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Wellington (18 May 2016): The New Zealand Initiative has welcomed calls to scrap Auckland’s urban growth boundary, saying the evidence unambiguously shows that these sorts of policies artificially push the costs of housing up. This comes after Labour Housing Spokesman Phil Twyford today said his party would abolish Auckland’s city limits should it be voted into government. Read more
Replace the word London for Auckland and you could be forgiven for thinking that The Economist was writing a lament about housing affordability in New Zealand’s biggest city. In an article titled “Little London”, the magazine notes that soaring property prices are dragging on the city’s economy. Read more
Nothing is worse than politicians running out of ideas. Or to say it in the famous words of Abraham Maslow, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” In the case of politicians, the hammer is the power to tax and the nails are all the problems that are coming their way. Read more
With Auckland’s housing crisis now a permanent feature on the Herald’s front page, it is worth restating how this problem started: not enough homes were built to keep up with natural demand. When too many buyers chase too few goods, prices have to rise. Read more
With the dust on the failed Wellington mega-merger process having only just settled, it is a disappointing turn of events to see a new merger proposal back on the agenda, albeit in a smaller form. That is because the previous merger - which would have amalgamated the Greater Wellington Regional Council with district councils in Wellington, Porirua, Kapiti Coast, Hutt, Lower Hutt, South Wairarapa, Carterton and Masterton into a unitary authority - offered so few benefits and such high costs that it never got out the gate. Read more
Last month Local Government Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga provided the first peek at the latest round of Local Government Act reforms, dubbed the Better Local Services package. The announcement was not a surprise, particularly as it came in the wake of failed council amalgamation proposals in Wellington, Northland and Hawke’s Bay. Read more
It would take a world champion wowser to declare last weekend’s CubaDupa festival anything but an outstanding success, replete with two days of street food, live music, street artists, and throngs of happy attendees. If such a po-faced complaint were to be made it would probably focus on the number of drunk people wandering the streets late at night, and the menace they represent (noise, fights, minor crime and so on). Read more
Recently a group of business people gathered to discuss what exactly is stopping Wellington from reaching its full economic potential (whatever that means) as part of a Trans-Tasman Business Circle event. As you would expect from a panel discussion featuring a bank economist, a major Wellington developer, and the newly appointed head of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA), the conversation rested heavily on modern MBA speak. Read more
If you have been living under a rock, you may not have realised there is a war going on in Auckland. There are no guns and bombs involved (at least not yet) but, based on the headlines, the tensions seem to be equivalent to those of a real conflict. Read more
Last week, the Salvation Army released its State of the Nation Report. And, contrary to the usual story, the Salvation Army’s report generally paints a picture of improving outcomes. Read more
