Polity by Rob Salmond

When I first saw the word sheeple I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration. If the fact that John Key knowingly lied to parliament goes unpunished, we may as well all adopt the moniker.
I think that all of National's reactions to our now obvious crises are designed more to look like they are doing something than they are to avert disaster. Like the 2-year CGT 'bright-line' policy - what difference will that really make? When the starting point is a 5-year-long denial that the housing problem exists, you can't have much faith that any government policy isn't just a half-hearted ploy to assuage public opinion enough for re-election. When our housing stock is mainly foreign-owned are National going to advise that we should only sell houses with less than 6 bedrooms to foreign nationals for example?

Nick Smith, it seems, is still in the pocket of those who happen to be pocketing big from the Auckland housing bubble.

a house built of pricks… ya can’t budget!

Nick Smith, it seems, is still in the pocket of those who happen to be pocketing big from the Auckland housing bubble.

- and in unrelated news?:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/70145729/govt-takes-back-52m-from-chch-housing

The Government has diverted $52 million of funding meant to help Christchurch’s housing problem to Auckland.
As part of the Christchurch Housing Accord, signed between the Government and the Christchurch City Council in September, the Crown agreed to invest $75m to construct 180 new homes on two council-owned sites in Sydenham.

there’ll be mortar come, I’m sure…

Plus: see the original accord agreement:
http://www.mbie.govt.nz/what-we-do/housing/pdf-document-library/christchurch-housing-accord.pdf
they have broken the 'no surprises' and 'prioritising' aspects already
- but sadly, that's not really a surprise, I guess!

parse the parcel...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/the-rebuild/70084887/how-much-is-the-government-really-spending-to-fix-christchurch

John McCrone in The Press takes a good look at just how much the Govt has spent - balanced against the numbers it trots out like martyrs.

English crows about getting a 'surplus' - which is nothing more than meeting the 'vig' - when will he start on paying back the $80 billion mountain of cash he has borrowed in our name?
What's the plan for that?
Oh, time for a change of government, nevermind...

Quid pro quo vadis?
Martin van Beynen nails Gerry Brownlee's lack of perspicuity.

The potential conflicts or perceptions of conflicts presented by Fletcher sponsoring Brownlee's parties have been around for several years without a murmur from anyone, including the media.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/70132819/gerry-brownlee-should-have-known-better