NZ First on “concrete cancer” @ NZ #dodgyimportedcement

Thursday, 19 February 2015, 4:21 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

‘Concrete Cancer’ Fears Still Alive

New Zealand First wants Minister for Building and Housing Nick Smith to get independent analysis to prove that “concrete cancer” is not a concern in recently constructed buildings around the country as Minister Smith claims.

“We have been reliably informed that tonnes of imported cement are not up to industry standards and result in weak concrete that will end in structural problems,” says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“New Zealand First warned the government about the dodgy cement last year but it is still being used.

“Now the Minister has the audacity to tell New Zealand First to provide technical reports. That is the job of the Minister who, up till now, has relied on concrete industry assurances that are both conflicted and not independent.

“Suspect cement is believed to have been used in the Manukau District Court and Fonterra’s upgrade of its UHT factory in Waitoa.

“Why haven’t independent core samples been take from these sites and others where there are concerns?”

ENDS

[via Scoop]

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inthehouseNZ Published on Feb 18, 2015
19.02.15 – Question 7: Rt Hon Winston Peters to the Minister for Building and Housing
Does he think he is competently fulfilling his ministerial responsibilities; if not, why not?
Provided by http://www.inthehouse.co.nz
Produced by Tandem Studios

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Whaleoil’s Cameron Slater says…

“The Government has been warned about the concrete cancer issue for near on six months now, and yesterday we saw a flustered looking Nick Smith start the ol’ political trick of shifting the blame to his officials.”

20.2.15 Concrete Cancer Coverup – Winston has Nick Smith over a barrel
5.2.15 Concrete Cancer Cover-up, Ctd – What’s all the fuss about?

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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

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### 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

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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]

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### 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

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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

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

New building laws —happy new year!

Hut on sleds at Coromandel Peninsula | Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects

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### tvnz.co.nz 6:03PM Wednesday December 31, 2014 Source: ONE News
Construction cowboys watch out
Source: Breakfast
New building laws targeting construction cowboys are coming into force on New Year’s Day. Builders on big jobs have to be more open with clients or risk being fined. Every building job costing more than $30,000 will now need to be covered by a detailed contract.
“That’s going to have to outline your rights, their obligations, including the value of the work, when it’s going to start, when it’s likely to finish [and] if there’s any problems how you’ll resolve them,” says Sue Chetwin, Consumer chief executive.
Before they can start work, builders will also have to reveal their skills and qualifications, what sort of warranty is on offer and their level of insurance cover. And they’ll have to provide a checklist, setting out the client’s rights and explaining the building process. Failure to comply with any of the new rules will attract a fine of $500.
Read more

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Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment —
Building & Housing Information

Building Amendment Act 2013

● Changes to the dam scheme
● New Consumer protection measure
● More information

The Building Amendment Act 2013 was passed by Parliament on 27 November 2013. It is the result of a comprehensive review into the Building Act 2004.

This Amendment Act is part of a package of changes which introduce new measures to improve the building and construction sector, ensuring that it delivers good quality, affordable homes and buildings and contributes to a prosperous economy.

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New Zealand lawyers Buddle Findlay on Strengthening consumer protection measures in the Building Act (11.7.14):
Building and Construction Minister Dr Nick Smith announced yesterday that, from 1 January 2015, building contractors will be required to have written contracts, provide information on their relevant skills, experience and qualifications, and disclose their insurance and warranty cover for residential building work valued at over $30,000.
These new requirements are part of the wider consumer protection measures introduced in November last year by the Building Amendment Act 2013 (the Act), which will also come into force on 1 January 2015, and which strengthen the consumer protection measures currently contained in the Building Act 2004 (Building Act).
We consider that the consumer protection measures in the Act are a major evolution to consumers’ rights in the residential construction industry. The government is aiming for these legislative changes to have a significant impact on the way the industry operates – a fundamental behavioural change on the part of both consumers and building contractors.
The purpose of the consumer protection measures in the Act is to move away from the heavy reliance on building consent authorities for building quality and incentivise building professionals and trades people to take responsibility for the quality of their work and to stand behind it.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium Editorial Support strategy —ODT

Received from Bev Butler
Mon, 1 Dec 2014 at 6:48 p.m.

Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2014 15:31:04 +1300
From: Cushla Turner [ODT]
To: Bev Butler
Subject: Re: Letter to editor

Dear Bev,

Thank you for your letter to the editor received recently. The contents have been noted. However, it was not selected for publication.

Kind regards,
Cushla Turner
Editor’s Secretary
Otago Daily Times

______________________________________

On 29/11/2014 2:29 PM, Bev Butler wrote:

[address removed]
Saturday 29 November 2014
Dear Editor
In response to Dennis Dorney’s letter to editor (29.11.14), the editor states: “Saying the stadium was oversold to ratepayers and opposing its building are not the same thing.” True.
The ODT has always supported the stadium.
In fact, the ODT even had a STADIUM EDITORIAL SUPPORT strategy in place long before the final decision for the stadium to proceed. Nick Smith can confirm this.
Yours sincerely
Bev Butler

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

State Housing matters

All state house tenants, regardless of age or disability, will find themselves subject to the government’s new policy of reviewing state house tenancies.

