Latest news with #BillEnglish
NZ Herald
15-07-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Is this the future for social housing? Simon Wilson
A community vegetable garden in Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday Meanwhile, there's a community garden in Mt Roskill with row-upon-row of astonishingly large, healthy, luscious-looking vegetables. A local church made it happen, supported by the council, and it's tempting to say the spirit moves in that soil. Certainly, it speaks volumes about the strength of the local community. Right opposite, though, there's an empty overgrown field, closed off from the public by high wire fences. There used to be a few state houses there, but Kāinga Ora cleared them away so it could build anew. Nearby, there are other empty patches of land and clusters of empty houses, one of them burned out, most of them graffitied, all of them boarded up. Under Government instruction, last month Kāinga Ora stopped the development of 212 housing projects that would have delivered 3479 new homes. It will sell the land and 'write down' up to $220 million, that being the amount already spent on new infrastructure and other project development work. Of those 3479 cancelled homes, 1527 would have been in Auckland. They include the abandoned sites near the vege garden in Mt Roskill, where attractive town housing was planned. Elsewhere in the suburb there are some substantial Kāinga Ora developments that were already finished or too far advanced to be stopped. But big projects in earlier stages weren't so lucky. And in the streets near that vege garden, there are no new apartment blocks, no Kāinga Ora two or three-storey townhouse walk-ups, no new anything. No plans for anything. Just empty lots, broken homes and what's left of the state housing from the old days. This is land that's been abandoned. Right in the middle of a housing crisis and right in the middle of a suburb that desperately needs more housing. An abandoned houses on Wainwright Ave, Mt Roskill. Photograph / Jason Dorday When the Government talks about bringing rigour and fiscal responsibility and good planning to Kāinga Ora and other parts of the urban development ecosystem, this is what it means. So much has been stopped. So little is happening. And when, or if, it does, those Rotorua homes reveal there's a real risk they'll build cheap and ugly. Remember Sir Bill English in 2014? To build affordable housing, he said, 'we have to get a bit ugly'. It isn't true, as many social housing projects have proved in the years since. Kāinga Ora has created designs that homeowners can be proud of, with Homestar 6 standards of heating, insulation and design, and these things have raised the bar for the entire industry. Caroline McDowall, general manager of the housing delivery group at Kāinga Ora, says the agency is still committed to 'warm, dry and quality homes', but delivered in 'the most cost-effective and efficient way'. If only that's all it was. These new homes appear to abandon so much of what made the earlier homes appealing. English has become the eminence grise behind the Government's approach to social housing. In my view, his mission - since first proposing to Bishop in late 2023 that he review Kāinga Ora - has been to get the Government out of social housing construction and to make ugly okay. The cornerstone of that has been to insist that Kāinga Ora was wasting money and too deeply in debt to be functional. The agency contested that, arguing it showed a misunderstanding of how it managed its balance sheet, but to no avail. 'These reviews were essential to ensuring we only progress new housing projects that make commercial sense and that we sell land which is surplus to our requirements so we can get on a more financially sustainable footing,' said Matt Crockett, the agency's new chief executive. Commercial sense? How's that measured? And what about all the other things that make sense? When Kāinga Ora began to redevelop these streets, it moved the existing tenants out of their homes and rehoused them in other parts of town, with a promise they would be able to return to new homes that were warm and dry. A vacant lot fenced off on O'Donnell St, Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday At a community meeting in the suburb one rainy night last week, I heard speaker after speaker, including local high school kids, talking about what this meant. The tenants kept their kids in their local Mt Roskill schools, despite the inconveniences this created. The schools themselves have had to cope with the uncertainty. At one of them, Wesley Intermediate, 80% of the roll now lives out-of-zone. But because the new houses won't be built, the school's entire future is threatened. Builders and everyone else in the construction industry have lost big parts of their livelihood. The local Bunnings might have made a bit of money selling plywood for the old houses to be boarded up with, but that hardly makes up for the lost opportunity of abandoned new builds. Sports clubs lose players, all the other local services and clubs and facilities lose some of their customers, some of their volunteers, some of their members, some of their glue. Empty sections and boarded-up houses invite crime and makes the streets less safe. In so many ways, gaps in the street where there should be homes with people living in them leave gaps in the community too. Bishop likes to say Kāinga Ora's main role is to be a landlord. But that's trivial. The housing agency wasn't