Potaka delaying homelessness data release

Briefly for all subscribers on Thursday, July 17, the key scoops, breaking news, deep-dives, editorials, analysis and other news links in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate today are:

1. Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka is delaying the release of a regular Housing and Urban Development Ministry (HUD) report on homelessness, saying he wants more advice. Labour is calling for its release, Stuff reports this morning. See more below in The Lead and and hear more in the podcast above.

2. A charity wanting to house homeless people kicked out of Rotorua shopping centre by new beat cops and the Rotorua Lakes Council is now having to hide its housing pods (see pic below) because the Council wants to charge for a consent. See more below in The Quote of the Day.

3. Queenstown has 22 hospital beds that were built for 4,500 people. There are now 80,000 people living in the district. See more below in number of the day.

4. Today’s Chart of the Day shows the retail recession started before then-Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr told shoppers to ‘cool your jets’ in November 2022.

5. Today’s must-listen is the interview Julie King from Love Soup in Rotorua gave RNZ Checkpoint last night See more below in Quote of the day.

6. A story to make me smile came out of the Waikato Times-$ today. Kākā come calling: Rare native parrots spotted across Hamilton. See more Good news and solutions in the Pick ‘n’ Mixes below.

Paying subscribers hear more detail, analysis and commentary in the podcast above and get the links and sourcing below the paywall, along with my full Picks ‘n’ Mixes for this morning. I’ll open it up for all to read, listen and share if paying subscribers give it more than 100 likes.

The Lead: Potaka delaying homelessness data release

Tama Potaka is withholding a regular ministerial report on homelessness and Labour have called for its release.

“Everyone is saying that homelessness is going up at unprecedented levels,” Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. “Given that he is the only one - alongside the prime minister and the minister of housing - that is denying homelessness is going up, I’m not surprised he’s reluctant to release the report.”

Potaka received the latest homelessness insights report from HUD last month, part of a regular six-monthly series monitoring the effects of government housing policy to reduce the number of people living in emergency housing through toughening the entry criteria.

But he has yet to make the document public, saying he is still seeking official advice on its contents, although he has acknowledged anecdotal evidence pointed to a rising trend. Via Bridie Witton for Stuff.

Further reading this morning on housing supply and government data releases:

• NZ Herald-$: Reoffending won’t be publicised during future bootcamp

• 1News: Decision to halt planning work 'blindsided' councils.

• David Williams for Newsroom: Govt winds up council reform storm

Quote of the day: Rotorua to charge for consents for homeless pods

Julie King from Love Soup told RNZ’s Checkpoint wanted to use the pods for homeless people in Rotorua, but was being blocked by Rotorua Lakes Council.

“Particularly with the terrible weather that we've been having, we've had some streeties going to hospital with pneumonia... then they're not getting proper sleep.

King said the pods being placed in a secret location was due to a number of reasons, but was not being helped by council wanting to charge consent fees.

"We met with them and they were more concerned about paying consents rather than helping. I know they're trying to remove them from the CBD, but you can't shuffle them from one corner to the next without solutions." Julie King via RNZ

One of the sleeping pods in The Village of Hope at a secret location in Rotorua because the Council wants to charge for a consent. Supplied via RNZ:

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Number of the day: Built for 1/20th of the population

22 hospital beds for 80,000 people - Queenstown's Lakes District Hospital was built in 1988 for 4500 people, so its 12 inpatient beds and 10 emergency department beds were not enough for 80,000 people there now, says Jez Leftley. Via Katie Todd for RNZ

Chart of the day: Freezing our jets

MusicalChairs via BlueSky:

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Top Six Pick ’n’ Mix for Thursday, July 17

1. Russell Palmer for RNZ: Warning of $60m-a-year price tag for Seymour's bill

2. Alexa Cook for RNZ: ETS incentivising whole farm conversions

3. RNZ: '200 years of debt': The cost of leaving abusive relationships

4. Mandy Te for Interest: 'Reset the market rules': EA

5. Alice Peacock for Newsroom Pro-$ Govt’s $100m polytech property sell-off

6. Maria Slade for BusinessDesk-$: Failed developer owes $80m

Scoops and breaking news here and overseas this morning

1. Matt Nippert for NZ Herald: More than half of CRH loans deemed at-risk

2. Thomas Coughlan for NZ Herald-$: Labour calls for free cancer tests

3. Ethan Manera for NZ Herald: String of leaders left Wellington Chamber of Commerce before CEO’s abrupt exit

4. Azaria Howell for NZ Herald-$: Religious texts to be shredded.

5. RNZ: Charter schools told to keep enrolment numbers secret

6. Chris Keall for NZ Herald: 'Tell your friends': Competition watchdog chairman defends advocacy of Uber rivals

Politics, geopolitics, economy, business & tech

1. 1News: Retail crime advisory group costs $500k in three months.

