"Chris Bishop’s primary responsibility is reforming the RMA. ... The bureaucratic class has magnificently undermined his agenda."

"[Chris] Bishop’s primary responsibility, other than completing Steven Joyce’s highway from Warkworth to Whangarei, is reforming the RMA. ... [G]iven how central the reform of the Resource Management Act has been to this government, it defies comprehension that National didn't arrive with a draft ready to go. ...

"The excellent folk at the NZ Initiative have done an analysis of the two proposed [replacement] laws [which eventually emerged]: the Natural Environment and the Planning Bills. Nick Clark, the researcher, concluded, '...in the translation from principles to legislative text, something has gone wrong. Key elements have been weakened, complexity has crept back in, and an extraordinary amount of the systems' substance has been deferred to secondary instruments that do not yet exist.' ...

"The desire to place property rights at the heart of the legislation has been superseded by placing mana whenua into their customary central role in managing the land. ...

"[Also, i]f passed, these bills will not be the final word. That will be left to ‘secondary legislation’, or regulation; binding rules made by the minister of the day that determine how the law is to be applied. The proposal is for parliament to delegate its authority to the executive with minimal oversight. This time next year, Minister Swarbrick could use this secondary legislation to mandate her own vision into reality.

"Did we vote for that? ...

"[T]he bureaucratic class ... has magnificently undermined his agenda. This should have been self-evident thirty months ago ... "

~ Damien Grant from his post 'Chris Bishop has emerged as the main pretender to a shaky crown. How shall we assess his performance?'

"It's hard to get too much enthusiasm for the Tamaki Makaurau by-election"

"It's hard to get too much enthusiasm for the Tamaki Makaurau by-election. ... [W]hat we actually have is a spectre of Peeni Henare, Labour list MP, trying to win back 'his' seat by pandering to the far-left student activist nationalist rhetoric touted by the rather clueless Marxist nationalist Oriini Kaipara ...

"[B]oth major candidates hold a view of the country, economy and Maori that is led by a philosophy of nationalist Marxist collectivism ... They offer nothing to Maori who are entrepreneurs, who don't want to be tethered to the State or Iwi ...

"So on we go. I hope Henare wins, as it denies Te Pāti Māori one more seat and reduces the overhang in Parliament ... From the looks of it, neither are deserving."

~ Liberty Scott from his post 'The by-election without much choice'

Matua Kahurangi reckons there's one candidate who is less deserving: Te Pāti Māori's Orini Kaipara who, he reckons, "has been a walking disaster."

Her interviews over the past fortnight have been nothing short of a waka wreck. If voters in Tāmaki Makaurau decide to elect her after this performance, it would suggest they’re as dumb as a bucket of dead muttonbirds.

Yesterday was another low point. Instead of fronting the media, Kaipara let John Tamihere and Rawiri Waititi speak on her behalf. It’s no surprise after she admitted, “Peeni would be a formidable leader for the Labour Party ... I think that's more important than Tāmaki Makaurau. Who should be the leader of our nation as the first Māori Prime Minister? I want to give that back to Peeni Henare.”

That statement says it all. She is effectively campaigning for her opponent.

When Te Pāti Māori first announced Kaipara as their candidate, they claimed she would “champion” the party’s mana motuhake package, including a policy giving mana whenua the first right of refusal over culturally significant private land. When Tame asked her on Q+A how that would actually work, she fumbled. She admitted she didn’t have the details and would need to go back and consult with others. At one point she even reached for her phone, unable to respond when pressed on whether Te Pāti Māori had achieved anything tangible for Māori in the last two terms.

That’s the heart of the problem. For all its hoha attitude, Te Pāti Māori has very little to show. 

Their one big act was a hikoi against ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which wasn’t going to pass in the first place. 

Beyond that, their most successful project might be their merchandising arm. The Toitū Te Tiriti online store, directed by Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, sells pro-Māori propaganda gear under the promise that “all proceeds” fund the movement. It has become a branding exercise, complete with MPs regularly parading around Parliament in their own merch.

It's a bit like the bolsheviks themselves. Outside their famines, disasters and purges, the only thing at which they succeeded was producing decent propaganda posters.

Must be some decent marketing advice in Marx's old Manifesto.

"New Zealand was supposed to be a secular democracy...."

"New Zealand was supposed to be a secular democracy. But blink, and suddenly we’re living in a tax-funded theocracy built on ghost stories and cosmic real estate claims. Let’s say it flat-out: this country is being governed, influenced, and guilt-tripped by a belief system that no one’s allowed to call a religion — because it’s labeled 'culture.' ...

"We don’t call it [religion], though — because we’re too polite, too scared, or too indoctrinated. ...

"Try this on for size ... a public holiday based on stellar necromancy ... teaching [children] about invisible energies called wairua and mauri ... legal rights, your property, your voice — they all bend to concepts like mana whenua ...

"We are living in a soft theocracy, where only one faith system is state-approved — the one cloaked in carvings and cultural immunity. Criticise it and you’re not debating — you’re blaspheming. ...

"Let’s be painfully clear: this isn’t about Māori culture. Culture is fine. Culture is beautiful. Culture can be danced, sung, and honored.

"But religion disguised as culture, used as a bludgeon against democracy, enforced through law and funded by your wallet? That’s not beautiful. That’s dangerous. ...

"Let’s rip the spiritual scaffolding out of our lawbooks, drop the theological cosplay, and build a country where no one’s ghost gets to overrule your rights.

"Because freedom doesn’t float in the stars.
"It lives down here — under your feet.
"And it's time we fought for it."

~ John Robertson from his post 'New Zealand’s Holy Empire of Make-Believe'

The separation of church and state is being ignored by laws that officially reference Māori spirituality, customs, and worldviews

The separation of church and state is a principle established back in the Enlightenment era, one recognised in the US Bill of Rights. Establishing "a wall of separation between Church and State," Thomas Jefferson explained the principle in a famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

The principle rests on this compelling point: "that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions," so that neither the Danbury Baptist Association nor any other religious-based group need fear government interference in their right to expressions of religious conscience. 