just building houses and collecting rents, it was helping to build communities. Bishop and his associate minister, Tama Potaka, also like to say the Housing Register waiting lists are down and so are the lists of those needing emergency accommodation. But they don't know where many of the people who used to be on those lists have gone. Potaka says that's 'not our responsibility'. They do know that while 1527 Auckland new builds have been abandoned, there are 795 individuals and families in Auckland on the Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register, all of them waiting desperately for a home. They do know, because community groups keep telling them, that many more people want to get on those lists but are being turned away. They do know the number of people living in cars is growing again. Why is this happening? To save money, of course, but it's not just that. Those abandoned sites will be sold, as Crockett says. They'll be an attractive proposition for the private sector, especially where the new pipes and cabling and other infrastructure have already been installed. And double-especially now the Government is removing some of the quality standards for new builds that Kāinga Ora helped pioneer. Will those Rotorua prototypes become the new normal? A new social housing model in Rotorua, July 2025. And when the Government decides to buy some new builds, to maintain some semblance of credibility in the social-housing sector, the developers will be well placed to sell. How's that for an unvirtuous circle. Why does this still need saying? Warm, dry, safe homes are the foundation of a functioning society. They allow people to be healthier, attend school more, get jobs and keep them, and become part of a community-minded neighbourhood. And to not give in to rage or despair or constant exclusion, but instead to grow their own self-respect and have dreams for themselves and their kids. To plant vegetables. A community vegetable garden in Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday Good social housing is a far better investment than prisons. But the Government has consistently refused to link crime to its causes and bluntly says it isn't worried about the cost of locking more people up. Bishop is doing some good things with housing density in middle-class areas and with transport-focused development. But when it comes to the working class and poorer parts of town, it's as if he's never heard about the industrial revolution. Cities grew fast in the 19th century and they needed more housing. No one cared what it was like. No one thought about the values of community. The private sector built slums. We're staring at that again. Why don't we call this criminal? It should be.
Forbes
03-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
"How To Avoid Post-Transaction Mental Health And Marital Issues"
Dr. Bill English is an executive coach and licensed psychologist (MA, LP) combining business and psychology. | OnPath Coaching. Recently, I was conversing with a colleague about the mental health issues of business owners after the sale of their business, a period which I estimate to be one to two years ('post-transaction'). After the owner receives a pot of money, what tends to happen to the owner's mental health and marriage? In this article, I will argue that strengthening the owner's marriage, finding a new life purpose and tethering one's identity to something other than being an owner is foundational to a successful readiness effort for the sale of the business. In addition, I will argue that strengthening the owner's marriage well before the transaction closes will set the tone for a successful post-transaction period and disincentivize a (potentially) quietly leaning-out spouse from divorcing. It is commonly accepted that the earlier the owner plans for an exit, the more likely the owner will have a successful sale process. This principle applies to the owner's persona and marriage, too. Early attention to the owner's marriage, life purpose and identity will increase personal satisfaction and life success during the owner's post-transaction period. Mental Health Issues In Business Owners I've written previously about the mental health issues that many business owners face when owning a business. I believe these potential issues, such as depression, isolation, high stress, personality strain, substance abuse and more, can be exacerbated by the prolonged stress of selling one's business. Sustained stress always exacerbates personality and mental deficits. The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale ranks 43 stressful life events. A business sale process is not listed in this scale. Still, if one were to combine the events of "dismissal from work" (47) coupled with "business readjustment" (39) and "change to a different line of work" (36), one could be forgiven if one concluded that the sale and post-transaction periods are as equally stressful as the top two stress events on the scale: the death of a spouse (100) or a divorce (73). Hence, it is essential to recognize the additional stress that the sale process imposes on the owner and their spouse. Strengthening Marriage One of the two more challenging jobs for the owner during the sale process is strengthening their marriage and maintaining composure. Knowing how to manage the stress of the sale process so that it does not infect one's marriage is a key skill to creating a successful life post-transaction. It is critical to acknowledge that the stress of