Anyone who has applied to FNDC for permission to do anything up here recently will have noted a hardening attitude to information. The demands for paper are now legendary for any application and you have to wonder what is driving this.
Well it has been explained to me (sort of) that council is toughening up to reduce the risk of it being sued. On the face of it that sounds sensible but as usual that’s not what is happening and those of you who have luckily restricted your council involvement to paying rates probably haven’t heard too many complaints so think things are OK.
Well they’re not and the reason you don’t hear is that there is a climate of fear developing where folk are scared to complain in case their case gets held up even longer and becomes even more difficult to comply with.
Individual coastal dwellers now face the need for engineering reports on the possibility of damage in the distant future from global warming super-storms accompanied with violent wave action. Nobody wants to face this, but also any engineer that writes reports about such an unknown future isn’t worth hiring. If council are worried about such things they should commission such reports as they won’t just affect an individual’s property, they will affect large areas.
In the meantime council continue to approve subdivisions without sewerage treatment when there are plenty of sections on the market already and there is endless evidence that on site effluent systems, no matter how sophisticated just don’t work.
FNDC grill developers endlessly over traffic movements requiring passing bays in 50kph areas when the rest of the world is slowing urban traffic down with speed bumps and other traffic management furniture. FNDC write reports on cycle-ways yet there isn’t even a footpath linking tightly knit communities like Mangonui and Coopers Beach.
Our approval systems need to be simplified and the standards of what developers put in need to be improved. All new roads should be hot-mix sealed and have footpaths as well as cycle-ways all leading to sewered sections. This will stop law-suits and save ratepayers paying for stuff that should have been there in the first place.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
When does tongue in cheek become stick in the eye?
I am quite keen on light-hearted banter and criticism of privilege and power of organizations that sometimes take themselves too seriously. I like to support the underdog in their battles with bureaucracy and as a person who has some experience of being in charge of large bureaucracies, I like to remind staff that they are there for those on the outside, not for themselves.
I don’t like personal attacks on people, particularly those who cannot answer and although I criticise silliness and pomposity of organizations I avoid personal attacks, the worst of which are those carried out either behind someone’s back or from a hidden position such as a nom de plume. This type of action is cowardly and indefensible.
There are times for nom de plumes where they protect a writer from a hierarchy that may be in a position to penalise the unidentified writer. This could occur if someone felt worried that criticising an organization like a planning authority might mean that the authority would turn down their application.
Last week a nasty cowardly letter from a writer under the nom de plume Jude was printed in the Age. The first bit of the letter picked on views I had aired in this column and that’s fine. The last bit was a series of completely untrue personal assertions about me which unfortunately I have to use this column to deny, just in case there is anyone out there who thinks that I did anything other than support the local health services during my term as Chair of Northland Health.
As Peter Dryburgh would attest, I had several minor surgical operations carried out on me by him in the Kaitaia Hospital during the period when the board spent some very scarce millions on updating the hospital. Did anyone think that a local board member would move against his local hospital?
With regard to Auckland Hospital, the new hospital which serves many in Northland was completed on time and on budget, the $100 million annual operating loss has all but disappeared with no services being reduced and in fact more work and productivity than before, and in a sector where this is not generally the case.
Presumably Jude finds fault in having the power restored to Auckland as occurred after my appointment to chair Vector out of that mess. Such letters demean both this paper and our local population for showing that we harbour such persons within.
I don’t like personal attacks on people, particularly those who cannot answer and although I criticise silliness and pomposity of organizations I avoid personal attacks, the worst of which are those carried out either behind someone’s back or from a hidden position such as a nom de plume. This type of action is cowardly and indefensible.
There are times for nom de plumes where they protect a writer from a hierarchy that may be in a position to penalise the unidentified writer. This could occur if someone felt worried that criticising an organization like a planning authority might mean that the authority would turn down their application.
Last week a nasty cowardly letter from a writer under the nom de plume Jude was printed in the Age. The first bit of the letter picked on views I had aired in this column and that’s fine. The last bit was a series of completely untrue personal assertions about me which unfortunately I have to use this column to deny, just in case there is anyone out there who thinks that I did anything other than support the local health services during my term as Chair of Northland Health.
As Peter Dryburgh would attest, I had several minor surgical operations carried out on me by him in the Kaitaia Hospital during the period when the board spent some very scarce millions on updating the hospital. Did anyone think that a local board member would move against his local hospital?
With regard to Auckland Hospital, the new hospital which serves many in Northland was completed on time and on budget, the $100 million annual operating loss has all but disappeared with no services being reduced and in fact more work and productivity than before, and in a sector where this is not generally the case.
Presumably Jude finds fault in having the power restored to Auckland as occurred after my appointment to chair Vector out of that mess. Such letters demean both this paper and our local population for showing that we harbour such persons within.
WHAT WE ALL SAID LAST THURSDAY
I have not yet commented on any of the articles that surround me each week but last Thursday my fellow commentators covered fields in which I probably have had more experience than the writers themselves.
This is in no ways a means of picking on them as I enjoy friendly relationships with both John Carter and the Mayor and it is quite well known that Shane Jones has been a cobber of mine for a long time.
Jonesy chose to comment on the Mercury Energy power disconnection and the unfortunate consequences that followed. John’s piece was probably not even written by him, as it appeared to be the usual National Party line that my party is better than your party on health delivery and the Mayor chose to highlight council’s belated acceptance that something is very wrong with their consents department and announced very laudable goals to fix it.
With regard to electricity supply, I was called in to chair Vector after they disconnected the entire central business district of Auckland for a period of six weeks. It is hard to even put into context the level of disruption, inconvenience, economic loss, let alone the human misery inflicted on city residents and workers throughout this period. Our whole country was held up to ridicule in the world’s press for being unable to power up our biggest city.
This has made me very concerned over the fragility of the Transpower electricity transmission network limitations to Northland. I have already commented on the bottleneck through Auckland City and that council’s interference in our wellbeing. Ngawha extension will help but we need to keep pressure on to fix the supply constraint.
For fifteen years I have chaired various health boards under both parties and know well that glib generalisations such as John’s are meaningless. Administration numbers and their pay packets have fallen dramatically at ADHB at the same time that doctor and nurse salaries have climbed by around 23% in the last three years. The increased money goes to health practitioners, not only in hospitals but also in primary care but the pressure from growing numbers of elderly is hard to manage. Tony Ryall, National Health spokesperson is renowned for his negativity but has offered no solution at all. The main paper shuffling is answers to his parliamentary questions!
Lastly, readers will have noticed me banging on about how hard it is to get progressive projects approved up here so I am pleased at the change at the council, but hope that it is more than just an election year ploy to calm angry ratepayers, as the problem of processing building permits and resource consents has been around for ages.
This is in no ways a means of picking on them as I enjoy friendly relationships with both John Carter and the Mayor and it is quite well known that Shane Jones has been a cobber of mine for a long time.
Jonesy chose to comment on the Mercury Energy power disconnection and the unfortunate consequences that followed. John’s piece was probably not even written by him, as it appeared to be the usual National Party line that my party is better than your party on health delivery and the Mayor chose to highlight council’s belated acceptance that something is very wrong with their consents department and announced very laudable goals to fix it.
With regard to electricity supply, I was called in to chair Vector after they disconnected the entire central business district of Auckland for a period of six weeks. It is hard to even put into context the level of disruption, inconvenience, economic loss, let alone the human misery inflicted on city residents and workers throughout this period. Our whole country was held up to ridicule in the world’s press for being unable to power up our biggest city.
This has made me very concerned over the fragility of the Transpower electricity transmission network limitations to Northland. I have already commented on the bottleneck through Auckland City and that council’s interference in our wellbeing. Ngawha extension will help but we need to keep pressure on to fix the supply constraint.
