Andrew Dickens: The ferry saga is a pox on both National and Labour

I wasn't here last week because I was attending a funeral. A dear friend. 58 years old. Gut cancer. A reminder to us all- live life. Don't put things off. So, last week I thought I'd talk about the ferry debate and I thought that the issue would be over by now. But it's not. It rumbles on like t…

The Beatles in New Zealand - it's been 60 years!

On this day 60 years ago, 4 young lads from Liverpool arrived in Wellington on a plane to commence a week long tour of New Zealand. And they changed everything. It was the Beatles. It wasn't like we weren't warned. The week before was chaos as they toured Australia. 250,000 youngsters welcomed th…

Andrew Dickens: The politicisation of city designs is why nothing ever happens anymore

So I went to a party at the weekend. Quite a swanky one. Negronis and burgers and all sorts of people. Judges and doctors and advertising people and even musicians. An old mate was there, a card-carrying lefty. We're chatting and he says he's part of an urbanism group. Studying and advocating for…

Andrew Dickens: Two callers discuss the boarding house situation in New Zealand

A report from Auckland Council's boarding house inspectors shows out of 44 properties suspected to be breaking the law, 40 were “operating unauthorised transient accommodation or boarding houses.” Many had issues with fire safety breaches, growing numbers of gang-affiliated guests, and owners ques…

Andrew Dickens: If you want to get tough on crime, you have to get tough on gun ownership

I presume the lead story in the Herald on Sunday was welcomed by police and those behind our stronger gun laws. An Auckland pensioner and his daughter have been caught for legally buying 13 guns for the Comancheros motorcycle gang. It's the latest of dozens of discoveries by police of licensed …

Andrew Dickens: I'm looking forward to Budget Week

Welcome to Budget Week. Which I am looking forward to. After all the warnings from economists and world agencies like the OECD, that this is the wrong part of an economic cycle to bring in tax cuts, it ill be interesting to see the way they're going to pull it off. Personally, I can't see the bud…

Andrew Dickens: Auckland Transport is proof you can't control a CCO

Now, I'm not part of the tribe who automatically thinks that Auckland Transport is a bunch of ideological toss-pots who want to force us out of our cars. I'm the sort of urbanist that gets there's a limit to the number of cars that can use our roads, and when that limit is hit then you have offer …

Andrew Dickens: The new Government deal is Three Waters lite

I was surprised that the news that Auckland had inked a deal with the Government over water wasn't the lead story on last night's TV news. I would have thought that John Campbell would have had a deep dive on its repercussions for Auckland and the country. Basically, water and housing are the big…

Andrew Dickens: There's worry the Government cuts will go too far

New Zealand seems to be waking up to an issue I thought would have caused more concern. As part of the bonfire of the public service, the Government seems to be eyeing cuts to our public research and development sector. Principally that means the Callaghan Institute, the Crown agency that employs…

Andrew Dickens: We need to put perspective on the current state of our economy

It is fair to say the country is not in a good place right now. Job cuts dominate the headlines. A double-dip recession came true. Inflation is robbing us of our purchasing power. Last week an IPSOS poll found that 60 percent of us think that New Zealand is in decline and 65 percent believe that …