Strident remarks by Stephen Jennings, one of New Zealand’s wealthiest citizens, on housing, education and the economy suggest that the even the business community is tiring of the government’s endless softly-softly, writes Duncan Greive. Over the past few days we’ve seen a startling insertion into the public discourse of Stephen Jennings, a relatively low profile … Read more
Greg Pritchard is just another person watching nothing be done about the housing crisis. We’re told it’s too complicated and impossible to fix – but, as he points out below, it’s actually terrifyingly simple. Millions of words have been written about the housing situation in Auckland. TV networks have screened countless hours of renovation shows whose clear subtext … Read more
We edited John Key and Andrew Little’s words together into a surprisingly unified speech on the housing crisis. While I was putting together this impossible quiz, I noticed something surprising: John Key and Andrew Little were starting to make sense. Reading quotes by the pair on the housing crisis – Key’s from a speech in 2007, Little’s from interviews … Read more
The NZ Uber wars are heating up with calls for a crackdown on non-compliant operators as drivers begin to challenge the company’s criteria and pay rates. We talk to one driver leading the charge. The NZ Transport Agency says the company’s revised rules, with drivers no longer requiring P-endorsed passenger licences or to undergo NZTA-stipulated … Read more
Last time Generation Zero called for a rail link across the Waitemata, Transport Minister Simon Bridges told them off for not trusting in still non-existent autonomous buses. Soon after, the group commissioned a poll to test whether their old-fashioned rail theory had legs. Ryan Mearns reports on the results. Besides combating an increasingly terrifying housing crisis, deciding the future of … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Auckland mayoral candidate Vic Crone, Alan Johnson of the Salvation Army Policy Unit, and Leonie Freeman from Goodman Property Trust discuss the crisis of homelessness and affordable house prices with Guyon Espiner. The latest Ika Table Talk, titled “Can’t We Fix This Housing Thing?” sold out within hours of being announced. On Tuesday … Read more
Yes, it is a crisis: a profound and persistent crisis, bedevilled by distractions. Economist Eric Crampton takes a deep breath and works his way through the factors. The word crisis gets thrown around a lot. New Zealand has managed to have several crises in alcohol use over the past decade, despite official statistics showing generally … Read more
The government’s change of heart on charging for use of Auckland roads at last releases the handbrake on planning for the region’s transport future, writes Matt Lowrie. Auckland’s transport problems are pretty well known, even to those outside the city. They are the result of a toxic mix: decades of political bickering, poor decision making … Read more
The spotlight in the latest Auckland debate belonged to a National Party insider already being tipped for the deputy mayoralty. Tim Murphy introduces Desley Simpson, and marks the candidates’ efforts out of 10 One name dominated the latest Auckland mayoral debate in a church foyer in Meadowbank – and it wasn’t any of the five … Read more
A conversation between Damaris and Renee Coulter, the women behind Coco’s Cantina, about their endless struggles with the Auckland Council. First, a long caveat: It’s popular in many Auckland circles to malign the council, but most of the time it’s not deserved. The Auckland Council is vast and complex and has an incredibly important job to … Read more
Tens gathered outside Queen Street McDonald’s this morning for a chance at a cheap feed. Don Rowe feeds at the corporate teat and reports. “Oh my God. No way. Oh. My. God.” These were not the words of some Pentecostal in the throes of religious ecstasy, wrapped in snakes and screaming at the roof, but a real reaction … Read more
The Minister of Transport chided Generation Zero yesterday for urging a place for rail on a new harbour crossing. Here, two Gen-Zeroers hit back, saying his remarks lay bare an absence of strategic thinking. The story of Auckland is too often one of missed opportunities. And there is little cause to hope that the current … Read more
On the final day of the Tripartite Economic Summit, Tim Murphy discovers how a talk fest can get real-world results – and gets a lesson in American-style positive thinking. Read Tim’s recap of day one of the summit here. The United States Ambassador to New Zealand, His Excellency Mark Gilbert, has a three word family … Read more
Nick Smith was totally right to crack down on a politician who pandered to his rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Now, about National pandering to its rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Nick Smith, a sentient turnip acting undercover as New Zealand’s Housing Minister, launched … Read more
It sounds like a bureaucratic bore, but Auckland’s Tripartite Economic Summit, with guests including a British YouTube superstar and an American political “rock star”, is the hottest ticket in town. Tim Murphy reports from day one. YouTuber Tom Cassell – who is globally famous as Syndicate Tom – has been walking and talking around Auckland, … Read more
Opinion: The government wants more electric vehicles on NZ roads. But the plan to let them drive in bus lanes can only throw improvements in bus services into reverse, writes Matt Lowrie. The government wants to boost the currently dismal uptake of electric vehicles, increasing the numbers on our roads from about 1,200 to 64,000 … Read more
The Spinoff Editorial Board rules on whether Nick Smith was right when he said housing is more affordable in Auckland now than when National came to power. This morning, Housing Minister Nick Smith made the following statement on Morning Report: “If you look at the Massey University Housing Affordability Index, independently produced by that university, … Read more
Is my broker the asshole? His advice seemed utterly outrageous, but at the same time completely rational, writes Jesse Mulligan. I had journalist Matt Nippert on my RNZ show this week. He’d done some calculations based on house price inflation and Lotto first-division inflation and worked out that by the year 2039, if you correctly … Read more
Land tax is a good idea. But the proposal to lump it on non-residents alone just invites go-betweens to take advantage. Time for a properly coherent tax policy, argues Gareth Morgan. John Key has floated the idea of an annual land tax on foreign buyers of residential real estate as one response to the influx … Read more
Opinion: Last month’s early-morning street brawl has renewed police calls for earlier closing times in the Auckland CBD and beyond. That’s precisely the sort of overreaction that has decimated the nightlife industry over the ditch, says Tom McGuinness. At around 4:30am on Sunday 20th March, a street brawl erupted on Fort Street in Auckland’s CBD. … Read more
The front runner for Auckland’s top job has been a Labour politician for three decades, but now he’s embracing independence. And the ticker is good for another 20 years of toil, he tells Tim Murphy Phil Goff is shedding his tribal Labour Party skin. He is starting to like his new look and feel as … Read more
Tim Murphy was a sceptic when Victoria Crone’s candidacy for the Auckland mayoralty was announced. But watching her form at a public meeting on Thursday has him questioning that judgement. It’s rumoured among Auckland’s political cognoscenti that Victoria Crone, should she fail to pull off a miracle and win the Super City mayoralty, has been promised … Read more
Auckland has been awash with praise for the proposed waterfront stadium. Hayden Eastmond-Mein swims against the tide, and argues it’s a really awful idea. Sport has a unique ability to defy reason and distort logic in New Zealand. It’s a proud tradition. We’ve used sport to turn a blind eye to the worst of human behaviour. … Read more
The Unitary Plan is a complicated beast of a document that has flummoxed many taking part in the debate. Simple misunderstandings are massively exacerbating Auckland’s housing crisis, says architect Henri Sayes. I’m an architect, I like buildings. And as an architect, I deal with planning regulation on a daily basis and know that the planning … Read more
You wouldn’t know it looking around the meeting, but we were the voice of the roughly half a million Aucklanders under 24, a voice that has been largely sidelined in the debate on the city’s future. Yesterday the democratic deficit present in Auckland’s local body politics was well and truly evident. In a room of … Read more