This was a historic change from centuries of religious persecution. This is a point now unfortunately lost on New Zealand's legislators, who for decades have routinely inserted into law concepts emanating from Māori spirituality, customs, and worldviews, i.e., Māori religion. 

Law, we should be reminded, is a description of the way in which a government proposes to exercise its monopoly on force. As such, we should demand precision, objectivity, and concepts based on protecting individual rights. Instead, as a result of this departure from proper principle we have been delivered law that is imprecise, and riddled with bogus concepts based on a particular religious worldview.

Author and researcher John Robinson lists 35 New Zealand laws that officially reference Māori spirituality, customs, and worldviews — using terms like tikanga, mana whenua, mauri, wairua, and more. Among them are many that might surprise you:

Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)
Terms: Te Mana o te Wai, kaitiakitanga, mauri, wairua, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Gives legal status to Māori spiritual values when assessing environmental impacts and resource consent.

Water Services Act 2021
Terms: Te Mana o te Wai, kaitiakitanga
Context: Water regulation must consider Māori spiritual views on water’s life force and guardianship.

Local Government Act 2002
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Requires councils to involve Māori in decision-making and give weight to their cultural practices.

Conservation Act 1987
Terms: kaitiakitanga, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Māori beliefs must be considered in conservation efforts and land access.

Waitangi Tribunal Act 1975
Terms: tikanga Māori, Treaty principles
Context: Empowers Māori customs and grievances to be judged by Māori cultural norms.

Environment Canterbury Act 2016
Terms: mana whenua representation
Context: Mandates tribal representation in regional governance based on ancestral authority.

Oranga Tamariki Act 1989
Terms: whakapapa, mana tamaiti, tikanga Māori
Context: Māori child welfare decisions must respect spiritual ancestry and cultural norms.

Education and Training Act 2020
Terms: tikanga Māori, Treaty principles, mana whenua
Context: Embeds Māori values and customs into the public education system.

Climate Change Response Act 2002
Terms: tikanga Māori, kaitiakitanga, Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Context: Climate planning must consider Māori spiritual guardianship of nature.

Crown Minerals Act 1991
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua, Treaty principles
Context: Requires consultation with Māori based on cultural and spiritual claims to land and minerals.

Biosecurity Act 1993
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua, Treaty of Waitangi
Context: Disease and pest control policy must consider Māori views on spiritual and land connections.

Public Health and Disability Act 2000
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana motuhake, Treaty of Waitangi
Context: Health services are required to reflect Māori beliefs and autonomy.

Wildlife Act 1953
Terms: customary rights, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Spiritual and cultural practices are recognized in hunting and wildlife protections.

Forests Act 1949
Terms: tikanga Māori, Treaty of Waitangi
Context: Forest use and protection must consider Māori customs and Treaty rights.

Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014
Terms: wāhi tapu, wāhi tūpuna, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Sacred and ancestral Māori sites are protected by law.

Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022
Terms: tikanga Māori, Māori Health Authority, Treaty of Waitangi
Context: Establishes a parallel Māori health system based on cultural values.

Kainga Ora–Homes and Communities Act 2019
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua, Treaty obligations
Context: Housing projects must align with Māori cultural values and Treaty-based consultation.

Land Transport Management Act 2003
Terms: mana whenua, Treaty principles
Context: Māori cultural considerations must be included in transport planning.

Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000
Terms: kaitiakitanga, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Spiritual guardianship and cultural relationships must be respected in marine planning.

Walking Access Act 2008
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Access to land and tracks must consider Māori spiritual and cultural significance.

EEZ and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012
Terms: tikanga Māori, Treaty principles, mana whenua
Context: Deep-sea resource use must consult Māori cultural and spiritual perspectives.

National Parks Act 1980
Terms: kaitiakitanga, wāhi tapu, tikanga Māori
Context: Māori spiritual values influence park management and access.

Marine Reserves Act 1971
Terms: kaitiakitanga, tikanga Māori
Context: Customary guardianship and Māori beliefs influence reserve designation and rules.

Antarctica (Environmental Protection) Act 1994
Terms: tikanga Māori
Context: Even activities in Antarctica must respect Māori spiritual customs.

Building Act 2004
Terms: tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Local iwi spiritual and cultural views must be considered in development approvals.

Te Urewera Act 2014
Terms: legal personhood, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Grants a forest legal status as a living ancestor with spiritual significance under Māori belief.

Whanganui River Settlement Act 2017 (Te Awa Tupua)
Terms: legal personhood, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Declares the river a living entity with rights, based on Māori cosmology.

 Taranaki Maunga Settlement Act 2023
Terms: legal personhood, tikanga Māori, mana whenua
Context: Gives Mount Taranaki the same spiritual and legal status as a living being.

Criminal Cases Review Commission Act 2019
Terms: te ao Māori, tikanga Māori
Context: Māori spiritual and cultural views may influence justice processes and reviews.

Trade Marks Act 2002
Terms: mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori
Context: Māori traditional knowledge and customs can affect trademark approvals.

Patents Act 2013
Terms: mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori
Context: Patents can be denied or restricted based on spiritual and cultural beliefs.

Each of these inclusions undermines law, makes its exercise illegitimate and imprecise, and requires by law that all New Zealanders bow to a religion — one based on race — that is not necessarily their own.

As a commenter observes, 

There are also numerous reports/frameworks affirming the Te Ao Maori vision- a powerful and authoritative reference to guide action and establish norms, e.g. Te Rautaki Ao Maori—guidelines for NZ parliamentary process, Matauranga Maori in the Media, and many more.
     NZers are now enmeshed in a web of embedded "cultural references" which decree how to live their lives.

There is neither a moral nor a legitimate legal case for that.

What kind of 'Aotearoa' is emerging from 'New Zealand'?

