Posts by Alfie
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Speaker: What I learned in Class: Should…, in reply to ,
Real bogans I,ve known, (including one with a doctorate), don’t seem to get with offshore sailing like I do. They seem to do motor boating, but not sailing.
Bogan = jet skis, surely?
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Labour MP Meka Whaitiri's private member's bill which reinforces the role of the Government's environmental protection agency amazingly passed its first reading by one vote this afternoon, with backing from Labour, Greens, New Zealand First, the Maori Party and... wait for it... United Future.
The bill made sure that protecting, maintaining and enhancing the environment was explicitly stated as one of the Environmental Protection Authority's goals.
Thank you Peter Dunne! Naturally, National is not happy and rolled out one of their attack dogs who, given his role, should know better.
Environmental Minister Nick Smith said it was a "bad joke" which showed how shallow Labour's policies were.
"Labour seems to think that by repeating the words 'environment' and 'protection' in the law we will somehow magically save the kiwi, address our water quality challenges and eliminate greenhouse gases," he said.
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OnPoint: Don't put words in our mouths, Rob, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Gee - this is relevant to both/all of the issues canvassed in this discussion;
That's a very good article Katherine. Does the last line remind you of anywhere?
For those who can, there is every reason to get out of China. And the perfect landing spot is somewhere where the people don’t ask too many questions and are easily manipulated through flattery.
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Hard News: Political palatability and…, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I'm with Paul regarding both the placebo effect and the link to WO -- I notice you didn't use DoNotLink this time Russell.
In the same way injured prisoners are first shifted to a public prison before being moved to a hospital to falsely inflate Serco's reported performance, charter schools are being treated with kid gloves by MinEd.
And the huge hole created by the demise of Campbell Live means charter school failings are hardly receiving the coverage they deserve in the mainstream media. These days it's a brave journalist who dares to criticise the Nats' more extreme neo-con philosophies.
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I fear the poor soul may have got lost on the way to WhalePoo.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to Kumara Republic,
And if Tiwai Point shuts down... we’ll probably have cheaper electricity...
Unfortunately that's unlikely, unless you live in Bluff. The Manapouri power goes direct to Tiwai and there are no high capacity lines to ship it north when (not if) the smelter closes.
Meanwhile, Steve Braunias opens The secret diary of ... A non-resident foreign investor for a bit of light relief.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to BenWilson,
If only that could be a model for the rest of the Herald's commentary team.
Agreed. And bingo... the Herald has a very informed commentary from Rodney Jones -- Principal of an Asian macro advisory firm based in Beijing.
China is looking to implement a programme called QDII2, which will significantly expand the number of Chinese residents eligible to invest abroad in both financial assets and property.
To express concerns about the potential impact of these flows is not racism; it is sensible macro prudential management. We need to ensure that the capital flows into the property market do not prove destabilising, or create the risk of financial or asset shocks in New Zealand. Moreover, there are very real distributional effects that as New Zealanders we should be very concerned about; inequality matters.
Fortunately, Singapore and Hong Kong - and some cities in China - have been down this path before. We can draw on their experience. Singapore imposes a 15 per cent stamp duty on non-resident purchasers of residential property, as does Hong Kong. In China, in order to restrain the property boom in 2011 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai - amongst others - imposed a blanket ban on non-resident purchases of residential property, which in practice blocked purchases by Chinese residents from other provinces.
I believe we should take the lead from Singapore and Hong Kong and impose a 20 per cent stamp duty on non-resident purchases of Auckland property. Moreover, we should use the measures announced at the last budget on IRD numbers and NZ bank accounts to ensure that any resident purchaser is the beneficial owner.
This is not an anti-Chinese policy, in the same way that the Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing property measures are not anti-Chinese. It is a macro-prudential measure, designed to prevent a property bubble.
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Another kauri comment from Garrick Tremain.
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John Armstrong has a (rather brief) peek at restrictions on land sales to foreigners in seven other countries.
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Meanwhile, whole milk powder dropped another 13.1% in last night's GlobalDairyTrade auction. That will drive the NZ dollar lower making NZ property even more appealing to overseas investors.
And so it goes on.
