Give Brooklyn Back His Dog!

The SPCA generally do a great job but there are a few zealots in the organisation and here is a story of one. The maths is simple:

Sick kid with no friends + dog = happy sick kid

SPCA take dog from terminally sick kid = unhappy sick kid with no mates.

Solution: Either give Ruby back after the vet check or get the kid another dog!!

Isn't Lower Hutt in Trevor Mallard's electorate? If so I think a bit of enforcement is needed here.

Surely after looking at Trevor's diary today Brooklyn's dog is more important than number 4 - meeting with NZEI reps. And he doesn't need number 8 - coffee.

Peter Mason's SPCA CEO - phone (04) 389 8044, Trevor. There's plenty of dogs in the line-up but I have also gone through and found Brooklyn the perfect new dog that they can supply should Ruby have, like Brooklyn, a terminal illness and not too much time left.



Prince William, a German Shepard mix pup. He's only a month old so shouldn't be too big.



I see that Toot is also available. He's the one who jumped on the train from Masterton with and ended up in Wellington. Just like a certain blogger. Sounds like Toot is a bit scared about the whole thing and needs a home. Perhaps that certain blogger could pick up Toot and take him (cough, cough), back to Masterton to roam the paddocks. Toot can take out FARRK the Pheasant before the bloody thing finishes off all the Veuve Clicquot.

Update - I am informed that Trevor Mallard has indeed tried to contact the mother of said sick kid via the repeater who brought us the story. Hopefully she can give her permission if she is a constituent for Trevor to put his evil powers to good use to go beat up the SPCA.

NZ Bloggers Union Press Release - Getting Frank with Rich

Rich Henry, aka Richard Henry, a contestant on The Apprentice, has committed the worst offence known to social media in New Zealand - he's upset the Whale.

Not only that, he's upset an entire community of "content providers" including fellow bloggers of all political persuasions and those who aren't in the least bit political.

We sent our unelected dictator Whaleoil to meet with Rich Henry regarding his online "magazine" called Get Frank (no link because he doesn't deserve it). I was on-board with Get Frank for a while, until they cut and pasted my blog articles with silly pictures that took away the meaning of the actual post. I then parted ways with them. Of course not without keeping the email from their then editor Mitch Hall (note Mitch was not necessarily the one who lied), that listed the terms and conditions of Get Frank taking my content in the first place.

I have a long memory, and even if that ever failed I have a very bad habit of keeping emails where I am offered terms and conditions. Because very few people I deal with in my life, especially those at the time closest to me, ever keep their word. They lie, they pretend that nothing was ever promised. They try and rip off others, cheat and tell blatant porkies usually for profit. Oopsy. Oopsy for them if you can prove the offer, consideration and acceptance. Whaleoil has a copy of that email in his post. We armed him with it. Rich may not know that we kept a copy of that. He may say that no content provider can take 50% of the revenue from their contributions, but as the ENTIRE site he admits is from outside providers, that's half the revenue from the advertising that should be distributed amongst those providers. Whether it be Whaleoil, David Farrar or other contributors that are not known to the blogging community at large.

So please for all bloggers, media, advertisers and those with an interest in dealings with Rich(ard) Henry and Get Frank, I link below to the Whaleoil post that was a collective effort on behalf of the NZ Bloggers Union.

Getting Frank With Rich

If Rich is to have any sort of future career in online media, he needs to understand that lying, cheating and stealing has its consequence. If you are going to do so, do it quietly and don't appear on National TV where you are fired by a man of questionable business ethics himself, for being duplicitous.

That's just too funny and makes a far too brilliant story to ignore.

Sarah Davies For Northland - Labour

As you know I am against all young people being involved in general politics unless they have a commercially sound and financially solid background earned completely independently in the private sector. That is, they should not have commenced life in a non-for-profit sector or any other conveniently under-measured non-competitive drop-out position in society where the only real experienced gain could possibly be that in troughing and looking for the next dine at the trough.

A Labour Supporter therefore in an attempt to get my blood pressure soaring sent me the profile of this 29 year old who thinks she can be an MP for Northland who says that "regardless of your politics Helen Clark does an amazing job as the UNDP Administrator! (her own exclamation mark here)".