"An extraordinary pre-figuring of the 'Aotearoa' that could emerge from 'New Zealand' occurred at last month’s opening of Te Matatini.
    "During the powhiri [at Orakei] to the nationwide kapa haka competition held at Eden Park, the tribe claiming mana whenua status in Auckland, Ngati Whatua, clashed with the sizeable contingent representing the people of Tainui – the Waikato tribal confederation still advancing historical claims to much of the Auckland region.
    "The degree of animosity on display was astonishing... The excellent coverage of the Ngati Whatua/Tainui stand-off provided by Moana Maniapoto for Maori Television’s Te Ao with Moana captured not only the injured dignity of the participants – and their rage – but the ... consternation at the naked hostility on display....
    "Astonished observers from the many other Iwi Maori participating in Te Matatini were united in their verdict: 'This isn’t over.'
    "Is this to be the way of things in these islands once the Crown has been transformed into the passive helpmeet of the independent tribes of Aotearoa, and such Pakeha as remain have learned to keep their mouths firmly shut? ...
    "Should Maori [tribal leaders] succeed in 'taking their country back' (which, in spite of all the promises of 'partnership and 'equity,' remains their unshakeable intention), it will not be as a unified people, but as a group of tribes no longer held together by their fierce antagonism to colonisation and all its works. In the 183 years since the signing of the Treaty, the claims of whanau, hapu and iwi have remained central to what it means to be Maori. Strike off the colonial fetters – cultural, economic and political – and what remains will be what was always there – long before James Cook’s Endeavour sailed out of the morning sun.
    "Proud tribes. Strong tribes. Deadly Tribes."

~ Chris Trotter, from his post 'The Tribal Stand-Off at Eden Park'

Auckland Council’s new Unitary Plan creaks closer

 

The change-a-minute process bringing us the Auckland Council’s new Unitary Plan appeared to be creaking towards some certainty, with the Plan now expecting to be notified on Friday. These are the councillor’s final amendments/decisions on the more controversial decisions:

• Retain standards around the minimum size dwellings have to be, to avoid “shoebox” apartments or units being built…
      Under the rule, a studio apartment in the centre city will have to be at least 35m², or 30m² plus a 5m² balcony. For one or more bedrooms the minimum size is 50m², or 42m² plus a 8m² balcony.

This effectively does to the local Tiny House movement what Simon Bridges is trying to do to Uber.

• Retain the pre-1940 building demolition control on the Queen Street Valley Precinct, which will enable these buildings to keep their character.
• Retain the objective that provides for the management of heritage values in the Regional Policy Statement.

A sop to NIMBYs demanding the city and suburbs become a museum-piece instead of somewhere affordable in which to live.

• Delete the Rural Urban Boundary from rural and coastal towns, enabling growth in new and existing rural and coastal towns.

A sop to “environmentalists” in places like Okura, these environmentalists being folk who already have their own mulit-storey bush cabin barring others from doing the same.

• Amend the threshold for requiring resource consent from three or more dwellings to five or more dwellings in the Mixed Housing Suburban and Mixed Housing Urban zones.

Helpful on the face of it, but since the extensive rules in the Plan are likely to trigger a resource consent in any case, only a paper victory.

• Delete Retained Affordable Housing provisions, which would have required 10% of homes in developments of more than 15 new dwellings to be affordable.

This was always a nonsense provision, ridiculously expensive to provide, wildly bureaucratic to oversee, and sensible only to those who’ve never encountered the subject of building economics before – particularly the concept of ‘churn.’

• Delete standards related to building work and internal design matters, addressed in the Building Code. These include standards around the amount of daylight dwellings need to be exposed to and universal access to residential buildings. 
• Have no minimum car parking provisions for retail and commercial activities in centres.

Sensible. Otherwise every new cafe would need to find several carparks just be allowed to open. Ridiculous.

• Delete the Sites and Places of Value to the Mana Whenua overlay and associated provisions.

The deletion of what’s been called the Taniwha Tax: the requirement to consult up to a dozen different iwi to by the right to  work on your own property. One of the few major victories in this final Draft, and almost entirely due to the heroism of Lee Short and the Democracy Action team he led. It is “the first push back against the racist agenda of tribal elites being pursued throughout New Zealand.”

• Retain the Rural Urban Boundary at the Crater Hill volcano at Papatoetoe, so houses aren’t built here.

This is just so-called “virtue signalling” on the part of councillors about a place that few would either know nor care about. It costs councillors nothing, but would-be home-owners dearly.

• - Retain objectives around rural subdivision that prevent “inappropriate” and “sporadic” subdivision and promote the “enhancement of indigenous biodiversity”.
• Retain policies to focus growth within the existing metropolitan area.

This is the planners’ ring-fence around the city that makes land-bankers rich, home-buyers poor, and guarantees progressive carpet sprawl as the city expands in the only way the planners allow: thirty metres or so at a time.

That this provision is retained shows these councillors have really learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.

Retained too over most of the city, it seems, is a ridiculous rule not seen in the city for decades mandating that every new house or addition must maintain a one metre separation from both side boundaries – and this in a plan that is supposed to encourage intensification!

Final publication on Friday of the Complete Works of the Auckland Council Planning Department will be fascinating.

It’s not pretty, it’s not expansionary, and virtually everything will require a planner’s permission of some description, but at least we will have a modicum more certainty in what property-owners themselves may plan.

Unitary Plan: Good news, bad news

 

Since 1:30pm yesterday, when it was released on the council website, every single person in this great little city of ours who is anything to do with land or building or housing has been huddled over their phones, tablets and computers finding out what our most learned lords and masters might be about to allow us all to do on our land. [Notwithstanding that “the very idea of a single long term plan for a 16,100sq km, largely rural region containing a rapidly growing and diversifying urban mass is flawed.”]

I speak of course of the Auckland Unitary Plan.  Written by planners, debated by bureaucrats, shredded by NIMBYs, and argued about by councillors, the “Independent Hearings Panel” yesterday issued its decree on all those deliberations that everyone fully expects to be voted into law on August 19. [Read it all here, if you have days to wade through it. It will take you 5 days. *]

Most of the commentary since release is simply talking its book, so I’ve most mostly just ignored it. [Although I had to laugh at Radio New Zealand calling up two people in Grey Lynn as their “couple of Aucklanders” to talk to.]

