Auckland Unleashed; Published in the New Zealand Herald Wednesday May 11

It is good that all representatives of our communities, both citizens and corporate are putting ideas forward to the Auckland Unleashed discussion.

Mike Bayley of Bayleys Real Estate has not thought this through as he does not incorporate heritage housing in his proposals for Auckland .

Protection of heritage housing in residential one has no place in his world. What is Auckland without our villas?

There is a real economic value in maintaining our heritage areas and streetscapes. Tourism being one.

The public realm needs to be expanded to accommodate the 50-60 000 extra residents he thinks will live in Auckland in the next 20 years . His estimation on these numbers may be underestimated .

If we are going to lose our back yards and live in apartments and terraces we need more public spaces for recreation. The city and city fringe parks are well utilised. At certain times of the day they are at near peak public use .

We will need not only more of them but also a mix of parks.

A place for energetic children will not work for elderly citizens. Footpaths will need to accommodate walkers , shoppers , strollers, mobility scooters and dogs.



Gerard Hill

Kiwisaver

Real incomes will never catch up with Australia if the government contribution to Kiwisaver is slashed .

The superfund that Australians enjoy is a major part of every citizens income. The exodus of New Zealanders to Australian will only continue to increase if the benefits of Kiwisaver are reduced.
The Australian funds provide a major contribution to Australia sovereign funds and investment within Australia including industry, infrastructure and jobs We may be nuclear free but true independence is only achieved if your country is economically independent.

Kiwisaver, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and Kiwibank are essential for our long term security and development .

The lack of development funds in New Zealand is detrimental to our national interest. The Kiwisaver funds which are invested by private fund managers provide not only retirement funds for every member but also have benefits for the local capital markets. The government also gets some income from this market.
If governments inter fare with this scheme than people will want to get out of it. This may affect over time the viability of the scheme and our new saving culture.
As employers we have encouraged all our staff to join Kiwisaver. They are not highly paid, have had no benefits from tax cuts but Kiwisaver provided a foundation for their aspirations . Cutting the government contribution for them will be another bitter pill.

 

Joe Stalin looks at Don Brash with Admiration

Harold Wilson said that a week is a long time in politics.

Last week has certainly been that. ACT, an independent, sovereign political party was high jacked. A new political party Mana has appeared. Their one MP decided to resign from parliament and force a by election on us, months out from a general election.

What happened with ACT possibly happened in an Italian democracy before.

Two people who were members of another political party met with ACT leader and told him that his time had passed, he was toxic and could not do as well as they could. The leader, who holds elected positions as an electorate MP, is a Parliamentary leader and also a cabinet minister in the governing coalition walks. Amazing.

Stalin stirs in his grave. A smile of admiration rolls over his embalmed face.

The former leader who now is not toxic assures the Prime Minster that his party support to the government remains. His loyal deputy is currently on his knees assuring the assassin that he will be as loyal to him as he was to the previous leader and pleads to keep his cabinet positions.

The coup d'etat rolls on with the new leader meeting the Prime Minster and even siting in the actual parliament.

Wilson never imagined a week like that.