For fifteen years I have chaired various health boards under both parties and know well that glib generalisations such as John’s are meaningless. Administration numbers and their pay packets have fallen dramatically at ADHB at the same time that doctor and nurse salaries have climbed by around 23% in the last three years. The increased money goes to health practitioners, not only in hospitals but also in primary care but the pressure from growing numbers of elderly is hard to manage. Tony Ryall, National Health spokesperson is renowned for his negativity but has offered no solution at all. The main paper shuffling is answers to his parliamentary questions!
Lastly, readers will have noticed me banging on about how hard it is to get progressive projects approved up here so I am pleased at the change at the council, but hope that it is more than just an election year ploy to calm angry ratepayers, as the problem of processing building permits and resource consents has been around for ages.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM MELBOURNE?
I have just had the great pleasure of a trip to Melbourne with some business mates and our wives to indulge in some fun and noise at the Melbourne Grand Prix and, boy can Melbourne put on a show!
OK, I know its way bigger than here, but they just love to show their city off and to make the absolute most of any event both for the enjoyment of locals and visitors, and also to wring every dollar out of the opportunity to further grow their economy.
From the moment you leave the plane, easy to read brochures and maps ensure every visitor is exposed to every opportunity for fun and interest that Melbourne has to offer. Downtown, well-informed volunteers, (often elderly who otherwise would be short of company and things to do) offer advice to visitors on places to go and how to get there. Their bright jackets add to the colour and make them easy to find and they are real ambassadors.
Not to miss any opportunity each map asks the reader, “Love Melbourne, then why not live here?” and goes on to detail help offered by local government to professionals, tradespeople, business owners and investors and how to obtain free visa sponsorship and other aids to starting up there.
Although the scale is bigger than here, it is the attitude and intention to help that characterises this approach. Compare that with what is on offer here. A quick visit to our local council information centre will inform visitors of the need to bilk them out of every possible penny for development contributions, complex town planning rules, resource consents and so on all designed cunningly to grow the economies of other parts of NZ at our expense.
And, by the way it was such fun to be involved in some petrol burning fun just for once in these carbon-saving days. The big local news was the massive increase in CO2 from the bush fires made worse by the green lobby stopping undergrowth clean ups in the State Parks and preventing bulldozers from getting in and creating firebreaks!
Come on Northland!
OK, I know its way bigger than here, but they just love to show their city off and to make the absolute most of any event both for the enjoyment of locals and visitors, and also to wring every dollar out of the opportunity to further grow their economy.
From the moment you leave the plane, easy to read brochures and maps ensure every visitor is exposed to every opportunity for fun and interest that Melbourne has to offer. Downtown, well-informed volunteers, (often elderly who otherwise would be short of company and things to do) offer advice to visitors on places to go and how to get there. Their bright jackets add to the colour and make them easy to find and they are real ambassadors.
Not to miss any opportunity each map asks the reader, “Love Melbourne, then why not live here?” and goes on to detail help offered by local government to professionals, tradespeople, business owners and investors and how to obtain free visa sponsorship and other aids to starting up there.
Although the scale is bigger than here, it is the attitude and intention to help that characterises this approach. Compare that with what is on offer here. A quick visit to our local council information centre will inform visitors of the need to bilk them out of every possible penny for development contributions, complex town planning rules, resource consents and so on all designed cunningly to grow the economies of other parts of NZ at our expense.
And, by the way it was such fun to be involved in some petrol burning fun just for once in these carbon-saving days. The big local news was the massive increase in CO2 from the bush fires made worse by the green lobby stopping undergrowth clean ups in the State Parks and preventing bulldozers from getting in and creating firebreaks!
Come on Northland!
Think now, avoid panic later
I’m not even into local body politics yet but already the misquotations have started. In the last week I have been reported to be standing as Mayor of Auckland (I’m not), for the Auckland Regional Council (no again), I’ve chosen the deputy mayor (wrong), I’m strongly in favour of fluoridation or bitterly opposed to it, depending on who is talking (I’ve not expressed any opinion on this issue) and I opposed the Declaration of an Emergency in last week’s flood, (I didn’t).
With regard to the flood, I have great sympathy for those who suffered losses recently but I’m not sure that they needed to face all that devastation, if we had had better planning before rather than hand wringing and states of Emergency after. All that does is bring in the TV cameras and the impression that we can’t handle things ourselves. TVNZ was still showing Kaeo to be under water days after floodwaters had cleared.
Any Dutch engineer will tell you that there are solutions for protecting low lying land. The inundation of Switzer Home and the Oxford Pensioner homes demands answers to serious questions. Was there a sudden surge just before and if so was this as a result of an action or inaction? Who is responsible for maintenance of banks and removal of vegetation from the waterways, Regional Council, FNDC, DoC, anyone? Did the computer modelling of the flood flow indicate a weak bank at the failure point? Is there a computer model?
Experience with our subdivision at the northern end of Kaitaia raised questions, first being that the Whangatane Floodway, so necessary for the town’s safety is not in public hands but we own it. Bizarrely there doesn’t seem to be any legal impediment to us just filling it in. That’s being fixed, however the experience of achieving good stormwater design involving our engineers, Regional Council engineers in Whangarei and FNDC engineers, (who turn out to be junior consultants in an office in Manukau City) does not build confidence.
The other culprit with regard to flooding is Transit NZ, who own State Hiways 1 and 10, which cross large tracts of low lying land interfering with natural floodpaths. Every year they raise these roads, yet no additional culverts seems to go in to reduce the ponding caused by the hiways. I’m sure that this was a major contributor to problems at Kaingaroa and Waipapa. By the way Transit think that Donald’s Lane is a major east/west traffic route for Kaitaia, yet it’s just a narrow road with speed humps leading to a restricted weight bridge!
With regard to the flood, I have great sympathy for those who suffered losses recently but I’m not sure that they needed to face all that devastation, if we had had better planning before rather than hand wringing and states of Emergency after. All that does is bring in the TV cameras and the impression that we can’t handle things ourselves. TVNZ was still showing Kaeo to be under water days after floodwaters had cleared.
Any Dutch engineer will tell you that there are solutions for protecting low lying land. The inundation of Switzer Home and the Oxford Pensioner homes demands answers to serious questions. Was there a sudden surge just before and if so was this as a result of an action or inaction? Who is responsible for maintenance of banks and removal of vegetation from the waterways, Regional Council, FNDC, DoC, anyone? Did the computer modelling of the flood flow indicate a weak bank at the failure point? Is there a computer model?
Experience with our subdivision at the northern end of Kaitaia raised questions, first being that the Whangatane Floodway, so necessary for the town’s safety is not in public hands but we own it. Bizarrely there doesn’t seem to be any legal impediment to us just filling it in. That’s being fixed, however the experience of achieving good stormwater design involving our engineers, Regional Council engineers in Whangarei and FNDC engineers, (who turn out to be junior consultants in an office in Manukau City) does not build confidence.
The other culprit with regard to flooding is Transit NZ, who own State Hiways 1 and 10, which cross large tracts of low lying land interfering with natural floodpaths. Every year they raise these roads, yet no additional culverts seems to go in to reduce the ponding caused by the hiways. I’m sure that this was a major contributor to problems at Kaingaroa and Waipapa. By the way Transit think that Donald’s Lane is a major east/west traffic route for Kaitaia, yet it’s just a narrow road with speed humps leading to a restricted weight bridge!
The separate catchments of the Far North
The Far North is an unusual district, sprawling, as it does, across hundreds of kilometres and unlike most NZ provinces it is made up of many small towns without a dominant main city.
This has resulted in quite separate catchments for all sorts of things, notably our print media. The Northland Age (or News of the World as our editor thinks) maintains such strong readership in its core territory of North of the Mangamukas, that it can still command a payment from its readers. The other local newspapers have long since become freebies, surviving and in some cases prospering on advertising revenue alone.
The result of this is quite fragmented local news coverage in our papers and anyone wanting to get a picture of the whole of the Far North has to supplement the Age with the Bay Chronicle from Kerikeri, the very similar Northern News from Kaikohe, newcomer the Bay Report also from Kerikeri and others including the well presented Doubtless Bay Times.