Lets start from the beginning. Every rule in a Plan is telling you something you can't do. If you didn't want to do it, they wouldn't need a rule to stop you; so every single rule is an imposition on your property rights. That makes it a plan to hinder your plan. [Maybe time to re-read ‘Capitalists Have a Better Plan.’]

At the same time, every one of your neighbours has the same property rights as you. And they probably have the same or similar expectations of peaceful enjoyment on their property as you do on yours. So that provides the only moral justificatinon for their rules.

Cities grow organically, or try to, reflecting the individual choies folk make in their own context. Planners prefer the shoehorn, making museum-pieces of the parts of cities they favour, and insisting other parts be cooked only to their own recipe.

So in the absence of genuine common law protections of your legitimate rights in your land -- protecting you and your neighbours rights to light and air and support etc., all or any of which can be negotiated between each of you to your own mutual satisfaction (setting up a network of delightful concatenations that help to build an organic city) -- the council's plan is the only thing you have in law protecting you from a new fifteen-storey glue factory next door.

And that's written by planners, well-paid busybodies well-schooled in the idea that they know best. 

So how does their proposed Auckland Unitary Plan shape up in protecting legitimate property rights while limiting the usual impositions on what you can do?

These are just my first impressions

• The plan generally allows you to do more on your land. Good news. On some land a lot more, on most land a little more—and mostly without taking your neighbour’s sun. So mostly good news.
• But almost everything you want to do now on your land will require the expense, delay and massive uncertainty of a resource consent. Bad news. Very bad news. So more folk will sit pat, either waiting for a knock on the door from a developer  with more staff and resources than they have to bust through all the hoops, or just putting up with what they already have, wary of putting their head in the planners’ noose. And meanwhile, more planners everywhere will find employment, and delude themselves they’re productively employed -- and your rates on these newly-intensified sites will go up. (Anf if you vote the vile Vic Crone, go up savagely!)
• The so-called Taniwha Tax has been axed [listen here to the wailing], removing the need on some sites to apply to up to a dozen iwi for a “Cultural Impact Assessment.” Good news. Very good news. This may be thrown out the front door only to make its way in via the back (note for example “that sites of value to mana whenua should be disregarded until the ‘evidential basis of their value has been assembled’”), but sanity at this stage seems to have prevailed. You can probably thank all those so noisily opposed for that. (But eternal vigilance , people. Eternal vigilance.)
• The blanket prohibition on looking sideways on pre-1944 “heritage” property has gone. Good news on the face of it, allowing these to be used and re-used much more imaginatively. But Heritage Overlays and the like still remain in many parts of the city (as of course do the provisions of the Hysterical Places Act) so there are still serious barriers in place to redeveloping or upgrading so-called heritage property.
• The rural-urban boundary – the planners’ ring-fence surrounding Auckland and protecting land-bankers’ risk-free profits, has not been smashed. Only moved. So imaginative hamlet development or the like out south or west is still subject to a blanket ban. And as even Labour’s Phil Twyford recognises, “just moving the boundary encourages speculation and land banking to shift to the new boundary.  Only scrapping the boundary will lead to land prices stabilising.” So in the short-term it will

THERE ARE TWO WAYS for mine to gauge what the plan represents:

• have the planners allowed folk to live as and where they want? in other words, are they Pro-Choice?
• has the plan made it safe again to be a spec builder? in other words, are they Pro-Affordable Housing?

1.On the first: on the battle over Up or Out, or sprawl versus intensification (as the dichotomy is falsely labelled) the planners and Independent Panel have still cast most weight in the scales for up. Sort of. So in the issue of being Pro-Choice – by which I mean, letting folk live how and where they demand to – we’ve only moved a baby step at best.

2. And on the second: since its birth this city was largely built by small spec builders who bought a spection on spec, building a fine house, and the selling it t a happy family at a small profit. For the longest time now and for all but the top end of the market, that model has mostly been broken. We need to fix spec building to make Auckland affordable again. This plan still does not do that. It has made it safe to be a bigger builder or developer, with the staff and resources to weather the process and all the delays of any development. But all the small spec builders are still largely shut out. You can guess what that means for affordable housing.

Now, with all the regime uncertainty of waiting for the arrival of this long-gestating and much misunderstood Plan, there will be literally thousands of folk who have been sitting on their hands unwilling to risk a cent until they have some certainty. The plan’s release will at least guarantee an explosion of projects in the immediate pipeline.  But with every new project still an uncertain one, with all the delays of a resource consent involved in every one, we may not have the full explosion that the bid for affordable housing really needs.

.

---

* Hugh Pavletich makes the pithy point:

… "If I was to read this at normal speed, at about 200 words per minute, that would take me in excess of 55 days to read this Unitary Plan."
    The report comes in several parts. It comprises two main overview chapters, published as separate PDFs, which tally 207 pages combined.
    The 80 individual reports are each between 12 and 37 pages long.
    Housing campaigner Hugh Pavletich​ is scornful of the sheer size of the Unitary Plan.
    "If a plan is any more than a thumbnail thick, it is irrelevant because it is beyond people's ability to get their heads around it," he said.
    But that's just what Auckland's councillors will have to do - they have until August 19 to decide if they accept the recommendations.
    The above comment actually came from the late Owen McShane … God bless him.