If this isn't bad enough she cited hearing Hillary Clinton speak was a "dream come true".

Her entrance into politics is described to have happened like this:

I attended my first xxxxx Party meeting in Kaikohe, Northland in 2006. I asked xxxxxxxx question on women's rights...and he answered perfectly! That is when I knew that the xxxxxx Party cares about families and communities and that I wanted to be part of it.

The last few years I have been very lucky, spending time working for the World Young Women's Christian Association at the global headquarters in Geneva Switzerland and now I work for the YWCA of Aotearoa New Zealand as their Strategic Development Manager.

After all these amazing opportunities, it's my time to give back to my community and make a difference.

"Giving back" and "making that difference" means now wishing you to support her earning double six figures troughing perks as a backbench MP because I've done a worldwide apprenticeship in troughing and I need some flying hours in New Zealand.

Now none of this would be surprising if I told you she was standing for Labour but this woman is standing for John Carter's vacant seat for the NATIONAL Party. It was John Carter who apparently answered her question on women's rights "correctly".

I guess when there is a whole party of people with no private sector experience who worship Helen Clark there isn't much room to establish yourself as special and so you find another party to take you on as a minority candidate. But going to National and having a nice smiling picture of Helen Clark (without daggers in her eyes) on your Facebook wall as a proud political trophy?

It's right up there with a Pansy, a Richard and a Phil for stupidity isn't it?

The Labour Party equivalent would be posing with Sir Roger Douglas with a caption that his reforms in 1984 were wonderful. Instant expulsion would result. There's no chance in hell the LEC would let you have a retiring MP's electorate seat.

Please National Northland, select a candidate worthy of being National enough to replace John Carter.

A Week In New Zealand

I've been busy with other stuff lately that hopefully will generate finances if it comes to fruition and haven't blogged. Because as explained last week, blogging doesn't make bloggers any actual money unless they become a bastardised product placement section for people and things that can't make MSM.

Since that post I've had one of the guilty email claiming their innocence and that they were just joking. I don't know how that works, you know asking someone to do something then saying they didn't mean to it was just a joke?

Rumours of my demise are premature. Rumours that I am in fact the blogger at Dim Post who has also gone into early retirement are also incorrect. And before Poneke puts out another breathless post of QED ignorance, Dim Post is not, I repeat not, in Hong Kong presently.

I saw Pansy Wong in the street today. Well I'm sure it was her. Chinese, short, black hair, glasses running quickly down Des Voeux Rd Central in front of trams with a large briefcase. It must have been her, fundraising for the National Party according to Red Alert. That explains things. Sammy's sent her out to do some work.

New Zealand appears to the rest of the world to have closed because of a mine.

And I've cringed reading bloggers opine and wish those involved their prayers and thoughts. Hello? That's really very nice and all but can you please make it not sound like you are the Mothers and Fathers of the Nation. We are not. And come on half of you have never set foot in a church.

2,600 people died in mines in China last year and I ask how many cards were sent from John Key to the Mainland in condolence? The most coverage I've seen here is a day in the local paper. Families can receive as little as 250,000 Yuan (NZ48,000) with an extra 30,000 Yuan (NZ5,800) if they have a funeral within 24 hours of signing the document. Escalating down the longer the families spent wondering about it. It's little to us, massive compensation for them.

The good thing I guess is that Coasters have realised they aren't as tough as they say they are and they may just be as hopeless as everyone else is in dealing with tragedy, bawling their eyes out in frustration around TV cameras. The MSM wouldn't accept that there can actually be no update on the situation when a mine has blown and communications are lost. It's not a 115 minute Hollywood movie for heaven's sake. More theories of what could have happened were dreamed up. Experts called in to comment. All this will be lapped up by "middle New Zealand" and those in jobs or states of unemployment that allow them to be actually home for the 6pm news.

I'm recalling a secretary in my days working in New Zealand's slave labour economy, she would have updated us on ever single bowel movement at the mine, ear all day on her radio on the desk. Telling us teary eyed how horrible it was. Oh with this woman you would think she had a relative trapped in the Twin Towers at 9/11 the way she carried on.

