Bill English

Another post by the Planning Parrot:

Yet again, clearly nobody gets it when it comes to property.

Property developers who “sit and wait” for land values to increase have been sent a clear signal that the Government will act to bring more housing into the market, Finance Minister Bill English says.

The Government last week announced new measures to increase the supply of housing, including the ability to take control of planning and consents for new houses if councils were too slow in freeing up land.

The Budget measures come after the Government signed an accord with Auckland Council which aims to add a further 39,000 houses to the region over the next three years – more than double the 15,000 new units built over the last three years.

Mr English told TVNZ’s Q+A programme this morning that the legislation sent a clear signal to property developers who were sitting on land.

I’m not sure where Bill English is coming from. It is their land not the governments. If they want to sit on it forever then so what. Has he forgotten National’s core values, especially the part about freedom and choice?  Read more »

Go on.  If you have to.

Bill English’s press release outlines the Budget at a Glance:

Progress in the Government’s programme while on track to surplus

• Provides a suite of measures to build faster economic growth, support more jobs and deliver a more innovative and productive economy.
• Forecasts economic growth to average between 2 and 3 per cent a year over the next four years.
• Includes a $100 million-a-year internationally-focused growth and innovation package to boost investment in science, research and development, and tourism.
• Confirms an additional $1.5 billion of investments from the Future Investment Fund to spend proceeds from the Government’s share offer programme.
• Allows for ACC levy cuts on households and businesses of around $300 million in 2014/15, increasing to around $1 billion in 2015/16.
• Provides significant extra money to help low-income families through a number of targeted initiatives.
• $5.1 billion of new operating spending in the current year and over the next four years for initiatives across areas such as health, education, welfare, and housing.
• Confirms an additional $2.1 billion to help rebuild Christchurch, taking the Government’s total share of the rebuild to around $15 billion.

Read more »

Bill English has released details showing that the IMF thinks we are on the right track…the converse of course is that the Green led Labour coalition wouldn’t be.

Farrar will no doubt have a throughly researched piece straight off the desk of Bill English.

The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that the Government’s economic plan strikes the right balance between supporting growth and limiting public debt, Finance Minister Bill English says.

In its final staff report issued this morning, the IMF endorses New Zealand’s balanced and pragmatic economic management.   Read more »

Regular readers will know that I’m no fan of Bill English.

But yesterday he gave the Green Taliban a solid kicking for their attempted sabotage of the Mighty River Power float.

Sledge Of The Day.

Read more »

Claire Trevett eviscerated Len Brown in a column in the Herald this morning.

‘Do not besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided,” goes the advice from military tactician Sun Tzu – and Prime Minister John Key clearly has that advice uppermost in his mind whenever he is asked to comment on the latest suggestions to pay for Auckland’s transport woes.

The most recent came this week in the form of a paper prepared by the group appointed by Auckland Mayor Len Brown to consider how to fund Auckland’s $12 billion future transport shortfall.

That set out an appetising menu for Aucklanders, who were asked to choose between rates and fuel tax hikes mixed with tolls on new roads, or tolls and congestion charges, a la inner London, also sauteed with rates and fuel tax rises.

So began the second screening of Groundhog Day, in which Brown pops up with a bright idea and the PM knocks it back for political, not fiscal reasons.

Len Brown promised a referendum on this and now he has his dark-arts master running around organising community groups to say they love Len’s taxes.  Read more »

Wow, what a guy.

Fresh from telling anyone who’ll listen that NZ’s biggest problem is its addiction to property, Bernard Hickey is now telling punters to get in quick to borrow against their home.

It seems that Esteemed Bill English (or Wiremu Pakeha as he is known as in Tuhoe) and the Reserve Bank is soliciting feedback on Loan value ratios, or LVRs.

This means that banks may not be able to loan more than a certain amount on a home, maybe 80%. (You will remember in the property boom 5-10 years ago, you could get 105%, because you needed a plasma TV to go with your Grey Lynn villa).  Read more »

Hekia Parata has been a terrible minister of education. She was promoted way beyond her ability and has screwed up just about everything she has touched.

The latest story is Hekia has an ex staff member suing Ministerial Services in a personal grievance case.

A former staff member in the office of Education Minister Hekia Parata is pursuing a personal grievance against ministerial services.
Ministerial Services confirmed a staff member who worked in Ms Parata’s office had lodged a personal grievance against ministerial services, which is part of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Apparently this may not be the only one.

Radio New Zealand reported a senior private secretary left the minister’s office in December last year at the same time Ms Longstone departed and three other private secretaries had also left the office. It was unclear on what grounds these staff left her office.  Read more »

via righttolife.co.nz

Vernon Small writes

The proposed car park tax is no more. The Government has today announced a back-down on the widely-derided plan.

Read more »

Pretty Vacant from the Sex Pistol’s album Flogging a Dead Horse seems appropriate.

Despite Bill English and his factotum in the blogosphere both declaring that the Car park tax was a good thing there are signs that the government is set to dismount the dead horse that Bill and Peter are flogging.

Colin Espiner calls this National’s light bulb moment:

There comes a time in any government’s term in office when it does something so unbelievably stupid, so mind-bendingly dumb, so ridiculously petty and so clearly idiotic that you know it’s losing the plot.

I remember well when Labour jumped the shark. It wasn’t the anti-smacking legislation – that had a huge impact on its core support but at least it could argue it was doing the right thing, even it wasn’t popular at the time.  Read more »

The new edition of Truth is on sale today:

News:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sports:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Read more »