Posts by Ana Simkiss
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Hard News: Criminalising Journalism, in reply to Sacha,
Interesting development, but I really doubt a civil proceeding of this kind is the appropriate procedure. My sense is that the High Court might agree and/ or it will get spun out beyond the election. Let's see.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Russell Brown,
It is possible Mr Hosking has very strong feelings about privacy and the like given the trouble (and cost!) of his unsuccessful case for breach of privacy against various media (Court of Appeal decision available here for the masochistic). I would not blame him at all if he had a bit of an axe to grind.
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Gambate Damian! And mum & kiddie of course...
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Anyone else watching close up? Came perilously close to some actual farking reporting there. But successfully swerved back to spin & bullshit. Infuriating.
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Maori TV also had the best call of the night, from Peter Fitzsimons to Buck Shelford "Better take that one down to the metaphor shop"..
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Hard News: Fixing Auckland, in reply to Sacha,
Good point Sacha, however there are plenty of cities in the world with similar configurations (medium or high rise apartments with private spaces) that nevertheless have street life. I'm thinking particularly of cities in Spain and Brazil but I am sure there are other examples. There must be a citlyplanning/zoning/demographic reason for it - I don't think it is purely weather-related!
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Hard News: Fixing Auckland, in reply to Russell Brown,
It is one of the most striking things about the Viaduct area - apart from the apartment buildings themselves there seems to be zero evidence of people actually, y'know, living there. I don't really understand why - the apartments all have balconies or terraces, it seems very pedestrian friendly by Auckland standards, there is a commercial/residential mix in the area and it also has decent cafes and bars.
Anyone know more about the topic than I do who can venture a guess as to why it is so dead?
As to the residential mix to keep Wynyard alive, the newish intensive housing in the Beaumont Quarter will go some way towards that (and maybe Rhubarb Lane as well?). It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the beginning of Halsey Street from Ponsonby Road which gives a pretty good idea of how accessible it is already. The Jacobs Laddder walkway will improve access too.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: Now with 70% less wordiness!, in reply to Keith Ng,
Private savings are offset by government borrowings, yes I grok that. What you're saying is that we are robbing Peter to pay...Peter (Peter being the better off who get cuts to their taxes while paying more tax on Kiwisaver).
But my question is this: isn't it private debt that NZ ought to be worried about? as I understand it private offshore debt has been the concern of the ratings agencies, and our government debt is not very alarming in an international context.
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But...isn't there a good thing we will not get, ie more private savings for retirement, and less private debt? Help me understand Keith!
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Hard News: Locking in the Future, in reply to Andrew E,
Good question, and you are right. Nothing that this Parliament could do could prevent the repeal of the legislation or regulation that creates the regulatory "holiday". The businesses and interests concerned would just have to make it as painful as possible (politically) to repeal it.
<sigh> Another reason why bipartisan agreement on some issues is a good idea. As noted by someone above - the threat of government and regulatory change is a major risk for these projects.
And now I am wondering why this is so different from any significant infrastructure investment that is necessary and that needs to be as futureproof as possible (see: roads). is it simply the (necessary?) involvement of the private telecoms (etc) companies that makes this different - i.e. the need for profitablility in the medium term?