Still New Zealanders are angry that rescue workers weren't sent in right away. Because they would have DIED or set off another explosion. Is the answer. The explosion video may have been better played on Friday night to grasp reality into the heads of New Zealanders, many whom work in offices and on nice safe rural enclaves overground.

Everyone in New Zealand is now an expert in mining because TVNZ and TV3 has shown diagrams of the mine and watched coverage after coverage. I've been waiting for Crusher to come in and serve the cold hard facts, 29 men paid above average pay rates because the work is bloody dangerous, most likely instantly died in the initial violent explosion....now media please piss off where you came from. Crusher's handlers have done well to hold her back.

The Christchurch earthquake was bad, the mining disaster was worse because of the loss of life. But after the dead are buried, who will remember the mine disaster outside of Pike River? Who remembered the last one?

And if New Zealand thought it was gloomy this week, rumours of the death of Kiwifruit industry appear exaggerated as well. Zespri plumps it will have a record year. Perhaps that $35 million of subsidy/bailout is better spent elsewhere and the industry has a dominant enough position that it can fund its own growers for what has happened.

FIGJAM Power disgracefully looks to cut a deal with his natural party of choice, Labour on the Elec­toral (Finance and Advance Vot­ing) Amend­ment Bill. Inept fool.

And in breaking news - Michael Laws now appears to be doing the most silly thing that an adult can do. No, not piss off multitudes of women, but getting in an online stoush with the Whale when he takes the piss out of those suffering from mental illness. Just quit Michael, you aren't going to win that one.

Yep, a week in New Zealand indeed.

Now over to the small matter of North Korea launching a big one at South Korea....bet that barely makes the news.

Blogging To Make PR Firms Richer

I've had this blog for almost five years. In that time, most of the experience has been pleasant.

Recently however I have noticed a disturbing trend and I will mention specifically the industry creating this trend - public relations.

As we all know PR people have the mission to take instructions from clients and make an impact or lack of impact in whatever way the client wants. This may involve a simple campaign to promote the client through the MSM. It may involve a more complex campaign in discrediting a competitor or opponent for the client's advantage.

A common tactic is for PR people try to get the MSM to run their story spun the way they want. With the diminished capacity of MSM outlets to get stories out there due to financial cut-backs, many then have turned their sights to blogs to get their story across. I think the MSM has also wised up to being played by PR companies.

MSM has some general rules about dealing with lobbyists and PR "professionals". It's a difficult relationship of the MSM knowing they are being played, the PR people knowing that one wrong move and the MSM will turn feral against them. MSM cannot take payment for running such stories, however ethically they shouldn't be writing puff pieces for managed media either.

There are no such rules with bloggers. Given many bloggers are either civil servants in disguise, mentally unwell, unemployed or otherwise underemployed, their time and intellectual property isn't valuable as they have all day to waste dealing with these requests in effect working for corporates for free.

I don't.

In the past six months I can count twelve individual approaches from five different PR firms for me to run stories that the MSM won't touch. Some other bloggers have lightly picked up their stories and a few have then captured MSM attention.

In order to run these stories properly and to a standard that readers of this blog require, there is usually around 5 or 6 hours of reading and research required. Particularly if it is about a topic you either aren't that interested in, or have no background in. Then an hour going back and forward for the post, then hours of monitoring comments and replying perhaps with more follow-up comments. A couple were about issues that I didn't actually agree with, so could be tossed away right away. Those issues were ones promoting corporate troughing, advocating more guarantees for finance companies and (can you believe it...) "Responsible" drinking. Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury learned the hard way about being played by PR and big business with his fronting of Matthew Hooton's campaign for a bitter, failed blood testing company. One must choose their topics with care to have them mesh with your own "brand" as a blogger.

In terms of billable hours, you could be looking at 10, maybe 20 hours spent working the campaign on your blog to where it is at a level where MSM can cut, paste or take your research and give it wider coverage.

