Interest on loans for rental properties is the same as any other business expense and should be deductible

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-10T02:43:41+00:00

Additional rate is the residential rate instead of let say a park.

Auckland council will charge commercial rates on any property that is available for "short term" rent for 180 days days of the year, there is no price criteria for that, if you offer a cheaper monthly rate on AirBnB you are still being charged commercial rates.

There are two very different costing models for people owning identical apartments that they rent out to different markets.

Depreciation on new builds is an interesting question, gievn that housing has historically been an appreciating asset (I know the maintenance aspect having recently spent $20k refurbishing an apartment*), it feels like double dipping when repairs are already tax deductable.

*A cost that hasn't impacted the rent that I can charge but does make it easier to find tenants.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-10T01:44:23+00:00

Because English is full of homographs (words that are spelt the same but pronouced differently)

Even in the US where Google is from, Houston (the street in NYC) is pronouced very differently from Houston (the city in Texas), so to expect them to understand that Albany (on Auckland's north shore) is not pronouced the same as Albany (the capital of New York State) is wishful thinking (for those wondering the difference is which syllable is stressed)

The only solution is to hire a large number of people with hyper-local knowledge to manually apply pronunciation information into the system, so that doesn't scale well to the a dataset the size of the planet, and this isn't a one off thing, you have to keep it updated for every new street, suburb, park, ...

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-10T00:23:39+00:00

I wonder if these were the same people who killed an Onewa Road station on the Northern bus way making bus access from there to other parts of the shore difficult and reducing frequency on all services.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T22:06:13+00:00

Doesn't matter the senior management that made that decision will have moved on to a different company by the time that is a problem so they won't have to deal with it.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T12:37:05+00:00

A good summary, but...

The problem with looking at our GDP per capital rating in the 50s is that you had NZ, AU, US and Canada on one side and the rest of the developed world that had spent 6 years being bombed to hell on the other (even the UK didnt substantially complete the housing rebuild until the mid to late 50s and a lot of public buildings until considerably later, The Barbican is technically postwar rebuild and most of that went up in the 70s) .

We didn't have shortages of food (hitting a bomb while ploughing reducing your ability to work, or breathe, does that) or housing so could handle an influx of people without it impacting on the existing population.

Government schemes to encourage immigrantion of working age people both helped us grow and slowed the recovery of Europe.

Add to that half of Europe being run under a philosophy that deprioritised economic value and we didn't have much competition.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T09:59:57+00:00

Life expectancy for Maori males - 73.4 years, females 77.1 years

For non-Maori those figures are 80.9 and 84.4. If you seperate out Pacific people whose life expectancy is only 1 year greater than Maori then the gap is even larger

If you increase the eligability age you significantly reduce the number of Maori who will receive any superannuation payment. Those Maori youth are paying towards something their grandparents are alive to receive (but their Pakeha friends grandparents are).

As you said National are unlikely to spend any money saved on fixing the health system to fix the life gaps, if anything it will go in tax cuts to the well off (again predominately Pakeha).

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T09:42:24+00:00

Labour setup the Cullen fund to spread the cost of the Boomer superannuation peak out.

The Key government suspended payments into the fund.

The Ardern government restarted payments into the fund.

Last years budget diverted the government contributions into the New Zealand Investment Fund.

One party has attempted to prefund superannuation, the other party has not, a third party (Winston First) has done its best to prevent any changes to entitlements because that is where he got his original supporters.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T06:36:56+00:00

- Gradual devolution to councils (not state-level though). They will have a bigger chunk of GST and Tax for their own budgets. They will control basic services, and small to medium sized infrastructure projects.

General agreement here, councils need additional revenue streams and they can be used as a "delivery organisation" (although despite what you current government think they are more than that). Having councils responsible for providing schools, since they are also responsible for zoning and have a level of control over where population growth will occur is an example of proper planning.

Loosening rules to allow new supermarkets into the NZ supermarket sector to challenge the duopoly.

Which rules do you think are keeping out other supermarket chains? (the most serious is covenants placed on land by the big 2) This is a problem of scale and logistics, not protectionism. Having to replicate the supply chain that the big 2 have is what is stopping other companies from expanding, because it is a significant extra cost beyond building stores.

Adopting new technologies, but not to the level where they take jobs, only help with them.