Few of our citizens are well known across the whole district and occasionally some very controversial local issues ignite their local catchment without any reporting in other areas. Such an issue is the future of the Kerikeri Domain which is under threat from a few councillors lead by the Mayor, determined to heave the Rugby Club out of town and off the very ground that early settlers set aside for just such an activity.
Locally held surveys indicate over 95% of folk want the central domain left as it is, but a group of recent arrivals including a wealthy absentee have determined that the sports fields will become home to a large sculpture and the Farmers Market (currently happily operating one morning per week in the carpark). This is to allow for passive recreation, whatever that is!
One of our problems is that our district attracts quite a few retirees, which is fine, but as they haven’t battled here to get their businesses going, raise their kids, be on school committees and play and support sports clubs, they forget about the interests of those who are still doing these things. Worse still a number of them get a bit bored and decide they should be on the council and tell the rest of us how to live.
We’ve got a few of those now, with more offering themselves without any real experience of how things are up here, and wanting to get it back to how it was where they came from. Most of us want it to be how it is in the progressive, positive and prosperous places.
This has resulted in quite separate catchments for all sorts of things, notably our print media. The Northland Age (or News of the World as our editor thinks) maintains such strong readership in its core territory of North of the Mangamukas, that it can still command a payment from its readers. The other local newspapers have long since become freebies, surviving and in some cases prospering on advertising revenue alone.
The result of this is quite fragmented local news coverage in our papers and anyone wanting to get a picture of the whole of the Far North has to supplement the Age with the Bay Chronicle from Kerikeri, the very similar Northern News from Kaikohe, newcomer the Bay Report also from Kerikeri and others including the well presented Doubtless Bay Times.
Few of our citizens are well known across the whole district and occasionally some very controversial local issues ignite their local catchment without any reporting in other areas. Such an issue is the future of the Kerikeri Domain which is under threat from a few councillors lead by the Mayor, determined to heave the Rugby Club out of town and off the very ground that early settlers set aside for just such an activity.
Locally held surveys indicate over 95% of folk want the central domain left as it is, but a group of recent arrivals including a wealthy absentee have determined that the sports fields will become home to a large sculpture and the Farmers Market (currently happily operating one morning per week in the carpark). This is to allow for passive recreation, whatever that is!
One of our problems is that our district attracts quite a few retirees, which is fine, but as they haven’t battled here to get their businesses going, raise their kids, be on school committees and play and support sports clubs, they forget about the interests of those who are still doing these things. Worse still a number of them get a bit bored and decide they should be on the council and tell the rest of us how to live.
We’ve got a few of those now, with more offering themselves without any real experience of how things are up here, and wanting to get it back to how it was where they came from. Most of us want it to be how it is in the progressive, positive and prosperous places.
The Gissy Bros have got a thing or two to show us.
Kordia is a company that I lead that does a range of fun technical things like providing the delivery platform for most free to air radio and TV programs in NZ, and in Australia it also operates and maintains the Vodafone network and the Broadcast Australia network.
Sometimes we get involved in celebrating some of the achievements of those industries that use our services and so I found myself in Gisborne last weekend as a part sponsor of the Maori Media Awards. The usual bad weather forecast turned out to be quite wrong (like at Easter) and Gisborne put on blue skies, sunny days and great surf which I shared with kids from all over NZ attending the National Scholastic Surf championships with our own Northland team coached by the Far North’s Billy Hale.
Gisborne is another town that has done great things with its main street, palms, cobbled paving and street furniture designed to slow traffic and encourage pedestrian activity without those annoying bays that prevent you turning where you want to (like we had inflicted on us in Kaitaia). Why can’t we get our street upgrades to look as cool as they do in Gisborne, New Plymouth or even little towns like Ohakune? Beats me, but we seem to hire the most expensive useless Auckland designers for everything that happens up here.
Anyhow we went to the Maori Media Awards that evening and what a great show it was, celebrating the saving and renewal of Te Reo, the Maori language, with a stream of bright, confident, and talented young Maori raised in the Kura Kaupapa system from Kohanga Reo schools all over the country and now making names for themselves in many Maori radio stations and on Maori TV.
It was great to be able to korero enough to make a small contribution while handing out an award and to really feel what it is that makes each of us Kiwis and not just another Australian (the new JAFAs).
It was also great to see the respect that Maori of all ages have for their elders whose long speeches were not only indulged but given great support with following waiata. In one case a truly memorable off the cuff version of the Ngati Porou haka started by one elderly chap whose call was answered by many from the floor who dropped what they were doing to join him on stage in a stirring rendition.
We can learn from this with a bit more respect where it is due and with young people full of confidence and positive.
Sometimes we get involved in celebrating some of the achievements of those industries that use our services and so I found myself in Gisborne last weekend as a part sponsor of the Maori Media Awards. The usual bad weather forecast turned out to be quite wrong (like at Easter) and Gisborne put on blue skies, sunny days and great surf which I shared with kids from all over NZ attending the National Scholastic Surf championships with our own Northland team coached by the Far North’s Billy Hale.
Gisborne is another town that has done great things with its main street, palms, cobbled paving and street furniture designed to slow traffic and encourage pedestrian activity without those annoying bays that prevent you turning where you want to (like we had inflicted on us in Kaitaia). Why can’t we get our street upgrades to look as cool as they do in Gisborne, New Plymouth or even little towns like Ohakune? Beats me, but we seem to hire the most expensive useless Auckland designers for everything that happens up here.
Anyhow we went to the Maori Media Awards that evening and what a great show it was, celebrating the saving and renewal of Te Reo, the Maori language, with a stream of bright, confident, and talented young Maori raised in the Kura Kaupapa system from Kohanga Reo schools all over the country and now making names for themselves in many Maori radio stations and on Maori TV.
It was great to be able to korero enough to make a small contribution while handing out an award and to really feel what it is that makes each of us Kiwis and not just another Australian (the new JAFAs).
It was also great to see the respect that Maori of all ages have for their elders whose long speeches were not only indulged but given great support with following waiata. In one case a truly memorable off the cuff version of the Ngati Porou haka started by one elderly chap whose call was answered by many from the floor who dropped what they were doing to join him on stage in a stirring rendition.
We can learn from this with a bit more respect where it is due and with young people full of confidence and positive.
TARANAKI GOES FOR IT AND SO COULD WE.
Any of you who have recently visited Taranaki, or the “Naki” as locals love to call it couldn’t help but have noticed the positive vibes running through the place. There is a sense of pride and enthusiasm which pervades the province radiating from New Plymouth where the council have put in a wonderful coastal walkway linking suburbs formerly separated and suddenly offering an attractive way to get both exercise and access to the centre of town.
On the back of this a new Arts Centre, “Puhe Ariki” has been built, (not beside a plumbing supplier like in Kerikeri), but facing the foreshore with lovely outdoor café space. New Plymouth also features large mobile sculptures in celebration of Len Lye, a locally born sculptor.
Their Council have supported the Surf Coast Highway 45 tourism project featuring the local beaches around the coast and have closely linked with the South Taranaki Council at Opunake to maximise the enjoyment of tourists and the amount of money that they contribute to the local economy.
Young locals are seen wearing “Taranaki Hard Core” branded Tee shirts and a lively arts culture is evident even to sports minded folk like me.
On the face of it Taranaki would seem to have less to celebrate than we do up here. Their weather is often dreary, the beaches are stoney, hard to get to and the black sand could be seen as a negative but even that has been used as a local clothing brand, “Black Sand”. Their economy is based on dairy industry, which is battling but they do have an energy sector that receives support from the local regional council who see that undue opposition to mineral extraction would cost many local jobs.
I returned thinking, “Why can’t we have the same effusive positive feeling throughout the Far North?” We have better weather, better beaches, forestry, farming, tourism, hordes of visitors and folk from all over the world seeking to live here for the lifestyle.