I know many people in PR who are fine practitioners so I don't wish to stain the lot. All are without exception, older folk, many have been in the business longer than I've been born. I doubt any of their generation were behind this sort of dealings because they come with contacts and networks where they can call a journo and the journo listens. Perhaps today's journos don't obey the same rules? Or more than likely today's young PR practitioners are such snot grovelling little chardonnay sipping faux fuckwits that the journos know when they are lying - their lips move.

And of those PR firms that have sent stuff to me, often 100's of pages of uncollated papers, what is the average rate offered for such time? Zero.

That's right, these snivelling tight bastards have never offered a cent. If they were working free themselves for voluntary organisations that's a different matter but PR firms bill their clients at a rate that equates to a law firm. Most of the more wily PR practitioners of old are barely BA graduates and the younger ones with even Law degrees are so green that you could drop a cowpat on them and it would dissolve. That is, they have the technical business knowledge of a handicapped stick insect. Most seem to be employed these days because, while looking good making tea and coffee, they weren't smart enough to get picked up by a law firm or want more money than parliamentary services offers. For some strange reason, PR pays graduates about the same as most law firms.

Out of interest, I picked request number 11 and asked for a payment of $3,500 for the estimated 10 hours of research and writing, plenty of it specifically legal, that will go into my work. The end result I know will be better than what any other NZ blogger will produce, because it is in an area which I work and am specifically trained for. I cut/paste the response:

"I am sorry Kate but we do not pay for such work. Publishers do not charge when we successfully place a story with them for our clients and given a blog circulation against a newspaper, we cannot justify within our budget paying bloggers for posts. We thought you would choose to run the story as it fits in with the theme of your blog and will give you content".

I googled the halfwit I was dealing with and realised they were a new graduate. Which is a shame as if I out their little dumb arse on the blog, everyone will put it down to inexperience and abject stupidity and I will look like I am picking on a teenager.

Hello? Notice the attempt in their response at spin that I should be the one happy to have the content! I can get content everywhere. The only reason they are coming to me is to run the story first so the MSM may then take it up once I've moulded it into a saleable, explainable story. I imagine the MSM have blown large chunks of goats in their face thus far as it involves about 10 hours of technical (often) legal reading research and (if managed incorrectly) potentially defaming a public character who is one of those that Tim Murphy and APN has on their list of people to double and triple check and then not to write about, because he's loaded and potentially litigious.

In other words, yes, their campaign has absolutely no chance of gaining wide-spread coverage as it's as popular as pork in a mosque, so they have to turn to the internet.

Their client is a multi-million dollar company bidding for an opportunity I consider worth around $20m for them and I imagine the PR retainer for doing absolutely nothing would be in the vicinity of $3k+ a month. Then they bill an hourly rate when they are campaigning, which they are doing now.

I've nothing against free enterprise and entrepreneurship but I have never and never will work for a corporate for free.

I laugh at bloggers being used for free the same way.

Charge for your time doing their job, or tell the cheeky parasites to fuck off.

Super Euro - Review

Super Euro

I've been a long-time fan of Euro, well before I could actually afford to dine properly there. One of the calculations I make in wondering if I can afford to return to New Zealand to live is how many times a week I could afford on a New Zealand salary, drawings or director fees, to dine there. The numbers still don't quite add up like they do when attending as a tourist.

My membership of the fan club was wilting in 2010 with a drab inconsistent menu and dis-interested clientele, until like any great restaurant it re-invented itself, chucked out the bad, kept what worked and brought in the new. Super Euro as it stands, is a new renovation creation.

An extension of the "old" Euro dining area into a super long bar through where the vulgar Pasha and ghastly Green Room used to be, to the back to a Chef Table and private dining area. Its so large when meeting friends there you will need to be more precise than "Euro" to locate each other. I've sampled a decent chunk of the new menu and it's excellent. For a large kitchen it is outstanding and the service has improved back to "old" Euro. Just one dud dish, the provolone cheese sauce macaroni, which needs to supersize its cheese content.

