New Zealand ‘broccoli budget’ 2016/17

### NZ Herald Online 3:58 PM Thursday May 26, 2016
Liam Dann: This is the broccoli budget
OPINION This is the broccoli budget. It’s the one you have to eat before you get the treats. Bill English has got his surplus back and if we buy in to his vision of fiscal prudence we’ll have $6.7 billion in the tank by 2020.
That’s more than enough for John Key to dangle $3 billion in tax cuts in front of us before the election next year, although that does render the $6 billion figure a little redundant. The $700m surplus this year represents a huge swing from the $400m deficit which was forecast as recently as December. But economists will point out that is still margin of error stuff in a Budget spend of $77.4 billion. In some ways the extent of the turn around since December just proves that.
Read more

[thepoeticgardenfiles.wordpress.com]

—

“This is a Budget that invests in a growing economy.” –Bill English

Thu, 26 May 2016
ODT: Health, education big Budget winners
Health, education and social services are the winners in a Budget which contains few surprises but also few contentious moves. Auckland housing also features prominently in the National-led Government’s eighth Budget, released this afternoon. There is no rescue package for first-home buyers but funding will help free up land for housing developments in Auckland and open up more social housing places for the most desperate families. […] In the next year, an extra $568 million will be spent on health – just short of the $600 million which is required to keep pace with population growth and other pressures on the health system.

█ ODT Budget Special

—

www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2016
Home page for Budget 2016 for the Government of New Zealand. Hon Bill English is Minister of Finance.

The Budget website at www.budget.govt.nz is optimised for mobile and tablet devices and provides access to the current Budget documents and interactive charts and features such as My Tax Dollars.

Parliament TV – 2016 Budget Day
Today (Thursday 26 May) after 2pm, the Minister of Finance Hon Bill English delivered the 2016 Budget to the House of Representatives. The Budget is an annual event that sets out the Government’s economic policies and plans for spending public money in the 2016-17 financial year. All Government spending must be scrutinised and approved by Parliament, and Parliament gives this approval by passing a special law, called an Appropriation Bill. The Budget is effectively the start of this ‘appropriation’ process. Link

█ Watch and listen to Budget Day 2016
You can watch the delivery of the Budget statement and the following debate on Parliament TV, by webcast or on-demand

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Housing affordability in this country is “just hopeless” –Hugh Pavletich

September 2014. Another 17 Special Housing Areas were revealed in Auckland, under the plan to accelerate new home building – only two of them outside the suburbs. Housing Minister Nick Smith and Auckland Mayor Len Brown announcing the special housing. Link Photo: Radio New Zealand

—

### NZ Herald Online 9:15 AM Monday Jan 19, 2015
Property: Mad truths on home prices in Auckland
Auckland housing affordability has worsened and it remains one of the 10 least affordable big cities in the world. Auckland’s surging housing market is now only slightly cheaper than London but pricier than Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, Perth, Brisbane and Boston.

█ The latest Demographia survey (1.74 MB), released today, compares prices with incomes in 378 cities, including 86 with more than one million people.

Auckland is one of the most unaffordable places due to its high house prices and low incomes. […] Now, the median house price has climbed to $613,000 and income to $75,100, giving a multiple of 8.2 and maintaining Auckland’s top 10 spot for unaffordable major cities.
Property Council chief Connal Townsend blamed Auckland Council’s planning regulations. “We’ve got houses more expensive than LA. How is this possible? A dump in Pt Chevalier demands a million dollars, which gets you a mansion in Beverly Hills. We’ve reached the point of madness.”
Survey authors Hugh Pavletich of Christchurch and Wendell Cox of the United States criticised the Government and Auckland Council for failing to ease affordability by vastly increasing housing supply via the Housing Accord and its 80 Special Housing Areas, but said the situation was bad in other areas too.

█ Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said housing affordability problems went back 25 years but the Government was planning additional reforms this year, particularly around the Resource Management Act.

Analysis: So … what can be done?
Auckland is extraordinarily expensive relative to incomes and rents but the solutions need to be broader than what Demographia argues on land supply, writes Shamubeel Eaqub, principal economist at the NZIER.
Read more

—

Auckland Housing Accord (2014)
Under the terms of the accord approved between the Government and the Auckland Council, a total of 39,000 new homes/sections are targeted for approval over the next three years. Not all of those 39,000 have to be found specifically through the accord, as the figure includes all developments that might be approved in Auckland during that period. Link

Graphic via interest.co.nz [click to enlarge]

—

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 09:18, January 19 2015
Auckland in world top ten for housing unaffordability: report
By Laura Walters
The co-author of a survey which found Auckland house prices exceeded those in Los Angeles says housing affordability in this country is “just hopeless”. The 11th annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey classified Auckland as the ninth least affordable major city in the world. Auckland is the 14th least affordable city out of all 378 cities surveyed, and has been rated as “severely unaffordable” in 11 surveys done – less affordable than Los Angeles and the Gold Coast. “It’s just not on, is it? The social injustice of the whole thing’s just dreadful. It’s screwing up people’s lives big time,” said Christchurch-based Hugh Pavletich. When the cost of housing exceeded three times people’s incomes it showed there was a “massive problem” with infrastructure financing and land supply, he said.