Victory in councils’ backtracking

Auckland’s planners are backtracking somewhat from their imposition on the city of 3,600 so-called sites of cultural significance—each representing a “site” (said the council) that they had deemed “important” to Mana Whenua, with whom property-owners would be required to “consult” before doing anything more aggressive than mowing their lawn. These are are the “purple blobs” that in slowing or even stopping work on projects anywhere near them saw them dubbed a taniwha tax—and Lee Short from Democracy Action Lee Short sees a small victory in the council’s backtracking. “Our campaign is working,” he says::

After a year of hard work our campaign to expose Auckland Council’s objectionable Mana Whenua provisions in Auckland Unitary Plan is finally paying off.
    Last month the Council voted to remove 600 sites of value to Mana Whenua from the Unitary Plan – sites that were put in the Plan back in 2013 without Council verifying their existence!
    We’ve been speaking to Councillors; it was people power - people like you and me - which forced the Council’s hand. All those meetings, submissions and presentations, reports we commissioned, and face-to-face lobbying are working.
    The NBR summarised it best in the headline to this article (paywalled):  “Councillors’ tails still in twist over 'taniwha tax'”
But we have a lot more to do
Now that we’ve been through the small print of the Council’s decision, we are even more confident that the Council will need to make further changes. Reports provided to Councillors on 12th November suggest that the basis for including these sites is even shoddier than we thought. Officials recommended that 1387 sites of value be removed from the Unitary Plan.
    The Council’s own officers said:

    (a) 752 sites did not have values assigned by Mana Whenua;
    (b) 73 sites were non-Māori or duplicates;
    (c) 552 sites did not have a confirmed location; and
    (d) 10 sites where it was unknown if the object of value was a natural or archaeological feature.

    As reported by Stuff, Councillors tied themselves in knots debating this, resolving to only remove 600 sites, all from private property. Council Planning Officers also disclosed that Democracy Action was right all along — they have not visited, or verified the remaining 3000 ‘sites of value’.
    By using Council's own GPS data our volunteers have visited many of the sites and found so-called ‘sites of value’ in residential subdivisions, underneath community buildings, in the middle of industrial estates, and even one in an old landfill.
    In the coming weeks we hope to expose which of these ridiculous examples the Council has chosen to keep in the plan.

Over the past 12 months, Democracy Action has:

• Attracted 300 people to a public meeting to launch our campaign;
• Launched our new website, with resources to arm the public with the facts of how iwi representation is undermining democracy in local government;
• Highlighted the injustices of the mandatory requirement to seek Cultural Impact Assessments (CIAs) in a number of TV, radio and print stories;
• With our lawyers we have made four written and oral submissions to Auckland Council’s PAUP Hearings Panel;
• Photographed and catalogued many ‘sites of value’ that are clearly incorrect.

Over a thousand residents within ‘sites of value’ zones have been contacted, to point out possible CIA requirements affecting their properties.

Our aim is to have the Council adopt formal criteria and methodology, rather than guesswork, for sites scheduled for protection, thereby ensuring that the rights of Auckland property owners are not eroded without good reason.
We will also continue lobbying against several other provisions in the PAUP which propose the introduction of new rules regarding management of our natural and physical resources.  One of these is the proposal to introduce co-governance and the joint management of water allocation and use in Auckland.

Democracy Action seeks your help in maintaining pressure against council on this issue:

We need your ongoing support to ensure our campaign can continue. I’m emailing to ask for you to click here to join Democracy Action, and/or click here to make a donation.
Your help means that we can continue to arm Aucklanders with the facts about the content and impact of the Mana Whenua provisions in the Unitary Plan.
    Please help us to maintain our momentum in overturning these Mana Whenua provisions, as we continue to promote the democratic principles our parents and grandparents fought for.

Not to mention: our property rights.

Taniwha Tax: What you can do

Auckland council has an important vote tomorrow, and you can help sway it.

As you may know, when the council’s Unitary Plan was first released, around 3,600 large purple blobs were smeared across the map—each representing a “site” (said the council) that they had deemed “important” to Mana Whenua, with whom property-owners would be required to “consult” before doing anything more aggressive than mowing their lawn.

Which came as a surprise to many of the local iwi said to be affected, even though this didn’t stop some of them hatching plans for large fees for the necessary consultations and signatures land-owners might need under the Unitary Plan.

No wonder some groups started calling it a Taniwha Tax.

Around 3,600 of these sites were included in the Unitary Plan without any verification or compensation for the damage to property values of the 18,000 or so Auckland properties affected. Home-owners in Paritai Drive were among those who newspapers recently discovered were affected by a site of so-called importance, receiving headlines for being sent letters by Ngati Whatua claiming mana whenu status on the basis of the clifftop being the alleged site a losing battle some centuries ago.

Many of the sites had even less basis in fact than this one. Auckland’s Democracy Action group began photographing and verifying the sites — something the Council didn’t bother to do. What they discovered

is a Council that was protecting building foundations, car parks and even rubbish dumps, while forcing Auckland ratepayers to pay iwi groups to verify resource consents on matters which include the metaphysical (spiritual) concerns of the 18 recognised iwi groups.

That is the state of play up to now. But tomorrow,

the Council will vote on whether to remove 1,373 of the 3,600 deemed 'sites of value to mana whenua'. These are the provisions that are requiring some 18,000 Auckland property owners to check with iwi whether 'cultural impact assessments' are required when applying for a resource consent.

And what Democracy Action has done is make it easy for you to email your councillor and tell them to do their fricking job!

They have created a tool for you to email Len Brown and/or your local councillor: Take a moment to make your voice heard by clicking here.

Couldn’t be simpler, could it.

Do it. Do it now!