The plin ravioli is a recommended just-right pasta as was the rich, divine, almost-too-much spaghetti and wagyu meat balls. The prawn cocktail "ya think", good when fresh and not frozen prawns are used on the long platter, the oysters still around and awesome and the whitebait fritters, well superb. Favourites such as the chicken and mash remain as do the duck pancakes and the calamari prosciutto wrap. There's a boosted pizza selection, the pollo (bianco chicken) still the best. For the real bloke, try the Euro Pie of the day. Its huge, I had a bite of a guests and nearly fainted at the thought of eating the whole thing.

Yes stuff Geraldine Johns' one or two visit lightly going-overs, gobble guts munched through every dish listed here on several trips back. As did she the cheeseboard which is mis-priced with one cheese ridiculously expensive at $17, pay a few dollars more at $28 and you get the whole platter. It's good, especially good for dining guests who love the whiffy cheeses. A few guests tried out the most disgusting array of fries imaginable. Truffle and parmesan the worst offenders followed closely by steak fries, french fries and onion rings. I managed only a few. It seems a disgusting waste of calories to eat fries when the menu contains such wonderful pastas and meats. For a fee you can sample the meats hanging masculinely in the chiller behind the old bar area. You can also run up a fair go on the proscuitto and other hams on the menu. But apart from these two extravagances there's not a lot on the menu much more expensive than similar dishes round town.

For the champagne lover, we were delighted to see the VRWC banned Veuve Clicquot mispriced at $150 out of harms way, instead the best-value tinkle on the menu is still Gosset Grand Reserve at $95, which is the special and my new current favourite. It blows away Soul's special presently, being the humble Moet. For special occasions at Euro I recommend a cheeky Gosset Grand Millesime 1999 at a tidy $140. Served chilled Gosset is crisp, fluffy, refreshing and so light that it's barely recognisable that you are drinking to oblivion happily ordering more. Just how a good lunch champagne should be. Also crisp, fluffy, refreshing and light, are the wait staff. Most of the boys of old are back on the tables. Some old faces returning to make Euro what it should be, consistently good dining that's worth its above average assault on your plastic, platinum or titanium. They have a new challenge to contend with other than the 30 metre sprints from the kitchen, being cutlery trays. These neatly hold a knife, fork and spoon. If eating more than one course they need to be replenished. Great for diners, but I can feel the waiters pain. There is a mysterious chefs table lingering on the far corner where sampler dishes are served and I look forward to trying it next visit now I know the general menu.

The star of the show of unusual creations however was the L & P cheesecake icecream. On enquiry I found it is a special, unavailable in stores. Sadly. Or happily for most sweet tooths who care about becoming addicted to yet another flavour of the many at Euro. Run that sweet tooth out with a Honey Bear Sour cocktail, honey, vodka, fresh raspberries, lemon and honey crust. Yum.

Super Euro had a "soft" opening, working up to its main event, the Melbourne Cup. That day contained a majority of the big-spending folks in Auckland who will form the staple of the clientele outside of cruise ship tourists. Plenty of apparently bust property developers and Finance Company magnates in that crowd shuffling past the the richest men in town at present, liquidators. It was a strange mix of people but guess what? By Friday, just some three days later, the restaurant was pumping for lunch with similar bookings for dinner. Many were repeat offenders from Tuesday. The success of Super Euro will rely on shovelling high margin drinks and high end product through the kitchen.

Auckland has massive competition in the restaurant and bar trade but Super Euro for really only a few dollars extra, shapes up to be the frontrunner for those over 40 as long as it can keep those big-spenders in and the tap water swilling, salad pecking budget diners out. In the core group of top-end restaurants of (my other favourite presently) Cibo, (the best real estate) Soul, Dine, Kermadec and (too far away) French Cafe, Super Euro has just raised the bar.

Most K1W1's shun Euro with negative comments. Most of them will never have actually eaten there. They can fuck off and leave Super Euro to its clientele of fine food and dining lovers. Super Euro is better than ever.

Pansy Wilts Under Heat

Pansy Wong should resign, but not for the alleged offences of working on a holiday and claiming travel expenses. I think the law in that regard is stupid.