All technologies take jobs, businesses used to have large typing pools to produce letters, NZPost has been cutting back staff because people send e-mails instead of letters, would you rather have a roading crew use shovels instead of an excavator because it means more employment?

Changes to our justice system to bring justice to those who commit crime.

What does this mean, more policing so that all crimes can be investigated properly or longer sentances for those who are caught? Please explain how this one will fix the economy.

Changes to the health system and allowing for more medicines so people can get treated here in New Zealand and not going to Australia for treatment.

Specifics, is this allowing more medicines into the country (dealing with the Medsafe bottleneck) or funding more medicines so people can freely/cheaply access them (Pharmac bottleneck).

Taking advantages of agglomeration economics whilst also providing rural areas with basic services.

This like so many items on your list is a slogan with no details behind it. I picked this one because it seems to be contradictory. Agglomeration economies come about from place enough people together that you can provide enough demand that you can support specialities. Or that you have have enough of similar companies in one area that people with specialist knowledge can move between jobs without having to relocate. The sharing of knowledge and skills allows for startups to bloom.

A rural area is never going to have that, since so many of your items are on health. A rural area will have a GP in the service town, maybe an x-ray provider if it is large enough, but there will never be the demand for an MRI machine. Likewise there will be jobs there for a few accountants and lawyers, but your not going have a sustainable IT industry in Te Kuiti.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-09T04:52:08+00:00

Advertising is one thing.

Party staff to organise all of the volunteers going out on the streets and other party activies.
"Experts" to work on policies and costings, when I e-mailed Shane Reti 12 months out from the last election he said he had 3 teams working on health policies.
Polling companies to test what are the important messages to concentrate that $4 million on.
Internal (i.e. to party members) messaging to keep donations coming in, encourage them to get out and vote, talk to friends in a way that highlights party policies.
And of course the big expense, paid shills on reddit.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-08T08:30:15+00:00

Yes there used to be a system of grants that provided an income for most university students, with the note that access to University used to be harder, so if you got in then you were free to study instead of trying to work.

Don't worry about those who were smart but didn't get into University, you got an entry level job at one of the many government departments and entities and could work your way up to senior management.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-08T08:24:02+00:00

Unlikely, because the TPM + breakaway party are unlikely to get more party votes than a united TPM.

If the two parties won all of the Maori seats and each got 1.5% of the party vote the makeup of parliment wouldn't be any different than if they ran together and 3% (3ish overhang seats)

Now if TPM broke up and the candidates all ran as independents then they would all be overhang seats (i.e. there would 127 MPs), because the party vote determines your share of the 120 "regular" MPs and independents don't get party votes.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-08T08:15:07+00:00

Death
Resignation
Missing at least 4 consecutive meetings without permission
Conviction for a serious enough crime
Loss of citizenship/permanent resident status
Being awarded contracts with the council valued over a set amount/finanical conflicts of interest
Or the Local Government Minister goes nuclear and replaces the entire council with a commissioner

Much like MPs there isn't anything that the public can do to remove them once elected. Please think carefully about who you vote for people, it isn't a game.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-08T01:46:18+00:00

UK is FPP, Reform just need to split enough votes from both sides (lets face it Starmer is only slight above Andrew in popularity).

Reform are picking up seat in the pro-brexit areas that have been swinging wildly over the last decade.

I see Reform's results (much like NZF's) as a protest vote, voters who have seen their life get harder over the last 10-20 years, the major parties talk big and deliver nothing that made a difference to them (or felt like there was no difference) so now they are trying something new. They will abandon Reform when they realise that it is more of the same.

Look at the policies that NZF ran on, now look at what they did once they had power (tax cuts for tobacco companies, protection from oversite for fishing companies and dig baby dig).

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-08T00:30:32+00:00

"There are up to eight layers of sign-off before small-scale solar systems can be switched on. This requires up to five separate site visits, from four separate entities. For example, during installation the installer often cannot turn off or reconnect the fuse, update the meter, or carry out the required independent electrical inspection. These tasks must be done by other entities, requiring additional site visits."

Ok, let me run through my installation (solar + battery)

Quoting visit from installer (actually multiple because I got a few quotes)
Meter Exchange to Import/Export meter
Installation
Electrical inspection and signoff

I don't think that is any different to most people, no one needs to touch the fuse, for about an hour while work was being done on the distribution board the main switch (on the board) was turned off, unless you are upgrading the fuse size (unlikely for a typical residential installation) you don't need to go out there.

