Less building consents being given out
Residential building consents are still heading south with 11 out of 16 regions around the country rubber stamping fewer builds compared to last year. Labour has accused the government of effectively hammering a nail in the coffin of building industry by slashing the number of state houses Kainga Ora is building, contributing to a "huge slow down in construction". The Building Minister has said their maths is all wrong. Building industry analyst Mike Blackburn spoke to Lisa Owen.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
29 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
Amend away, amend away
Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking has run a few marathons in her time, and she put in another long-distance effort in the House this week. She wasn't keeping count, but by my tally she delivered 31 speeches this week — and it would have been 32 but for her having to leave for the airport on Thursday afternoon to catch the last convenient flight home. As would be expected, it was the Resource Management Act which dominated Brooking's week, although she also found the time to delve into the inner workings of the Local Government (Water Services) Bill, and the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill as well. It was the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill which kept Brooking going for most of the week though. The relevant minister, Chris Bishop, has been labouring with a heavy cold all week and his heart must have sunk as Brooking — armed with pens, post-it notes and slabs of drafts and amendment papers — rose to her feet on Tuesday afternoon. Parliament is blessed with many MPs who can pick the minutest bone with any word or sentence — the Greens' Lawrence Xu-Nan and Bishop himself when in Opposition spring to mind — but few are as forensic and diligent as Brooking when it comes to working through clauses and sub-clauses. And she had plenty of material, the minister having just that morning tabled a substantial amendment paper. So substantial, in fact, that what Brooking suspected had happened was that the version of the Bill reported back from select committee — and not as yet agreed to by Parliament — had been used as the template for the soon to be amended again Bill. "This is a terrible way to make laws," Brooking lamented. "It's very frustrating, when you have been through a select committee process and have asked about the wording of different phrases and made amendments in the select committee process, to see that all upended on the day of the committee stage of the Bill." Bishop, to his credit, was somewhat repentant about that: "In mitigation, most of the changes in the Amendment Paper have been publicly announced, in some cases, a couple of months, if not earlier, than today. So members have had a good opportunity to kick those issues around." As it turned out, they were about to do a lot more kicking ... and not without good reason, as the Bill — now an Act — attempted to achieve a heck of a lot within its many pages. The much-criticised RMA is due to be axed next year: in the meantime the Amendment Act makes a many short-term changes to time frames for consent processing in areas such as infrastructure, renewable energy, farming and consenting after natural disaster. It is very broad in some places and narrowly specific in others — such as allowing the demolition of Wellington's Gordon Wilson flats and allowing Auckland to develop land around its railway stations. A lot of this is reasonable, Brooking agreed, in her third reading speech. "Labour was supporting this Bill when it was introduced and even at the second reading, despite having concerns about some of the changes that were made at select committee," she said. "But something happened on Tuesday morning. That was that a very large Amendment Paper was dropped and it made significant changes to the Bill. Changes that we were not even able to debate in this House because government members chose to stand up and close the debate on these very important aspects." Brooking then proceeded to give the government a stern and emotional telling off for its terrible law making ... none of which was enough to stop it being passed by lunchtime Thursday. Best supporting actor Taieri Green list MP Scott Willis also deserves an honorable mention in despatches for his efforts this week. Not only did he put his shoulder to the wheel with a succession of interventions on the aforementioned RMA Bill, he also had a crack at Science minister Shane Reti during Question Time on Thursday concerning job losses in the sector. Answering Willis' question about how many jobs had been lost in the sector since the formation of the government, Reti conceded that 134 jobs were to go with the disestablishment of Callaghan Innovation — the point that Willis was trying to make — but Reti also highlighted a Stats NZ survey which suggested a recent increase of people working in the sector. Which is not the same as jobs being lost, a point Willis soon made ... as well as pointedly asking if those laid-off scientists would be heading to the airport departure lounge post-haste. "I think that scientists who have been disestablished through part of the reforms will have a skill set that will be able to be applied in other parts of the science sector," Reti replied — which is true, but which also side-stepped the question of in which country's science sector that might be.
RNZ News
29 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Who pays when a supermarket price tag is wrong?
A Whanganui SuperValue displayed some dodgy maths recently, with the price per 100g not adding up to the main price shown. Photo: Supplied When a Whanganui SuperValue displayed some dodgy maths recently, shopper David Bradbury argued he should have been able to choose to pay the lower of the prices on offer. He spotted bacon that was advertised as selling for a different price per 100g than the main display price. Shoulder bacon was 200g for $4.69 but then 94c per 100g, and middle bacon was 200g for $5.79 but $1.16 per 100g. "I pointed out to the closest person in a shop uniform the poor arithmetic ... He said the big number was the right one. I said I should be able to choose. He said no." A SuperValue spokesperson said the unit price was incorrect . "On our pricing tickets customers will find the price of the item and a unit price which enables them to make an informed decision of value based on the unit of measure. "In this instance, the unit price was incorrect on the 200gm Grandpas Shoulder Bacon and Middle Bacon products. The price was however the correct price the customer would have paid at the apologise for the error and any confusion caused. "We know how important it is that all of our tickets are accurate and we have now corrected the pricing tickets to reflect the correct unit price." Vanessa Horne, Commerce Commission general manager, competition, fair trading and credit said she encouraged him to report the concern so the commission could assess whether the shop was complying with the laws it enforced. "The trader could be prosecuted where there is serious non-compliance with the Unit Pricing Regulations. "The Unit Pricing Regulations are there to help consumers easily compare products based on the price-per-unit and make informed choices about which product offers them the best value." She said the Commerce Commission had ongoing investigations into supermarket operators . "We have recently filed criminal charges against Woolworths NZ, Pak'nSave Silverdale, and Pak'nSave Mill Street for what the Commission alleges was inaccurate pricing and misleading specials that may have breached the Fair Trading Act. "Supermarkets have long been on notice about the importance of accurate and clear pricing and specials, and we're not satisfied with the continuing issues we're seeing across the industry. "The major supermarkets are large, well-resourced businesses that should invest the time and effort to get pricing and promotions right." Consumer NZ spokesperson Sahar Lone said a supermarket that displayed incorrect unit pricing could be breaching the Fair Trading Act. "If you notice an incorrect unit price, point this out to a supervisor in store. The store has the right to correct its pricing mistakes. If it doesn't sort the issue, or it's widespread, you can lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
6 hours ago
- Scoop
Eye-Watering Break Fee For Botched Ferries
It has been revealed that the Government is paying a staggering $144 million to cancel the previous contract for the new Interislander ferries. 'Nicola Willis' terrible decision-making has now cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars in total – $671 million – with no new ferries to show for it,' Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. 'The $144 million break fee is on top of money already paid to Hyundai, which takes the amount of taxpayer money National has poured down the drain to $222 million. The rest is project management, landside infrastructure and paying to wind down the project – totalling more than half a billion. 'This proves Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have absolutely no clue what they're doing and are just making things worse. 'The amount of taxpayer money they've wasted with absolutely nothing to show for it makes a mockery of every time they've said they can't afford something. 'They can find more than half a billion dollars to botch a ferry project, but can't find any money to build homes, create jobs or fund the health system properly. 'People are struggling with the cost of living while Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon's economic decisions run aground and sink,' Tangi Utikere said. Notes: Original estimates of $1.16 billion referenced in the Beehive PR includes the originally budgeted $300 million for the break fee plus the cost of ongoing maintenance of the current ferries. The contract was originally going to deliver the ferries next year, in 2026. The current projection for new ferries is at least three years later.