Pansy is Asian and Asians don't go on holiday. They are always working. It's the reason why when I am supposedly on "holiday" I have to take the Blackberry and be available 24/7. They never stop. Therefore due to cultural reasons, they can never truly qualify for the 90% private travel perk that she could legitimately claim. Every time Pansy is travelling she is working, in one capacity or another. Whether it is for her family business (lets face it, living off a Minister's salary must be hard), or for New Zealand. Some of my most profitable moments have been meeting future clients while in exotic climates because that's where my clientele are likely to be. As would Pansy's be in China.

Pansy is also a female, therefore she is more than likely going to marry a bloke who likes to do business as well. There are not too many stay-at-home Dad's in the Asian culture, those that are would be looked down upon relying on a woman for income. If they are travelling together then it only rings true that Pansy's perk will be paying for it.

Pansy should have front footed the situation and said that she is Chinese and Chinese don't take holidays. The Parliamentary travel perk therefore is discriminating against her culturally and racially as she can technically never use the perk. It also discriminates against her as a woman as unlike male MP's where the wife is more than likely a stay-at-home mother, Pansy's husband actually works, therefore there will always be a thin line as a businessman turning up with his wife who is a government Minister as to what capacity she is with him. Chinese also have a cultural concept of "face" which means of course being a government Minister or spouse of gives then kudos in a business deal. But it also leads to issues like this where pissed off parties rat private contracts to opposition politicians. In evaluating the perk, it is not only racist against Asians, it is also sexist.

You know that a Maori or Islander would have come up with the on the political left. And they would no thave resigned.

Tell me that all those personal trips that MP's make to the Cook Islands or Samoa are 100% private? Tell me that while overseas on holiday a Maori MP doesn't take the opportunity while over there to forge new business links for their Iwi? Or hand out their card to onlookers? Because technically that's doing buisness, forging contacts that possibly lead to cash and deals in the future. Of course Unionists and teachers in the Labour Party have no excuse, when they go on holiday there is no business to do because they don't have any private enterprise going on.

But what Pansy really must resign for is being stupid.

Pansy signed her name to a document as a witness with Parliament honorifics. This isn't as shocking as that it was as a witness! Not an officer or shareholder!! Wasn't there an office midget available to sign as a witness? A hotel staff member? The bloke sitting at McDonald's waiting for his burger? A power of attorney capable of being given to a solicitor to sign the deal?

A school girl error that wasn't actually necessary.

Pansy, you are the weakest link. Goodbye.

As is the travel perk. It is racist and sexist and must go.

Kupe Street - Heatley's Headache

In New Zealand there has been a nauseous over-reporting in newspapers and the general media about the affordability of housing, particularly in Auckland. Such has led to silly first home buyer subsidies and the like to attract young people into debt they may not be able to manage. During a sortee to the 'hood by a keen local, I was introduced to one of the most affordable streets in Auckland, the average land and buildings on a property worth just $362,000*. Affordable to first home buyers even with moderate incomes.

This is Kupe Street in Orakei.

Here is what the current Minister of Housing had to say about Kupe Street back in 2007:

Housing spokesman Phil Heatley said it was "a joke" that million-dollar state homes could not be sold until the tenants moved out, including $2m properties in Glen Innes and Orakei.

"Any policy to sell these multimillion-dollar state homes when they become vacant is meaningless."

We agree with Phil Heatley circa 2007. When a private owner doesn't pay their mortgage they are booted out by the bank and have to move to lesser surrounds with their children who lose friends and their current schooling. A business person goes under and has to downsize. All very sad but a reality of life. Other people when they change jobs are forced to move cities, I don't see how moving beneficiaries can possibly cause concern given they have absolutely no justification for living in an area so close to the city or work centres, because guess what? They don't work. They don't need to live in expensive areas in close proximity to their work do they?

Phil Heatley was concerned about Kupe Street before he was a Minister.

Yet, take a trip today up Kupe Street and you will see some of the most expensive real estate (land only) sitting under some of the worst kept properties in Auckland with tenants who clearly have no pride in the appearance of their neighbourhood and community.

comes complete with outdoor furniture

You will see what seems to be burnt out P labs with boarded-up windows. And also cruise down the street and find the numerous satellite Sky dishes and the ubiquitous functions tent for fry-ups and parties. Fertile ground for numerous visits at night by Police Helicopters interrupting the peace.


shutters up preparing for Hurricane Heatley?
hot views from top floor


In the interests of fairness and accuracy I did take the step of contacting the Minister's office and Housing New Zealand has this response:

"HNZC has 69 properties in Kupe Street and Ngati Whatua own another 69 (CK - as part of a treaty settlement). In the last 12 months, HNZC have received only two complaints relating to properties they own, one regarding a loud party and the other related to rubbish in the garden and the ownership of an unauthorised dog".