NZ HOUSING AFFORDABILITY DROPS
While Auckland’s house prices were extremely high, Tauranga-Western Bay of Plenty, Christchurch and Wellington were also seen in the survey as “severely unaffordable”. Palmerston North-Manawatu and Hamilton-Waikato were “seriously unaffordable”. There were no moderately affordable or affordable markets in New Zealand, according to the survey. “Housing affordability has declined materially in New Zealand’s three largest markets over the last decade.”

Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said the high prices of New Zealand houses had a lot to do with the tax regime being favourable to home ownership and property investment compared with other forms of saving or investment.
Read more

—

Todd Property Group with Fletcher Residential – Stonefields is a 110 hectare development at Mt Wellington, located, only 8km from the Auckland Central Business District and next to the established eastern suburbs of Ellerslie, Meadowbank and St Johns. Photo: panoramio.com

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

John Key PM, plus and minus

Key’s inch-by-inch retreat to the point where his imagined leftwing conspiracy turned into a rightwing one and he had to sack — sorry, accept the resignation of — Judith Collins has reflected a trading-floor culture, not the disciplined executive management required of a modern prime minister.

Our democracy is still in far better shape than that of the United States, a country Key fawns over. And Key is generally a man of goodwill and decency. If he gets a third term, he could, with guidance from his Deputy Prime Minister, retrieve his democratic authority.

‘The health pillar of good government’ (2.9.14) at http://www.colinjames.co.nz/the-health-pillar-of-good-government/

● Colin James is a social and political commentator.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: newstalkzb.co.nz (Getty) – John Key PM

Greater Dunedin: developing image

Received from Anonymous
Fri, 25 Jul 2014 at 4:40 p.m.

Message: “Clever” monkey Cull would have to be the one on the left smiling and staring blankly into space. At least the other monkeys know something is wrong! An apt Dunedin variation on “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. Maybe a new logo for Greater Dunedin?
[ends]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image supplied

Minister of Finance Bill English on Dunedin governance #Regions #Cull

Received from Anonymous
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 at 6:29 p.m. and 7:02 p.m.

Message: Watched a few moments of Question Time from Parliament today and in response to a question on regional development Minister of Finance Bill English said (citing the most recent ANZ survey) “the top two areas for business confidence are Otago despite the complaints of their civic leadership, and the Waikato”. Have a look from about 3’20” of this clip. Great stuff.

Bound to receive not a word of reportage from the ODT.

A really big dig at Cull.

In The House – Question Time
Topic: Growing Gaps among Regions
23/07/14 23.07.14 – Question 4: Hon David Parker to the Minister of Finance
Does he agree that there are growing gaps among the regions of New Zealand, making the economy and society increasingly unbalanced; if not, why not?
Url: http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/34086

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Forsyth Barr ‘should be booted’

Link supplied.

### 3news.co.nz Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:48a.m.
Forsyth Barr to stay on Mighty River panel
The Government’s rejecting a call to remove Forsyth Barr from the panel running the selldown of Mighty River Power despite a Commerce Commission ruling critical of the company’s past. In a decision last week, the Commerce Commission said Forsyth Barr and French investment bank CALYON were “misleading and deceptive” in their marketing of $91.5 million in Credit SaILS bonds to investors in 2006. The product promised 8.5 percent interest income and capital protection – but Credit SaILS failed in 2008, and the bonds are now virtually worthless. The companies have reached a settlement with the Commerce Commission to create a settlement fund of $60m to be distributed to investors.
Economics writer Bernard Hickey says Forsyth Barr should be booted from the panel overseeing Mighty River’s float, saying its involvement risks undermining confidence in the sale.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Government Funding

As mentioned previously, Governments gobally have pinned their economic hopes on a somewhat Keynesian approach to financial recover, that being essentially more government intervention in the economy, and spend your way out of recession. Both the Australian and New Zealand Governments has signalled that they would be spending large sums on Infrastructure projects among other things. In Australia some of the money targeted for infrastructure spending has specifically allocated ($2m per state) for stadium upgrades. Clearly the Australian government has seen the value in the stadium in the modern built environment, and in the case of Australia, the stadium is part of the identity building process.

So while the opponents of the stadium have suddenly developed rather strange bedfellows (yes that famous climate change denier and libertarian Rodney Hide), and gone running to the ‘hall monitor’ of Parliament, others have made considered approaches to the somewhat less dogmatic ideologue Bill English. It would be fantastic if the government could see that stadiums have such an important role to play in how Kiwis define themselves, and fund us accordingly.

From the ODT Sat 20 Dec 2008

Having set a goal of supporting development and infrastructure projects during the election campaign, the Government is “expecting the call” from Dunedin stadium bosses looking for funding, deputy prime minister Bill English says.

Mr English said in Queenstown yesterday no money had been set aside for the stadium project, but indicated it might sit within the criteria for “top priority projects” the Government was looking to fund.

“We expect we will be approached over the shortfall.”

While it has been announced the Government will be shelving plans for some larger projects, he said infrastructure-type funding would be available.

“The top priority projects will be the ones that will lift productivity in the community.”