RELATED:

• The Taniwha Tax: Briefing paper on Auckland Council’s new Mana Whenua rules.
• The Taniwha Tax: coming to a home near you
• “There are ‘big changes’ on the way in terms of how we are governed…”

Friday Morning Ramble

Here’s a few things I wanted to write more about this week, but ran out of time. First, the question of the week:

Spotted this in the interview with Greens’s co-penis James Shaw. Definitely needs talking about more (remind me, someone): “Chris Finlayson has surprised me. He got nature's rights into New Zealand law with the Treaty of Waitangi settlements for the Whanganui River and Urewera. The idea that no one can own them, that they have the right to exist and not be degraded is an extraordinary principle that sets a revolutionary precedent in terms of how we govern our relationship with the environment.”
Twelve Questions: James Shaw – NZ HERALD

“In a number of Western world cities, there is rising concern about foreign housing purchases which may be driving up prices for local residents. Much of the attention is aimed at mainland Chinese buyers in metropolitan areas where housing is already pricier than elsewhere. The concern about housing affordability is legitimate. However, blaming foreigners misses the point, which is that the rising prices are to a large degree the result of urban containment policies implemented by governments … “
Blaming foreigners for unaffordable housing – Wendell Cox, NEW GEOGRAPHY

“If there is any big flood of foreign money that wants to be involved in Auckland housing, it is ridiculous that we make it near impossible for that money to build new housing.”
Crisitunity revisited – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“It is sitting at about the $750,000 mark now and [rising] at about $3000 a week, or $150,000 a year, so it should be at about $900,000 12 months down the track. So you are looking at about a year and a half from now. The whole thing is a complete circus and I curse the politicians for failing to articulate these serious issues with clarity."
Experts predict Auckland median house price will break $1m mark in 18 months – NZ HERALD

“Sounds like those foreign buyer restrictions and capital gains taxes are really working for the Aussies. Good thing no party advocates them here.” – David Seymour
Sydney median house price now $1 million – NEWS DOMAIN

“But governments across the world, from Australia to New Zealand to Britain, are starting to argue that tackling another big problem—bubbly housing markets—may give productivity a boost. Are they right?”
How cheaper housing can boost productivity – ECONOMIST

It all helps.
Tradie safety rules driving up construction costs – NEWSTALK ZB

This graph shows that many of Britain's under 40s will probably never own their own homes. And it’s not only Britain …

The arguments against a GST increase in Australia are the same arguments to lower it here.
Low income families hardest hit by 15pc GST – AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW

“Local Government NZ (LGNZ) wants more power to impose taxes, levies, road tolls, and user charges to pay for their rapacious empire building. Rates, a tax on property owners, no longer bring in enough money to fill their ambitious coffers. They know they’ve bled the ratepayer dry so now they’re on the lookout for other sources of funds. That’s the bad news. The good news is the Government isn’t having a bar of it.” So far.
Local Government the Problem, Not the Solution – JO HOLMES.COM

“The six affiliated unions have a collective equity of $46,275,983, yet only gave $162,000 to last years Labour election campaign.”
The Unions' Massive War Chest – WHALE OIL BEEF HOOOKED

This was good listening. The full interview with Peter Boghossian, Professor of Critical Thinking. Worth a listen in full.
Peter Boghossian: Critical thinking and Atheism – LEIGHTON SMITH SHOW

“Environmental Management in Early Polynesian New Zealand.”
Small New Zealand population initiated rapid forest transition c. 750 years ago: – SCIENCE DAILY

The Auckland Council supports a bid by Ngati Whatua Orakei to extend a ‘mana whenua cultural heritage overlay’ over about 25 properties at the city end of Paritai Drive in the Auckland unitary plan.”
So we told you about this two years ago. Why when it’s too late are folk in Paritai Drive getting upset?
Paritai Drive residents fighting Maori heritage designation moves – NZ HERALD
“There are ‘big changes’ on the way in terms of how we are governed…” – Christopher Lee, NOT PC, 2013
The Taniwha Tax: coming to a home near you – NOT PC
Cultural Impact Assessments - to protect a dump – NOT PC

An anti-abortion group last week” released a video of a conversation between Deborah Nucatola, an executive with the US’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, and investigators who claimed to be setting themselves up as middlemen distributing organs and tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers.” Selling body parts!. “It sounds shocking and disturbing …”
What the Planned Parenthood Case Isn’t About – Robert Tracinski, TRACINSKI LETTER

“Donald Trump appears to have gotten under the skin of not only Democrats, but also fellow Republicans and the news media. Has that subjected Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, to unfair and/or inaccurate reporting? An article in the Washington Post today is headlined, “Trump slams McCain for being ‘captured’ in Vietnam. …”
Fact Check: The Washington Post on Donald Trump and John McCain – SHARYL ATTKISSON

“Statements by one of the candidates for the Republican Party nomination for the presidency have made immigration a burning issue once more.”
Freedom To Move: Personal Liberty or Government Control, Part I – Richard Ebeling, EPIC TIMES

Legal American immigration? If only it were possible.
I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American. I've failed.- William Han, VOX

Merkel is wrong; immigration doesn't lead to catastrophe.
Angela Merkel told a sobbing girl she couldn't save her from deportation. It was a lie. – VOX

Sense from the UK.
Cannabis users allowed to grow drugs at home without prosecution say Durham Police – MIRROR

“The history of government "investments" shows that politicians don't have a clue where to put the public's money.”
"Green Banks" Will Drown in the Red – Jonathan Bydlak, FEE

“The fight for a $15 minimum wage has scored a victory for robots and unions against immigrants and young people.”
New York Orders Fast-Food Workers Replaced With Robots, Kiosks, Mobile Apps – Daniel Bier, FEE

“Socialists believe raising minimum wages, raises the workers standard of living. Austrians (the economists) suggest raising minimum wages destroys low wage jobs, especially for youth and entry level labour. Now Seattle finds that when the minimum wage is raised, workers opt for fewer hours to maintain their low income government benefits and their standard of living remains the same.”
Seattle sees fallout from $15 minimum wage, as other cities follow suit – FOX NEWS

“A claim for equality of material position can be met
only by a government with totalitarian powers.” 
~ Friedrich Hayek

No kidding.
Kerry says Iran vow to defy U.S. is "very disturbing" – JIHAD WATCH
IAEA Tells Congressmen of Two Secret Side Deals to Iran Agreement That Won’t Be Shared with Congress – NRO
Iran: ‘We’ll support all the terrorist groups we want’ – Michael Rubin, AEI
U.S. 'disturbed' by Iranian leader's criticism after deal – REUTERS
Thomas Sowell: Obama's Iran Blunder Presages A Catastrophe – Thomas Sowell, NEWS INVESTORS.COM
Paving the Way for a Nuclear Iran – AYN RAND INSTITUTE