HNZC and the Minister's office were quick to emphasise that they did not own all the homes in the street, therefore it was possible that the homes that captured my attention were Ngati Whatua's. I guess as the neighbours are partying away themselves, there would not be many complaints would there? If living next to that, I would be afraid to complain to anyone about the neighbours' activities for fear of reprisal. Like a brick through the window or a few dents in the car.

friendly Maori independence flag at top left hand corner

cars parked all over property for party

How much are the HNZC properties worth? Well according to HNZC when asked "the average land value of these properties is $292,000 and the average house value is $70,000"*. This being the case even first home buyers could afford a property in this street. I simply don't believe the land valuation method.



Have a look at the view....due to the wideness of the street, even on the right hand side of the street heading to the Point, you could build a two or three storey house to have sweeping views over Auckland.



Why are state housing tenants placed in these properties when the land can be sold at market and the profits used to either relocate them or investigate quite why these families deserve to live in what must be some of Auckland's most expensive land? Phil Heatley campaigned on cleaning up the sad state of affairs. What is he doing about it? Building more houses that's what he is doing. Build more houses and they will come. And come. Rather than re-evaluating the usage and limiting the eligibility they are creating a demand.

If Ngati Whatua own 69 of these homes, most in what can only be described in parts of the street, as slum conditions, then why on earth aren't they being forced by their own people to maximise and distribute profits from this expensive real estate, across their people? Or if they choose to keep such property making the tribe asset rich but cash poor, why can't the taxpayer means-test individual members of that tribe to reflect their true worth when applying for taxpayer benefits?

The history of Orakei and Ngati Whatua is of course controversial and racially very sensitive. In 1952 the Queen's visit was used as an excuse to clean out Okahu village, but it is 2010 and surely we don't need a Royal visit as an excuse to ensure the street is cleaned up, not with a police invasion and arson of course, but some basic pride in maintenance and future planning for development that would assist in increasing the value of HNZC properties.

I will be blunt as someone has to say so, Kupe Street is an assault on the eye. During my quick visit barely warranted cars littered lawns, children played unsupervised dangerously close to the road and one car parked itself smack bang in the middle of the road. At the end of Kupe Street sits an early childhood centre - one of the most expensive in the country with their view, and a retirement home that has been developed by local parties. It is heavily gated in for security and monitored. The kind of place you would threaten to put the mother-in-law if she behaved badly.

The issue being of course is that millionaires who can afford to pay the government true market rates for these sites and then develop them into a beautiful street, do not wish to live in a slum like this and until the street is fully developed and beneficiaries removed, then there is no way I guess that HNZC can get a fair value for the homes on the block. HNZC seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. They can't sell the properties for a decent price while Ngati Whatua do nothing with the area, and Ngati Whatua I understand have first right to buy the properties in any instance so have an incentive to keep the values low and drive HNZC out. Little thought appears to have gone into the future planning of the area.

I have no issues with Ngati Whatua's property rights to their 69 houses and am not suggesting taking the homes off them, but what I do have an issue with is the pleading of poverty of groups in society who go cap in hand to other groups in society, when they are asset rich, yet cash poor and are not harvesting maximum potential from those assets and distributing the wealth between otherwise impoverished members of their group. Communal ownership of assets needs to be reflected when means testing the tribe members as a whole. At present they have it both ways, pleading poverty individually while as a function of time and inflation the value of their assets increases.

Prima facie Ngati Whatua can't do a lot with the area because they have no cash or incentives to do so. Or do they not have the cash? This puff piece of reporting suggests otherwise. If so they have no excuse for not cleaning up Kupe Street if Ngati Whatua are doing so well commercially as this piece suggests.

