainslie is just one of the world's top sailors clamouring for precious visa exemptions of the type rolled out by the government to the Avatar film crew. The Economic Development Minister, Phil Twyford, says he expects applications related to the America's Cup to land on his desk soon. RNZ's Mackenzie Smith reports.

While our borders remain basically closed to every one but New Zealand citizens and permanent residents to prevent Covid-19 cases being imported, Hundreds of foreigners have actually been allowed into the country under special exemptions. More than 2,200 workers have been granted exemptions - some of them on economic grounds. So what's the criteria and what industries are deemed essential? Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford talks to Lisa Owen.

So today's the big day - Level 2 AND Budget day.The Budget's called ‘Rebuilding Together’, should we be afraid that the last time the government used the word 'build' it was Kiwibuild and look how that ended.The other concern is that up until now the health response has been run very tightly by 3 people, Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield. We know just how tightly that’s been controlled thanks to the leaked government memo.But yesterday the PM seemed to broaden her church, she used the term.. “My team and I,” in regards taking the country forward economically.So the 'team' who've largely been silenced in the shadows, are now coming off the bench for this bit.Hmmm, let's look at that team.. rebuilding our economy.. Phil Twyford.. Julie Anne Genter, Kelvin Davis, famous cyclist David Clark.. Ian Lees Galloway. Take a deep breath and process that. Ask yourself why they're usually kept out of the spotlight.And although the PM calls this a 'jobs' budget, she also made reference to needing "our welfare safety net.”“We need the strengthening blanket of support that government is able to provide”.. she said.She mentioned areas of focus.. “Poverty, climate change, low paid jobs.. domestic manufacturing" - that's a sop to Winston surely.But you see where this is going.Imperative to the government was getting the uproar over funerals and tangi out of the way so it didn’t cloud today's budget news. And this is a win for the little guy – a win for those who choose to push back and challenge authority instead of rolling over like doormats and accepting it.The spectacular back-down within 24 hours on funerals and tangi shows how much of this is put together on the fly.The PM was asked how they got it so wrong. How they could cause grieving families so much hurt? How they could be so inconsistent?She didn't answer any of that directly, she instead acknowledged the pain Covid had created.She referred to us “not being out of the woods yet."Which seemed at odds with the Director General of Health who in the same space declared the use of PPE gear for hairdressers not compulsory because, as he said.. “we are on top of the virus, the risk of it out there is very low.”So it would appear the risk Covid presents can be argued whichever way suits your political bent at the time.But back to the budget.Bravo to New Zealanders in obeying this government's Health response and getting us this far.Today's budget will help us now weigh up whether we want this team carrying us through the economic response too.

I said last Friday that Kris Faafoi would not offer to resign, that the PM would neither sack nor censure him. I’m not any kind of wise soothsayer, it was the most obvious prediction ever.I don’t even know why the media bothered putting up the obviously ridiculous questions of “will she sack him?” and “will he resign?” Don’t waste your breath. The answer is of course not.Why? Well, look at the pattern, look at the form. Look at the precedents set.Iain Lees Galloway, Clare Curran (who in the end sacked herself given the PM wouldn’t), Meka Whaitiri, Phil Twyford, Shane Jones, Winston Peters. Any number of ministers in her cabinet who’ve breached protocols, behaved dodgy, skirted around conflicts of interest, interfered where they shouldn’t have.  Or in Twyford’s case, just been incompetent.It really doesn’t matter what the offence, this is not a ‘hold them to account’ leadership.  It’s not an accountable government.It’s self-proclaimed year of delivery delivered us plenty of headlines and scandals, just not much substance.So it doesn’t matter that Kris Faafoi who now says he “did a dumb thing” trying to help a mate with an immigration case: “bro, bro, you’re whanau bro”, no that’s all bye the bye. It was dumb, nothing to see here, let’s all move on.And in the blink of an eye, the media has.Nick Smith was not so lucky back in 2012 when under John Key he faced intense pressure to resign after he intervened for a friend in an ACC claim. He had to go, and did.But this is a new world order, this is a new and different government with a new approach.Mistakes can be made and wrists will be slapped, wet bus tickets issued. Pats on the head, and “aren’t you a naughty boy then?” seem to suffice.No wonder there is a long line of cabinet ministers in this government behaving, shall we say, ‘loosely’.  Why not when there are no consequences?  If you run a loose ship, don’t be surprised when all the sailors are drunk.They seem to line up outside the PM’s office for a quick, or should I say ‘stern’, if we can believe that, telling off, and back to business as usual.Here's my question: Is anyone in this government taking anything seriously?  Just wondering, because it is after all a country we’re running here.I’d hazard a guess that things might tighten up a bit next year, being election year and all, because if not, how can any of us be expected to take seriously a government who won’t even take itself seriously?

Thousands of people are getting their first glimpse inside Auckland's City Rail Link tunnels.Only 10,000 people have tickets for today's highly anticipated Walk the Tunnels event, with many more missing out on tickets.Most of the first people inside the tunnel are families. Many are taking large family photographs at the deepest accessible point.Access is being staggered, with people being given times to view throughout the day.Transport minister Phil Twyford was among the first inside the tunnel at 8am.Sean Sweeney, CEO of the City Rail Link looks through the tunnels under Albert St ahead of the Open Day. Photo / Greg BowkerHe said he liked what he saw, and it was good to see progress on a key part of the Government's transport plan.City Rail Link Ltd Chief Executive Sean Sweeney said he had been positively surprised by the unprecedented interest in the event.He said while there would not be another Open Day in the near future, he was hoping for further open days for other parts of the project before the City Rail Link is completed. 

- 1 News Colmar Brunton poll results - Phil Twyford on the Urban Development Authority -Jami-Lee Ross takes a tour through Botany - Chief Judge Heemi Taumaunu on transforming justice

On Newshub Nation:On a stunning week in US politics, we speak to US Ambassador Scott Brown, just back from facilitating the meeting between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and US President Donald Trump.Then, the head of our National Cyber Policy Office, Paul Ash, takes us behind the scenes of the Christchurch Call.And in Backstory, we meet the MP who acted in a drama club with Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi.Then, on The Pitch, National Party transport spokesperson Chris Bishop has five minutes to convince you he’d make a better Transport Minister than Phil Twyford.And as always we are joined by our panel: Sunday Star Times editor Tracy Watkins, Thomas Pryor from Sherson Willis, and Political commentator David Slack.

