Among a significant number of leaders claiming they are actively monitoring the situation in Venezuela after the US invasion and the kidnapping of President Maduro are some pointed and very relevant comments from some unusual sources.
So Christopher Luxon thinks there is too much immigration. It was not what he was saying last year.
Since 2017 this Government has constructed 12,000 new Kainga Ora houses, overseen record numbers of new housing consents, moved to resolving the housing crisis and stabilised and reduced house prices. All this is at stake if there is a change of Government.
Some details of the new Cabinet announced today by Jacinda Ardern.
National list MP Alfred Ngaro has shown that National’s message discipline has broken down completely by going negative and making some outlandish claims against Labour’s Phil Twyford.
2020 will now be the year that New Zealand will now rely on Auckland to get its shit together.
Statistics New Zealand has confirmed that in the last year the number of new housing consents was the highest since 1974.
National has announced that it will put an end to a “state house for life” if it gets into power next year. But its rationale is not only cruel but based on a faulty understanding of the local reality.
National has displayed a concerning level of rhetoric this week involving a misrepresentation of the GDP figures and the attacking of a board appointee who cannot respond.
The rate at which the building consents have increased in Auckland, and the shift to a more useful mix, has been incredibly fast. You can understand why National after their decade of failure for housing and transport have been targeting the authors of that success. It highlights National’s economic incompetence.
The results of Labour’s cabinet reshuffle have been announced.
Mike Hosking has chosen to criticise Jacinda Ardern for touring the country and speaking to communities about the Wellbeing budget rather than flying across the world to take part in a photo opportunity.
Simon Bridges has accused Labour of engaging in dirty politics and considered that he was acting appropriately in releasing budget information early, contrary to standards that his Government implemented in 2014.
Spare a thought for poor landlords who are aghast at the thought that they should have to share capital gains on properties they have purchased with no intent of making a capital gain.
Letting fees are a thing of the past. Labour’s Phil Twyford has outlawed the practice of charging tenants an upfront fee for a non existent service. It’s about fairness and it’s about time.
The government has just announced the creation of the most massive and powerful housing and land development agency that we have ever seen.
Simon Bridges has claimed that Labour’s Kiwisaver fund is $18 billion short of the amount needed to meet the Government’s goals of constructing ten thousand Kiwibuild houses a year. The claim has as much credibility as National’s claim that Labour’s budget figures had an $11.5 billion hole in them.
Simon Bridges has in the last 24 hours blamed Labour law changes for increasing rentals but has forgotten which ones, and has disagreed that an apology is owed to the families of the Pike River miners on the 8th anniversary of the disaster.
Judith Collins has landed herself in trouble for publicising details of a young couple who just bought a Kiwibuild home.
National is complaining that Labour is not solving the National imposed housing crisis quickly enough.
There has been some push back against the Government’s light rail proposal for Dominion Road from some unlikely sources. But they are concentrating on what is best for airport users, not what is best for the city as a whole.
Three months ago National apoligised for getting dud advice and evicting hundreds of state house tenants where miniscule amounts of methamphetamine were discovered. This week National backed off from that very proper apology.
This Government has probably one term to show progress in dealing with the country’s infrastructure deficit.
The Government is getting ready to battle the most rapacious economic force in this country, real estate capitalism, for the good of people.
Judith Collins has criticised Phi Twyford because after eight months as Minister he has not fixed a crisis that took nine years to create.
The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Peter Gluckman has described the previous Government’s policy on methamphetamine in Housing Corp houses as hysterical and concluded that there has never been a documented case of someone getting sick from third-hand exposure to methamphetamine.
The Twitter hashtag #twyfordaccusations has been set up to allow people to speculate on what other nefarious allegations will be made against Phil Twyford by Judith Collins.
Minister Twyford’s resignation has been refused by the Prime Minister after he took a call against Civil Aviation rules, in the second ministerial scandal of the Ardern administration.
There was intense competition this week. Paula Bennett with her attack on Jacinda’s Spotify playlist almost won but Northcote candidate Dan Bidois succeeded for managing to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and only confusing his tongue.
Labour’s announcement of $100 million spending on homelessness has attracted praise from everyone, except National.
National has promised to overturn Auckland’s Regional Fuel Tax. But has no proposal for how the funding will be replaced.
National has responded to Labour’s ATAP proposal by refusing to accept there is a problem, drumming up anti Auckland resentment in the rest of the country and claiming they would have done the same thing.
Minister Phil Twyford and Mayor Phil Goff announced the ATAP, the transport programme for Auckland for the next ten years. At $28 billion it is the largest civil infrastructure programme since World War II.
Remember how early on during his reign as National leader John Key talked about the underclass and how they were a blight on New Zealand society? Well over the past year WINZ has been giving grants to homeless families to live in tents.
The Government has released a draft Government Policy Statement on Transport for consultation. A radical shake up of the Transport system is being proposed.
The first big Kiwibuild announcement, 3 to 4,000 houses in Mt Albert has been made. And National has responded that it was all their idea and they did not want to announce it because it would be seen as pork barrelling.
