Earlier I blogged about the sneaky stealth tax that Len Brown is planning for Auckland.
Hidden in the bowels of the draft Unitary Plan is a whole lot of fine print. Part of that fine print includes two next tools designed to gouge Aucklanders of more (and more and more) of their money to bail out Mayor Len Brown’s 10-year budget.
The Addendum of Len Brown’s blueprint includes discussion of two proposals –
2. ‘Inclusionary zoning’ Read more »
Len Brown is being castigated for his draft Unitary Plan, and rightly so.
He knows he is in trouble because now at every public meeting there is a small army of paid council officials handing out hastily prepared documents in an attempt to counter the opponents of the Unitary Plan.
One wonders though why the $30 million rate-payer funded spin doctors are even being deployed to defend the plan…I thought it was supposed to be a draft? Surely the process of public submissions is so people can voice their support or otherwise? Why the need to defend the plan?
Unless of course we were all supposed to meekly submit and prostrate before the Night Mayor for his luminary vision for Auckland.
Len Brown is also being very sneaky and furtive over some aspects of the Unitary Plan. Like his plans for stealth tax.
You have to look very carefully to find this, because you see it is not included anyway in the section of the Council website that deals with the Unitary Plan…instead it is hidden in a little traversed area called the Rural Urban Boundary, where there is a link to an Addendum to the Unitary Plan. Read more »
This morning I blogged about a dud Judge…but it turns out she isn’t a dud Judge after all, and it is the Herald that is a dud paper. It seems not all Judges named Philippa are crap.
I just received this email…it is self explanatory…now you can all heap piles of dung on the “decent journalists, trained and skilled” from the NZ Herald.
Dear Cameron,
re: NZ Herald article this morning
I thought you should know that article relating to KEPA in today’s Herald is incorrect:
“Judge Philippa Sinclair sentenced him to seven months in prison, to be served concurrently. That means Kepu will not have time added on to his sentence and is still eligible for parole in 2015 on his manslaughter conviction.” Read more »
The Young Nats’ Mitchell Baker has a great remit at the National Party Northern Region Conference this weekend, calling for the repeal of Section 97 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. Section 97 was bought by the union funders of the Labour Party, to give them disproportionate power in contract negotiations.
Section 97 was unprecedented. It did the following:
1. Removed the right for employers to use others, including volunteers, management and workers from other divisions during strikes.
2. Allowed Unions to hold primary production operations to ransom, knowing that no labour in a milk factory meant millions of dollars a day of wasted milk.
3. Removed the right for employers to test the market to determine if union demands are fair.
Unions bought this legislation to skew the playing field in their favour and put business at a disadvantage. New Zealand has had labour related legislation for over 100 years, prior legislation including that passed by previous Labour governments has never had anything like Section 97. There was no prohibition on use of replacement labour in The Employment Contracts Act 1991, or its predecessors, the Labour Relations Act 1987, the Industrial Relations Act 1973, the Industrial Relations Act 1949, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1925 or 1908.
Unions are good at buying legislation mainly because no one on the right is ever willing to call it for what it is.
This is very different from the way Labour squeals like a little girl over things like Sky City’s convention center.
National should follow Mitchell Baker’s lead and man up to the enemy rather than running away from them the moment they squawk.
I was on NewstalkZB last night with Larry Williams and Josie Pagani on The Huddle.
Our topics were:
The first segment was discussing the latest Green PR campaign calling for a ban on all deep sea oil drilling – attempting to destroy a $2 billion per annum export industry plus all the jobs that are created. Then there is their racist 15% tax on all overseas based property buyers. They are not really going to help the economy!
And of course the answer to the housing problems from them too. Read more »
Planning Parrot says:
Who will hold Auckland Council Officers accountable for breaking the law?
Auckland Council is like a citizen. It is required to adhere to the same laws that govern our nation and every person in it.
Whilst Council is afforded certain rights and functions through legislation that empower it, that power is not unlimited.
In fact it is very limited.
Those limitations are the essential boundaries specifically created in law to protect people and property from Council. In doing this the law ensures that Councils and their delegates (council officers) are bound in their duties.
Without which we would experience law-less Councils and authoritarianism.
So what happens to Councils and their officers when they break the law? Read more »
New evidence suggests that marijuana maybe popular because it helps people cope with the pain of loneliness.
Why smoke marijuana? Users would probably reply that numbed-out bliss is its own reward. But if smoothing out the harsh edges of reality is your goal, what bruises are you attempting to avoid?
Newly published research suggests that, at least for some, the answer is: The intense discomfort of social exclusion.
“Marijuana has been used to treat physical pain,” reports a research team led by University of Kentucky psychologist Timothy Deckman, “and the current findings suggest it may also reduce emotional pain.”
Interesting. Got me fascinated.
[D]ata on 5,631 Americans, who reported their level of loneliness, described their marijuana usage (if any), and assessed their mental health and feelings of self-worth. Not surprisingly, the researchers found a relationship between loneliness and feelings of self-worth, but it was significantly weaker for regular pot smokers.
“Marijuana use buffered the lonely from both negative self-worth and poor mental health,” the researchers write.
Another experiment, featuring 537 people, found those who were experiencing social pain were less likely to have suffered a major depression in the past year if they smoked pot relatively frequently.
Still another experiment, featuring 225 people, used the computer game Cyberball to create an immediate experience of social exclusion. Half the participants in the three-person game received the ball twice early on, and then never again during the course of the game. They then reacted to a series of statements designed to assess whether their need for self-esteem and belonging felt threatened—statements such as, “I had the feeling that the other players did not like me.”
The results: Those who smoked marijuana relatively frequently felt less threatened than those who smoked it less frequently, or not at all.
I’m very interested on the effect mitigating loneliness caused by severe depression.
I was emailed this letter this morning and it has now been posted on The Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan Facebook page.
Basically Len is Lying again. Currently less than 1% of Auckland is Apartments, he is claiming 7% of Auckland can become Apartments BUT the plan actually allows 56% of Auckland to become Apartments.
To Leighton Smith,
I am a kiwi now living in AKL after 25 years overseas. One great aspect about returning is that Auckland hasn’t fundamentally changed after 25 years.
The Unitary Plan (UP) in its present form would make Auckland unrecognizable to somebody returning after 25 years absence.
Currently Auckland has less than 1% of its area covered by apartments. The UP will change that – with 56% of the Auckland area provided for apartments.
The council is mis-informing the public with its 7% coverage figure. What is not public knowledge is that the new Mixed Housing Zone provides for 10m height permitting 3 storeys of apartments. The min size is 30 sq m. The land size must be > 1200 sq m and frontage must be 20m. Read more »
So, as per usual, TVNZ managed to dredge up a Budget whinger on last night’s news.
Carissa Graham already has six kids with twins on the way.
Here they all are on the couch, eating potato chips.
This whinger and bludger should learn to shut her legs before breeding anymore. The source of her poverty is her ability to flip it up willy-nilly. Read more »
Judith Collins has been shredding Twitter yesterday.
Check out these sledges.
