Auckland eyes new climate levy
The city’s council wants to move forward with a big programme to deal with a climate emergency, but its finances took a pummelling from lockdowns and recession
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, December 2, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: NZ sends troops to Solomon Islands; Chris Luxon’s first day; Waitangi Day events cancelled; but first, a new Auckland levy for the climate.
How do you deal with a climate crisis when your finances are a mess? (Tina Tiller)
How to tackle climate change on a budget. Auckland’s finances have been battered by the city’s prolonged lockdown, so council is now looking to introduce a dedicated carbon levy to fund climate projects. Justin Latif reports for The Spinoff that mayor Phil Goff’s proposal would add $1 billion worth of climate initiatives over the next decade, of which $574 million would be covered by the new levy—which goes by the bureaucratic name of a climate action targeted rate. It would add $1.10 a week to rates for the average-value home in the city. General rates would also increase by 3.5%. The mayor ruled out selling the city’s shares in Auckland International Airport, valued at $1.5 billion, to fund the package.
What’s in council’s climate package. After declaring a climate emergency in 2019, council put forward $15 million annually for climate projects. That’s not nearly enough, according to the mayor. RNZ reports that nearly a quarter of the $1 billion fund would be allocated for walking and cycling. There would also be a significant investment in more low-emissions buses, electric ferries and 14,800 native mature trees, largely to increase the sparse canopy cover in south Auckland.
It might seem unusual that a dedicated levy would be required for pretty basic spending. Part of the issue is a mismatch in taxation powers. The government’s crown accounts came out yesterday and, as Stuff reports, spending increased because of the delta outbreak, but so did revenue as companies made more money than expected. That flexibility doesn’t exist for Auckland council, which covers a third of the country’s population but doesn’t have many tools to raise revenue beyond rates. Cities around the world face similar problems. Goff has said he’d like to see more taxation powers devolved from the Beehive, or just a larger share of the GST raised in the city given to council.
Auckland is part of a global wave of municipal action while national governments delay. As Simon Wilson writes in the NZ Herald, the recent Glasgow climate summit was clear that substantial investments to reduce emissions need to be made within the next decade. Based on government budgeting and procurement cycles, that means now. Auckland’s proposal is a big deal, and while it might not bridge the gap between the city’s ambitions and its reality, it’s a good start. One of the central government’s big moves could be to finally make a decision on a light-rail project. An announcement is expected soon on how to build the long-delayed programme. The Greater Auckland blog has passed judgement on the available options.
The best way to read The Spinoff
As you will have noticed, The Spinoff has had a glow up–a full redesign and incredibly fast new platform across mobile and desktop (read Toby Morris explaining it here). What’s even better is our two amazing new apps, one for iPhone, the other Android. They’re probably the best way to stay across everything we’re doing–and if you turn on push notifications you’ll get the Covid-19 numbers as soon as they come out, plus our best story of the day, every day. Plus they’re totally free.
NZ deploying troops and police to Solomon Islands. About 15 members of the defence force will be flying to the country today amid growing unrest in the capital of Honiara. A larger group of 50 soldiers and police will follow over the weekend. They’ll be joining personnel from Australia, Fiji and Paupau New Guinea already in the Solomon Islands. There has been rioting and looting, while a building in the country’s parliamentary compound was set on fire by protesters. As Stuff reports, the deployment is expected to last weeks. Part of the anger follows the government’s decision two years ago to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of the People’s Republic of China.
The Covid numbers: There are 83 cases in hospital and 9 in ICU/HDU. There are now 8,574 cases in the delta outbreak. 124 new community cases were reported in Auckland yesterday, 14 in Waikato, 4 in Bay of Plenty and 4 in Nelson. 41,077 people were vaccinated on Tuesday.
The Spinoff’s Covid data tracker has the latest figures.