What a rare and exciting event it was this morning to hear Phil Twyford on the Newstalk ZB breakfast show.  It’d been so long I’d almost forgotten his voice.So when I walked into work I asked the breakfast producer how long it had been since Phil was on his programme.  He looked back on his records and by his reckoning Phil was last on the programme in February on the Kiwibuild reset. 7 months ago.This despite repeated invitations from the breakfast show.  Most recently to answer question about the support the government can give to the retailers affected by the rail infrastructure development.But he never comes on.  Until the day when Mike Hosking is away and Mike Yardley is hosting.Now we don’t know whether that was purposeful.  Whether when we asked him to talk to us his press secretary asked who with and as soon as it was revealed that it was Yardley not Hosking he agreed, having not agreed for 7 months.Whatever the truth it’s just a bad look and politics is all about looks.  The most open, honest and transparent government now chooses when and where and with whom they will be open honest and transparent with.Meanwhile what was he saying.  Well on the compensation for the retailers we heard nothing.  He talked about material support, which means exactly what.  Financial support is still being considered and will be announced in a couple of months.  If Hosking was on he would have blown his fu fu valve.Secondly on the procurement rules to help the struggling construction industry he was asked how it worked and he replied by telling us why it’s needed which we already know. And on it went. It was PR politician speak and it’s tiring.So I took a  look at the new procurement guidelines on the government website.  The rules are there to support government agencies to improve the fairness and efficacy of their construction  projects.  If the project is over 50 million dollars then they have to engage with the Infrastructure Transactions Unit.But at the end of the day the guidelines are just some guidelines.  It’s a checklist and there’s no talk about how this will be enforced or how it will stop private companies continuing to lo-ball for government work.It’s a suggestion at the end of the day.  A very good suggestion but still a suggestion.This is this government’s playbook.  Grant Robertson has suggested to a handful of SOEs that they mitigate the pay for their bosses.  It’s still only a suggestion.It’s the same as Jacinda Ardern suggesting the internet companies crackdown on dodgy posts.  A very good suggestion but still just a suggestion.I think that the government would do very well top start delivering some concrete policy rather than all these suggestions because there is a suggestion growing that they don’t know what to doLISTEN ABOVE

Business leaders say the Government's failure to execute its key policies in a timely manner and inability to stoke business confidence is fueling an overall loss of confidence in the New Zealand economy.Two years into its term 157 business leaders have rated the performance of the Coalition Government as part of an annual Mood of the Boardroom stocktake and found it wanting.While Prime minister Jacinda Ardern was lauded for her handling of the Christchurch massacre chief executives have not been impressed by her Government's performance in the promised "year of delivery".Chief executives were not impressed with the way the Government has addressed housing unaffordability issues, transport constraints or with transforming the economy.Paul Glass, chairman of Devon Funds Management said in the report: "Overall the Government has been hopeless at meeting its own targets."Mainfreight chief executive Don Braid said too much time in opposition had dulled the ability to deliver policy and called for more action and less talk.Ardern was ranked fifth best performer in her cabinet with a rating of 2.93 out of five, only slightly ahead of her deputy Winston Peters on 2.92.The Prime Minister, who is in New York this week to meet US President Donald Trump and deliver the keynote speech at the UN Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit, is seen as a great global cheerleader but largely ineffectual on the home front.Deloitte chief executive Thomas Pippos said Ardern was a genuine individual whose key strengths were her ability to connect, project empathy and communicate to the masses.But he said she was reliant on others to drive the development and implementation of policy and was severely limited in certain areas because of New Zealand First.Cabinet newbie and commerce minister Kris Faafoi was seen as the most impressive, ranking ahead of finance minister Grant Robertson and justice minister Andrew Little.Faafoi is seen as a safe pair of hands and an engaging politician who consults and listens to business.Greg Lowe, Beca Group chief executive, said some ministers had got the bit between their teeth and were making real progress."Ron Mark is having a very positive impact in Defence and Defence Industry, Kris Faafoi shows real understanding, energy and integrity, Megan Woods is pushing us to a better hydrogen future."Greg Lowe, Beca Group chief executive. File picFormer housing minister Phil Twyford tumbled from seventh in last year's Cabinet survey to bottom of the pack this year ranking just 1.61 out of five in the wake of the Kiwibuild fiasco.A little over half of those survey felt Robertson was delivering credible economic fiscal management but 26 per cent were unsure and 17 per cent disagreed.Most of those commenting on the record had a positive view about Robertson's stewardship but Mainfreight's Braid said a slowing economy may test the current fiscal management."He must find the courage to use the tools at his disposal to maintain our momentum."Chief executives say Robertson should loosen the purse strings when it comes to spending on infrastructure and take advantage of the low interest rates to borrow and invest.Mark Cairns, Port of Tauranga chief executive said: "We desperately need more infrastructure capital. New Zealand has the balance sheet to do so."Overall chief executives were feeling less optimistic than this time last year and were particularly gloomy about the global economy with 92 per cent less optimistic.Mark Cairns, CEO of Port of Tauranga. Photo/George NovakOn the local economy a quarter said they were much less optimistic and 58 per cent slightly less optimistic. While 62 per cent were less optimistic about the general business situation in their industry.Foodstuffs North Island chief Chris Quin said talent and skills shortages and a lack of clarity and progress on vocational training as well as an unclear future for training and immigration settings were harming the possibil...

COMMENT:There are lots of places around the country that'll argue their local public transport doesn't function as it should - Wellington and its ongoing bus dramas springs to mind.But a permanently punished area is Waiheke Island in Auckland's Hauraki gulf.It's a captive market in the hands of a monopoly - ferry operator Fullers360.Those ferries are the only boats on and off that island, which is home to about 10,000 people, many of whom commute.Problem is, they're often left stranded on either side on the wharf, due to broken down ferries, unscheduled timetable changes, or overcrowded ferries. The fares are outrageously expensive too - and the locals are fed up.They're a feisty bunch, extremely active politically - they vote in local body elections in huge numbers - they're extremely vested in what happens to and for them. They've been fighting Fullers forever - and not getting anywhere.Hope was at hand when the Government showed an element of interest in their plight a couple of months back and said they'd "look at" whether they'd put Fullers under the control of Auckland Transport (currently Fullers is exempt from such supervision).Because a useless service is serving no one.So public meetings were held, media turned up, the Mayor sounded exercised. But nothing's happened. The service is still crap. Not just on Waiheke, but for Devonport too.So how is it Fullers management can keep fronting these public meetings, talk the talk, say they're listening, say they're working on it - and yet continue to do nothing?And where is the champion of public transport Julie Anne Genter? Why isn't she stepping in (as she is so wont to do) and sorting this out? Is it because it's too far away from Wellington for her to be interested?Where are the Auckland mayoral candidates then, or the Mayor himself?Remember these Waiheke people are big local body voters. Sorting the ferries is a guaranteed vote winner.Where is the champion of the SuperGold Card Winston Peters? A lot of the residents have one of those and would dearly love to use it on the ferry, but that would require the service to actually work.So a captive market of voters, active participants in local issues, are being completely ignored and held to ransom by a greedy monopoly. Why? How is this still allowed to happen? And why should they have to wait so long for it to get sorted?If we truly want people to use public transport in this country, then why on earth aren't we holding the people offering it to account? Why is it still so useless?There's another public meeting being held this weekend, let's hope there's some action out of it, instead of just more talk.Because at this rate, Phil Twyford and Julie Anne Genter's dream of us all using public transport to get around is going exactly nowhere.

