This Govt's infrastructure strategy depends on capital gains taxes & new road taxes

Billions of dollars in value uplift was identified around the Transmission Gully project, but that was captured 100% by landowners and not shared to pay for the project. Now National is saying value capture should be used for similar projects. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/ Getty Images

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, August 30:

1. The new Government says it’s pushing ahead with plans for more Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) funded from new tolls on new roads, congestion charges, road user charges and ‘value capture’ rates, even though an extra 50 cents in every $1 spent on building infrastructure is needed to pay higher interest rates on private debt, commuters oppose tolls and no Government or council has successfully taxed the capital gains on land value uplifts around publicly-funded projects.

2. In great news for those following our reporting on funding for glucose monitoring devices, Pharmac has announced after months of campaigning that it will fund the devices from October 1.

3. In solutions news, Auckland Council has won a decade-long battle to restrict late-night alcohol sales in an effort to reduce the health and crime effects of binge drinking.

4. In Quote of the day, Shane Jones doubles down on his criticism of ‘communist’ judges ruling against development and in favour of iwi, saying a lot of judicial decisions were showing a “creep towards totalitarianism,” appearing again to breach Cabinet manual guidelines about criticising the judiciary.

5. Our Chart of the day shows businesses vastly more confident about the future after rate cuts, but that aren’t seeing much actual improvement yet.

6. Our Climate graphic of the day shows the temperature at Iran’s Dayrestan airport rose to 68.9 degrees celcius yesterday.

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(There is more detail below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers.)

The Top Six on Friday, August 30

1. Easy talk about making drivers, land owners & PPPs pay

Off-balance-sheet infrastructure plans riven with political minefields

The government's plan for infrastructure financing outlined this week has yet to grasp the political and financial problems inherent in its reliance on user-pays and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).