It is one thing that Maori are given land back like this under Treaty settlements. I think most New Zealanders have a reasonable sense of fair play when it comes to settling past grievances and shrugged at the time that with the money and land given that Maori would be self-sufficient and rely less on the taxpayer such that it was a win-win. What New Zealanders find harder to swallow is that Maori and beneficiaries still have their hands out when they are sitting pretty in slum housing on some of the most expensive real estate imaginable. This street and a few surrounding should be of equal value to a Paritai Drive when developed properly. When working New Zealanders are struggling to buy even a modest home in an area with a view backing on to the neighbours fence. Being asset rich and cash poor doesn't actually help anyone, all that is happening is the taxpayer has to front with more cash. That is, taxpayers are paying twice, once for the Treaty settlements and again for maintenance and upkeep of Maori extravagance of tribal ownership and being asset rich and cash poor with a failure to distribute funds to those who need it.

Maori have of course an aversion to sell land as they have a waffly touchy thing about holding it for future generations. Curiously, just like everyone else in New Zealand, and indeed the world. The sad fact is that the current generation of Maori isn't prospering. And despite billions poured into Maori education, health and welfare by net-taxpaying Maori and non-Maori, they are still going backwards. And while welfare agencies keep forking out billions for their underachievement there is absolutely no incentive for Maori to become self-sufficient when Nanny State pays for their worst and poorest.

The net wealth of Maori tribes in New Zealand is simply still not reflected in the success or wealth of their individual people. Waking up with that screaming view of Auckland, why on earth would you want to leave your house as any tenant? Or do anything to lose your eligibility to live there and have to move to a part of town where the "working poor" less privileged by race or luck of the HNZC draw live. Suckers.

The best thing for HNZC (the taxpayer) would be to get together with Ngati Whatua and collectively sell the street to one developer who would then manage the sale and beautification of the street and share the profits with both current landlords. Like what Viaduct Harbour Holdings did to the waterfront area, only freehold title because New Zealanders are (quite rightly) suspicious of leasehold property, given many developments have increased in ground rent such that the tenants' rent barely covers the ground rent let alone the mortgage of the landlord, Ngati Whatua's own developments included. Ngati Whatua start to collect ground rent in this linked development from August 2011. Already apartments in that area have suffered from a range of leaky building (Railway Campus), to terribly incorrect original valuations (The Landings, The Docks, Hudson Brown), massive increases in cost structure could just about kill it off as the whole development down there is starting to look like Joel Monaghan with a Labrador.

futile attempt at development

At present Kupe Street, like many areas full of a bad mix of Maori and State housing, sits as part of the problem in New Zealand, not the solution. The problem seems not one of resources as there are plenty of resources, that is a fact, but resource allocation and common sense.

It's all very well and good to say that these tenants have an entitlement to live in potentially one of the most expensive areas of Auckland, but at a practical level it doesn't make sense and it doesn't send the right signals to those hard-working Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders paying for the extravagence of excessively generous State Housing and welfare benefits for life.

What Did You Do!!

Ouch...ouch...OUCH!!!

Men are unreliable useless c***s at the best of times but I don't think I have ever met a man who quite would stretch a girl to this post from Michael Laws' (could I safely say "ex") girlfriend.

He told me numerous times that the economy was so bad at the moment, and i will never be able to get a real job, and that i should go back to being a hooker. Recently, when i was down about not knowing what to do with my future, and being scared to look for a job, he sent me texts encouraging me to go back to being a hooker...i still have the texts in my phone..."Is being a hooker completely off the cards?" he asked. I still have the emails from back in the beginning where i told him no, and sent him that link. Several times i suggested that i hire him a hooker, to get this obsession that he has with them, out of his system.

That whole scandal in August was planned - by him., when the new ratings came out, i woke up to an excited text from Michael, telling me that his ratings had gone up, and we needed to create another scandal. Never once, has he cared how him doing that, has impacted mine or my children's life. It is always about him. That whole scandal in August was planned - by him.

Ms Sperling, you were attempting a relationship with Michael Laws. I mean FARK don't you read his books? Demon Profession perhaps?

I predict they'll be back together in a weeks time.