This week the Herald released a supplement about Infrastructure edited by Fran O’sullivan. They do it every year. It’s a great read. Lot’s of smart people talking about big plans.Micheal Barnett writes about the incredible opportunities in the Waikato-Government urban growth partnership and how it will help ease Auckland's pressure. Like Sleepyhead building a factory and town in Ohinewai to give workers cheaper housing. It's genius.There's a great bit about Auckland Airports $4 billion redevelopment which is the biggest infrastructure project since the railways and it's all being done without tax or rate payers money and the logistics are immense and impressive.Fletchers CEO Peter Reidy writes about the Construction Sector Accord. This a group of 20 of the biggest players from both the public and private sector charged with sorting out the mess the construction industry got itself in. The accord was announced in April and many said it would just be a talkfest. But Mr Reidy points out it's successes.As I said. Smart people. Visions. Long term plans.Then there’s the politicians. There are four pieces by pollies.Labour’s Phil Twyford talks about the proposed suburbs at Unitec and elsewhere.  He bangs on about high speed trains to Hamilton, which is a lovely idea but pie in the sky financially, says nothing about trams and says all National wants to build is roads.National’s Paul Goldsmith talks about roads. So maybe Twyford was right. But then he also lays claim to Auckland's Central Rail Link which his party fought against for years.Then there’s the Auckland mayoral candidates. Phil Goff still talks about light rail being the answer and let’s clean the beaches.But John Tamihere goes full bore crazy with his double decker harbour bridge, selling the water, moving the port, banning beggars and going down to Wellington and banging some heads and central government will pay for it all. This guy will say anything if he thinks it will get him a vote.The guys in the private sector have concrete plans, long term visions, budgets and completion dates.The politicians seem to come up with back of the envelope reckons,  politicising stuff. Reducing complex projects to slogans. Pretending their party are the only people in New Zealand who know what to do. Frankly if a bridge is needed a bridge is needed no matter what your politics are.So the supplement also has the news that the new Infrastructure Commission will be chaired by former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard and it’s board and CEO look very good.Please, please, please let them get politicians out of the Infrastructure debate and let the grown ups get things done.

Possibly one of the reasons no-one bothers to vote in local body elections, is because they’re so damn petty. And because many of the issues raised are far fetched and ridiculous.Yesterday’s announcement from Auckland mayoral hopeful John Tamihere being case and point. John Tamihere says as Mayor (which I’m prepared to wager he won’t be) he’d create an 0800 JACINDA hotline for people to call if they see rough sleepers or beggars.There’s so much wrong with this idea already, but wait, there’s more.  Tamihere actually wants not only someone at the end of the phone line 24/7, but also one to one social workers available to attend to every homeless person - whether the homeless person wants it or not.The net result being getting the homeless person into social housing – which the Council will build in conjunction with central government.So here we have, what? Phil Twyford 2.0?It’s hard to know where to start with this but let’s start with the number.0800 Jacinda is stupid. It’s a cheap dig at the PM in what I assume is an attempt to make his point that homelessness is a central government issue.To also, I assume, mark his territory as a different political force to Phil Goff. In a bid to distance himself from his old party.The next crazy part is social workers available round the clock taking calls and rushing out to assist homeless people. How’s he achieving that? By making social workers work all hours.He said he would force social workers to change their work hours to work three shifts, because “they need to wake up to the fact social work’s a 24/7 job”.Wow, take that social workers. Ouch. Way to get social workers on board, insult them.He also claims there’s enough social workers to deal with the numbers of homeless, but also points out no one knows the exact numbers on homeless, so I’m not sure how you make that equation work, but it sounds Twyford-esque to me. So far, so nutty.He goes on to state he doesn’t know, or need to know, where the rough sleepers are.So here, roughly eight weeks out from the local body elections, we have another policy announcement, which can really only be viewed one way - as an attention seeking stunt.It’s an attempt to get more headlines. I guess it worked, because here I am talking about it.But what it’s also done is solidify in the mind of this Auckland local body voter that anyone petty enough to come up with an 0800 JACINDA number, doesn’t get my vote.

COMMENTSo what did we learn this week in regards to our most transformational open honest and transparent government yet?Well we learnt that it doesn't include Julie Anne Genter. Or, at least, it doesn't apply to her.She's still refusing to release a letter and make it public, despite an official investigation underway by the Chief Ombudsman.She's dug her toes in.The letter, which by now has probably gained way more notoriety than it deserves, was to Transport Minister Phil Twyford, about the Let's Get Wellington Moving project.Basically the assumption is Genter is of the view that Wellington should really only be moving by bike or e-scooter, or possibly bus.Though we don't know the contents of the letter, the concern here, given her anti-car stance, is that she wrote with her concerns over a second Mt Victoria tunnel. Because . . . cars.God forbid Wellington moves with them.Genter has confirmed to Parliament that the letter related to her concerns about the timing of projects within the Let's Get Wellington Moving proposal, particularly the tunnel, but she won't go any further than that.She's claiming she doesn't have to release the letter because as a Green MP, she's not subject to the public disclosure requirements.Nevermind that it just might be the prudent and decent thing to do.It may also have shut this whole thing down instead of dragging it on so long.But wait - she's also the Associate Transport Minister, although Phil Twyford claims despite this, she wrote the letter to him as Associate Minister, but expressing her view on behalf of the Green Party.Genter though, said in Parliament, that she signed the letter as Associate Transport Minister, even though now the claim is she didn't write it in her capacity as Associate Transport Minister.So far, so murky.So the Chief Ombudsman's now investigating the secret letter, her refusal to release it, and whether it should be made public.More time, more reviewing - just to examine whether the most open honest and transparent government should be a wee bit more open honest and transparent.Just when we thought we had a government who were into accountability.

I'm going on holiday next week and no, I'm not going to tell you where because why do I have to?I believe Simon Bridges is on holiday this week too since Paula Bennett is handling all the issues but I don't hear anyone demanding to know where he is either. Frankly when John Key used to pop off to Hawaii and it was reported in the media, people used to phone me and say it's not news. That's because it's not news.Those people using the non-story to claim this government is not open, honest and transparent are desperate and suffer Jacinda Derangement Syndrome. Get some advice and get a life.Anyway back to me. I'm hanging out for this holiday. I haven't had one since Christmas and I'm looking forward to reading and eating and sleeping and then repeat.I'll also look back at the past 18 months and consider some of the stuff I've said on air. One of the most common complaints I've had is that this country does not have a long term plan. A new government comes in and all the plans that the old government had are thrown out and we start again re-inventing the wheel. The most obvious area where this becomes sticky is in infrastructure.And we heard it all again last night after Phil Twyford’s appearance on the Drive show explaining why he is not continuing with National’s Roads of SignificanceInvestment and planning over roads, airports, rail lines, ports and pipelines should not be a political football. Because there is no bipartisan, pan political plan, petty politicians play politics with the stuff that keeps the country working.And we all know it.Now the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council has come out and asked for a long term plan that uses responsible and sustainable use of expertise and capital on projects for the future. The letter says transport is not binary. It's not a competition between road or rail or sea but a scaled up solution using everything we have. It doesn't put the blame at this government but at all governments. That said it does say National's 12 roads of significance needs to be reinstated National's plan was flawed as it focused on just 12 roads and some were political payback. Labour's plan is flawed because they're trying to resurrect rail. Rail is flawed because National stripped it down for the trucking lobby.  Trucking is flawed because our roads were quickly broken by the trucks.  Now the truckies are complaining about that.  And then another government comes in and everything is flipped on it’s head again.Meanwhile, you and me are still sitting in in traffic jams on crappy roads asking how did this go wrong.The systematic improvement of our major State Highways should have been written in stone 50 years ago, along with our rail systems, our airfields, our coastal ports, our electricity generation and our water reticulation and everything else we need to live and work. We need a plan we all agree on,The business leaders recommend forming a New Zealand Prospectus to inform a national master plan. Best thing I’ve heard in ages