Auckland voucher scheme to provide millions in discounts for summer events. The government is spending $37.5 million on a recovery fund for Tāmaki Makaurau, the core of which is 100,000 vouchers to council attractions and facilities. Families across Auckland can apply for the tickets, Stuff reports. The idea is to get people back out and into the city. The vouchers won’t be good for local hospitality businesses, something the prime minister said had mixed results overseas. Businesses told OneNews that they were “crushed” to be excluded from the scheme, but the Covid-19 minister shrugged off the criticism. Restaurants and bars can open from Friday and the idea is to get people back out into the city, the rest is up to business owners to attract them.
Waitangi Day events for 2022 cancelled. The annual Waitangi Day celebrations at the treaty grounds will be held virtually in February, after the Waitangi National Trust said it would be “practically impossible” to hold them in person. It’s an unprecedented move by officials. According to RNZ, the decision reflects the mood of northern iwi leaders that vaccination rates won’t likely be high enough to exit the red level of the traffic light system by February.
The decision follows calls for wider restrictions in Northland. As the Northern Advocate reports, the northern district health boards have taken the remarkable step of supporting an iwi call to keep people who aren’t fully vaccinated out of Te Tai Tokerau. A letter calls for the unvaccinated to be kept out until 90% of Māori and non-Māori are vaccinated.
Chris Luxon’s first day as leader has an abortion u-turn and a cringe Newshub interview. Through a busy morning of fronting media, new National leader Chris Luxon delivered two major headlines as the NZ Herald reports: He’ll reverse his earlier vote and support safe areas around abortion clinics, and he wants to reopen the bi-partisan housing deal in favour of fewer houses. The most memorable part of his day, and one he’ll probably want to forget, is an interview with Newshub’s Jenna Lynch. He couldn’t begin to guess how much capital gain he’s made over the past year on his seven houses, said he shouldn’t be attacked for being successful but also didn’t know what the living wage is or even attempt to guess what the median rent is in New Zealand, and then conceded that he believes abortion is tantamount to murder. That’s a rough three minutes.
On Luxon’s houses. Stuff crunched the figures and found that Luxon’s seven houses have increased in value by $4.3 million this year alone, theoretically more than the $4.2 million he earned at his peak as Air New Zealand’s chief executive. He has the largest housing portfolio in parliament, growing at about $90,000 a week in mostly untaxed capital gains.
House prices could drop a bit in the second half of next year: ASB. After a roaring two years, Stuff reports that house prices could fall by 4% next year according to the bank’s economists. It should be noted that house price projections haven’t been very good of late. In a sign of how high prices have become, Wellington’s house valuations jumped 60.4% after being recalculated and are above $1 million in all suburbs—four suburbs are above $2 million now. According to the NZ Herald, New Zealand’s first state house is now worth more than $1 million.
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news?
Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz
Susie Wang and Luke McLeod run a takeaway joint from their garage. (Archi Banal)
Right now on The Spinoff: Charlotte Muru-Lanning talks to the couple behind a bustling takeaway operation run out of a garage in residential Auckland. Taylor Jo Aumua writes about being an Indigenous woman at Cop26. Alice Neville reports on why at-home accidents decreased over lockdown. Shanti Mathias asks whether cryptocurrency can ever be used for good. Sam Brooks, in a piece that's essential, explains how to make a great Christmas playlist.
For a longer read today, an explanation of what the Peng Shuai scandal is all about. After alleging online that one of China’s top political leaders had sexually assaulted her, one of the world’s best tennis players and her post disappeared. After a global movement began to ensure she was safe and free to travel, the Chinese state undertook what The Atlantic describes as an “amazingly amateurish” propaganda campaign to convince the world that she’s totally fine. The best anyone can tell, she’s really not. With the winter Olympics around the corner, this has come at a bad time for the country’s regime. Peng’s ordeal only makes the games more controversial.
A look at why baseball teams are suddenly spending more than ever before. Baseball is a sport where pay packages long ago departed from any sense of financial reality, but the news that the Texas Rangers dropped half a billion dollars on two players was mind blowing. Then the New York Mets spent an absurd sum, only for the Toronto Blue Jays to ink the club’s richest ever pitching contract. Why? As CBC reports, the first work stoppage in a quarter century is around the corner and baseball owners are trying to get ahead of it.
That's it for The Bulletin. If you want to support the work we do at The Spinoff, please check out our membership programme.