Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Rising tide of hardship putting strain on services, big wage cuts coming at Fletchers, and fears many hospitality businesses won’t be viable after lockdown. We’re beginning to get a picture of how the Covid-19 economic shock will hit those living in the most hardship, and … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions. Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather didn’t create the desired winter wonderland. The ODT reports that South Island mountains have seen very little … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another major day of climate protests puts pressure on politicians, PMs fall in dramatic political weekend, and calls to stop use of remand for young people. If activism in 2019 so far has been defined by any one movement, it is climate change. And there’s every reason … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Gun clubs, gun laws change after Christchurch attack, protests promised against new oil drilling, and widespread construction employment law breaches revealed. In less than a month since the Christchurch mosque shooting, sweeping changes have come to both gun laws, and the gun community generally. The new law … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: High court rules on sorry saga of construction company Mainzeal, John Tamihere rejected by Labour, and Dunedin losing historic Presbyterian churches. When construction giant Mainzeal went bust, it left a massive trail of debt in its wake. The company, which at the time was the third largest … Read more
Everything from competition around supplying materials to how many lights you have in a room can determine the cost of building a house, says Box co-founder Dan Heyworth. You’re not imagining things – the cost of designing and building really is going crazy. In February 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute studied the effect of implementing construction … Read more
The much-vaunted Kiwibuild programme isn’t going to come close to reaching the initial house building targets. So what has gone wrong? And can it be salvaged? AUT expert Professor John Tookey answered some of our questions. The numbers on Kiwibuild are bleak. Thirty three houses built to date. A target of 1000 for the first … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Warner Cowin, founder and CEO of procurement … Read more
New building consents in Auckland are almost keeping up with the region’s population growth, reports Greg Ninness of interest.co.nz. According to provisional estimates from Statistics NZ, Auckland’s population increased by 38,600 in the 12 months to June. Since Auckland has an average household occupancy of three people per dwelling according to the 2013 census, an … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan extended again, homelessness census takes place, and an interesting way of measuring the building boom. New Zealand’s deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan has been extended yet again. Around 121 personnel will be deployed to Iraq, military trainers will stay in Afghanistan, and … Read more
The launch of a new aerial imaging company in New Zealand gives a bird’s eye glimpse of Auckland’s rapidly changing landscape, allowing us to compare some of the city’s major infrastructure projects in places like Hobsonville, Mount Roskill, Papakura, Flatbush and Drury before and after construction. As a wise man once said, it’s about time … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government moves to address construction concerns, NZ First links to Wally Haumaha keep getting revealed, and push to bring back health targets. The government has agreed to stop low-balling construction companies who bid on contracts, in an effort to save the sector from collapse. Stuff reports that the … Read more
In the middle of a building boom, construction companies keep going out of business. Leonie Freeman explains why it’s happening and what we can do about it. It’s hard for many of us to square: while we seem to be on the brink of a house building boom, construction companies are falling over. It’s like … Read more
Henry Oliver asked John Tookey, AUT’s deputy head of the School of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Science, to explain how Ebert Construction is going bust just as New Zealand’s building industry is supposed to be ramping up. This morning, construction company Ebert Construction went into receivership, leaving workers on several major projects across the country … Read more
The off-site industry is full of great energy but in a mess, stumbling around looking for solutions, writes Dan Heyworth, CEO of Box, a company which has dipped its toe in the prefab business. Heralded as key to the government’s ability to build 100,000 homes over the next 10 years, prefab is hot right now. … Read more
Auckland has long been NZ’s economic engine, but these days the rest of the country’s doing pretty well too – and maybe even better, says Kiwibank’s chief economist Jarrod Kerr. In Auckland, things are starting to get a little chilly, not just in terms of the weather, but economically too – migration is cooling and … Read more
I’m a builder, and I love bitching about red tape and building inspectors. But lately my views have changed. I was primed to write a rant about building inspectors. Finally, I thought, I have my chance to stick it to the man, my chance to get back at all those persnickety little men who for … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government moves to address construction worker shortage, data on regressiveness of fuel tax released, and Sir John Key pops up as a lobbyist. It’s been a big 24 hours of news about the logistics of the Kiwibuild programme, in which the government intends to build 100,000 … Read more