a business sale can exacerbate common reasons for divorce. For example, if the causes of divorce include dynamics such as spouses not having a shared vision of what success means for their family and their marriage, a lack of physical intimacy, unmet expectations, financial stress, addictions or an inability to resolve conflicts, then one can understand how the stress of a sale process could intensify long-standing clash points in troubled marriages. Even in healthy marriages, sustained stress can diminish physical intimacy, affect personal finances, lead to increased drinking or gambling or result in more pronounced arguments. However, troubled marriages are more fragile, and some may crumble under the strain of a divorce process. If the owner's marriage is in trouble before the sale process and yet survives the sale, it does not mean all is well post-transaction. A leaning-out spouse may decide that the post-transaction period would be a good time to file for divorce. Why? With abundant money in the bank, the divorcing spouse likely would get half of the marital property, perhaps millions, and be free of an unwanted marriage. They could see divorce as a way to have a fresh start in life, complete with a bank account to support their lifestyle. For some, this may be a scenario too tempting to resist. Purpose And Identity The stark reality of abrupt change is real and should not be ignored. For example, one day, the owner is at the center of a swirl of activity; life is going 100 mph, with days filled with meetings, emails and calls, and there is plentiful social contact with employees, customers, vendors and peers. However, the next day—the first day after the transaction—the owner's day lacks activity; life has abruptly slowed down, and meetings, calls and emails are mostly absent, leading to feelings of isolation. Hence, a transcendent, post-transaction life purpose is necessary before the sale of the business is concluded. Purpose gives meaning, direction and structure to one's life. Without serious and thoughtful reflection on one's life purpose, the owner may lack motivation and the structure of "something to do." That could lead to boredom, dissatisfaction and emptiness. These feelings could then contribute to mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Abstracting one's identity from that of an owner is an equally challenging element in developing a new life purpose for the owner to achieve. Since most business owners base their identity on their role as owners, it would seem that not taking seriously the notion of having something purposeful or meaningful to retire to that helps shape their identity would be a significant mistake on the part of the owner. Being Proactive Before the sale process starts, the owner should honestly assess their marriage with their spouse and a psychologist. The quality and strength of the owner's marriage will, to a considerable extent, dictate the happiness and quality of the owner's life after the transaction has closed. Psychotherapy is a tool well-suited to evaluate the existing quality of a marriage. An executive coach or a psychologist can assist the owner in finding a new life purpose and ground the owner's identity in something more transcendent than the role of business owner. The point is to have an outside voice focused on supporting the owners' marriage and transition to a post-transaction life. Their post-transaction life will be vastly different, but, if planned well, could be even better than the life they had owning a business. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
CTV News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
‘Canada's always been special': Patriotism strong at Cape Breton Canada Day event
It was a sea of red and white - even more than most years - at Petersfield Park in Westmount, N.S., on Canada Day. Some wore Canadian-themed costumes while the vast majority were dressed in something red and white, or with a maple leaf on it. For reasons that may be fairly obvious, people seemed to be feeling even more patriotic than they normally do on July 1. 'I think some people are waking up to it, but Canada's always been special,' said Bill English, who was decked out head-to-toe in patriotic garb. 'If everybody wasn't always saying it, I think everybody knew it.' 'If we have to ballpark it, we're between 3,000 and 4,000 people,' said event organizer Steve Gillespie, adding the annual party at the provincial park is the largest Canada Day gathering for families in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. That also meant thousands of flags since everyone was handed one at the main entrance. 'I don't think there's any doubt that there's more Canada flags around this year,' he said. 'People are very patriotic anyway, but with everything that's going on in the world they're so proud to be Canadian.' 'It's because of the political climate, for sure,' added Adam Murphy, who was wearing a Canadian-themed costume he said he first created when he was a middle school student more than 25 years ago. Some wondered whether this level of patriotism will stick around in future years when tariffs and threats of annexation might be things of the past. 'People are using this as a good excuse, but as long as it keeps going past the crisis then I think it means something more,' Murphy said. Canada Day celebrations in the CBRM continued later in the day with a large gathering and concert at Sydney's Open Hearth Park, with the music headlined by eight-time Juno Award winner Serena Ryder. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
