And on the topic of property and prices, a sale in Melbourne last week puts things in perspective. Australian news reports tell of an auction that fetched A$3.05 million ($3.4 million) - not for any land, notfor a building, but for part of a building: a 117m2 section of a wall, 5cm deep.
The selling point was location.
The wall is above the city's busiest pedestrian crossing, on the Flinders St-Swanston St intersection, and is home to a large digital billboard.
Almost everyone has a nightmare story about dealing with their workplace's human resources section and its love of bizarre performance measures and meaningless slogans. Now the tables have been turned on Government departments' HR operations, as the Treasury is benchmarking their performance. In typically understated Treasury-speak, the results note that "HR effectiveness indicators show opportunities for improvement ... HR effectiveness as measured by new hires in the same role after 12 months is relatively similar overall to FY 2012/13 but has dropped since FY 2011/12, and agency results show lower effectiveness than international benchmarks."
Thinking big
The broadband market is highly competitive, and likely to get even more so as the fibre rollout continues. So it is hardly surprising that state owned Kordia has been advertising on TV to drum up customers. However some ministers are shaking their heads and wondering why the public owns a company working in a highly competitive market with all the commercial risks that involves.
Ruling on rules
The Rules Reduction Taskforce has held its last public meeting as it scours the country looking for red tape to cut.
Now comes the real test: what it recommends, and what changes - if any - result. Cynics note that similar exercises in the past have delivered little to ease the regulatory burden.
Back to Albania
As well as John Campbell returning to Radio New Zealand, the state broadcaster's former business editor, Gyles Beckford, is coming back to his old job after a very long time with Reuters.
Meanwhile, RNZ's political editor, Brent Edwards, is moving into management and his press gallery position is being advertised.
Changes at RNZ don't appear to have eased the well-established enmity from National MPs - Judith Collins this week referred to it as "Radio Albania".
Cheers...
ACT Party leader and pub fan David Seymour. Photo / Richard Robinson
Act leader David Seymour seems to have a thing about pubs. He pulled off a bit of a populist coup in getting a bill introduced to let pubs open early for Rugby World Cup games; less noticed was his recent outing to the Backbencher pub, to watch the Back Benches TV show being filmed. This caused embarrassment for the Government, as he was absent without leave and votes made using his proxy had to be corrected. Luckily, they were not votes on big issues, or won by a majority of one.
John Key was overseas for his 54th birthday, but his colleagues arranged for 10,000 people to sign an electronic birthday card for him on his return. The PM will be hitting the road a lot more in the coming months. There is the Pacific Forum in Papua New Guinea, the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and an Apec leaders meeting in the Philippines. He and other politicians are also likely to find vital business in Britain, should the All Blacks make it through to the Rugby World Cup final.
A work in progress
Te Puni Kokiri seems to be one of those Government departments that undergoes constant restructuring as it tries to please too many masters and fulfil too many roles. The latest restructuring round began in 2012 and the word is that the department will now finalise its management structure by the end of this year. This will no doubt spawn yet another bout of restructuring.
MPs' Diggeression
A little-known trophy goes on the line today - the Diggeress Cup, for transtasman parliamentary netball supremacy. The event, held to coincide with the Netball World Cup, is widely expected to go New Zealand's way.