All it needs is a bit of leadership, some positive messages and slogans plus a few public projects that could be presented in a way to excite public interest. They need not be vast projects, but smaller local pathways and links would do the trick. The extension to the Kaitaia Centre is a good project but is presented as a fund raising project rather than a regional boost.
Somehow we have been conned into competing between our towns rather than uniting to compete against other provinces. Better coastal access and walkways will help all of the Far North and surely someone can come up with a uniting slogan to lift our aspirations.
On the back of this a new Arts Centre, “Puhe Ariki” has been built, (not beside a plumbing supplier like in Kerikeri), but facing the foreshore with lovely outdoor café space. New Plymouth also features large mobile sculptures in celebration of Len Lye, a locally born sculptor.
Their Council have supported the Surf Coast Highway 45 tourism project featuring the local beaches around the coast and have closely linked with the South Taranaki Council at Opunake to maximise the enjoyment of tourists and the amount of money that they contribute to the local economy.
Young locals are seen wearing “Taranaki Hard Core” branded Tee shirts and a lively arts culture is evident even to sports minded folk like me.
On the face of it Taranaki would seem to have less to celebrate than we do up here. Their weather is often dreary, the beaches are stoney, hard to get to and the black sand could be seen as a negative but even that has been used as a local clothing brand, “Black Sand”. Their economy is based on dairy industry, which is battling but they do have an energy sector that receives support from the local regional council who see that undue opposition to mineral extraction would cost many local jobs.
I returned thinking, “Why can’t we have the same effusive positive feeling throughout the Far North?” We have better weather, better beaches, forestry, farming, tourism, hordes of visitors and folk from all over the world seeking to live here for the lifestyle.
All it needs is a bit of leadership, some positive messages and slogans plus a few public projects that could be presented in a way to excite public interest. They need not be vast projects, but smaller local pathways and links would do the trick. The extension to the Kaitaia Centre is a good project but is presented as a fund raising project rather than a regional boost.
Somehow we have been conned into competing between our towns rather than uniting to compete against other provinces. Better coastal access and walkways will help all of the Far North and surely someone can come up with a uniting slogan to lift our aspirations.
Talking to communities
One of the surprise finds when I was sent down to Gisborne to fix their hospital was to discover that they have a single District Council down there that operates without Regional Council or Community Boards. The result is a district wide focus and signs of prosperity are everywhere from the wonderful main street upgrades to the steady spread of prosperous businesses and opportunities for young locals.
Nevertheless while it may be a good goal to have a single unitary authority up here, the fact remains that we don’t and hence our district council needs to make better use of its community boards and it needs to have a much clearer and more workable arrangement with the regional council.
If we are to have community boards we may as well use them as much as possible and that means giving them tasks that are meaningful and useful. There are plenty such tasks, including managing the local streets, rubbish collections, public toilets, pothole repairs, footpath extensions and minor local works such as clearing stormwater drains that just never seem to get done by a centrally managed bureaucracy.
In addition there is much of the consultation burden that can be handled by community boards in a manner better suited to the task than by central planners. Good examples are relatively small building improvements that may have some minor intrusion across a street boundary, such as a commercial canopy that may turn out to have been occupying public space for years without a problem, but once a planner gets their teeth into it the simple solution of a boundary adjustment gets biffed out.
Other subjects better handled at community board level include fluoridation, which may or may not be a popular choice in various parts of the district. We do not have a district wide water supply by council. Many residents are on tank supply and many, like me are supplied by private water companies. Community boards could get the majority view from each council supplied water network and we could have some areas with fluoride and some without, depending on what the majority of local ratepayers want.
With regards to the Regional Council, all ratepayers should be made aware of which organization is responsible for what. If stormwater in the roads is to be a district responsibility and within rivers is to be Regional then it should be clear as to where the change in responsibility occurs. Into this mix Transit needs also to be clear and locally represented. If governments are to generously supply all these busy body groups they should at least be made to have offices up here so ratepayers can meet with all bodies at one time to sort out what we want.
Simple eh!
Nevertheless while it may be a good goal to have a single unitary authority up here, the fact remains that we don’t and hence our district council needs to make better use of its community boards and it needs to have a much clearer and more workable arrangement with the regional council.
If we are to have community boards we may as well use them as much as possible and that means giving them tasks that are meaningful and useful. There are plenty such tasks, including managing the local streets, rubbish collections, public toilets, pothole repairs, footpath extensions and minor local works such as clearing stormwater drains that just never seem to get done by a centrally managed bureaucracy.
In addition there is much of the consultation burden that can be handled by community boards in a manner better suited to the task than by central planners. Good examples are relatively small building improvements that may have some minor intrusion across a street boundary, such as a commercial canopy that may turn out to have been occupying public space for years without a problem, but once a planner gets their teeth into it the simple solution of a boundary adjustment gets biffed out.
Other subjects better handled at community board level include fluoridation, which may or may not be a popular choice in various parts of the district. We do not have a district wide water supply by council. Many residents are on tank supply and many, like me are supplied by private water companies. Community boards could get the majority view from each council supplied water network and we could have some areas with fluoride and some without, depending on what the majority of local ratepayers want.
With regards to the Regional Council, all ratepayers should be made aware of which organization is responsible for what. If stormwater in the roads is to be a district responsibility and within rivers is to be Regional then it should be clear as to where the change in responsibility occurs. Into this mix Transit needs also to be clear and locally represented. If governments are to generously supply all these busy body groups they should at least be made to have offices up here so ratepayers can meet with all bodies at one time to sort out what we want.
Simple eh!
TAI TOKERAU TERTIARY TECHNICAL TRAINING TRUST
The Trust is pleased to announce that it is granting scholarships to 21 young Northlanders to contribute to the cost of their fees for training in a variety of technical training courses covering such fields as electronics, forestry, computing, winemaking, mechatronics and various forms of engineering studies.
Trust chairman, Wayne Brown, stated that with a substantial donation kindly arranged by Mr Don Armitage from the Southern Regions Charitable Trust in conjunction with Rynoz on Cameron Street, the trust has been able to increase the expected number of scholarship recipients from 3 to 21. In addition generous support was received from Roger de Bray in the Mid North and Sean Kennedy in the Far North.
Successful applicants will receive between $4000 and $1500 towards their tuition fees and will also be able to call upon trust members for guidance during their study year.
The trust is very pleased with the level of response from applicants who wrote in to their local newspaper, the Northern Advocate in Whangarei, the Northern News in the Mid North and the Northland Age in the Far North.
Regional winners are:-
Whangarei - Reuben Rusk
- Brodie Wooler
- William Glen
- Nicholas van Beek
- Alan Hooper
- Barry Dahlberg
- James Carpe
- Rochelle Carter
- Michael Eke
Mid North - Dave Ness
- Ben Byrne
- Philip te Tai
- Dean te Tai
- Nicky Hayes
- Reuben Trainor
Far North - Adele Wedding
- Manu Berkhardt Macrae
- Joanne Urlich
- Angela Flood
- Fiona Saxton
- Kelly Marsters
The trust wishes all applicants well in their studies and thanks the local newspapers for their support in arranging to publicise the scholarships and hold a follow up presentation evening.
Trust chairman, Wayne Brown, stated that with a substantial donation kindly arranged by Mr Don Armitage from the Southern Regions Charitable Trust in conjunction with Rynoz on Cameron Street, the trust has been able to increase the expected number of scholarship recipients from 3 to 21. In addition generous support was received from Roger de Bray in the Mid North and Sean Kennedy in the Far North.
Successful applicants will receive between $4000 and $1500 towards their tuition fees and will also be able to call upon trust members for guidance during their study year.
The trust is very pleased with the level of response from applicants who wrote in to their local newspaper, the Northern Advocate in Whangarei, the Northern News in the Mid North and the Northland Age in the Far North.
