Economics lesson on foreign buyer proposal
I was surprised by South Island Minister James Meager’s assertion that non-residents should be allowed to buy properties over $5 million because, "Look at the kind of people who are looking to move here. I mean, [Hollywood actor] Jason Momoa basically lives here, right?"
James needs an economics lesson. Value is relative. Allowing overseas purchases for properties over $5m will instantly create inflation; properties valued at $3-4m will rise to $5m. Those valued at $1m-2m will rise to the fill the gap.
Before 2018 investors and realtors gleefully rubbed their hands as overseas buyers looking for an investment as opposed to a home used cheap money to price out Kiwis in their own country.
In the United Kingdom unlimited overseas access to the property market means people born in London can no longer afford to live there. Properties in that city that once have housed young professionals are now luxury hotels and apartments worth millions. Everyone else has departed on a decade long route march to depressing cookie-cutter homes blanketing a once green and pleasant land.
Even worse is that many investment properties in London are empty: over 35,000 empty homes in London mean high rents due to a lack of supply.
If Jason Mamoa wants to own a property in New Zealand then he can do what everyone else in his position has done: apply for residency. I am sure he would be welcome to join our beautiful nation to contribute as an equal.
Where are the cyclists?
Re a cycling and walking bridge across Albany St. I believe this was originally costed at about $20 million, which seems a bit extravagant considering there is already a footpath and road.
A frequent shopper at that end of town I have yet to see more than one or two cyclists. Lots of students are already managing to walk on already paved footpaths.
What I don’t see is work starting in South Dunedin, especially urgent work in Surrey St. This work should be top of DCC to-do list.
Who are the councillors pushing for this vanity project?
We need councillors focused on projects based on urgent need. Not some airy-fairy nice-to-have. In fact no need at all.
Throttled streets
The current noise about the Albany St "improvements" makes me reflect on the makeup of Dunedin’s planning and transport departments.
The last council elections clearly showed that Dunedin ratepayers rejected the Greens’ anti car, pro-cyclist agenda. Council is now made up of a more balanced cross-section of views. However it is clear that while anti-car councillors were cleared out, no change has occurred in the council’s planning and transport departments. The idea that streets be throttled and parking removed to make areas supposedly more pedestrian and bike "friendly" still pervades council.
The Caversham/Wingatui tunnels fiasco is another, where council staff want to spend millions that ratepayers can’t afford and most don’t want. All to appease a cycling at all costs ideology.
It is even seemingly insulting to council staff if any councillor questions staff attitudes or intentions. DCC staff need to wake up. They work for ratepayers. They need to implement policies and planning that represent the balance of councillor and ratepayer preferences. Not their own ideological preferences.
Cataclysmic events and how to save millions
The Otago Regional Council’s Zen Room could allow councillors to rest their minds from the hurly-burly of current fads and fashions, and to contemplate life from a broader perspective.
They might reflect that Otago once had a much warmer climate, as evidenced by the warm-temperate to subtropical biota from 23 million years ago preserved in Foulden Maar.
They might reflect that nature has always had, and will continue to have, its cataclysmic events. Deadly cyclones, typhoons, flooding and droughts did not begin, or even increase, with the industrial revolution. In fact, annual climate-related deaths worldwide have fallen dramatically in the last century.
Regarding the control of introduced species, they might reflect that current biomes in New Zealand are already irreversibly changed from the pre-human period.
It may now be more cost-effective, and beneficial in other ways, to regard species such as wallabies, possums, and lagarosiphon as benign or positive additions to present day ecosystems.
These reflections made in equanimity could save ratepayers tens of millions of dollars.
Feature hailed as timely as war rages on
The Weekend Mix (14.6.25) carries an article "Never Again" by Tom McKinlay. It’s an interview with Emir Hadzic who survived a genocide in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1980s.
Unfortunately what happened there is still happening today in other countries. I don’t need to spell them out but strongly recommend you read the article.
In the words of George Orwell: "A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."
In my opinion George Orwell’s words unfortunately speak loudly and clearly in today’s world.
Oh no it’s not
Jenny McNamara claims the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Israel is committing genocide (Letters ODT 7.6.25). That is false.
In January, the ICJ merely said South Africa’s allegations were plausible — a procedural threshold, not a verdict.
No finding of genocidal conduct or intent has been made.
Ms McNamara selectively quotes from the Genocide Convention but omits the crucial qualifier: intent.
Genocide is not defined by civilian casualties alone, but by a specific intention to destroy a group as such. Israel’s actions target Hamas — a group that openly seeks Israel’s destruction, embeds itself in civilian areas, and rejects ceasefires — not Palestinians because they are Palestinians.
Israel allows entry of aid into Gaza daily. Israel has repeatedly offered truces and humanitarian corridors — none of which are consistent with genocidal intent.
To call this a genocide not only misrepresents international law but also insults the memory of real genocides.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