“‘Claim jobseeker’s allowance and plan holy war': Hate preacher pocketing £25,000 a year in benefits calls on fanatics to live off the state.”
UK jihadist: “The normal situation is to take money from the kuffar. You work, give us the money, Allahu akbar.” – JIHAD WATCH

“The biggest threat to African peace and prosperity comes from a dangerous idea.”
Africa’s jihadists – ECONOMIST

“Most of the magazine was murdered for the publication. Criticize them for not continuing to publish Muslim cartoons? When did it become the responsibility of cartoon publishers to do the failed job of an entire government?”
The Knees Have It – Mark Steyn, STEYN ONLINE
Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech – AYN RAND INSTITUTE

“For years, it was posited that New Zealand was less exposed to commodity booms and busts because it specialised in so-called “soft commodities“, such as dairy production and other farm goods, whose consumption and demand is far less cyclical than so-called “hard commodities”, such as iron ore, which are dependent on the intensity of construction. These assumptions must surely be under threat, given the massive fall in dairy prices. …”
NZ’s commodities crash rivals Australia’s – Leith Van Onselen, MACRO BUSINESS

"And therein lies the origins of the deflationary wave now rocking the global commodity markets..."
Central Banks Have Shot Their Wad——-Why The Casino Is In For A Rude Awakening, Part I – David Stockman, CONTRA CORNER

“It’s almost as though it’s a battle between good and bad. But which is good and which is bad? When central banks and governments get involved, there’s no mistaking the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’.”
Little Known Chart Shows Why it’s Wrong to Hate Deflation – Kris Sayce, MONEY MORNING

“What’s a Grecian urn? A lot less than a few years ago.”
Saturday’s smiles: Greek Edition – HOME PADDOCK

Misery. Poverty. Greece. Should we be blaming the universities? Yes we should.
British economics graduates have left a trail of misery around the world – James Bartholomew, SPECTATOR

“When I learned economics from Hans Sennholz he often made two claims. First, he would tell us what sound economics taught about mutually beneficial trade, the division of labour, the free mobility of goods, services and people across international borders, the importance of sound money and of fiscal responsibility, and the failures of socialism and interventionism.  The laws of economics, he would say, were inexorable.  Second, he stressed to us how few people actually understood economics even among professional economists.
    “The task of the economic educator was to communicate to students and the public the truth of the first claim.  The task of the economic scholar/scientist was to correct the reality of the second claim. … To do so, Sennholz insisted that one must study closely the teachings of the alternative schools of economic thought.”
Sound Economic Reasoning Teaches ... – Peter Boettke, COORDINATION PROBLEM

“There is, of course, a deeper reason for the Greek tragedy which explains why the Greek and the EU governments and the majority of the Greeks are acting the way they are. That reason is the virtually unquestioned moral code of self-sacrifice. This code, known as altruism, holds that the needs of others create a claim on us—and a duty to help them.”
The Causes of the Greek Economic Tragedy—and the Capitalist Cure – Jaana Woiceshyn, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“Self-interest, frowned upon for ages as acquisitive, anti-social behavior, was celebrated by Smith as an indispensable spur to economic progress. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner,” he wrote, “but from their regard to their own interest.””
"Adam Smith Proved Ideas Matter" – Larry Reed, FEE

"…gasoline-powered cars are toast."
Tesla just did something big in the car world – NZ HERALD

Creative destruction in one graph.
This is What the History of Camera Sales Looks Like with Smartphones Included – PETA PIXEL

“All was quiet on the neoliberalism front in Latin America for the last 20 years. In yet another defeat for the Mont Pelerin Society led transnational conspiracy, economic freedom has been pretty stable in Chile for 20 years and in the serious decline in Venezuela and Argentina – see figure 1. Not much happening in Brazil either on the neoliberalism front – see figure 1. I’ve always had my doubts about the ability of a transnational conspiracy to be led by a society with such a crappy website.”
The impact of neoliberalism on economic freedom in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela since 1995 – UTOPIA – YOU ARE STANDING IN IT

The latest breakthrough in higher education, from The Onion …
Online University Allows Students To Amass Crippling Debt At Own Pace – THE ONION

… and the Mises Institute.
How Student Loans Create Demand for Useless Degrees – Josh Grossman, MISES DAILY

“Scientists have discovered the very first Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star in the perfect sweet spot … This is the Earth twin scientists have been searching for over the past 20 years.”
NASA just discovered 'Earth 2.0' – BUSINESS INSIDER

One of the Most Remarkable Achievements in Human History

“Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way ‘adjustments’… Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in ‘global warming’.”
Suspect temperature records – CATALLAXY FILES

You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Arctic expedition to study global warming put on hold because of too much ice – WATTS UP WITH THAT

"The difference between political power and economic
power is the difference between rape and seduction."
~ Warren Orbaugh

Amen.
Why Most of the World’s Banks Are Headed for Collapse – Doug Casey, DAILY RECKONING

“This reminds me of that old criticism about gold being a “barbarous relic”. John Maynard Keynes first coined the term when he denounced the gold standard, and Paul Krugman has echoed this sentiment in our own time.
“Both men are champions of government spending and the inexhaustible creation of paper money.
“It’s a curious statement, though, given that gold is an acknowledged form of savings. Even governments and central banks around the world continue to hold gold as part of their official reserves.
“Owning gold is saving, which by definition is civilized, i.e. NOT barbarous.
“Debt, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. It is a lack of savings that shows a complete disregard for the future.
“It is the modern equivalent of gorging on some wild beast with no thought to tomorrow’s meal… or in this case, no thought of tomorrow’s generation.
“Debt is the barbarous relic. Not gold.”
Debt Is The Barbarous Relic! Not Gold – ZERO HEDGE

“The fascist Benito Mussolini had high praise for the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes: “Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes …”
Mussolini on Keynes’s economics – STEPHEN HICKS

“Spoiler alert: The deplorable revelations recounted here will not ruin your appreciation of the sublime beauty of Le Corbusier’s masterpieces.” But perhaps they should cause you to question the nature of that alleged beauty.
Revisiting Le Corbusier as a Fascist – HYPERALLERGIC