Regional winners are:-
Whangarei - Reuben Rusk
- Brodie Wooler
- William Glen
- Nicholas van Beek
- Alan Hooper
- Barry Dahlberg
- James Carpe
- Rochelle Carter
- Michael Eke
Mid North - Dave Ness
- Ben Byrne
- Philip te Tai
- Dean te Tai
- Nicky Hayes
- Reuben Trainor
Far North - Adele Wedding
- Manu Berkhardt Macrae
- Joanne Urlich
- Angela Flood
- Fiona Saxton
- Kelly Marsters
The trust wishes all applicants well in their studies and thanks the local newspapers for their support in arranging to publicise the scholarships and hold a follow up presentation evening.
SURFING’S WORTH SAVING TOO
I had the recent privilege of chairing a hui on saving our surf breaks called by Surfing NZ and held on a Raglan marae.
What’s that got to do with you the reader?
Well Surfing is one of NZ’s most popular sports rating above all of our national sports for participation and having an economic impact way above what most of our political leaders understand. There are well over a hundred surf shops in NZ. How many rugby or cricket stores? Surfing pulls in tourists and affects lifestyles. Look at what the kids are wearing.
We in the Far North are blessed with two coasts, many fine beaches (albeit with progressively less public access – Wake up FNDC!) and we have at Ahipara one of the very best surf breaks on the planet, a fact probably unknown to most of our councillors.
To illustrate my point, I recall taking the NZ Surfing team through Brazil and Argentina in the nineties. Everyone there knew of only three places in NZ, being Auckland (where the plane lands), Raglan and Ahipara being our top two surf breaks widely publicised ever since the movie Endless Summer came out in 1964!
Surfing has prompted the enormous development of Surfers Paradise in Queensland and has lead to rapid rises in the value of towns such as Whangamata, also blessed with an excellent left hand surf break. In spite of this economic and social impact there is no mention of the sport of Surfing in FNDC’s long term planning documents, let alone any funding set aside for the sport. Indeed such tiny sports as hockey look to be the beneficiaries of expensive developments in Kaikohe.
At the hui we were presented with a series of coastal photos taken by White’s Avaiation in the 1960’s and it was frightening to see the number of lost surf breaks that have disappeared under poorly thought through developments. A council carpark now covers up North Reef at Takapuna, groynes to save the beach at Omaha have ruined the old break at the northern end of the beach and many more are under threat.
Surfer, Paul Shanks fought a lonely battle to oppose the Whangamata Marina which Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter turned down, unfortunately in a clumsy way. Now a court has reopened this project in spite of a total lack of clear engineering reports stating that the famous surf break would not be affected.
Northlanders should be worried. We need to protect our surf breaks and the sport needs to be seen as one of our major tourist and sporting attractions.
What’s that got to do with you the reader?
Well Surfing is one of NZ’s most popular sports rating above all of our national sports for participation and having an economic impact way above what most of our political leaders understand. There are well over a hundred surf shops in NZ. How many rugby or cricket stores? Surfing pulls in tourists and affects lifestyles. Look at what the kids are wearing.
We in the Far North are blessed with two coasts, many fine beaches (albeit with progressively less public access – Wake up FNDC!) and we have at Ahipara one of the very best surf breaks on the planet, a fact probably unknown to most of our councillors.
To illustrate my point, I recall taking the NZ Surfing team through Brazil and Argentina in the nineties. Everyone there knew of only three places in NZ, being Auckland (where the plane lands), Raglan and Ahipara being our top two surf breaks widely publicised ever since the movie Endless Summer came out in 1964!
Surfing has prompted the enormous development of Surfers Paradise in Queensland and has lead to rapid rises in the value of towns such as Whangamata, also blessed with an excellent left hand surf break. In spite of this economic and social impact there is no mention of the sport of Surfing in FNDC’s long term planning documents, let alone any funding set aside for the sport. Indeed such tiny sports as hockey look to be the beneficiaries of expensive developments in Kaikohe.
At the hui we were presented with a series of coastal photos taken by White’s Avaiation in the 1960’s and it was frightening to see the number of lost surf breaks that have disappeared under poorly thought through developments. A council carpark now covers up North Reef at Takapuna, groynes to save the beach at Omaha have ruined the old break at the northern end of the beach and many more are under threat.
Surfer, Paul Shanks fought a lonely battle to oppose the Whangamata Marina which Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter turned down, unfortunately in a clumsy way. Now a court has reopened this project in spite of a total lack of clear engineering reports stating that the famous surf break would not be affected.
Northlanders should be worried. We need to protect our surf breaks and the sport needs to be seen as one of our major tourist and sporting attractions.
SOME POSITIVE TRENDS
I love spotting positive trends that lie below the horizon of most commentators and indeed the public at large. It is easy to join the rush to complain about perceived shortcomings of various segments of our society and there is no doubt that some folk are fair game for the moaners and bigots amongst us.
One group who have quietly been turning around their own lives and enriching both themselves and the rest of us are that often maligned group of single mothers, particularly the large inflows into that group around ten to fifteen years ago when the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) first hit the newspapers at a time when attitudes had hardened and the benefits of contraception had not been supported by the worries of nasty sexually transmitted diseases.
Much was made of the high percentages of young Maori girls in this group and at the time it did not look good for their future participation in society.
Well now if you look quietly around you will find that there is a large and growing number of local organizations relying on these people, often now in their thirties, who have quietly become core links in the delivery of all sorts of professional and administrative services to the very society that criticised them back when they first became pregnant.
I totally support and congratulate these young mothers who have managed to handle the pressures of that early and often unexpected family and who have then tentatively entered the workplace, obtained skills, embarked on periods of study very often achieving skills in Information Technology not picked up by our older generation.\
Next time you are in the office of your lawyer, accountant, surveyor, or even at the regional or district offices of major suppliers or councils just note how important was the contribution of that nice young, often Maori, lady to a happy completion of whatever you set out to achieve.
Quite a few senior professionals have confided to me that it is very likely that their business will be handed on to one of these former single mothers whose efforts are making our ability to deal with a workforce that is rapidly ageing that much easier.
One group who have quietly been turning around their own lives and enriching both themselves and the rest of us are that often maligned group of single mothers, particularly the large inflows into that group around ten to fifteen years ago when the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) first hit the newspapers at a time when attitudes had hardened and the benefits of contraception had not been supported by the worries of nasty sexually transmitted diseases.
Much was made of the high percentages of young Maori girls in this group and at the time it did not look good for their future participation in society.
Well now if you look quietly around you will find that there is a large and growing number of local organizations relying on these people, often now in their thirties, who have quietly become core links in the delivery of all sorts of professional and administrative services to the very society that criticised them back when they first became pregnant.
I totally support and congratulate these young mothers who have managed to handle the pressures of that early and often unexpected family and who have then tentatively entered the workplace, obtained skills, embarked on periods of study very often achieving skills in Information Technology not picked up by our older generation.\
Next time you are in the office of your lawyer, accountant, surveyor, or even at the regional or district offices of major suppliers or councils just note how important was the contribution of that nice young, often Maori, lady to a happy completion of whatever you set out to achieve.
Quite a few senior professionals have confided to me that it is very likely that their business will be handed on to one of these former single mothers whose efforts are making our ability to deal with a workforce that is rapidly ageing that much easier.
SOME LOCAL BOYS MAKE GOOD ROLE MODELS
With all the rules and regulations, bureaucrats and other hangers-on these days there are times when any go-ahead person gets to feel that it’s all a bit much. If you’re not careful you can miss some of the really positive things that people are doing, so this week I’m talking about some of the relatively unsung heroes from up here.
I had a look around the Auckland waterfront where the footy stadium was being talked of and came across the redevelopment proposals for the Britomart area being carried out by Bluewater. So what, you might ask! Well Bluewater is owned by Kaitaia old boy and business phenomenon Peter Cooper who left town to become a lawyer and went on to develop multi million dollar townships in Texas before coming back home to tidy up Auckland and develop some impressive and environmentally aware coastal sections in outer Kerikeri.
