New Zealand citizen, Peter Thiel, who is one of the world's richest men, and business associate of Elon Musk, has had his house application in Wanaka rejected on appeal by the Environment Court. Theil was the first investor in Rotorua Lakes High School's former student, Shane Legg's company Deep Mind. He started the Artifical Intelligence revolution. Theil once expressed huge enthusiasm about doing business in NZ - he loved how we fostered extreme sports in places like Queenstown and were into risk-taking and being different, with a freedom-loving edge, on top of being friendly and easy going at the same time. Not any more.
In spite of his house being the most environmentally aware and most inconspicuous house I've ever seen proposed in NZ - it even has grass on the roof - unlike the typical Queenstown monstrosities and ugly junk that constitute Christchurch's skyline, an Environmental Court Judge called Prudence Steven has told him to go jump in Lake Wanaka. It has been reported he will not be lodging an appeal. Of course, libertarian Theil will vote with his feet. Rather than making NZ a tech and AI hub with the likes of his mates Elon Musk and Shane Legg, those guys will not involve NZ in their plans since our red-tape obsessed, small minded officials have made our country more trouble that its worth. Judge Prudence just cost our country a new industry, being on the frontier of new technologies, higher productivity growth and the ability to eliminate poverty that comes with. So I guess we're talking maybe a trillion dollars, all up. Oh, and the Environmental Court also cost us the ability to play a significant role in terms of inventing new technologies including alternative green energy sources that will stop climate change. How ironic that Theil got rejected by Prudence, whose name reflects everything he stands against. Excessive prudence is what is holding us back.
Sources:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/billionaire-peter-thiels-proposed-wanaka-lodge-wrong-development-in-the-wrong-location-environmental-trust/74QERGLPRVCZTNLCH5JADIEKP4/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/523397/us-billionaire-peter-thiel-abandons-lake-wanaka-lodge-build
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
Sources:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/billionaire-peter-thiels-proposed-wanaka-lodge-wrong-development-in-the-wrong-location-environmental-trust/74QERGLPRVCZTNLCH5JADIEKP4/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/523397/us-billionaire-peter-thiel-abandons-lake-wanaka-lodge-build
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
At least we know our judiciary is neutral and his political views would have had nothing to do with the decision.
Okay, just joking, of course it did.
No green energy sources will stop the climate changing.
Peter Thiel has a same sex partner but the NZ Media paint him as some kind of Far Right fanatic. I suspect as he is pro business this makes him an enemy according to our left wing media.
This is one instance where I'm fairly sure Maori oversight and 'consultation' would have produced a more favourable outcome. It would have all been reduced to a simple matter of 'koha', which would very likely not only have substantially enriched a few local Iwi members, but the country as a whole. One hopes, Prudence is proud of her decision.
Hobbitville will never prosper when we are served by ideologically driven Prudences.
I agree with Anonymous @9.16pm. Mr Thiel's application may have succeeded had he consulted with Maori cultural advisors.
A sum the size of the $180 million Genesis and Meridian Energy were forced to pay Ngai Tahu late last year for continued water rights may not have been required.
Something more in line with the $10 million sum Waste Management paid local Kaipara iwi Ngati Manuhiri to support their 180 million cubic metre landfill north of Auckland might have been a reasonable opening offer.
Until their palms were greased with cash Ngati Manuhiri had been the projcts most voiciferous opponents.
I am surprised the proponents of the Northland port expansion hadn't taken the suitcase full of cash round to the local iwi who so joyously celebrated the applications refusal.
Do you call these sums bribes , or corruption ? Or does the word koha remove the foul stench of such practices. ?
Whatever you call it these practices are very 3rd world, which has been the way we've been going lately.
Who says Thiel intended to reside in his proposed mansion more than a small fraction of the time – vacations – and how would that have led to trillions of profit for our country?
This is by far the most illogical piece I've seen in years. Revering the exceedingly greedy is not a mature approach to life.
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