In this new edition of Gone By Lunchtime, Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas weigh reshuffles in senior ranks of both the big parties as well as Oranga Tamariki and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. Plus: a desperate plea to listeners.Podding against the clock, aka Annabelle's stopwatch, the Gone By Lunchtime trio reshuffle their portfolios, look at Jacinda Ardern's demotion of Phil Twyford from the big housing job and Amy Adams' decision to chuck in the old politics lark.Also on the slate: Oranga Tamariki and the uplift scandal, and the progression of legislation that would allow assisted dying to its third reading.Oh, and do you fancy writing us a jingle? It's time for a change. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Post Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s cabinet reshuffle, commentators have called it both “ruthless” and “too soft”.  So which one is it? I guess it depends on which side of the fence you sit.The fact that Ardern's actions can be viewed so vastly differently shows just how tribal and far apart the ‘factions’ are. Although, I thought there was one unanimously held understanding, from both camps, and that was that Kiwibuild has been an abject failure. You don’t even need an opinion on Kiwibuild because the numbers speak for themselves. Facts shout louder than anything else: Kiwibuild is an unmitigated flop. Even Ardern herself admitted it hadn’t met expectations, and that’s sugar coating it. That’s her nice way of saying, it’s a shit sandwich Phil. So, what one could deduce from that, is that the one glaringly obvious result of the Cabinet reshuffle would’ve been that the failed Kiwibuild policy and his poor handling of housing, would see that portfolio taken off Twyford.Not only that, talk in the weeks leading up to the reshuffle was all about Phil Twyford. No one doubted for a second that among Ardern’s proclaimed ‘minor’ tweaks, he’d be one of them. That housing would be taken off him, that in fact the PM may go as far as demoting him out of Cabinet. So when the widely predicted outcome – Kiwibuild being taken from Twyford - became a reality, imagine my surprise when a commentator called it ‘surprising’. Surprising? Really?  I don’t think even Phil Twyford himself would’ve been surprised. The only word for it really was ‘predictable’.But the PM was also called ‘ruthless’. Jacinda Ardern? The most empathetic PM we’ve ever seen, a woman steeped in ‘operation kindness’, the person who helmed the Wellbeing budget, the person lauded on the world stage as being sympathetic and attuned to the plights of others. The woman who wants to fix child poverty and homelessness - ruthless? That’s a long, long stretch. I’m not seeing it. Ruthless would’ve been to turf Phil out on his ear. Ruthless would’ve been to demote him and offer him nothing further. Ruthless would’ve been to take a broom to other under-performing Ministers.  That would have been the surprise. Because the fact she did none of those things is entirely because of who she is and how she operates. Which is about as far from ruthless as you can get.

Is Jacinda Ardern a smiling assassin or a wimp unable to make the big calls?The Prime Minister unveiled her first ministerial reshuffle last week, with the biggest change the splitting of the housing portfolio role between three ministers.Kris Faafoi got the biggest promotion, moving into Cabinet and picking up one third of the new housing roles, while Phil Twyford lost control of KiwiBuild but picked up the Economic Development portfolio. The move for Twyford led to split reaction from political commentators, with some saying Ardern was too soft while others praising the move.Saturday Mornings and Q+A host Jack Tame joined the Weekend Collective to discuss the reshuffle, and he went straight down the middle. 

Is Jacinda Ardern a smiling assassin or a wimp unable to make the big calls?The Prime Minister unveiled her first ministerial reshuffle last week, with the biggest change the splitting of the housing portfolio role between three ministers.Kris Faafoi got the biggest promotion, moving into Cabinet and picking up one third of the new housing roles, while Phil Twyford lost control of KiwiBuild but picked up the Economic Development portfolio. The move for Twyford led to split reaction from political commentators, with some saying Ardern was too soft while others praising the move.Saturday Mornings and Q+A host Jack Tame joined the Weekend Collective to discuss the reshuffle, and he went straight down the middle. 

Megan Woods is taking over from Phil Twyford as Housing Minister, and will head up a new team of housing Ministers, following Jacinda Ardern's first reshuffle as Prime Minister.Twyford's been relegated to a role in urban development, Kris Faafoi enters Cabinet with a focus on public housing, while Nanaia Mahuta continues her Maori housing role.CEO of the Property Council Leonie Freeman joins The One Roof Radio Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

Is Jacinda Ardern a smiling assassin or a wimp unable to make the big calls?The Prime Minister unveiled her first ministerial reshuffle last week, with the biggest change the splitting of the housing portfolio role between three ministers.Kris Faafoi got the biggest promotion, moving into Cabinet and picking up one third of the new housing roles, while Phil Twyford lost control of KiwiBuild but picked up the Economic Development portfolio. The move for Twyford led to split reaction from political commentators, with some saying Ardern was too soft while others praising the move.Saturday Mornings and Q+A host Jack Tame joined the Weekend Collective to discuss the reshuffle, and he went straight down the middle. 

Megan Woods is taking over from Phil Twyford as Housing Minister, and will head up a new team of housing Ministers, following Jacinda Ardern's first reshuffle as Prime Minister.Twyford's been relegated to a role in urban development, Kris Faafoi enters Cabinet with a focus on public housing, while Nanaia Mahuta continues her Maori housing role.CEO of the Property Council Leonie Freeman joins The One Roof Radio Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

Megan Woods is taking over from Phil Twyford as Housing Minister, and will head up a new team of housing Ministers, following Jacinda Ardern's first reshuffle as Prime Minister.Twyford's been relegated to a role in urban development, Kris Faafoi enters Cabinet with a focus on public housing, while Nanaia Mahuta continues her Maori housing role.CEO of the Property Council Leonie Freeman joins The One Roof Radio Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

A busy week as Amy Adams shuffles out, Gabriel Makhlouf shuffles off, and Phil Twyford is shuffled sideways. Also, where to now for the End of Life Choice Bill after passing it’s 2nd reading in Parliament.