That got me thinking about other Far North role models. While in Sydney on business recently I had a beer with Kaitaia old-boy, Garth Bray who has been appointed as Australian TV news stringer for TVNZ directly influencing how we get on with our big neighbours and showing how far our young people can go.
Back in Auckland one of my companies is negotiating with another Kaitaia boy made good, Thane Kirby, who together with his brother Richard has shaken the national radio scene since they launched George FM and has now branched out with Alt TV.
These examples are by no means a comprehensive list of success stories from here and I know there are no females in this list, it’s just these are the ones I’ve met in the last fortnight. My point is we need to celebrate success no matter where it happens and not let the negatives overwhelm us.
While I’m in this positive mood, I had the boat out at Mill Bay for its annual overhaul and what a stress free process that was, largely due to more unsung local heroes. WW2 fighter pilot Jimmy Osborne and his faithful Man Friday, Pedro have done a wonderful job in managing the hard standing there, which operates with very reasonable charges. The facilities are also a tribute to the Cruising Club members lead by Bruce Robertson and we are lucky to have them.
I had a look around the Auckland waterfront where the footy stadium was being talked of and came across the redevelopment proposals for the Britomart area being carried out by Bluewater. So what, you might ask! Well Bluewater is owned by Kaitaia old boy and business phenomenon Peter Cooper who left town to become a lawyer and went on to develop multi million dollar townships in Texas before coming back home to tidy up Auckland and develop some impressive and environmentally aware coastal sections in outer Kerikeri.
That got me thinking about other Far North role models. While in Sydney on business recently I had a beer with Kaitaia old-boy, Garth Bray who has been appointed as Australian TV news stringer for TVNZ directly influencing how we get on with our big neighbours and showing how far our young people can go.
Back in Auckland one of my companies is negotiating with another Kaitaia boy made good, Thane Kirby, who together with his brother Richard has shaken the national radio scene since they launched George FM and has now branched out with Alt TV.
These examples are by no means a comprehensive list of success stories from here and I know there are no females in this list, it’s just these are the ones I’ve met in the last fortnight. My point is we need to celebrate success no matter where it happens and not let the negatives overwhelm us.
While I’m in this positive mood, I had the boat out at Mill Bay for its annual overhaul and what a stress free process that was, largely due to more unsung local heroes. WW2 fighter pilot Jimmy Osborne and his faithful Man Friday, Pedro have done a wonderful job in managing the hard standing there, which operates with very reasonable charges. The facilities are also a tribute to the Cruising Club members lead by Bruce Robertson and we are lucky to have them.
ROUND TWO OF THE DOOR STOP
Several months ago, my first column dealt with my efforts to get through and understand Volume 1 of the FNDC Far North Future Plan covering the period of 2006 to 2016.
Foolishly I promised to work through the rest of these vast tomes to report to you, the readers what these plans contain. Well, I’ve been reminded that I haven’t got back to either reading or reporting on them, so last weekend I dug them out to see just why I thought Volume 1 was such a depressing waste of ratepayer’s money and to advance on to Volume 2.
There are five volumes in total and there are 539 pages devoted to this exercise, which has clearly been taken seriously by the platoon of staff who have made their career out of producing these excellently presented volumes. Indeed the standard of graphics and print detail exceeds what many countries devote to the printing of their currency!
Volume 1 was entitled Our Community and dealt with lots of unmeasurable stuff. Volume 2 at 168 pages is the winner by weight and is called Council Activities. It also details lots more unmeasurable stuff that council does. Quite a lot of this stuff appears several times under different headings so either it is done several times or is trying to look like that.
Stormwater, for instance appears under the heading Water and Waste Group as one might expect but makes at least one other appearance under Safety and Environment Group. I note that I found inked markings that I had made in the margins during a previous effort to get through this volume. Typically these notes read “crap” and other such common terms for what they pass off as Customer Service.
Quaintly, complaints are now termed “requests for service” by council. I’ll bet they get a few if you can get past the recorded propaganda and actually talk to someone at the other end of the phone line. There are some spurious measures for phone calls to council with the suggestion that in 2006, 80% of calls were answered in 60 seconds and 100% in 2007. It fails to point out that most of us want to be answered by a person and the recorded message that I have actually listened to for 11 minutes does not meet my expectation of a call being responded to in 60 seconds.
Volume 2 is full of graphs plotting heroic increases in everything over coming years but sadly no graph plots what FNDC’s performance for any of these measures has been over the past 5 years so there is conveniently no base information to compare the future with.
One can’t help feeling that the money and effort put into these volumes could have been better spent on one or two pages of a clear executive summary of the really big things. Three more volumes to go!!
Foolishly I promised to work through the rest of these vast tomes to report to you, the readers what these plans contain. Well, I’ve been reminded that I haven’t got back to either reading or reporting on them, so last weekend I dug them out to see just why I thought Volume 1 was such a depressing waste of ratepayer’s money and to advance on to Volume 2.
There are five volumes in total and there are 539 pages devoted to this exercise, which has clearly been taken seriously by the platoon of staff who have made their career out of producing these excellently presented volumes. Indeed the standard of graphics and print detail exceeds what many countries devote to the printing of their currency!
Volume 1 was entitled Our Community and dealt with lots of unmeasurable stuff. Volume 2 at 168 pages is the winner by weight and is called Council Activities. It also details lots more unmeasurable stuff that council does. Quite a lot of this stuff appears several times under different headings so either it is done several times or is trying to look like that.
Stormwater, for instance appears under the heading Water and Waste Group as one might expect but makes at least one other appearance under Safety and Environment Group. I note that I found inked markings that I had made in the margins during a previous effort to get through this volume. Typically these notes read “crap” and other such common terms for what they pass off as Customer Service.
Quaintly, complaints are now termed “requests for service” by council. I’ll bet they get a few if you can get past the recorded propaganda and actually talk to someone at the other end of the phone line. There are some spurious measures for phone calls to council with the suggestion that in 2006, 80% of calls were answered in 60 seconds and 100% in 2007. It fails to point out that most of us want to be answered by a person and the recorded message that I have actually listened to for 11 minutes does not meet my expectation of a call being responded to in 60 seconds.
Volume 2 is full of graphs plotting heroic increases in everything over coming years but sadly no graph plots what FNDC’s performance for any of these measures has been over the past 5 years so there is conveniently no base information to compare the future with.
One can’t help feeling that the money and effort put into these volumes could have been better spent on one or two pages of a clear executive summary of the really big things. Three more volumes to go!!
RECKON YOU HAD A TOUGH WEEK AT THE OFFICE?
I normally like to write about things up here as this is where I live, however many of you would have noted the media uproar last week when good people who had worked hard to cut medical costs got a shock legal decision, followed by political point scoring from low profile MPs out to impress their new leader.
The three DHBs in the Auckland area set about reducing laboratory testing costs so that more money could go into other pressing areas of health. A new contractor offered to provide an improved service for around $20million less per year. Audit NZ approved the tender process, but the losing incumbents hired lawyers and managed to persuade a judge that they were disadvantaged because they didn’t realise that innovative delivery methods were desired, nor amazingly that lower prices were very important.
They managed to link a former board member in as a conflict, when I can assure readers his involvement meant nothing to the boards, who were solely interested in saving money. Anyone attending any of the DHB board meetings would have known how important price was but things do go wrong in the justice sector. That is why we have courts of appeal.
I can’t say it is fun being hounded by press who in the normal course of events can’t be bothered to attend our board meetings and it gets worse when National party MPs call you a left wing Labour party flunky, especially when the Nats call you in to sort out their problems like digital driver license schemes that don’t work or power failures in Auckland.
