Long stories shortest: David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract must be obeyed. Christopher Luxon’s net approval rating in his first year as PM is vastly lower than those of Helen Clark, John Key and Jacinda Ardern. Chris Bishop is (rightly) incensed that a consent for an 11-storey office building next to Karangahape Road’s new rail station has been rejected because it would change the character of the area.
(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers, we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing, although we’d love it if you subscribed to join The Kākā’s community and support making this journalism public. Students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz or .school.nz emails are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Our special offers right now are: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)
Long stories short, my top six news items in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, March 18 are:
Desperate to go back to making nutritious lunches for their own kids in their own commercial-grade kitchens, Christchurch’s Haeata Community Campus has pleaded for an exemption from the current Compass school lunch programme, which has delivered frozen, too-hot, nutrition-free, dangerous, fly-blown, smaller and reheated lunches from centralised facilities, one of which has collapsed and the others are being investigated for safety and labelling breaches. Last night Associate Education Minister David Seymour rejected that request and said there would be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. The Press-$ Maddy Croad. RNZ’s Adam Burnsn (See quotes of the day below)
PM Christopher Luxon’s net favourability rating is vastly below that of previous PMs Helen Clark, John Key and Jacinda Ardern in their first years as Prime Minister, largely because Luxon started his term with a net negative rating. (See charts of the day below)
REINZ yesterday reported house prices rose just 0.4% in February from January, with large numbers of unsold listings weighing on both volumes and prices in what some had hoped would have been the first month of a boom sparked by lower mortgage rates and more attractive tax rules for rental property investors. Mortgage brokers report the Reserve Bank’s Debt to Income (DTIs) multiple controls are restricting landlords from gearing up to buy more existing homes. (See quotes of the day and charts of the day below)
New Zealand’s services sector, the biggest part of the economy, slipped back into contractionary territory in February, according to the BusinessNZ-BNZ PSI survey of service industry managers’ orders, hiring, spending and pricing intentions. The PSI survey had bounced in January into expansionary territory for the first time in a year, fostering talk of green shoots in the economy.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chris Bishop, a virtually lone voice inside the Government for densification and public transport, rightly railed against the decision by an Independent Hearings Panel to reject plans for an $100 million 11-storey office building close to the new Karangahape rail station built on the $6.5 billion City Rail Link due to open next year. Via NZHerald-$’s Anne Gibson (See quotes of the day below)
Today’s Must Read is an article via
from detailing the results of a survey of disabled people on the effects of the new Government’s funding changes. It is heartbreaking and enraging. Thanks to for alerting me to this here. (See Substack Essentials of the day below.)
My Pick’ n’ Mix Six
News: Seymour refuses to let Christchurch school ditch lunch provider. The Press-$ Maddy Croad. RNZ’s Adam Burns
Politics: Luxon’s epic unpopularity in one chart The Spinoff Max Rashbrooke
CRL development news: Chris Bishop v Auckland Council commissioners on K Rd rejection: ‘Insanity ... total nonsense’ NZ Herald-$’s Anne Gibson
News: Lunch that burnt student heated in package not meant for commercial use RNZ’s Maia Ingoe
Climate banking deep-dive: Would an 'anti-woke' bank law change anything?RNZ’s Eloise Gibson
Good news: School transforming their 'chicken and chips kids' with healthier lunches Hawkes Bay Today’s Jack Riddell
See today’s full Pick ‘n’ Mix here
Quotes of the day
“When is enough, enough?” Haeata Community Campus principal Peggy Burrow. Burrows has called to opt out of David Seymour’s lunch programme, but Seymour has said the school can’t break the contract with Compass. The Press-$
‘A big office building next to a train station doesn’t comply’
“It’s insanity like this which is driving us to reform the Resource Management Act,” Infrastructure & Transport Minister Chris Bishop said after commissioners refused plans for an 11-storey mass timber building.
“The principal concern for the board is the scale of the development,” the commissioners’ report said. Via NZHerald-$’s Anne Gibson
‘We’re grateful, but it’s just not working’
“We are grateful that we get free lunches for our kids, but I just think looking at the bits and pieces, what's happened with the young man and the burn on the leg, the inconsistencies around the menu, the wastage.
“I talked to one student the other day and she said she brings her own salt to add flavour to the lunch. It's just not hitting the mark.” Ilminster school principal Jonathan Poole via RNZ’s Maia Ingoe: Lunch that burnt student heated in package not meant for commercial use
‘They want to borrow & buy, but the DTI rules are stopping them’
“Low interest rates are proving to be an attractive motivator. However, many brokers have noted that more and more investors are coming up against the new DTI (debt to income) rules with banks more firmly enforcing these ratios now.
“Previously the banks were largely running the numbers but not enforcing the limits much, possibly because the proportion of their lending which is above the seven times income for investors is still quite low.” Tony Alexander reporting the results of his Mortgages.co.nz survey of mortgage brokers.
‘I doubt we’ll ever see the submarines’
“The most likely outcome of the AUKUS pillar one is that we will end up with no submarines of our own. We will have lost both sovereignty and security, and a lot of money as well.
Questioned over reports US President Donald Trump supports the AUKUS deal: Turnbull said, “Of course he'd like it.”
“It's such a bad deal for us. He’ll be thinking who are these dumb guys who agreed to this deal?” Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull via 9News.
Charts of the day
Luxon’s popularity compared with other first term PMs
Too many houses for sale and not enough buyers
Substack essentials
Video or podcast of the day
Cartoon of the day
Timeline-cleansing nature pic of the day
Ka kite ano
Bernard
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