A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; FinanceNow targets car finance, terms of trade improve, economy expansion moderates, swap rates rise, cash incentives expire

Can't say that I follow anything you are saying here but let me repeat what I often say on this site: NZ public entities for the last 25-odd years have had to practice accrual accounting, comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices and, in more recent years, International Financial Reporting Standards.

It is very difficult for them to hide subsidies. Occasionally there will be off-balance sheet liabilities and, of course, there is no accounting for the costs of externalities. Even so just about everything is hidden there in plain sight.

If you read Vote Transport it separates out the National Land Transport Programme and describes exactly how it is funded. 

Was your road sealed or the existing seal repaired? The costs of providing rural roads are subsidised to the tune of about 50% by central government. There is a manual about 600 pages thick that prescribes what NZTA will subsidise and what they won't and how to calculate the benefit-cost ratio. The bickering arises in special situations like this when the local councuil would argue that it is not the district's fault that there is increased traffic on a local road and the government should stump up to pay for the increased maintenance etc.

trolley buses take up a lot of street space.  makes things difficult for high density traffic.  the only bonus with trolleys is they dont need battery technology

As a general rule ie assuming no outdated systems,

a) Yes the grid easily, for the house a car will be charging no worse than a cooker, 40amps, probably more like a 20amp circuit. Not many households running a cooker at 2am...

b) yes street lines will be fine. The cooker going at 5~6pm is the biggest load, plus winter heating of the house...

c) Batteries will be an issue, they are clean room tech and cost 1/2 the car and last 10~15years. Recent developements however look to be 4 times more effective, so twice the range and hlaf the weight/cost inside 5 years

d) Rare earths, yes OK I think, however the lithium for the batteries not I suspect.

e) The costs of EVS wehn made in the quantity of conventional cars will take a mind boggling amount of investment and I sspect many ppl wont be able to buy.

regards

Why would more competition for taxis help the congestion problems of a narrow congested motorway corridor in Northern Christchurch/Canterbury?

You could argue that Uber would work better in conjuction with PT than in a exclusively road based transport system.

Oh, Kumbel, I'm fairly sure the CCC ain't full of Budding Bazalgettes or Brunels.  Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, more like.  And I rather suspect they read Kafka at lunchtimes.....

Many young people have lost interest in cars. I think you could easily find lots of young adults who would prefer to sit in a train using free WiFi than wasting time/energy driving themselves.

Also this proposal only requires a switch of 10% of vehicle movements to make it viable. Nobody is arguing that passenger trains will be compulsory or designed for the majority or that Labour would stop other planned road upgrades.

Overall I think Labours plans offers more individual choice not less.

has telephony solved the cotan problem yet?  no, so when just ignore it.



Yes we need to utilise our progress, but like the EV's there's no point trying to force the chicken out of the egg before it's ready - otherwise you'll be like Sinclair's electric car

Neither the authorities nor the insurance companies had a strong moral position when the earthquakes struck.

By 2001 it was the official position of the government that a major earthquake was more or less imminent in the South Island. And CCC had already known for some years that if that earthquake affected Christchurch the results would be catastrophic. All of this was public knowledge.

The fact that, when it did happen, the fault turned out to be an unknown one is immaterial as we would have had the same outcome if the Alpine Fault had ruptured near, say, Lewis Pass.

There was little or no policy response from the government or its agencies and virtually none from the local authorities. So it comes as little surprise that the insurance companies - even though they had more at stake - also continued to write the 'peace of mind'/full replacement house insurance policies. In retrospect we fell into a dreamy state of complacency.

So it has been in the mutual interests of the government, EQC and the private insurers not to embarass each other. It was CCC policy to advocate for an advocacy service. That's about as far as anyone went. We have basically let thousands of people, many of whom are very vulnerable,  be the price of preserving face.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but... Rather than waste good money on the pretty toys of the CBD I would have preferred the government to have put in a 'Manhattan Project' to get peoples' residential arrangements sorted first. In reality there could not have been a single approach; there would have to have been a mix of:

• doing the red-zoning acquisitions properly and fairly
• advocacy support for insurance claimants
• a mediation or court service for stalled disputes
• a little money just to make intractable problems go away
• proper audit and fraud detection processes
• EQC accountability and transparency

National's policy to bring CERA into the Prime Ministers Department is tacit admission that the whole thing has become a huge mess and needs better oversight and direction than Brownlee has given it to date. (No reflection on Roger Sutton I hasten to add).