Dawn Chorus for Tuesday, January 9

Growth councils are up against their debt limits and soft-pedalling on new housing developments because they have to pay at least 50% of the transport infrastructure costs and 100% of the water infrastructure costs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: A fresh example of Aotearoa-NZ’s fundamental climate retreat impasse has emerged from the deep south, with 75% of residents on the flood-prone Waiho Flat near Franz Josef saying they support a climate retreat plan involving land buyouts funded by central Government.

However, neither the Labour-led or National-led Government have settled on a consistent or fair approach to climate retreat land buyouts, choosing by default to make it up with councils as they go along in response to climate disaster events such as Cyclone Gabrielle.

Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy this morning:

• Christchurch City Council has suspended hearings on housing intensification in the absence of guidance from the new Government on what will happen to the MDRS standards designed to allow three townhouse developments on sections without resource consents. The Press-$$$ Liz McDonald

• Australia’s Santana Mining has announced its ‘Rise and Shine’ gold mining prospect in Central Otago was “the most significant gold discovery in New Zealand for four decades,” and is hopeful a “pro-mining” Govenment will give it the go-ahead, given it has already briefed Resources Minister Shane Jones. BusinessDesk-$$$

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The unaddressed climate retreat funding impasse