National's housing spokesperson says the Government's doing everything it can to salvage a stale scheme.Megan Woods is taking over from Phil Twyford as Housing Minister, and will head up a new team of housing Ministers, following Jacinda Ardern's first reshuffle as Prime Minister.Twyford's been relegated to a role in urban development, Kris Faafoi enters Cabinet with a focus on public housing, while Nanaia Mahuta continues her Maori housing role.A so-called "reset announcement" on impending changes to Kiwibuild will be announced in the coming weeks.But Judith Collins told Tim Dower that KiwiBuild's a "mission of failure.""It's not like Phil Twyford hasn't tried, he's done everything he could do except admit that the policy's completely hopeless and get a new one in," Collins said.She says they need to ditch the policy altogether, and sort out the Resource Management Act. LISTEN ABOVE AS TIM DOWER SPEAKS TO JUDITH COLLINS

Jacinda Ardern's mettle will be tested today as she unveils her first Cabinet reshuffle since becoming Prime Minister.Newstalkzb's political editor Barry Soper says Ardern's been playing it down, as minor so significant change is unlikely.He told Andrew Dickens that issues like KiwiBuild, Karel Sroubek and several DHB debacles could come back to haunt Ministers."The difficulty is will Phil Twyford keep his Housing portfolio. The other people who will be sweating will be Iain-Leses Galloway and his handling of the Karel Sroubek affair. David Clark, the Health Minister, will probably survive but the District Health Board's have gone through all sorts of problems."Soper says that Ardern has defended Twyford's role in the KiwiBuild stuff-up, but says his role could still be tweaked. On the other hand, Soper predicts Kris Faafoi will be popping the champagne tonight."Faafoi is a Minister outside of Cabinet, so he will probably step up today." He says that Meka Whaitiri could be reinstated as there is some pressure from the party's Maori caucus. The announcement's expected at 3:15pm.

An under-pressure Phil Twyford has hit back at reports people with access to up to $650,000 in deposit money for a KiwiBuild home should be exempt from the scheme.He has also rejected any assertion that KiwiBuild buyers should be means-tested when it comes to their deposit – "we are not in the business of banning the bank of mum and dad".Property Commentator Alistair Helm joins The One Roof Property Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

An under-pressure Phil Twyford has hit back at reports people with access to up to $650,000 in deposit money for a KiwiBuild home should be exempt from the scheme.He has also rejected any assertion that KiwiBuild buyers should be means-tested when it comes to their deposit – "we are not in the business of banning the bank of mum and dad".Property Commentator Alistair Helm joins The One Roof Property Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

An under-pressure Phil Twyford has hit back at reports people with access to up to $650,000 in deposit money for a KiwiBuild home should be exempt from the scheme.He has also rejected any assertion that KiwiBuild buyers should be means-tested when it comes to their deposit – "we are not in the business of banning the bank of mum and dad".Property Commentator Alistair Helm joins The One Roof Property Show on the Weekend Collective to discuss the issue.LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE

It gives me no pleasure at all to gloat over the government's apparent failure with Kiwibuild.There are some opponents of this coalition who almost seem gleeful when recounting the disappointments of one of the government's principal policy planks. There are no winners when a bad idea is ripped apart but no-one has an alternative option.The reason I'm not cheering in the street is that I was hoping that the state could have helped in what I've always considered is a generational disaster.There are just not enough houses, in the right places, at the right quality and with the right design in this country. It goes back to just after the second world war. From time to time we tried like the state house expansion, but again the sprawling suburbs, the acres of unused land, the absence of transport options only added to our problems.When this government said it would help with something called Kiwibuild, I wondered how it would work. I'm still wondering. It appears to be subsidising plans that were already happening. The worst part of their promise was not the ridiculously ambitious number but the adjective. They said 100,000 EXTRA houses in 10 years. Extra. I haven't seen extra houses. Actually, I've barely seen any houses at all.Attacking Kiwibuild is like shooting fish in a tank. What I'm wondering about is the new Housing and Urban Development Authority. What's happening there.Just to remind you, last November Phil Twyford announced the creation of the new Crown agency with "cut-through powers" to consolidate both Housing New Zealand and KiwiBuild in a bid to tackle housing shortages of all types.It will have broad powers, including being able to ignore existing council designations, amend or write its own by-laws and grant its own resource consent, and councils will have no veto power. "It's going to be a tooled-up agency that can cut through the red tape." It's main goal was to make brownfield and intensification projects possible which at the moment are being stymied by NIMBYs and Council bylaws.It's actually quite a good crisis measure. Phil Twyford promised legislation this year and the agency up and running by 2020. Haven't heard a peep yet.If this is a crisis, then get a move on. It opens up this government to more accusations of talking the talk and not walking the walk.Meanwhile, the fires keep burning. Yesterday, the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to a record low. They say the economy is looking tepid. Why? The global economy and all the talk coming out of the government.Bank deposit rates will drop and there's a generation of savers looking to make the most of their nest egg in an environment of cheap loan money, now that the threat of Capital Gains Tax has disappeared.I opened the lines yesterday and asked what are you going to do in this low interest rate environment? Virtually all said invest in property. It's always been a winner because there's never been enough.Some are already saying a new wave of property inflation is building up and it will take off next year. Welcome back to the so called crisis. And it is not beyond the pale to blame the current government for it.

Judith Collins is batting away rumours that she is gunning for the National leadership saying she has "faith" in Simon Bridges. The revelation follows weeks of speculation surrounding the party's leadership and questions over the safety of Bridges' tenure.However speaking with Kate Hawkesby this morning, Collins said she is backing her leader and focusing on the job at hand. "I always, always support the leader and of course, I support Simon. He is doing a tough, tough job and he is doing the job and that's what we ask him to do."She said it is very difficult for a party to be successful in opposition unless they can "express faith in each other".Collins reiterated that she's just getting on with the job and doesn't know where the rumours surrounding Bridges leadership are coming from."I don't know. It's really interesting how these things operate."The National Party housing spokesperson also hit out at Phil Twyford over his handling of KiwiBuild, saying he is "way more likely to get it wrong than Simon Bridges".However, she did admit that the rumours "take up space", but she said they aren't a distraction for the party."I have to keep constantly answering it like I am today when really I want to be talking about KiwiBuild."Collins said they are focusing on the problems surrounding KiwiBuild and the upcoming budget.She also brushed off questions around whether she will be the leader at some point."You've just got to let people get on with the job and support them and that's what I have been doing."

Over the events of March 15th, I have been very impressed with the concern shown around our mental wellbeing by so many parties. It shows a positive shift in our cultural outlook. Rather than just putting on a stiff upper lip, gritting our teeth, bottling it up and just soldiering on we have accepted that a lot of people can’t just tough it out.So in that communal spirit, I’d just like to ask the Education Minister Chris Hipkins if he is alright. Does he need to take time out? Because I’ve been worried for a while about the amount of conflict he is in the middle of.It was something I noted a while back and it was absolutely evident last night on Q and A where he was interviewed and it was spread over two segments.I mean just look at what he’s trying to do. He was the first Minister to do anything getting the free tertiary policy off the ground. A policy that hasn’t seemed to have markedly changed a thing regarding enrolment and further education.But not content with that he is also on a mission to reform 30 years of educational thinking and development with fundamental changes to the Tomorrow’s Schools framework. That’s a lifetime’s work right there.But that’s not all for this Super Minister.  He’s also out to reform the entire Polytechnic and Industry Training Organisation structure at a time when our need for tradies is at an all-time high. Again this is a major project. One that could easily dominate all a Minister’s time.Meanwhile, there are little fires that need to be put out like Victoria University’s fevered and misguided wast of public money pursuing a name change.And if all that is not enough then there is the wage and condition standoff between the government and all the teachers in the country.  This is looking increasingly deadlocked and unsolvable and is building momentum until it will become the biggest industrial action of our age.To their credit, the government has done as much as they feel they can and certainly it far exceeds anything that the previous regime would have offered. And to his credit, Chris Hipkins is standing firm, guided by his Finance Minister’s edict that this government is not going to blow the budget but the pressure must be immense.Last night I kept wondering about Chris Hipkins days which must be a succession of massive meetings loaded with crises, big ideas, vested interests and enormous egos all plotting to stage a revolution in every sphere of our education system.And with so many balls in the air, there is no way that anyone could be sure of not dropping one or two.Chris Hipkins along with Phil Twyford are showing us what a decade in opposition does to a politician. It frustrates, and then you dream of what could be done better, and then, when, suddenly and surprisingly, given the opportunity to realise your dreams the 2 men have leapt in all guns blazing but with little aim. The latest dream for Mr Twyford to go sour is his precious light rail which this week was viciously savaged by Councillor Mike Lee who called it Kiwibuild with wobbly wheels.Dreams are great but trying to make too many dreams come true all at once is a recipe for nightmares.

