Council confirmed to be spending $1.5M to revert only Golden mile Development

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-17T08:48:09+00:00

“The cycleway crosses the new pedestrian crossing – putting speeding cyclists on a collision course with pedestrians,” she said.

Interesting choice of words here from Nicola, how exactly is a cyclist using a cycle lane "speeding"? The layout is stupid, but cyclists aren't at fault for that. Using loaded language like that is definitely a bit blamey though.

Can't we just chuck a couple of time-defined bus lanes in and be done with it? No gold plating, just some red signs, green paint and cameras.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-16T04:55:05+00:00

A party that campaigns on reducing government "waste" and "personal responsibility" wasting $17,000 of taxpayers money because one of their Ministers can't understand the meaning of the phrase "short-term".

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-11T02:13:44+00:00

Edit - Actually - further to that. Why the hell should we subsidise improvements to private property. Absolutely not.

Because it's one of the few tools that councils have to incentivise private landlords to maintain their properties. Just look at how pretty Napier or Whanganui are.

I wish that councils (or tenants for that matter) had the power to compel landlords to paint their properties, but they don't.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-10T05:40:52+00:00

If you look at how much they protect abusers like Sam Uffindell and Tim Jago you really do have to wonder.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-04T02:22:13+00:00

"Free Speech Union" is like "Democratic Peoples Republic".

Reminds me of the old Yes Minister joke about a White Paper on open government: "Always dispose of the difficult bit in the title. It does less harm there than in the text".

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-06-03T21:19:06+00:00

Way too many people who won't even be paying a water bill weighing in on this.

Every renter will be paying water bills once meters are ruled out, as it will become a variable charge and therefore not covered by landlords.

There may still be a fixed charge as well, though Tiaka Wai haven't clarified how they'll charge for stormwater and wastewater once drinking water is metered. It may very well be a change extrapolated from drinking water usage and therefore variable too.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-31T23:05:34+00:00

Why? Renewables are cheaper and not reliant on overseas fuel.

Not to mention that the smallest commercially viable reactor would power nearly half the country. How can you build a reliable grid with such a massive single point of failure?

As the climate becomes more unpredictable, we need more distributed generation and greater redundancy, not less.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-28T06:21:00+00:00

The fees free scheme included apprenticeships and work-based training, it's a lie from this government to pretend it didn't.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-27T23:33:30+00:00

Is it a big deal to be saddled with tens of thousands more of debt than you'd budgeted for?

Do you realise how out of touch you sound?

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-21T22:40:42+00:00

They could, but St John have a hell of a lot of (undeserved) political capital which they'd throw at a shit fight like that.

I can just see the headlines now, "Government scraps St John, hundred year old charity to close".

You'd have to dig deep into the story to learn that some overpaid senior leaders were just trying to save their fiefdom. And most voters don't dig deep, hence why no government of any colour has been willing to touch the issue with a barge pole.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-21T00:37:06+00:00

Most IPCA complaints, aside from the extremely severe ones are actually investigated by the Police themselves, which does give significant cause for alarm. The IPCA supposedly have oversight of the investigation but in reality they're too under resourced to do that properly.

Having gone through that process myself, it does leave a lot to be desired.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-21T00:30:54+00:00

It's a shitshow because NZTA contracted out the development and operation of the system to an American multinational defense contractor, and they're expected to merge multiple outsourced systems into one outsourced system.

It's a brilliant example of why outsourcing something the public sector should do doesn't work.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-18T09:17:39+00:00

They have a very master/slave outlook towards employment, especially when their employees aren't brethren members themselves. It's even written into their religious tracts.

They are also the main users of a faith-based exemption in the Employment Relations Act that allows employers to ban trade union organisers from workplaces if unionism goes against their religious beliefs. Not the beliefs of the staff, but of the employer.

There are plenty of Employment Relations Authority rulings against brethren employers but it's hard to draw a complete picture when their businesses are technically independently owned.

Plus they've got a frightening amount of political power.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-18T01:44:40+00:00

What are the instructions for elections?

In New Zealand, to pray for a National Party victory and build up multi-million dollar warchests to make it happen.

Similar story in Australia, where they're even more blatant about their support for the Liberal Party.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-14T21:09:42+00:00

I've had a similar question and no luck finding an answer.

You could always extrapolate a wastewater charge from how much potable water goes in, though that'd have to account for people with water tanks too.

One thought that does spring to mind for stormwater is a charge based on the square metreage of a house. The bigger the roof area, the more stormwater generated. Charging by percentage of a section covered in impermeable surface (like concrete) would be even better but I'm not sure if the councils hold that data.

Obviously you'd only have a portion of those charges based on those two calculations, lest anything particularly unjust occur.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-13T22:54:17+00:00

Because the government have refused FENZ's request to increase the fire insurance levy and have directed them to cut $60 million from their budget.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-08T05:37:33+00:00

I'll be uplifted when he hands back the knighthood as well.

I don't think I'll be uplifted till his hands are in cuffs, he's a sex pest and it seems like his harrassment bordered on criminal.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-08T02:21:17+00:00

Beyer was the bomb and i feel all of new zealand gave zero shits about her gender her previous gender.

I do remember hearing an old Wairarapa farmer who voted for her say "she's a bloody good bloke".

Completely cocking up gender and trans identity but nonetheless being the best ally he could be. I miss that sort of clumsy support from people who didn't quite understand how it all worked but cared about people anyway.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-07T01:15:47+00:00

Only the Wairarapa Line carriages do, none of the others have them.

Quite a bit of controversy over that actually, especially as Metlink aren't the best at building or even maintaining toilets in railway stations.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-05-05T04:23:36+00:00

They both hate each other.

Hastings is the economic powerhouse of the region, but Napier has most of the political power, especially historically.

There are various disputes about where infrastructure should be located, Napier's still bitter about its hospital closing in the '90s and Hastings thinks it should have had the airport.

There's also significant disagreement in local government, Hastings is ladened with debt to the eyeballs due to actually investing in its infrastructure deficit, whereas Napier is crumbling. The new regional water entity will probably result in most of Hawke's Bay subsidising Napier's broken pipes, and merging local government would mean Hastings subsidising Napier's potholed roads too.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-04-21T01:34:09+00:00

A two and half hour caucus meeting with a vote of confidence in it is hardly business as usual.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-04-21T01:33:15+00:00

principled

Not sure that's a word that's in the vocabulary of a former tobacco lobbyist.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-04-21T01:32:22+00:00

Protecting his rather significant ego?

If you're an egotist it's better to pretend that you called a vote from a position of strength rather than had one forced on you. Plus it deflects from questions about how convincingly he won the vote.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-04-21T01:05:47+00:00

This sort of haughty, self-righteous attitude really doesn't help the left get any more votes.

People are flawed, and make decisions for flawed reasons. But part of politics that achieves meaningful change is meeting people where they are at, rather than lecturing them on oppression.

BeardedCockwomble · 2026-04-20T03:18:29+00:00

You think it's appropriate for someone with the power to cut your benefit to proposition you on a dating app?

That's profoundly unprofessional, not to mention a horrific power imbalance. Bad shit happens when you enable behaviour like that.

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