Posts by Gareth Ward
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We haven’t even seen the agreement signed with Toll this morning, or the Cabinet papers authorising Cullen and the PM to negotiate the deal. I’m told we’ll get these in due course.
These will be interesting - like you, Craig, I hope there's at least an attempt at a "social business case" here. I would have thought there must be just to get past Cabinet/have Treasury at least rubber stamp the spending - optimistic perhaps.
But a national infrastructure business that would require subsidies to private operators to cover off the externalities (that I'm assuming make up that "social business case") of public good does seem like a natural candidate for government ownership.
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David, it might be some consolation that the people who own the brilliant Richmond Road Cafe are soon to open a new place at the north end of Takapuna Beach.
Yep this is the Takapuna Beach Cafe I mentioned - it's open now, soft launched last week with takeaways but believe it's now in full flight...
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That's a shame about Ciao - my "family home" is two blocks from there and that was a pretty decent arrival for the olds. Was originally setup by a couple of guys fresh out of AUT cooking school apparently alongside a more long-time Italian chef?
And have heard that there's a new place called something like Wine and Roses (??) - about 8 tables, booked for months and doing genuinely good food (genuine being a little lost on many establishments in that area). -
And as for mid-range-food-&-service but high-range-price, I'm amazed by what some very average cafes consider they can charge. Tony Adcock of Harbourside (a place that can rightly claim being one of the few to have a decent service programme that has probably trained a very good percentage of the food service staff in Auckland) commented that a Lone Star-esque place can put $30 on an average steak with rubbish service, yet if he trys to put $40 on a Wagyu in one of Auckland's better long term restaurants he's shouted down. I'm not necessarily suggesting he should jack his prices, but just because Harbourside can charge it, doesn't mean Lone Star should.
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In defence of my original 70's and 80's place of upbringing, judging ANY suburb/town/lifestyle-cum-state-of-mind on the state of it's Lone Star is not going to paint a glowing picture. The new Takapuna Beach Cafe is meant to supposedly brilliant and possibly a better picture of the state of Taka these days.
That's as far as I'll go though. Takapuna these days can be too much like a cheap attempt at The OC for my liking...
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Very interesting and balanced read, thanks.
I'm interested in your take on how your wrap upThe only message that rallies like last week's send is: "We are upset." It can change actions, up to a point, but it does nothing to change people's opinions. It might have made those students feel better to voice their sense of grievance, but as China's bridge to the world, the international students should aspire towards better.
applies to the Tibetan protesters around the world as well?
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Every time this child poverty figure is promoted I grimace.
"New Zealand came third-worst in the developed world in a Unicef survey of child poverty around the year 2000, with a quarter of all children then living in families earning less than 60 per cent of the median income."
I don't doubt that poverty exists in NZ. But this measure is plain ridiculous.
Median = the income of the 50th percentile.
So a country with a really skewed income distribution (ie: 80% of people earn the minimum wage, 10% earn nothing, 10% earn heaps), would perform better than a country with an even income spread
I find this quite extraordinary too - the measurement is not to do with how much money these children have to live on, but on income disparity in a country.
I don't doubt that there are families finding it very hard to get by in this country, but that stat explicitly means that the economy could have grown in leaps and bounds over the last 5 years, with the poorest families seeing income percentage growth as much as anyone else, and yet the "child poverty" statistic wouldn't move. Which doesn't really seem right to me.Income disparity is certainly something that needs to be discussed, and I understand that Unicef use that measure because of the huge range of incomes and costs of living across nations, but to then bandy about comments around child poverty not getting any better (when in fact poor families could have seen significant growth in family income) seems a bit extreme... Indeed if the child poverty ratio drifts only slightly down in a period of strong national economic growth, that could imply a serious lift in living standards for the poorest (not only part of the rising tide like everyone else, but taking a bigger chunk of that rise as well)
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Mr Haywood here
Ahem: "Dr" thank you.
Considering the good Dr hasn't called me on it, he may not care but my apologies for titular abuse =)
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Perhaps the best pub I came across was one whose name I can't remember (nor find via thewondersoftheinterweb) in one of those streets that ran from Hampstead village out to the Heath.
It was a standalone big old building, filled with eclectic comfy furniture from a variety of eras, and laid out such that there were separate areas of varying 'vibes', served brilliant beer on tap with simple, basic yet clever and well-cooked pub food, played old soul and reggae out the back in the sunny courtyard and had a couple of little dart boards hidden around the place.
It had taken the old-school concepts of what a good pub is (as well defined by Mr Haywood here) and bought them up to a modern standard without awfully modernising it (hard to describe).
There isn't a pub in AKL that gets even close in any way... -
Gareth - the model is not yet determined and Fibre Co is not in or out. I would make the point that at present the NZI Fibre Co model is the *only* one on the table, so if people do not like it, they need to come up with a better one.
Right - maybe slightly crossed wires here. I DO like the FibreCo proposal, I think it's the only realpolitik way of making this happen efficiently. My concern was that the criteria that have been laid out by Mr Key don't seem to allow for the FibreCo model to be utilised (regulated monopoly buying all Telecom's existing copper and fibre etc) and am trying to get a view on how the model may look... Personally I'm all for a Govt investment of $1.5b into a vehicle to make this happen, but am having trouble seeing what the vehicle may look like within those criteria.