Scoop
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Call For Urgent Action To Honour Te Tiriti To Restore The Health Of Water
Māori groups representing landowners, hapu and iwi filed proceedings in the High Court on the 26 June, against the Crown, citing its repeated failure to uphold the tikanga-based and Tiriti guaranteed rights, interests and responsibilities of Māori in relation to freshwater. This legal challenge comes after over a decade of broken promises and Crown inaction, despite clear obligations under Articles 1 and 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, repeated Tribunal findings affirming Māori proprietary rights and repeated court findings affirming kaitiaki rights. Successive governments have refused to establish a fair and durable water allocation system that enables Māori to exercise their rangatiratanga rights and their role as kaitiaki, even as both water quality deteriorates and water quantity diminishes across the country. Despite a 2012 Crown assurance — led by then Deputy Prime Minister Bill English — that the Crown was committed to recognising and making appropriate provision for Māori rights and interests in water and geothermal resources , and the Supreme Court's endorsement of the Tribunal's ruling that the Crown must urgently address long-standing Māori proprietary rights in water, little has changed. The Crown continues to allocate water on a 'first-in, first-served' basis, ignoring the deep spiritual, cultural, and practical responsibilities of Māori as kaitiaki, and depriving Māori landowners and communities of the water rights they need to thrive. The group is calling for: • Immediate action to halt further decline in the health and wellbeing of water bodies • Recognition of Māori tikanga and proprietary rights in water and geothermal resources • A fair and durable water allocation system that enables Māori to fulfil their responsibilities as kaitiaki 'Under the Crown's watch, our waterways have become degraded, over-allocated and increasingly vulnerable. This is about restoring balance. It's about acknowledging that Māori have never relinquished our relationship with water. We are doing what we've always done: standing up for the health of our water, our whenua, and generations to come,' says Kingi Smiler on behalf of the claimant group.
Scoop
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
On Trump's Anti-Bomb Bombing Campaign
If the US really wanted to stop nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East, it would have long ago supported the moves to declare the region a nuclear weapon free zone, and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor it. Despite our anti-nuclear credentials, New Zealand has never supported the Middle East becoming a nuclear weapon free zone. At a press conference, I remember asking the then-PM Bill English why New Zealand didn't support the concept, and he answered that he could see what I was trying to get him to do i.e. to take sides against Israel, the region's only nuclear power. (Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran is.) Basically, the West aims to ensure that Team Israel continues to be the neighbourhood's bully, thanks to its US backing, its overwhelming superiority in conventional arms and its nuclear arsenal, which reportedly consists of 90 nuclear warheads. we are seeing carnage in the Middle East because Iran has had a nuclear energy programme that might possibly, conceivably one day enable it to possess one such weapon – even though on all of the available US intelligence evidence, it had not done so, and was still engaged in talks to achieve trade gains for itself from not doing so. Moreover, if the Trump administration was ever serious about using peaceful means to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, it would have honoured the US side of the deal that the Obama administration signed with Iran back in 2015. At that time, Iran had agreed to limit nuclear enrichment at below weapons-grade levels, and to submit itself to regular IAEA monitoring, in return for the lifting of US/European trade sanctions. Instead, Donald Trump ripped up that deal, and confirmed the suspicions of the hardline clerics in Tehran that expecting the Americans to act in good faith was naive, and bound to end in disaster. Trump repeated this bad faith by engaging in diplomacy that - according to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth – it had engaged in as a form of deliberate 'mis-direction' and cover for bombing raids that the US had been planning for months. Incidentally, this underlines how pathetic it is for New Zealand to be now calling for diplomacy to resolve this crisis. The whole process of diplomacy has been hopelessly degraded by America's repeated displays of bad faith. History on repeat To an eery degree, the US is repeating the precedents it set in Iraq, in 2003. After the 9/11 attack, US President George W. Bush became obsessed with causing regime change in Baghdad, bypassed the IAEA and waged a ruinous war - on the basis of a bogus existential threat that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Here we go again. After October 7.2023, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu became obsessed with causing regime change in Tehran, bypassed the IAEA, and is waging a ruinous war – on the basis of a bogus existential threat that Iran was about to possess a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. In reality, regime change in Iran has been front and central of Israel's plans for a very long time, whatever Iran tried to do to avert it. That is why, prior to its onslaught against Iran, Israel first chose to unilaterally attack and weaken Hezbollah in Lebanon. In both cases – and as in Gaza – Israel has had no compunction about bombing residential centres and inflicting large numbers of civilian casualties. Again, and as was also the case with the invasion of Iraq, delusionary beliefs have been expressed that the people of Iran will now rise up against an unpopular regime and embrace them as 'liberators.' Nothing could be further from the truth. Given Iran's proud history, the only thing capable of uniting the Iranian people behind the widely despised clerical regime would be an attack by a foreign invader. At this point, the situation in Iran looks a lot like the conditions in 1991, immediately after the First Gulf War. At that point in 1991, an oppressive regime in Baghdad had seen its military forces decimated by the US. Yet the West chose to leave Saddam Hussein in power for 13 more years, as a lesser threat to Western interests than a popular uprising that would be likely to put the oppressed Shia majority in power. For that reason, the West then sat by and watched while Saddam's forces slaughtered thousands of people who had risen up, in the mistaken belief that the West had wanted to see democracy triumph in Iraq. Similarly, the US may now be hoping that yesterday's bombing raids will be the sum total of its involvement, and that a weakened regime in Tehran can now be left to cling to power as best it can, within a ruined country. Yet if Israel does go ahead and bring about regime change, it will get bogged down – as it is already in Gaza – in administering the shattered remains of its field of 'victory.' Currently, Israel is getting away with committing genocide against the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza. But Iran is a country of 95 million people, and a genocide on that scale may be beyond even the Netanyahu government. If instead, Israel creates in Iran another failed state -another Libya of warring factions - then this will inevitably become a fertile recruiting ground for the likes of Islamic State. Except this time, Iran and Hezbollah will not be around to do the bulk of the fighting, and to help defeat the jihadis on the West's behalf. Israel may think regime change in Iran will solve its problems. But if it ' succeeds' in removing the clerical regime by military means, forces even more dangerous to its survival are likely to fill the vacuum. Neither the US or Israel appear to have a feasible end game in mind, for what they have started. Footnote One: Short term, what are Iran's options for retaliation? It could adopt Islamic State tactics and bring suicide raids and terrorism back to European cities, and to US diplomatic missions abroad. Iran's Doomsday option would be to mine the straits of Hormuz and bring international shipping trade – including global oil supplies – to a standstill. This would deal a serious blow to the world economy, and to Iran itself. One restraint against it doing so would be China, which is not only the sole remaining market for Iran's oil, but itself is not self-sufficient in oil. It has come to rely on the oil that it extorts at a cheap price from Iran. So under pressure from China, Iran might not play that final, desperate card in the straits of Hormuz. the thing. Iran may now have nothing left to lose. The Israeli bombing raids have targeted Iran's oil facilities. By doing so, Israel may have removed the key restraint against Iran taking destructive action to mine the sea lanes or sink its own ships to block the straits of Hormuz. After Iran's ability to pump and export its oil has been destroyed, there may now be no reason to abstain from shutting down the global economy. The Saudis? They have been doing nothing for Iran in its time of need. Nothing much for Iran to lose there, either. the very least, New Zealand should be taking a serious look at its oil supply chains, and at how long our current oil reserves might last. Footnote Two: As usual in any Middle East crisis, New Zealand's media coverage is being dominated by Israeli/US voices. To support the claim that Iran had posed an existential threat to Israel, the hoary old cliche has been repeated on RNZ that Iran does not recognise Israel's right to exist. For the record, this is an age-old argument about legitimacy, not about a current existential threat. When there is talk about a 'right to exist' what Iran and other regional powers are refusing to endorse is the legitimacy of Israel's seizure of Palestinian land, its forced displacement of Palestinian people, and the ongoing Israeli settlement encroachment onto Palestinian land that Israel illegally occupies in violation of UN resolutions. For exactly the same reasons – i.e. a refusal to put a stamp of legitimacy on the historical wrongs done to Palestinians - Saudi Arabia also does not recognise Israel's 'right to exist.' Yet Israel isn't bombing Riyadh. Instead, it is doing its best to normalise diplomatic relations with the Saudis. This diplomatic engagement has been sabotaged by Israel's ongoing aggressions in Gaza, in Lebanon and now, in Iran. Lets be clear. On the evidence, the expansionist power that is actively undermining the cause of peace, stability and diplomacy across the Middle East is Israel, not Iran. Bombardier Blues