How do they think they are going to reduce our taxes if they yell at people trying to save money. The stuff they put out about waiting lists is also rubbish. At ADHB the cancer treatment wait times were 6 weeks for all of last year but grew to 11 weeks (not 16) as a result of a strike by workers. These will be back to MoH guidelines of 4-8 weeks soon. ADHB is currently approaching GPs pointing out that there is more capacity for hip replacements than suitable candidates at present!
Don’t believe all you read in the national papers, trust your local.
The three DHBs in the Auckland area set about reducing laboratory testing costs so that more money could go into other pressing areas of health. A new contractor offered to provide an improved service for around $20million less per year. Audit NZ approved the tender process, but the losing incumbents hired lawyers and managed to persuade a judge that they were disadvantaged because they didn’t realise that innovative delivery methods were desired, nor amazingly that lower prices were very important.
They managed to link a former board member in as a conflict, when I can assure readers his involvement meant nothing to the boards, who were solely interested in saving money. Anyone attending any of the DHB board meetings would have known how important price was but things do go wrong in the justice sector. That is why we have courts of appeal.
I can’t say it is fun being hounded by press who in the normal course of events can’t be bothered to attend our board meetings and it gets worse when National party MPs call you a left wing Labour party flunky, especially when the Nats call you in to sort out their problems like digital driver license schemes that don’t work or power failures in Auckland.
How do they think they are going to reduce our taxes if they yell at people trying to save money. The stuff they put out about waiting lists is also rubbish. At ADHB the cancer treatment wait times were 6 weeks for all of last year but grew to 11 weeks (not 16) as a result of a strike by workers. These will be back to MoH guidelines of 4-8 weeks soon. ADHB is currently approaching GPs pointing out that there is more capacity for hip replacements than suitable candidates at present!
Don’t believe all you read in the national papers, trust your local.
PERMIT TIME
Talk to any builder, new home-owner, engineer, architect or developer and see how they feel about the Resource Management Act. They don’t see a wonderful tool for saving the environment. What they see is a long winded process designed to maximise frustration, grow the employment of plodders in a myriad of government and council organizations all seemingly there to increase costs and force us into confrontation with people who appear to have no direct interest in what is proposed in the first place.
You have to be a brave risk taker to even contemplate entering this mine-field, yet we open the national newspaper and there on the front page are our politicians attempting to build the biggest sports arena in the most prominent position in our biggest city on the edge of our best harbour and all without having to advertise publicly for submissions or even start the long dreary trudge that faces the rest of us.
A new footy field for the World Cup might possibly be a great idea and those in power have known it was coming for sometime, but to be able to just do what no other developer or citizen can do on the spur of the moment seems wrong to me.
Politicians have been calling the building industry cowboys for years and instituting all sorts of registration processes requiring those in the industry to demonstrate their skill and experience (which is fine) but a quick look around parliament and there are no builders, developers or engineers, so who’s a cowboy?
Remember it was politicians acting in the interests of large building supply firms who changed the rules to allow untreated timber that caused the leaky rotting buildings syndrome. Not the builders who had no say in that decision.
Countries where the powerful elite can behave in a way denied to the citizens going about their legitimate business are usually frowned upon. We think they are to be found in Africa or old communist countries. By all means get on with the Rugby stadium in a quick decisive way but make these same prompt processes available to those of us for whom a building permit normally takes months and a resource consent often runs to years.
You have to be a brave risk taker to even contemplate entering this mine-field, yet we open the national newspaper and there on the front page are our politicians attempting to build the biggest sports arena in the most prominent position in our biggest city on the edge of our best harbour and all without having to advertise publicly for submissions or even start the long dreary trudge that faces the rest of us.
A new footy field for the World Cup might possibly be a great idea and those in power have known it was coming for sometime, but to be able to just do what no other developer or citizen can do on the spur of the moment seems wrong to me.
Politicians have been calling the building industry cowboys for years and instituting all sorts of registration processes requiring those in the industry to demonstrate their skill and experience (which is fine) but a quick look around parliament and there are no builders, developers or engineers, so who’s a cowboy?
Remember it was politicians acting in the interests of large building supply firms who changed the rules to allow untreated timber that caused the leaky rotting buildings syndrome. Not the builders who had no say in that decision.
Countries where the powerful elite can behave in a way denied to the citizens going about their legitimate business are usually frowned upon. We think they are to be found in Africa or old communist countries. By all means get on with the Rugby stadium in a quick decisive way but make these same prompt processes available to those of us for whom a building permit normally takes months and a resource consent often runs to years.
More Skills up here you probably aren’t aware of.
It’s nice to write about positive go-ahead people. Takes your mind off the things that really hassle you, like opening 42 separate letters from the council covering 42 separate rate demands for 42 titles in the one subdivision. The concept of a statement on the front showing what the invoices behind add up to has yet to arrive in Kaikohe. Imagine receiving a separate letter for each item that one buys as a builder each month from Placemekers!
Anyhow, I just had the pleasure of a chat in the street with satellite TV guru, Bob Cooper who owns the local cable TV network, plus Doubtless Bay Community Radio on 100.0 FM. We were discussing the major cock-up on Optus D1, the recently launched satellite supposed to fix up Sky TV coverage and be one of the delivery platforms for Free to Air Digital TV next year using the transponder booked by Kordia, a company that I chair.
There are probably only a handful of Kiwis who would like to chat about the wiring mistake on this expensive satellite where the vertical and horizontal polarities have accidentally been reversed and it’s a long way to send a serviceman, however it actually affects almost every Aussie and Kiwi household. Optus technicians are busy working to patch up a fix so that our Kiwi programs actually show here and the Aussie ones there, so we can get the Free to Air digital TV service expected next year.
We are lucky to have Bob here among us and few are aware of his input into satellite TV as the inventor of the home dish and the editor of Sat Facts, his well informed monthly, serving the Pacific ring satellite TV technical industry participants. Sat Facts is really worthy a read for the technologically minded among us. We are often bombarded with bunkum from various political leaders waffling on about broadband, yet without any local techno experience to base their opinions on, yet here we have Bob telling the world!
This week Wellington’s Dominion newspaper featured Kaitaia entrepreneur Sean Kennedy who has driven the surf-clothing brand, Coastlines, that he founded and that some of us are lucky enough to be supporting shareholders in. Sean stepped out of long-term ownership of Kaitaia’s surf shop, Aquapulse about three years ago with the vision of creating a global brand from Kaitaia.
Now the brand covers men’s and women’s, summer and winter clothing, surfboards, wetsuits, snowboards, shoes, accessories, bags and is being sold in over 65 Kiwi surf shops and a growing number off-shore in Australia, USA and Europe. It has been a privilege to support this runaway workaholic and it is with some pride that a brand born here is now attracting business interest for its rapid growth and global reach.
The Far North does count!
Anyhow, I just had the pleasure of a chat in the street with satellite TV guru, Bob Cooper who owns the local cable TV network, plus Doubtless Bay Community Radio on 100.0 FM. We were discussing the major cock-up on Optus D1, the recently launched satellite supposed to fix up Sky TV coverage and be one of the delivery platforms for Free to Air Digital TV next year using the transponder booked by Kordia, a company that I chair.
There are probably only a handful of Kiwis who would like to chat about the wiring mistake on this expensive satellite where the vertical and horizontal polarities have accidentally been reversed and it’s a long way to send a serviceman, however it actually affects almost every Aussie and Kiwi household. Optus technicians are busy working to patch up a fix so that our Kiwi programs actually show here and the Aussie ones there, so we can get the Free to Air digital TV service expected next year.
We are lucky to have Bob here among us and few are aware of his input into satellite TV as the inventor of the home dish and the editor of Sat Facts, his well informed monthly, serving the Pacific ring satellite TV technical industry participants. Sat Facts is really worthy a read for the technologically minded among us. We are often bombarded with bunkum from various political leaders waffling on about broadband, yet without any local techno experience to base their opinions on, yet here we have Bob telling the world!