### NZ Herald Online 11:45 AM Wednesday Mar 19, 2014
Elderly, disabled included in state house review
By Simon Collins
More than one in five of the first 780 state house tenants facing possible eviction under a new Government policy will be elderly or disabled. A paper taken to Cabinet last month by Housing Minister Nick Smith and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett reveals that the two ministers have decided not to exempt the elderly and disabled from the new policy of reviewing all state house tenancies, ending the previous policy that a state house was “a home for life”.
The full paper, placed on the Social Development Ministry website last week included a detailed breakdown showing that 20 per cent of the first batch of tenants to be reviewed would be 65 or over and 27 others would be “permanently and severely disabled”. The paper was later removed and an edited version was subsequently posted with the breakdown of affected tenants deleted.
The controversial policy is intended to “shift expectations away from social housing for life to social housing for the duration of housing need”. It takes effect after the Social Development Ministry takes over allocating social housing from Housing NZ on April 14, and the first affected tenants will be notified before the end of next month.
Read more

█ Cabinet paper on state house tenancies

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### ODT Online Tue, 18 Mar 2014
Fewer Kiwis own their own homes
The number of homeowners in New Zealand continues to fall, with less than half of all Kiwis owning their own property, new Census figures show. In 2013, 49.8 per cent of people aged 15 years and over owned or partly owned the home they lived in, compared with 53.2 per cent in 2006, according to census results released by Statistics New Zealand today. 2013 Census Quickstats about housing, which contains detailed information about New Zealand’s housing stock, also reveals trends in the number, type, and size of the dwellings we are living in. APNZ
Read more

█ 2013 Census QuickStats about national highlights

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: APN – State Housing

Local government reform

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 09:24 19/03/2012
Local government reform to be announced
By Danya Levy
The Government is expected to announce details of its local government reforms today which aim to reduce rates increases and curb council debt. Prime Minister John Key said this morning the Government believed the 7 per cent average rates increase since 2003 was too much for the community to shoulder. “We accept there are lots of arguments around infrastructure deficit and the cost of bitumen but overall we want to see that number lower,” he told Newstalk ZB.
Read more

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### scoop.co.nz Monday, 19 March 2012, 10:50 am
Government must give ratepayers greater protection
Press Release: NoMoreRates.Com
[Statement from David Thornton]
Government must give ratepayers greater protection from free-spending councils. Ratepayers around the country are looking for some solid changes to local councils when the Government makes its promised announcements on local government reform later today. While controls on rates and debt are the main issues there is also the question of limiting those council activities which lead to high debt and ever-increasing rates. This could need inserting new clauses in the Local Government Act clearly defining the services and facilities which councils can and cannot be involved in.
Read more

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Ms Sage hasn’t quite got it right, see Dunedin City Council’s unmanaged debt.

### scoop.co.nz Monday, 19 March 2012, 12:00 pm
Local Govt Reforms Driven By Ideology, Not Good Governance
Press Release: Green Party
A manufactured crisis is being used as an excuse to drive ideological changes to local government, the Green Party says. “Central government proposals to cap rates, limit council spending, and force amalgamations would further undermine local democracy,” Green Party local government spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “The key challenges local authorities face are a backlog of infrastructure investment where populations are growing and their reliance on rates as their major funding source.”
Read more

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### scoop.co.nz Monday, 19 March 2012, 10:50 am
Government must give ratepayers greater protection
Press Release: NoMoreRates.Com
[Statement from David Thornton]
Government must give ratepayers greater protection from free-spending councils. Ratepayers around the country are looking for some solid changes to local councils when the Government makes its promised announcements on local government reform later today. While controls on rates and debt are the main issues there is also the question of limiting those council activities which lead to high debt and ever-increasing rates. This could need inserting new clauses in the Local Government Act clearly defining the services and facilities which councils can and cannot be involved in.
Read more

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### radionz.co.nz Updated at 6:15 am today
News
Cabinet to consider local government reforms
The Cabinet is to consider a range of proposals aimed at controlling growing costs in the local government sector. Local Government Minister Nick Smith has said his main concern is council spending and the financial burden of rates on households and businesses.
Read more

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Related Posts:
12.3.12 DCC debt
7.3.12 D Scene: Call for full inquiry into stadium project
27.2.12 Bringing DCC councillors, staff, related entities and individuals to account
21.2.12 Kaipara this time
3.2.12 Local government
17.1.12 DCC living beyond its means [all spending and debt not declared]
4.7.11 Local government finances
16.6.11 “Dunedin” – we introduce Transparency International UK

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC debt

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 11/03/2012
Politics
Councils borrowing billions
By Lois Cairns
Local councils have clocked up $1606 in debt for every man, woman and child in New Zealand at a time when the amount they expect people to pay in property taxes is rising steeply. Government figures released to the Sunday Star-Times show local councils are charging, per capita, an average of $951 in rates and that nationally, rates have risen an average of 7 per cent a year for the past decade. Over the same period council debt has ballooned from $1.8b to $7b.

Local Government Minister Nick Smith is worried councils are stretching themselves too far and has signalled changes to the sector. He is set to deliver policies in the next two months so local government can control costs and keep rate rises in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has risen by around 2.2 per cent per annum over the past decade.

Read more

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The SST cites Council debt per capita eg Kaipara District $4142; Dunedin City $1920 (Source: Statistics New Zealand)… making DCC almost look good by comparison.

The problem with this is it’s not showing up Dunedin’s average debt per ratepayer at a massive $11,056 to 30 June 2011, compared to Kaipara at $4,395 – also derived from councils’ audited annual reports. See Russell Garbutt’s comment https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/kaipara-this-time/#comment-22152

Lois Cairns for SST has gone off message for Dunedin’s debt crisis by using the alternative set of stats.

Dunedin City’s average debt per ratepayer currently sits at est. $16,000. Note the escalation from 30 June.

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Related Posts:
9.3.12 DCC considers writing off ORFU’s $400,000 debt
4.3.12 The Press: fresh doubt on economic viability of stadium
27.2.12 DCC Statement of Public Debt Summary as at 31 December 2011
21.2.12 Kaipara this time
26.1.12 Stadium debt goes to 40-year term
17.1.12 DCC living beyond its means [all spending and debt not declared]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr