Queenstown debate no holiday for under-fire Willis
The economic issues debate featured questions about National's tax plan numbers – and some more off-colour jokes from David Seymour.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, September 15, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Nearly 1000 Airbnb homeowners are breaking new Christchurch Council rules; What will staffing upheavals at major media organisations mean for news?; And is an economic summer on the horizon? But first, she may have flown all the way to Queenstown, but National’s finance spokesperson can’t escape the questions about her tax plan.
From left: Nicola Willis, James Shaw, Grant Robertson, David Seymour (Photos: Getty Images)
Seymour and Shaw draw winces and boos at economics debate
The first major debate of the election cycle took place last night in Queenstown, where Labour’s Grant Robertson, National’s Nicola Willis, Act’s David Seymour and the Green Party’s James Shaw went head-to-head on finance and economic policy. According to Stuff’s Glenn McConnell, Seymour and Shaw “delivered the most memorable performances – although not always for the right reasons.” That’s probably a reference to a couple of extremely questionable one-liners from Seymour, who claimed Act was popular among Wellington public servants, 15,000 of whom he wants to sack by Christmas. "I'm voting Act because I hope you fire that guy in the next cubicle,” was the feedback he was getting, he said. Later he quipped that National should “increase the security budget” of the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, the same ministry he joked about sending Guy Fawkes to last month. As for Shaw, his plans for a wealth tax drew loud boos from the crowd. Shaw said he expected a rough reception: “This particular crowd here are people who have got assets over $4 million, so that doesn’t surprise me.” The Greens are proposing a 2.5% wealth tax on assets worth more than $4 million (minus mortgages and other debt) for couples.
Queenstown residents want answers on infrastructure, property prices
Queenstown was an apropos setting for a debate largely focused on National’s housing policy – especially its plan to open the property market to foreign buyers willing to spend $2 million or more on a single home. While National says $2m is high enough to avoid overly skewing the market nationally, it would be a different story in Queenstown where the average home sells for $1.7m. As reported by the Queenstown-based Crux news site, many audience members seemed sceptical of Willis’s assurances that it wouldn't drive up property prices in the “already piping hot Queenstown Lakes market”, while mayor Glyn Lewers has stated he’d prefer the threshold be set at $3 million instead. One topic that didn’t get much play in the national outlets’ debate coverage was Queenstown’s crumbling infrastructure. Without the luxury of a large ratepayer base like bigger cities, Queenstown urgently needs the ability to introduce an international visitor levy of its own, Lewers told the politicians. Robertson, Seymour and Shaw said they supported the idea, with caveats, while Willis demurred. She did however promise National would “sit down and strike a deal with Queenstown to deliver the infrastructure needed if it becomes government”, Crux’s Kim Bowden reports.
Willis on the ropes over lambasted foreign buyers plan
Back to that National foreign buyers plan, which was yesterday blasted to bits by a trio of experts who found it would raise around $500 million less than the $740m National claimed. “It’s not a game changer fiscally, but it goes to the credibility of the people who have organised this and want to be senior ministers,” said one of the reviewers, economics commentator Michael Reddell. The experts also cast doubt on the information provided by economics advisory firm Castalia, which checked National’s estimates. Castalia, they said, “cannot be relied on to back National’s estimates” owing to the fact the agency hasn’t “demonstrated what review took place”. All day yesterday Willis was back in the now-familiar position of defending the policy against a barrage of criticism. On the Tova O’Brien podcast she repeated the talking point that National was “rock solid” – though not on the numbers specifically. “We are rock solid that the [foreign buyer tax] policy will work and that it will help deliver our tax plan,” she told O’Brien.