Housing Minister Phil Twfyord is remaining coy on how Government changes to rental properties will affect rents.This morning,Twyford unveiled new requirements for landlords as part of the Government's new healthy homes standards, which will come into effect between 2021 and 2024.These include requiring all rental properties to have a heater in the main living room, as well as making sure kitchens and bathrooms have extraction fans.But the most expensive requirement for landlords, according to the New Zealand Property Investors' Federation (NZPI), would be the new requirements around insulation.The new rules will require the minimum level of ceiling and underfloor insulation to either meet the 2008 Building Code, or – for existing ceiling insulation – have a minimum thickness of 120mm.The National Party and a property lobby groups say the cost of the Government's new rental minimum standards will be borne by renters in the form of increased rents.Twyford told The Weekend Collective that these changes would cost approximately $7,000 for landlords to bring a three bedroom home to standard, but he believes only a small majority will be affected.“Half the rental properties out there have extractor fans. Two thirds have a fixed heating source. We’re really talking about bringing the bottom end of the market up to where everyone else is and setting a minimum standard.”He says that Housing New Zealand has 68,000 properties, and they will need to spend over $200 million, which will come off their balance books.“We’ve set three years from now, basically, they have to have all their houses being compliant.”NZPIR executive officer Andrew King said more than 90 per cent of the landlords represented by his group have already insulated their properties."A large proportion of those are going to now have to turn around and top it up to meet these new requirements."He said the cost of bringing the level of insulation up to the new required level would cost roughly $1500-$2000 per home.The insulation material itself does not cost a lot, he said, but the cost of the labour will be high."It costs just as much to top up insulation as it does to install it."He said this cost – and the cost of complying with the rest of the new standards – would be passed on to the tenants, in the form of higher rent.Meanwhile, he said just adding more insulation would not even have a major effect on keeping homes warm, if the home is already insulated.National's housing spokeswoman Judith Collins agreed.She said rents have increased in many parts of the country over the past year and the Government's new rules would see rents climb even further."There will be some landlords who are going to say 'it's just not worth it for me to retrofit this property'."Instead of renting the property, Collins said many would-be landlords would just sell it on the open market.Speaking at the unveiling of the new standards this morning, Lynley Thomas, a property owner and landlord, said although she would not increase her tenants' rents, there would likely be a flow-on effect whereby the costs could flow on to the tenant in the wider market."Indirectly, through a market rent raise which I think will inevitably happen, that's where the rent will go up."There were already concerns over rising rents after the prospect of a Capital Gains Tax was raised by the Tax Working Group.When that was put to him by the Weekend Collective, Twyford did confirm or deny that rents would rise.He says that we have to do a lot to get the housing market back on track and bring it into the 21st century.“We can’t wait around for the ideal moment of history to improve the quality of housing.” Twyford says that when it comes to Capital Gains Tax, there’s no evidence from overseas countries that a tax would force rents up.

National MP Judith Collins has hit out at the Government, saying getting rid of targets is just spin and they have "bugger all" chance of building 100,000 houses in 10 years.Yesterday, the Government announced they are getting rid of KiwiBuild targets after Housing Minister Phil Twyford admitted they won't meet their first-year target.READ MORE: KiwiBuild scraps yearly targets as part of "recalibration"However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government will still build 100,000 houses in 10 years.Judith Collins told Kate Hawkesby it is very unlikely that they will deliver in their 10-year promise if they can't deliver on year one."If you can't reach the first year, you can't reach the second year and you can't reach the third year target, you have bugger all chance of meeting the 10 year target.""This is not make a wish, this is actually make a house and they don't seem to know what they are doing."Phil Twyford said getting rid of targets is simply a KiwiBuild "recalibration".However, Collins said that's just spin to make it look like less of a failure."It's just saying the same things over and over again, totally spinning it."The MP did conceed that National didn't do enough around resource management reform and planning when they were in power.However, she said they certainly made some "very big moves" when it came to building houses."There was a 180,000 built in the nine years that we were in Government and when you look at the private sector in the 15-months that Phil Twyford is in the job...the private sector has built 35,200 homes and the Government has not built 46."She said those numbers show that KiwiBuild is not the solution to the housing problem."You don't fix the housing situation by doing what these people have done. They have spent in their first six-months since they came into Government, $100 million of taxpayer money on no houses at all.""What we did [National] is we ended up with the Hobson land development...that was all under National Government. The Tamaki re-development all of that done under a National Government.""We were doing it but also we had to bring in Resource Management Act reforms and the reforms we could get through parliament were not the ones we wanted."

So has anyone seen the Prime Minister lately? If anyone sees Jacinda Ardern in the flesh, could you please contact authorities so we can return her to the people.This is an observation that has been brewing for a while. In fact Chris Trotter, a lefty, first wrote about it in the middle of December.But it wasn’t until today that I finally thought this is getting weird.Every Tuesday since Helen Clark’s day the Prime Minister has done the rounds of media in the morning. On ZB that means 7.35am for 10 minutes and we have a quick recap of the issues of the week and where the government is at.But we haven’t had one this year. Firstly she was on holiday for ages, which I didn’t resent because she does have a child under one who hasn’t seen a lot of her Mum. Then last week the PM was in Davos Switzerland but apparently was unable to use a phone.The suspicion is rising that Jacinda Ardern likes to be a spokesperson for a government and a figurehead for the world but when it comes down to the nitty gritty of being a leader the job is a little difficult.Chris Trotter last December noted the number of times that Jacinda Ardern seemed to be sidelined by her ministers seemingly making decisions without her knowing. Phil Twyford in particular seemed to change policies at a whim and when the Prime Minister was asked she seemed often unaware.Looking back at the last three Prime Ministers we’ve had; Clark, Key and English, none would ever tolerate finding out about policy from the news media. And if they did butts would be kicked.There is also the unwillingness to discipline the miscreants. Claire Curran took an age to be told off. Meka Whaitiri. Ian Lees Galloway.Then there is the plethora of working groups. At first I was tolerant but now the whole thing seems to be taking an age. Other people are charged with doing the thinking rather than the government.There appears to be a leadership vacuum.The Prime Minister we have seems happiest when selling other people’s ideas and I’m starting to wonder what her ideas are.And further to that there’s the fear that she might not have any ideas at all.

