If National wins ...

[iceman]

A good result for aged care workers, and E Tu Union backed their members, lobbying like Federated Farmers do. The wage rises are being ramped up over five years though, but the new training aspect sounds good. It looks to me more like a grudging move towards a liveable wage.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opin...+19+April+2017

Agreed EZ. This is a good and overdue thing. Bill English took this on a few years ago and drove it through with the Union. Good result for all involved except us taxpayers that will end up paying a bit more, but in this case, so we should

[iceman]

With regard to our "housing unaffordability". I met with a couple of professors from universities in Scandinavia a couple of weeks ago. They were here to study our fishing quota system and how it affects the communities. They have studied many other countries as well, including Greenland, Iceland, Norway, USA (Alaska), Namibia and more. Needless to say they were surprised how little effect on communities is considered in NZ. They were aghast that we are talking about housing crisis yet we only build houses on large sections. Hardly any apartment blocks. Their view is that we will never solve the "housing crisis" in a city like Auckland without building large scale apartment blocks housing tens of thousands of people. When I told them it is not the "kiwi way", they laughed and said we should stop complaining about a housing crisis then.
I think they have a point !

We have just had residents objecting to Ngati Paoa's plan to build 300 new homes at Point England in East Auckland after they received their treaty settlement. They wanted to buy 12 of the 45 hectares reserve from the Government. And of course silly Labour jumps on the bandwagon and opposes it. Dumb. How are we ever going to solve the housing issues in NZ with these sort of attitudes ?

[fungus pudding]

With regard to our "housing unaffordability". I met with a couple of professors from universities in Scandinavia a couple of weeks ago. They were here to study our fishing quota system and how it affects the communities. They have studied many other countries as well, including Greenland, Iceland, Norway, USA (Alaska), Namibia and more. Needless to say they were surprised how little effect on communities is considered in NZ. They were aghast that we are talking about housing crises yet we only build houses on large sections. Hardly any apartment blocks. Their view is that we will never solve the "housing crises" in a city like Auckland without building large scale apartment blocks housing tens of thousands of people. When I told them it is not the "kiwi way", they laughed and said we should stop complaining about a housing crises then.
I think they have a point !

That's exactly it! The only way to meet demand in Auckland (read any major city) is to 'stack 'em in', and NZers don't want that. Much easier to pretend an opposition party can magically solve things, and of course parties play on it, knowing full well they are spouting tripe.

[craic]

If you do the day tour of Singapore and you get a guide as good as ours was, you will learn how well this system works there. Virtually everyone lives in these blocks. Anyone sleeping rough is homed immediately, given a job, however trivial and paid a wage or benefit. Mortgages are simply arranged and folk buy their apartment. The only people who go bankrupt in Singapore are lawnmower salesmen.

[craic]

elZ, I hope your passport is up to date. You are going to need it to attend the funeral of the UK Labour Party early in June.

[BlackPeter]

New Zealand's problem is far too many people want to live in central Auckland. Australia it's Sydney. England - London. America - New York, L.A. France - Paris. Politicians can't solve that.

True, but New Zealanders have in addition to that a unique habit making the situation still worse: Most of them want to live in their own house on a quarter of an acre of land but still close to work, school and shops. Other people accept that living in high-rise apartment blocks might be a good compromise to square this particular circle. Just imagine how expensive property would be in London or New York (and how large these cities would be), if these people would apply the same habit ...

[Major von Tempsky]

"May called snap election 'because of fears Corbyn would resign'

Rather than later risk facing Labour under a new and potentially more popular leader, the Prime Minister decided to call the impromptu vote, say sources"
The Independent, UK.

Maybe this is why Key called the election before Andrew Little could resign?

[westerly]

If you do the day tour of Singapore and you get a guide as good as ours was, you will learn how well this system works there. Virtually everyone lives in these blocks. Anyone sleeping rough is homed immediately, given a job, however trivial and paid a wage or benefit. Mortgages are simply arranged and folk buy their apartment. The only people who go bankrupt in Singapore are lawnmower salesmen.

Annoying people with chainsaw noise is a mandatory life sentence along with a host of harsh punishments for a raft of minor offences
OK I made the chainsaw bit up, but it should apply.

westerly

[fungus pudding]

"May called snap election 'because of fears Corbyn would resign'

Rather than later risk facing Labour under a new and potentially more popular leader, the Prime Minister decided to call the impromptu vote, say sources"
The Independent, UK.

Maybe this is why Key called the election before Andrew Little could resign?

Except he didn't.

[elZorro]

Agreed EZ. This is a good and overdue thing. Bill English took this on a few years ago and drove it through with the Union. Good result for all involved except us taxpayers that will end up paying a bit more, but in this case, so we should

Bill English did all that, Iceman? I heard that the Govt sent in the Ombudsman at the appeal stage to argue the case for the Crown as an interested party, against the fairer pay. Then the appeal court ruled in favour of the original plaintiff, that there was a valid argument for fairer pay. After that, the court advised that if the situation wasn't sorted, they'd set the rules, and it might have included backpay for the workers in the three female-dominated career areas.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...t-on-equal-pay

So if National hadn't organised a compromise situation with staggered pay increases, the court could have imposed something more expensive. This deal does look like taking the place of Bill's tax cuts, though.