2. RNZ: Class action against two major banks offers to settle for $300m

3. RNZ: Lifting ad restrictions will enable medical conferences in NZ - Seymour

4. Sudima’s COO for NZ Herald-$:I managed four MIQ hotels. It was a shambles

5. NZ Herald-$: Small businesses concerned over access to new investment boost

6. Phil Smith for RNZ’s The House: Parliament’s big changes to employment law

Housing, Transport, Infrastructure & Councils

1. Kelly Makiha for Rotorua Post-$: 'Stay on your side of the Bombays': Rotorua developer's swipe at Auckland firms

2. Op-Ed by Building Officials Institute CEO Nick Hill for The Post-$: Building reforms should target the problem

3. Op-Ed by Paula Southgate for The Waikato Times-$: Hamilton’s booming — but rates are rising and funding’s broken. Can we afford the city we’re becoming?

4. Katie Todd for RNZ: Hospital workers sleeping in cars to try secure a car park

5. Op-Ed by Auckland Uni’s Clare Dale for The Conversation: As house prices drop, will the retirement nest egg still be such a safe bet?

6. Susan Edmunds for RNZ: Is it worth paying a real estate agent to sell your house?

Health, Poverty, living costs, work, education, justice & crime

1. Anna Whyte for The Post-$: ACC halts rollout of sexual violence prevention plan.

2. Amy Williams for RNZ: Children sleep on chairs, family eats meals of only rice

3. Gill Bonnett for RNZ: Fears electronic tagging of migrants 'going to get huge'

4. NZ Herald: 'Sustained period of cruelty': Starship doctor slates agency failings

5. Steve Kilgallon for Stuff: Immigration adviser banned after charging ‘grossly excessive’ fees for fake jobs at husband’s company

6. The Press-$: Schools call for funding fix as Govt scraps open-plan classrooms.

Climate, water, land, air and environment

1. Mary Afemata for RNZ: 'It's a lose-lose': Family says 'yes for now' to buyout

2. Column by Marc Daalder for Newsroom Pro-$ (free tomorrow): Seven-month delay shows gas ban repeal isn’t PM’s top priority

3. Stuff: Compulsory time of use plans for electricity to provide ‘better options’

4. Op-Ed by Waikato Uni’s Paula Blackett and Canterbury Uni’s Tom Logan: A warning from the future: the risk if NZ gets climate adaptation policy wrong today

5. Michael Sergel for NZ Herald: The regions most at risk in future flood damages

6. Max Rashbrooke for The Spinoff: Where do I send conservatives the bill for climate change?

Good news & solutions

1. Mind the Gap co-founder Dellwyn Stuart for Newsroom Pro: The Remuneration Authority uses comparators to set pay for MPs. So why not for nurses & teachers?

2. World Biogas’ Charlotte Morton: Can gas from food scraps fill an energy void?

3. RNZ: Getting hands on with science creating 'good scientific citizens'

4. Shanti Mathias for The Spinoff: How reforesting the Port Hills could help prevent another devastating fire.

5. 1News: NZ leads world in solar storm preparedness, say ex-NASA centre boss.

6. Op-Ed by Calgary Uni’s Farnaz Sheikhi and Farhad Maleki: How AI can help protect bees from dangerous parasites

Opinion, Columns, Op-Eds and Editorials

1. Op-Ed by PHCC: Prolonged epidemic from chicken meat needs strong response

2. Joel MacManus for The Spinoff: Chaos on Courtenay: Inside Ray Chung’s unruly, incomprehensible campaign rally

3. Column by Duncan Greive for The Spinoff: Have we lost the art of the argument?It’s a whole-of-politics problem, but is more vexing for the left.

4. Column by Hayden Donnell for The Spinoff:Weird men are driving people out of politics. Their smear campaigns are ham-fisted and grotesque, but they work

5. Column by Susan Hornsby-Geluk for The Post-$: Siouxsie Wiles vs Auckland Uni - paying the price of litigation.

6. Editorial by NZ Herald-$: Beds for kids: An appeal we shouldn’t need

Docs of the day

1. Speech by RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop to LGNZ

2. ComCom Chair John Small’s LinkedIn post suggesting alternatives to Uber

3. Electricity Authority: Improving pricing plan options - Decision paper

4. Electricity Authority:Requiring distributors to pay a rebate when consumers supply electricity at peak times - Decision paper

5. Financial Ombudsman Service release on its annual statistics.

6. Treasury: Advice and analysis prepared on the taxation of charities

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Cartoon: Roadblock at the crossroads

Jim Hubbard for The Post-$

Ka kite ano, Bernard