Radiatia wrote:Well said, Drongonia.
Speaking of Winston - did anyone else see his bizarre rant at Corin Dann today? Normally I find Winston's rants at the media entertaining (especially considering I hold most Kiwi journalists in low regard anyway) but this time around I found myself wondering if Winston's starting to lose the plot. He's normally sharp, charming and entertaining but this time he came across as being a bit deranged.
I don't want to accuse him being senile but the more I observe him the more I find myself wondering if his advanced age might be starting to have a tangible negative impact.
It could be his age catching up on him. He is in his 70's, this must be one of his last elections before he retires.
Drongonia wrote:Muller on the other hand never should have accepted the position at the top of the pack. As I understand it though, him and Nikki Kaye were just gathering the numbers on behalf of someone else, then that person pulled out which forced their hand.
Yes it seemed a bit strange that Muller was announced when he wasn't anywhere near the top echelons of the party and was previously known for being the subject of the "OK Boomer" quip and losing his mind at a museum exhibit. He was way out of his depth.
True, not for the next couple of years or so. Maybe more but we'll see.
Depends on where the virus lingers around the longest.
I'm not saying that immigration is necessarily causing these issues, what I'm saying is that these issues were a ticking timebomb (particularly in Auckland, except for the public transport which is actually quite good) and that piling more people on top of a system that was, as you say, hilariously badly planned, was never going to go well. Engineers and city planners were advising council/central government to expand their infrastructure as far back as the 1970s.
Yes, and councils turned around and told them "OK how do we fund it" and the taxpayers decided they wouldn't foot the bill, so it never happened.
On that bad planning, my grandfather worked for the Railways way back when (and travelled around the commonwealth helping other countries), and at that point he was in talks with a man named FW Jones (I think), or "FwoJo" as they called him. Basically, the railways and transport guys back then had came up with a completely different plan, which would have done things such as the multiple Auckland harbour crossings (one of my the projects my grandfather directly contributed to), they would have improved the rail links in both Auckland and Wellington, as well as bolstering the railways around the North Island, and the urban plan for most of Auckland and in particular the North Shore was to allow for more roading room to allow for future public transport use and general population growth. None of that was done by the "big boys", of course, as it was all too expensive. Hope that wasn't too rambly lol
No that's quite interesting, and speaks volumes of how Treasury determines government policy and growth of the country.
No, cutting back immigration wouldn't address the underlying issues (as with the transport issues), but it wouldn't be a net negative. As for banning foreign buyers, foreign buyers aren't coming to live here, are they?
Houses were still being bought. It doesn't make that much of a difference, you're just opening up the market for domestic investors.
Banning foreign buyers and restricting immigration to curb housing demand would have two completely different outcomes. 70,000 "foreign buyers" don't arrive in New Zealand every year needing somewhere to live, but 70,000 immigrants do.
I don't believe that every single one of those 70,000 people has enough money to spend, but even so, again, reducing immigration just reduces competition for domestic investors. And they'll love you for basically handing them a plethora of slightly cheaper properties for them to snap up.