Debates, debates, debates
We’re deep in the throes of election debate season now. Last night also saw a debate on rural issues in Hamilton featuring MPs and candidates from five main parties, plus a “genteel” Wellington Central candidates’ debate moderated by Andrea Vance of The Post. On Wednesday a whopping seven candidates for Auckland Central gathered at Whammy Bar on K’ Road to debate the issues affecting the inner city. Next Tuesday, Stuff’s Great New Zealand Infrastructure debate, moderated by Tova O’Brien, will cover transport, housing, climate resilience and resource management and will stream on Stuff from 1pm. It’s something of a curtain-raiser for the first leaders’ debate that night, screening on TVNZ and moderated by Jessica Mutch McKay. This week Chris Luxon tried downplaying his prospects, calling his opponent a “champion debater, probably the best debater in our parliament”. Unluckily for Luxon, Labour minister Deborah Russell has the receipts. For more on Luxon’s transparent attempt to pull a Color of Money-style hustle on Hipkins, listen to the new episode of Gone by Lunchtime.
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Nearly 1000 Airbnb homeowners are breaking new Christchurch Council rules
Just four Airbnb homes in Christchurch have applied for required consents since new rules were introduced earlier this year, The Press reports this morning (paywalled). Since July 24, owners of short-let properties located in residential zones have needed a resource consent to rent them out for more than 60 days a year, unless the owner also lives in the property themselves. Yet of the 990 homes estimated to be in that category, just 24 owners have applied for a consent. Of those scant applications, most were received before the rules came into effect. “The Christchurch City Council has also yet to figure out exactly how it will ensure owners abide by the rules and apply for a consent,” Law writes. Getting consent costs about $1000, but one Airbnb business owner says she’s been told it could cost more if a planner was needed or if the council needed more information.
What will staffing upheavals at major media organisations mean for news?
It’s definitely media navel-gazing – Friday mornings are now the time for it, it seems – but this reporting by Tim Murphy in Newsroom is vital reading for anyone with an interest in the future of NZ news. Major restructuring currently underway at both Stuff and NZME is moving resources away from print editions to areas of online audience growth, while “de-emphasising of one of journalism's best known words – 'editor',” Murphy writes. “NZME has told staff it wants to still do ‘beautiful’ newspapers but is making them into a standalone operation, with fewer senior editors and highly templated story lengths, layout and shared content.” While its Project New Horizon plan is creating 11 new roles within the NZ Herald’s operations, sources say most of those are relatively junior and may even be filled by people from sister operation Newstalk ZB. Meanwhile at Stuff, “journalists are still coming to grips with the split of their company's functions, with some seeing their work appear only behind the sub-site paywalls The Post, The Press or The Waikato Times and not on the main Stuff site, the country's best read outlet”.
Is an economic summer on the horizon?
On the new episode of When the Facts Change, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr tells Bernard Hickey why there are early signs of a rebound in confidence and hope for the summer to come, and into next year, despite the interest rate hikes.
Click and Collect
A suspected ransomware attack is affecting Auckland’s Hop transport cards. Commuters are still able to tag on and off, but are unable to top up.
Pro-rail protesters spray-paint Wellington car dealership and glue themselves to the footpath. Police say “You’re nicked”.
Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been charged with firearms offences.
Click and Elect
National pledges to allow water storage to be built on farmland without the need for a resource consent, among other “red tape”-busting measures for farmers.
Labour plans to overhaul sexual consent laws to put the burden of proof onto the alleged perpetrator, reports Newshub.
Labour, National, the Greens and TOP would all increase penalties for stalking.
Campaign trail update: Hipkins is in Lower Hutt and Porirua today, and Luxon is in Auckland.
Stewart Sowman-Lund and Alex Casey update their ranking of all the tasks shown on Taskmaster New Zealand. Airana Ngarewa looks back on how the revitalisation of te reo Māori began. The Spinoff Review of Books discovers why Māori writing festival Kupu is so vital. Madeleine Holden advises a reader who feels neglected on their birthday. Gabi Lardies explores why it takes many people a long time to disclose sexual abuse.
Sporting snippets
A definitive (for now) ranking and review of all the many, many travel shows presented by retired All Blacks.
South Africa hooker Malcolm Marx has been ruled out for the rest of the Rugby World Cup due to injury.
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
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