And … “Traditionally, Mr. Johnson is presented as the great champion of modern architecture. … Philip Johnson did not just flirt with fascism. He spent several years in his late 20's and early 30's -- years when an artist's imagination usually begins to jell -- consumed by fascist ideology.”
Form Follows Fascism – Mark Stevens, NY TIMES

“Consciousness is a biological property like digestion or photosynthesis. Now why isn’t that screamingly obvious to anybody who’s had any education? …”
“Kant was probably the greatest philosopher that ever lived and he is an obsession, but I think the whole thing is based on a mistake – that you can’t have a direct knowledge of things in themselves. You can. I’m looking at a desk and I see a thing in itself.”
Searle: it upsets me when I read the nonsense written by my contemporaries – NEW PHILOSOPHER

“Interview with pomo Jean Baudrillard – against “reality” and just about everybody…”
'Nobody Needs French Theory' – an extract from Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance – EUP PUBLISHING

“But wait: Ayn Rand is most famous for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Where does she fit into mainstream, professional philosophy? Does she fit in at all?”
Episode 73: Greg Salmieri discusses Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy – ELUCIDATIONS
Ayn Rand is banned from /r/philosophy – REDDIT

“Philosophers vs Novelists?  Not quite. Cognitive Science has started to record what philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand had already grasped and articulated---how stories help humans learn and navigate through life’s problems, in the way flight simulators assist pilots in training.
“The undermining of art therefore creates a burgeoning vacuum in the young, for the flight simulators are teaching the young pilots how not to fly.
Ayn Rand and the Cognitive Science of Narrative – Vinay Kolhatkar, SAVVY STREET

“Saul Alinskey: Ellsworth Toohey incarnate? "Here are some of the more memorable quotes which today in the Age of Obama have been adopted in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and the Democrat Socialist Party's Progressive politics of today…”
The triumph of Ayn Rand and the Fountainhead – RENEW AMERICA.COM

“Science has found it difficult to answer the many risks of harm to body and property which earthquakes cause. Technologies meant to enable the prediction of earthquakes have not worked out in the past and researchers are still unable to predict the location and magnitude of the next big quake. In the meantime, there has been plenty of research and development leading to the creation of tools and techniques that have saved lives from the incredible destruction of a violent shift in fault lines.”
Disaster Tech: Innovations spurred by earthquakes – Steve Brachmann, IP WATCHDOG

Science. Always there for the important questions.
Why Do Cats Bring Home Dead Animals? – LIVE SCIENCE

This is important.
Drinking Tequila Can Help You Lose Weight, According To Scientists – L.A. TIMES

“Most mental health professionals today, takes it for granted that depression is primarily a medical illness, for which we need the best medication and medical treatment possible. But the more advanced medications we develop, and the more we prescribe them, the more suicides we’re seeing with teenagers over the last twenty years. ..
“Those of us in our 30s, 50s or 80s react with tremendous sadness upon hearing of the deliberate death of a 15 or 17-year-old. ‘They had their whole lives ahead of them,’ we say. ‘How could they throw it all away?’ They obviously did not believe they were throwing anything away. That points you to the core of the problem.”
Record Teen Suicides and The Questions We’re Not Asking – DR HURD.COM
College-Age Depression Is Increasingly Tied to Helicopter Parenting, Studies Show – SLATE

There’s an important story still to tell here.
JOY DIVISION REISSUED (2015): The art at the heart of darkness – Graham Reid, ELSEWHERE

““I used to think it was something like spite. You forbid yourself to say yes to something you could want and should want and may never be able to replace – you forbid yourself to say yes in order to hang on to the power to say no. It’s not just independence, a state of not being owned or enslaved or whatever. It’s a spiteful little betrayal of your own vows and commitments. I see stuff like that all the time, not just in marriage but everywhere, and I thought it was the same thing.”
The autopsy of Mister Maybe’s divorce: “Silence and distance and lies are all you need to destroy any marriage. 
– Greg Swann, SELF ADORATION.COM

Tragic.

“More than 10,000 New Zealand songwriters and composers are going back in time to decide the winner of the 1981 Apra Silver Scroll Award – which never was awarded. "I'm not sure why the Silver Scroll was not awarded," said Apra spokesman Anthony Healey. "New Zealand was in turmoil and that created an environment ripe for some of the greatest music ever made in this country. We are going to celebrate it."”
Silver Scrolls for 1981 to be finally awarded – STUFF

Yes, you probably do want to see Joe Strummer’s handwritten lyrics for London Calling, 1979

“The time has come again for RIBA's 2015 Stirling Prize, the institute's highest accolade for "best new building" in the United Kingdom.” Given what’s on offer, maybe they should leave it blank this year?
RIBA reveals the six 2015 Stirling Prize shortlisters - ARCHINECT

Yes, it’s Leonard Bernstein. So, yes, it’s good: One million years of music in five minutes.

Yes, this is what it’s supposed to sound like.

Yes, I love it when two of my heroes come together.

No, it doesn’t.

Sister Rosetta Tharp had it.

[Hat tips to Hugh Pavletich, David Prichard, Stephen Hicks, Justin Templer, Raphael Satter, ClassicPics, Screwed by State, American Elephant, Maajid Nawaz, Khyaati Acharya, David Burge, Amity Shlaes, Students For Liberty, Mikayla Novak, CityMetric, Evonomics Magazine, Liam Dann, Zadok Forgeron, ATHEISTPOWER/Kriz, Fouad Akkad, Craig Holland Dixon, The Reduced Shakespeare Company, Stephen Hicks, Fabia Claridge-Chang, Felix Mueller, Economic Quote of the Day, Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance, Jim Hurlbut, For New Intellectuals, Australian Libertarian Society (ALS), David Seymour, Phil Oliver, Anoop Verma, Mother of Exiles, Prodos Marinakis]

Thanks for reading
Have a great weekend,
PC