Numbers - they get you every time.The problem with numbers is that they don’t fudge.They’re definite. Exact. Numbers don’t lie. But people lie.People fudge. People lie about numbers. People fudge numbers. But numbers are the truth. Which is why any politician worth their weight in gold, which is an inexact number, will avoid them at any cost.It’s a lesson this government fails to learn. The numbers have been causing all sorts of bother this parliamentary term.This is obviously the very hard lesson Phil Twyford has learnt this week, as the numbers came to bite him on the bum.There’s no doubt that New Zealand doesn’t have enough housing stock.  There was always doubt as to whether the government should become a private housing developer. Nothing wrong with running a social housing programme, but KiwiBuild was always to supplement the private market. There was always uncertainty as to what affordable means. But all that was debatable and defendable.But as soon as Phil Twyford started putting numbers on it he drew a big target on his back. He promised 100,000 houses in 10 years and 1000 houses in the first year. And so the numbers have spoken and the project is failing and the government looks stupid. As Mr Twyford crumbled yesterday, his leader, the Prime Minister, was shining on the world stage. But not in the media in New Zealand. She must be ropable.But this government does it every time. Julie Anne Genter announces road safety improvements but she ties it to a zero road toll slogan. Which will never happen. She will fail.The Finance Minister is also fond of imposing numbers on fluid targets. His commitment to debt reduction and the 20 per cent target or instance. It’s meant for some accounting jiggery-pokery around core Crown Debt and various SOEs borrowing, while pretending not to be the government. Now there’s nothing out of the ordinary about that. Other governments have done it. But the imposition of such a definite, arbitrary target on the debt levels caught them out.They’ve done it with immigration numbers where apparently we’re aiming for 30,000. Considering our skilled labour shortages that will never happen, again giving the government’s opponents ammunition.It’s like our idealist politicians pluck numbers out of the air to make catchy slogans that are divorced from reality. I think there’s a political lesson here for this government. Watch the numbers or your number's up.

Yesterday we discovered that the eighth most expensive city for housing in the world is Tauranga, where it takes more than nine times the median annual income to buy the median house. We also heard that Auckland was not too far behind. The lowest was Manawatu where the ration was five. Now, by the way, it was not widely reported that using the demographic rating system it is believed that the affordable level is three times and under.  Anything over five they class as severely unaffordable. Just about everywhere in this beautiful country is severely unaffordable. So the headlines were full of New Zealand’s housing affordability crisis.And then just like that, as I left the studio, I discovered that an Auckland councillor had come into our building and dropped off a copy of his book to every on-air staff member.The councillor’s name is Greg Sayers and his book is called "How to Fix Auckland’s Housing Crisis". But the problems he documents are spreading so I’d rename it New Zealand’s Housing crisis if you’re doing a reprint.It’s a pretty good read actually. In 166 pages it highlights the problems that have been caused by population growth, both natural and immigrated. The lack of foresight with planning and the excessive bureaucracy at both national and local level, that has made things so expensive. It also documents the social problems that come with it in terms of poverty, the elderly and the transport problems.But I think we’ve all become pretty good at talking about the problems. What we really need is a genius with some answers.So Greg’s book has four solutions in its conclusion. He wants homebuyers to be able to insure their property against poor workmanship. Which makes sense. At the moment the cautiousness of our councils over standards and consents is because they hold all the risk management.He would like to see developers given the option of developing their own infrastructure, rather than having to connect to the Council’s monopoly on services. In other words, deregulation. Whether that would create a workable citywide system is a little debatable and the other issue is whether you trust developers. Nothing personal but some developers might have been known, from time to time, to shave a little off budgets to help their margins.He’d like to see user pays infrastructure development such as at the Milldale suburb where homeowners pay a little off yearly for infrastructure to new builds rather than having it all piled onto initial purchase price. That’s a good idea. So good it’s already happening.But his main thing is getting rid of the rural-urban boundary. And that’s where he loses me. I’ve heard this trumpeted through the ages. That would make for sprawling raggedy development. Yes, it would give some short term relief but it would create long term problems. In fact, I’d argue that the transport problems we have in a number of our cities is entirely because of unfettered sprawl at the edges.  But good on Greg for raising the issues again. Councils have taken advantage of Phil Twyford’s desire to solve our housing woes singlehandedly and debates about their performance has ebbed away. The one thing I definitely know about our housing affordability crisis is that not one person caused it and not one person will solve it.

On this week's show, mortgage and housing expert Sara Hartigan joined us to tackle the issue of Kiwibuild.We crunch the numbers and iron out the burning questions surrounding Phil Twyford's announcement. LISTEN TO THE FULL DISCUSSION WITH THE WEEKEND COLLECTIVE ABOVE 

Earlier in the week the PM was forced to give Phil Twyford a slap on the wrist after he admitted to using a phone on a plane after it had been cleared for take off.Tim Wilson has five excuses he reckons Twyford might have given Jacinda Ardern for why he was on the phone.They're, well - judge for yourself how funny they are.LISTEN ABOVE

LISTEN TO PHIL TWYFORD TALK WITH THE WEEKEND COLLECTIVE ABOVEAuckland's rough sleepers will now get the chance to take hot showers and get their laundry washed for free.A custom-built van with a built in shower in the back, two washing machines and two dryers, begun operating today in central Onehunga.It won't always stick around there though, it's set to make its way around Auckland and, soon, the rest of the country.Orange Sky Australia started the initiative four years ago with a single van. It now has 27 operating around the country, relying on more than 1400 volunteers.Brand manager Benjamin Knight told the Herald they can usually get through 12 loads of washing and up to 10 showers in a two- or three-hour shift.He said the appliances on board were run by a diesel-powered generator and, ideally, they would plug into power and water sources wherever possible too.Knight said New Zealand's rate of homelessness was particularly alarming and they hoped to have the same "massive" impact that they've had across the ditch.About 800 people were sleeping rough in Auckland last month, along with another 2874 people, including 1299 children in temporary and emergency accommodation, according to initial figures released from the Ira Mata, Iri Tangata: Auckland's Homeless Council.Knight said it's expected that like any new service, it'll take time for people to warm to it and take advantage of it.He said it was just a matter of time before more of the vans were brought in and rolled out around New Zealand.The service is partly funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.The Minister for Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford said while support services are working hard to reduce homelessness and get roofs over people's heads, the laundry service goes some way to bringing rough sleepers one of the simple things many take for granted. 

