Raffe Smith

@LewSOS Compared to the Stuff and Herald websites (mobile and desktop) the RNZ website is clean and devoid of ads. I can imagine for many it is simply much more pleasant to use.

Given all that it seems an odd priority to focus on criticising the aspect of their changing presence that seems to be effective in terms of growing and retaining audiences, rather than on the aspects that are less effective.

Look I'm not saying there's nothing to discuss here but what we have in this report is no less than four fairly direct competitors to RNZ's website (Burr, Murphy, Jennings, and Grieve) concern trolling the national broadcaster about its audience growth stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350440…

@quellesurprise8 @LewSOS It's not, but unemployment is not felt equally. Unemployment was relatively higher during Key's admin and it didn't seem to hurt them, the corollary with lowee unemployment during Ardern's term is they got little credit. Only complaints from business about a tight labour market.

It's good in that any govt needs an oppn nipping at its heels But it's bad in two ways: * Labour has changed essentially nothing since losing and now reads this as an endorsement of that strategy * Fuels opinion poll truthing which will lead Labour partisans further from reality

I'm two strong Belgian beers in, but hear me out: 1) I would never judge a person for their choice regarding becoming a parent. It's their own business. 2) David Seymour is not a parent and has no fucking idea or experience in the decisions he is making for parents & schoolkids.

@LewSOS Then the project will be starting from a 2024 baseline with further cost fluctuation from now. Therefore the likely result is less stuff gets built for the same price, with downstream risk of more money being put in. Then in 2035 we will have to build what was cut from scope.

@LewSOS I know nothing about this project, and I find it frustrating that the quantum of construction & civil cost inflation since 2021 is glossed over, which is not attributable in any more than a minor way to the govt of the day. That said if there are design issues and they rescope /1

This cost blowout is on National for a decade of bullshit If it had been started in 2008, the first election year in which National promised they would start it, instead of finally being started in 2018 under Labour, people in Dunedin might consider taking them seriously

90s LA in Three Parts:

@BeNZene_2010 @LewSOS No, not a major change and does allow for more efficient use of timber and greater % of insulation m2 in the ext walls. Half the issue is prenail software used by Placemakers, Carters etc which spits out inefficient wall framing layouts with heaps of timber - which they also sell

@raffesmith @LewSOS Is that the cost of moving from a standard wall 90mm to a 140mm wall? Doesn't seem like the incremental cost of that should be much in the scheme of things.

I haven't been tracking the "OMG the evil National govt is going to ban insulation and force us all to live in wooden tents" freakout but based on the Checkpoint interview by Chris Penk just now it seems like total bullshit "We're going back to 2022, not to the 1970s" seems true

@LewSOS I worry that this is policy by anecdote. Builders that suffered cost increases due to H1 - they may have had a bad design to begin with and did not plan for new rules. Could change roof structure design to provide space for R6. 4/

@LewSOS Which would allow a more holistic review of external framing and building envelope. I had heard MBIE/Branz are working on this but no idea of progress. Overheating can be fixed by better ventilation as we build more airtight homes. 3/

@ScootFoundation Given that the "greenfields land banking / development via plan change and Council infra subsidy" sector is a key voter/donor base to the Nats I would not be credulous that this will stick in the proposed form. Expect lobbying. Would love to be wrong.

it's important to note that the Auckland RUB does not exist to ban greenfields expansion instead, it tries to drip-feed it in at a rate that the Council can afford the infrastructure using cost recovery rather than boundaries will better align incentives and kill speculation

"However, there are also signs that [Going for Housing Growth] will do little for housing affordability" Insane claim There is an increasingly large body of evidence showing that more housing supply puts improves housing costs, particularly in our backyard with the Unitary Plan

@johnharris1969 Hi John, love your work, but don't quote tweet him - he is a bad faith actor here in NZ with an awful past. rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

@boxcar_joey @urbanistfromwhk @cjsbishop The building code is very limited in prescribing minimum space requirements. Refer clause G5. Planning rules mandating minimum unit sizes in District Plans (rightly or wrongly) have not been duplicating the building code in mandating minimum unit sizes.

@cjsbishop Don't 👏duplicate 👏the👏 building👏 code 👏in 👏the 👏planning 👏requirements.

Super confused from Hipkins here. Abolishing minimum sizes means more can be built. And we’re not ‘deregulating quality’, apartments still have to comply with Building Code and various other requirements.

@LewSOS That's designing out a problem. Underused technique in these times.

@raffesmith Right, those guides are great for showing how it all gets out into practice. When in doubt, chuck more timber at it. Happy our highest point is 980mm above ground so we don't need to deal with all that edge protection malarkey

Today begins The Deckening. Not an orange cone in sight

@LewSOS Nice. Branz has some decent deck building guides that start with 3604 and work from there. I've found that drawing/setting out the deck framing /subfloor plan can take just as much thought as the house itself, and adding balustrade fixing reqs, only moreso.

Most important lessons: * NZS3604 is a starting point, you should go much harder than code minimums * Plan absolutely everything you can plan because there will be plenty you can't plan * Take advice from competent people * 75mm bugle head screws are better than that skinny shit

@publicaddress @LewSOS However that is conjecture and this policy will suit the under capitalised builder with a ute sector of our construction industry who does not want to scale up to medium density developments. There is a niche to fill, even if it won't scale.

@publicaddress @LewSOS And as those zones are already heavily built out with subdivided and cross leased sites with 2 dwellings or more, I dont think the policy will get much more uplift in Akl. It also doesn't hurt but it may divert some resource that could have created more dwellings under MDRS.

Keen rnz.co.nz/news/political…