1[Caucus] A campaign of fear and loathing? Nah, the facts matter more Should we be worried about the election campaign going negative? Or is the greater worry party leaders who can't get their facts straight? Analysis - It's been all about the fear and loathing in campaign land this week, with every party accusing another of negativity, lies and the inability to run even the Venezuelan economy. The oft-forgotten subtitle of Hunter S Thompson's famous book is "a savage journey to the heart of the American dream", and if you were to believe National's campaign chair Chris Bishop this week, New Zealand had embarked on its own savage journey into democratic chaos. "The most negative election campaign in New Zealand history," he declared on day three of the official campaign period, after a Council of Trade Union (CTU) ad that claimed National's Christopher Luxon was "out of touch" and "too much risk". The Caucus team calls hyperbole on that in this week's podcast. Most campaigns - if not all - go negative at times, and others have been more negative. Lisa Owen points to the 'Dirty Politics' campaign of 2014, Guyon Espiner and Julian Wilcox plump for 2005 when Helen Clark and Don Brash had a clear dislike of each other, while I throw back to 1975 and National's famous 'dancing Cossacks' ad, claiming that Labour's national superannuation scheme was the start on a slippery slope to communism. Espiner and Wilcox did warn that the negativity Labour, in particular, is engaging in reeks of desperation, and looks like the tactic of a party that knows it's running a distant second. And does it even work to win over voters? They think not. The risk of all this talk of fear and negativity is that we convince ourselves that our campaign is toxic, turning off voters, undermining public engagement and debate, and talking ourselves into a political funk. That's bad for democracy on every level. Let's take a breath and remember our political debate is a long way from the violence and polarisation we see in so many countries. If the worst we have to endure is a guy hanging over a fence to interrupt a press conference and some mean photos of a party leader, we're not in too bad a shape. Let's not catastrophise. What's arguably more important is that we're debating the facts, not misinformation. Labour's Chris Hipkins has told off his MPs for a lack of accuracy this week, with Willie Jackson falsely claiming National and ACT plan to cut the minimum wage and Andrew Little saying they will "sack all the teachers". The line between hyperbole and inaccuracy can be a fine one at times. But Hipkins himself has to take care. At Labour's campaign launch, he listed a string of Labour policies from the past two terms - including free prescriptions for all and subsidised public transport, alongside free doctors visits for under 14-year-olds and the food in schools programme. He then went on to say these policies "are at great risk if there is a change of government". That's undoubtedly true for prescriptions and subsidised transport, but National says it is "very supportive" of the school lunches and there's no suggestion it will charge for kids' doctors' visits. National hasn't been caught out in this campaign misrepresenting its opponents. Its problem is misrepresenting its own policies. The flaws in its foreign buyers plan were pushed off the frontpage by the CTU's attack ad and National's outraged response. (It's almost as if that's what National wanted). But doubts about the plan remain - whether it can be enforced given New Zealand's tax treaties, compromises the 'simplicity' of New Zealand's tax system that National usually champions, and undermines New Zealand's reputation on the world stage as an honest broker which prefers the rules-based order. Most of all, there are still doubts it will bring in enough money to ensure the fiscal neutrality National promised. Economists have questioned if enough houses would be sold to foreigners and enough foreign buyers taxed to rake in the promised $740m per year. And here's another wrinkle: At the tax announcement, Luxon said, "Importantly what this is about is saying to that tech entrepreneur that wants to make an investment in New Zealand, actually wants to be able to purchase a house, to be able to set up a business, to make an investment, we want them to be able to do that here in New Zealand. We need to be able to access talent." The problem with that scenario, according to the tax experts we've spoken to, is that it's incredibly hard to buy property in New Zealand, bring your talent here and NOT become a tax resident. If you come to New Zealand to look for a house and then buy it, you become a tax resident the moment you land, if you end up staying for six months or more in the next year. And going by Luxon's example, the whole point is they're bringing their talent here for more than six months. So, if National’s foreign buyers tax discriminates on the basis of tax residency (to get around our tax treaties), it’s unlikely any tech entrepreneurs coming to New Zealand and buying houses are going to pay a cent in tax under National’s plan. And that puts their promise of fiscal neutrality in jeopardy. So while we have to be careful about too much negativity in the campaign alienating voters, perhaps the more important concern is to demand clarity and accuracy from the party leaders. The Caucus team also discuss party donations, younger voters, dental plans... and Winston Peters on a horse. [Season 2023, Episode 6, Thursday 07 September 2023, 00:00]

2[Voices] Takaka cohousing 'opens people's eyes to what's possible' | "It opens people's eyes to what's possible" - Takaka cohousing Using natural build techniques, a group of Takaka-based social entrepreneurs are excited about getting closer to the finish line of their cohousing project in development. Produced by Kadambari… A growing, intergenerational community is taking shape at a Takaka cohousing cluster of houses. The last few houses, including the common house, are being built in a race towards the finish line in the next few months. The ethos of the project is natural building and living in community. Golden Bay is relatively sparsely populated, but the region's hard pressed for housing. About a third of the homes in the region are empty - they’re holiday homes and people moving here for work or to live are struggling to find rentals or just to get into the property market. Liv Scott and her husband Graeme moved to the area about 11 years ago and along with their business partner Simone Woodland started experimenting with designing tiny homes and natural builds. This project began in 2020 after they got together with others to buy a 14-hectare property on which this cohousing cluster is now being developed. The houses in this eco village aren't cheap at about $700,000 each. But cohousing does help with savings on living costs by sharing resources and shared spaces, like the planned permaculture gardens and a large common house. There are 34 houses in the development, Liv tells Voices. “It's an optimal number for cohousing. A good number of people; enough people to share the load of looking after the land, the veggie gardens and looking after the wider land and all of these different things with different working groups that have been set up. “And it's enough people to do the work without being too many, when it comes to the community meeting so that things not things don't get stalled.” Co-housing in a modern context was adopted in the ‘70s in Denmark, and it's been catching on elsewhere in the world. One of the biggest pluses of living in community is really the social connection. For Liv, she's found the ideal way of life after moving to Golden Bay from the UK with her husband. “My husband had already fallen in love with New Zealand before I met him and had fallen in love with Golden Bay. So, when we met, he was like, I'm actually going to emigrate in New Zealand. And I was like, OK, that sounds fun. Let's go.” The idea of natural building is to reduce the amount of volatile organic (VOCs) that are in the materials or being released from the materials over time. So instead of concrete, the development is using hempcrete. The walls are solid at 114mm thick and insulated with wool that's recycled from the carpet industry in Christchurch. A structure built this way this can last for hundreds of years, Liv says. “The building code says it has to last at least 50 years, but these houses have been built to a higher spec than the building code. “So, you know, at least 100 years, there are traditional timber frame buildings that are still standing after 900 years old in Europe. “It's a very ancient way of building, traditional timber frame, which is the heavy beams with the tree nails, which are the mortise and tenon joints and the wooden pegs, and with the hempcrete is actually a very ancient way of building.” The common house represents the collective nature of the project and it will be the main contact point for spontaneous interactions within the community. Studies have shown it is opportunities for little social interactions in your neighborhood that increase overall happiness and decrease a sense of social isolation. “In rural places, I think there’s still that kind of community, but this is like the next level again, and certainly in cities, it's quite different. “You don't have that kind of same level of community with your direct neighbours and all of that sort of stuff. And I think there is a real longing for that,” Liv says. [Monday 04 September 2023, 05:00]