So I could start these thoughts with the call for property managers to become licensed and accredited.26 organisations, including the Real Estate Institute and large real estate firms, say the issue is so important that they united and have presented an open letter to the Housing Minister.Now, Phil Twyford understands the problems but wants to finish laws to protect tenants first.  This seems a strange thing to say to me since it sort of says that the government’s only capable of one thing at a time.This sort of thing is worth fast tracking because in the business of renting a home both tenants and landlords have skin in the game. Both need the income and shelter but property managers are just providing a service.  Churn is in their interest which is why they are strong advocates for shorter tenancies.And let’s not minimise the job.  Providing shelter for yourself and your family is a basic necessity of human life and when a third party can become involved you should be able to implicitly trust that they will act fairly as a true intermediary between tenants and landlords.My question is not whether we should do this but why hasn’t this been done before and why isn’t it being done quickly.Now yesterday I did a bit of talk back about climate change after the strident IPCC report that said we now have just a decade to radically change our lifestyle or we’ll consign millions to heat related death. I also said that the climate change bandwagon is so far down the track there is no way you can negate the belief amongst a sizeable chunk of humans and countries.Today, I find my inbox full of pseudo scientific rants from listeners about all the reasons why the perceived human effect on climate change is a fiction.  All of which I’ve read before and much of which I don’t disagree with.My point has always been this: To say there is no human effect on the environment is as myopic and unprovable as the climate change advocates who say that human activity is causing any global warming.  It’s not either or, it’s exactly how much or how little.  My stance switched a while ago to stopping any ridiculously abstract ideas and policies that are waiting to defraud us and on that count I’m happy to say I don’t like or trust the Emission Trading Scheme.But here’s an observation: maybe the whole thing is dying a slow death.  I’ve seen little or no comment on the IPCC’s grave warning from any leader. Nothing from Presidents Xi or Putin.  The White House just shrugged and said their emissions have dropped since 2005.  Even here on the day the report came out the Labour leader was busier trying to lower the price of petrol than she was trying to stop global apocalypse.Maybe the climate change advocates have cried wolf so often and now so loudly that bit by bit people aren’t listening.

Labour Housing Minister, Phil Twyford interviewed at the property leaders event May 27th 2018 This Podcast/Video is taken from the Gilligan Rowe and Associates Leader Event held in Auckland on 27 May 2018. Matthew Gilligan poses some tough questions to Housing Minister, Phil Twyford, in relation to how Government changes are affecting property investors. They discuss KiwiBuild, red tape and costs surrounding resource consents, the foreign buyer ban, tax loss ringfencing, capital gains tax, and anti-investor sentiment.

The Phil Twyford gaffe is unfortunate. Especially after it was revealed earlier, that the public transport minister was the biggest user of the crown limo fleet.This all played out by the rulebook. He offered to resign, it was turned down, he lost Civil Aviation, which had to happen. You can’t be in charge of the rules and then be caught breaking them.The real question is why did he think his phone call was so important that he couldn’t wait an hour to reply. I know it was budget day but hello. Phil is like so many of us these days, enthralled to the phone and their own self-importance.I don’t even answer the phone on buses these days. Why should a bus full of strangers be forced to listen in to my conversation?The smartphone is amazing, and a revolution in communication but modern society has formed an unhealthy addiction. Don’t be afraid to turn it off.Remember, you’re in charge of the phone, the phone is not in charge of you. 

One of the highlights for me this week came on the Mike Hosking Breakfast.Mike was interviewing a construction lecturer from AUT and the guy said something very profound.  He quoted the desert fox himself, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery.He said, “Amateurs talk of strategy. Professionals talk of logistics”That phrase was ringing in my head through all the coverage of yesterday’s budget. A lot of money was thrown at issues but there’s was very little talk of how the money was to be used.For instance the funding of free gp visits for under 14s. On the face of it you can’t quibble except you have to ask yourself how we can provide that care.  All this year we’ve had headlines about a shortage of GPs particularly in rural areas.  So the money may be there to get all these kids in front of doctors but what’s the point when we don’t have any doctors for them to see.It takes 7 years of study to make a GP so it’s not like we’re going to rustle up a whole bunch of them in July.I guess we’re going to have to import some from overseas.  But hold on a moment the budget sets an immigration target of 30,000 immigrants when we currently have 70,000 arriving each year.It’s the same with the funding of 1500 extra teachers when the real problem is that we can’t find any right now.  There’s also the issue of finding 900 extra policemen when we’re already importing coppers now.Then there’s the announcement of 6400 more State Houses by 2022.  Who’s going to build these?This one dovetails with a report from Treasury which got a little buried this week.  The money counters said the bottlenecks in the construction industry means they had to halve the forecast rate of progress of Kiwbuild. They believe we might achieve 2.5 billion worth of more residential investment in the next 5 years instead of the 5 billion Phil Twyford boasted of.My worry is that these sectors like health, education and housing will welcome a tidal surge of cash and have nowhere or no way to actually use it.The concern then is that the money will be used on more clipboard holders. Mid level bureaucrats who take the money but never work on solving the problem the money has been given for.There’s a fascinating story in the Herald today about a book called Bulls**t Jobs. The author highlights many workers we all know including the box tickers. The ones who sit round thinking, measuring performance and then writing reports that no-one ever reads.I worry that this Budget has been a good one for the boxtickers of this government and we may see a whole lot more bulls**t jobs.

Why is it that when it comes to our so-called housing crisis, no politicians seem to get it?It’s not hard to grasp.  For half a century we have consistently failed to build enough houses for our growing population and so the basic rule of supply and demand comes in.  Desperate purchasers fight amongst themselves for too few houses and then pay above the odds or give up and sulk.It’s like two hermit crabs fighting to the death for one shell.Meanwhile, people with a bit of spare cash stick it into investment housing instead of a bank or equity in a business. And because interest rates have been so low for so long it’s a money tree of capital growth.The factors are simple to see.  Natural population growth.  High immigration.  Low levels of construction.  Poor forward planning.At the heart of it all is one simple fact.  This country doesn’t have enough houses.You know this. I know this. So why don’t they know it.I say this because the latest grand idea to get first home buyers into an affordable house ignores that fact completely.  In fact it will only add to the problem on the demand side.Phil Twyford is investigating a government-backed shared equity scheme.The scheme would allow a third party such as the government to co-own a property by taking on a share of the mortgage. That would reduce the owner's deposit and weekly mortgage payments.It can get quite complex with conditions on prices and who gets the capital gain but basically, you can view it like the government providing a cheap second mortgage.And that’s where the wheels start coming off. Because if you can’t afford to borrow the whole lot from one lender in the first place why would anyone think you were able to afford a second lender, especially in these days of single-digit interest ratesAnd as it enables a low earning family to borrow more than they were originally able to it has a few echoes of the subprime mortgage scenario that caused so many problems in the States and sparked the GFCBut the biggest problem is that it extends a whole new line of cheap credit to another sector of the market who will then compete against each other to by the few affordable houses around and that will push those prices up again. Back to the hermit crab analogy.The big problem is at the end of the day this scheme doesn’t build a single new house.And that’s what Phil Twyford promised.  To build 100,000 houses.  Recently he’s changed that to facilitate building houses and now he’s suggesting not building a house and becoming a bank.  It’s a slow descent towards the realisation that the government hasn’t got a clue what to do.

Phil's got an idea... let's charge a fuel tax for Aucklanders to fund regional infrastructure across New Zealand. Tristram Clayton took to the streets to ask locals what they thought of paying up to 10c litre more for their fuel. We think Phil may have solved 2 problems with 1 tax.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges is grilled by Labour's Transport spokesman Phil Twyford in a select committee. Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/kiwirail-board-backed-diesel-engines-keep-freight-customers-bridges-says-b-203915

Phil Twyford may have said the Point England development bill is just "nuts," but Bill English thinks opposition is "just dumb." Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/dumb-nuts-barmy-english-and-twyford-trade-blows-housing-development-bill-jw-p-203307