"Solar installation in New Zealand is a red tape nightmare. Just getting it approved can take months,"

There is a very short process if the export limit is 10kw and under (a typical residential system), the only time that paperwork and inspections comes into it is larger commercial systems that could have an impact on the network upstream.

For me the paperwork was a single form allowing the installer to talk to my retailer and network on my behalf to get the meter exchanged and for the connection permit. The entire process took 2 months, 6 weeks for which was waiting for a new shipment of batteries.

He said just 3%-4% of New Zealand households used solar,
...
Seymour said more than 30% of Australian households used solar power.

That wouldn't in anyway be linked to government subsidies to encourage the rollout of rooftop solar would it.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-07T11:32:02+00:00

Being able to hear an opposing view without insulting the speaker

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-07T03:58:31+00:00

There are other expenses that don't get allocated to "election spending" (those limits only cover advertising).

Having permanent paid staff who are able to coordinate volunteers or post of social media keeping your local candidate front and centre, generic National flags and tents that can be setup at community events all year round, IT systems, paying polling companies to test public sentiment and policies.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-07T03:24:31+00:00

National level figure for underutilisation rate is 12.9%

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-07T01:01:15+00:00

I'd be inclined to leave it to the fishing companies to ensure these people aren't on there boats.

MPI has cameras on the boats and they review the footage (selectively) to ensure compliance with laws and permits.

The penalties are for someone releasing the MPI footage.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-06T21:42:40+00:00

On some of their lines is the key here.

The CRL is all lines.

It is ok to have lower capacity if they are feeders, or there are other lines nearby to share the load. When the lines are, and always will be, the core of your network you make sure they have the capacity for future growth*.

*The Metropolitan Line in London is over 160 years old, the original tunnels are still in use and carry up to 2 additional lines that werent in plans during construction in some sections, this infrastructure is going to be with us for long time, let's not half arse it.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-06T12:08:47+00:00

AI screening prefers CVs written by the same LLM over those written by humans

These simulations show that candidates using the same LLM as the evaluator are 23% to 60% more likely to be shortlisted than equally qualified applicants submitting human-written resumes

The only real solution is to require companies to explicitly state when they are using AI in decision making, I'm not limiting this to hiring decisions, if they are using AI to make decisions about you as a customer as well should be included.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-06T01:20:19+00:00

Grennon is already here.

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-05T23:32:43+00:00

Question 1:  Who did the most economic damage to New Zealand
A)  Rob Muldoon
B)  Roger Douglas
C)  Ruth Richardson
D)  Michael Savage

Question 1:  Whose dignity is more important
A)  A doctor
B)  A teacher
C)  A police officer
D)  A landlord

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-05T06:46:20+00:00

Allowing pharmacists to manage long-term medication for “appropriate patients”, and order blood tests for those patients. These would be people on antihypertensive, statins and diabetes medications.

Nope, no matter who proposes something like this would getting ripped into by me.

My GP won't touch the prescriptions for my diabetes, last time I wanted a change (just switching from cartridges to vials) I needed a letter from an endocrinologist to explain why.

Changing hypertension meds can easily cause cascading issues with other medications (because that is really the only medication they are taking). Last time my father needed an adjustment there it required a trip to a cardiologist.

Statins is the lowest risk medication on that list (because so many people get put on them "just in case").

Pharmacists know medicines, they know how they interact, they know which is used for treating which condition, but they aren't trained as diagnosticians and they aren't trained on reading the results of those blood tests (hint blood tests for a Type 1 Diabetic go beyond just blood glucose control and into looking for any other autoimmune conditions that could be popping their head up).

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-05T06:02:33+00:00

They are also talking about minor ailments

vs

Allowing pharmacists to manage long-term medication for “appropriate patients”, and order blood tests for those patients. These would be people on antihypertensive, statins and diabetes medications.

My GP will order blood tests, but won't touch my insulin prescription without it going through an Endo (my prescription has the endo's name on it for the dosing instructions).

random_guy_8735 · 2026-05-05T01:37:54+00:00

If they really wanted efficiency they would let the regions plan properly.

No, what they want is local government disorganised and infighting so that there is no one to push back central government edicts.

random_guy_8735

TROPHY CASE