This week Wellington’s Dominion newspaper featured Kaitaia entrepreneur Sean Kennedy who has driven the surf-clothing brand, Coastlines, that he founded and that some of us are lucky enough to be supporting shareholders in. Sean stepped out of long-term ownership of Kaitaia’s surf shop, Aquapulse about three years ago with the vision of creating a global brand from Kaitaia.
Now the brand covers men’s and women’s, summer and winter clothing, surfboards, wetsuits, snowboards, shoes, accessories, bags and is being sold in over 65 Kiwi surf shops and a growing number off-shore in Australia, USA and Europe. It has been a privilege to support this runaway workaholic and it is with some pride that a brand born here is now attracting business interest for its rapid growth and global reach.
The Far North does count!
LOCAL ISSUES DESERVE LOCAL RESPONSES FROM LOCAL LEADERS
So who is a local? Is it someone who lives in your village, community council, council area or Northland?
How long before you become a local? Months, years or only from birth?
Depends on the issue, I think. Why is this interesting?
Well, we’ve developed the habit of thinking that experts must come from somewhere else.
I’ve always believed that the people who will fix some problem are the people who own the problem, and the locals are the ones best placed to own, understand and fix things.
My definition of a local is one who is wholly committed to the community that is affected by the discussion, whether it’s small and very local or district wide.
A real local has put the time in to know the community, helped with sports, kids, schools, housing, clubs and businesses. This takes time. While I welcome recent arrivals, I expect them to know and respect the way we do things. Understand that our communities are growing and changing and they’re not to be set in concrete forever to be exactly the way they were on the day that person arrived.
We need to develop our own skills here to use for the benefit of our people and to pass them on within our communities.
Look at the recent appointment of yet another out of towner to join the rest on the board of Top Energy. This board should be dominated by locals. The consumer trust together with our MPs carried out what they called a robust process to find trustees and directors for Top Energy (which we all own) yet they couldn’t find any locals capable. Yeah right! Lotto winners are chosen by a robust process!
The same week that Top Energy couldn’t find anyone here capable, I was approached to be deputy chair of Transpower, sort of like Top Energy only 20 times bigger. And there are plenty of others up here capable of directing Top Energy or at least learning how to. Right now we should decide that unless absolutely impossible all of our Far North entities need to be lead by locals. That goes for council LATEs, like Far North Holdings, Top Energy and all the development committees, Tourism boards and so on. If our rates are to be used for these things then spend it with the best locals.
At least they care and we can get to them when they get it wrong.
How long before you become a local? Months, years or only from birth?
Depends on the issue, I think. Why is this interesting?
Well, we’ve developed the habit of thinking that experts must come from somewhere else.
I’ve always believed that the people who will fix some problem are the people who own the problem, and the locals are the ones best placed to own, understand and fix things.
My definition of a local is one who is wholly committed to the community that is affected by the discussion, whether it’s small and very local or district wide.
A real local has put the time in to know the community, helped with sports, kids, schools, housing, clubs and businesses. This takes time. While I welcome recent arrivals, I expect them to know and respect the way we do things. Understand that our communities are growing and changing and they’re not to be set in concrete forever to be exactly the way they were on the day that person arrived.
We need to develop our own skills here to use for the benefit of our people and to pass them on within our communities.
Look at the recent appointment of yet another out of towner to join the rest on the board of Top Energy. This board should be dominated by locals. The consumer trust together with our MPs carried out what they called a robust process to find trustees and directors for Top Energy (which we all own) yet they couldn’t find any locals capable. Yeah right! Lotto winners are chosen by a robust process!
The same week that Top Energy couldn’t find anyone here capable, I was approached to be deputy chair of Transpower, sort of like Top Energy only 20 times bigger. And there are plenty of others up here capable of directing Top Energy or at least learning how to. Right now we should decide that unless absolutely impossible all of our Far North entities need to be lead by locals. That goes for council LATEs, like Far North Holdings, Top Energy and all the development committees, Tourism boards and so on. If our rates are to be used for these things then spend it with the best locals.
At least they care and we can get to them when they get it wrong.
Monday, August 06, 2007
LOCAL ISSUES DESERVE LOCAL RESPONSES FROM LOCAL LEADERS
So who is a local? Is it someone who lives in your village, community council, council area or Northland?
How long before you become a local? Months, years or only from birth?
Depends on the issue, I think. Why is this interesting?
Well, we’ve developed the habit of thinking that experts must come from somewhere else.
I’ve always believed that the people who will fix some problem are the people who own the problem, and the locals are the ones best placed to own, understand and fix things.
My definition of a local is one who is wholly committed to the community that is affected by the discussion, whether it’s small and very local or district wide.
A real local has put the time in to know the community, helped with sports, kids, schools, housing, clubs and businesses. This takes time. While I welcome recent arrivals, I expect them to know and respect the way we do things. Understand that our communities are growing and changing and they’re not to be set in concrete forever to be exactly the way they were on the day that person arrived.
We need to develop our own skills here to use for the benefit of our people and to pass them on within our communities.
Look at the recent appointment of yet another out of towner to join the rest on the board of Top Energy. This board should be dominated by locals. The consumer trust together with our MPs carried out what they called a robust process to find trustees and directors for Top Energy (which we all own) yet they couldn’t find any locals capable. Yeah right! Lotto winners are chosen by a robust process!
The same week that Top Energy couldn’t find anyone here capable, I was approached to be deputy chair of Transpower, sort of like Top Energy only 20 times bigger. And there are plenty of others up here capable of directing Top Energy or at least learning how to. Right now we should decide that unless absolutely impossible all of our Far North entities need to be lead by locals. That goes for council LATEs, like Far North Holdings, Top Energy and all the development committees, Tourism boards and so on. If our rates are to be used for these things then spend it with the best locals.
At least they care and we can get to them when they get it wrong.
How long before you become a local? Months, years or only from birth?
Depends on the issue, I think. Why is this interesting?
Well, we’ve developed the habit of thinking that experts must come from somewhere else.
I’ve always believed that the people who will fix some problem are the people who own the problem, and the locals are the ones best placed to own, understand and fix things.
My definition of a local is one who is wholly committed to the community that is affected by the discussion, whether it’s small and very local or district wide.
A real local has put the time in to know the community, helped with sports, kids, schools, housing, clubs and businesses. This takes time. While I welcome recent arrivals, I expect them to know and respect the way we do things. Understand that our communities are growing and changing and they’re not to be set in concrete forever to be exactly the way they were on the day that person arrived.
We need to develop our own skills here to use for the benefit of our people and to pass them on within our communities.
Look at the recent appointment of yet another out of towner to join the rest on the board of Top Energy. This board should be dominated by locals. The consumer trust together with our MPs carried out what they called a robust process to find trustees and directors for Top Energy (which we all own) yet they couldn’t find any locals capable. Yeah right! Lotto winners are chosen by a robust process!
The same week that Top Energy couldn’t find anyone here capable, I was approached to be deputy chair of Transpower, sort of like Top Energy only 20 times bigger. And there are plenty of others up here capable of directing Top Energy or at least learning how to. Right now we should decide that unless absolutely impossible all of our Far North entities need to be lead by locals. That goes for council LATEs, like Far North Holdings, Top Energy and all the development committees, Tourism boards and so on. If our rates are to be used for these things then spend it with the best locals.
At least they care and we can get to them when they get it wrong.
Local impacts of international trends
A couple of weeks back I suggested in my Sunday Star Times business article that Reserve Bank governor Bollard should think about reducing our interest rates to match Australian rates so that offshore investors in our currency would have an alternative option to the NZ$ to earn the same returns, thus easing pressure on our dollar. Two days later Radio NZ lead its news with an item that economic forecasters BERL were suggesting exactly the same thing.
Nice to know that we can lead economic thinking from up here, and we will need to as we face the challenges of funding the much needed catch up in our infrastructure so the Far North can offer similar standards of roading and sewerage to the rest of NZ.
By the time you read this Bollard will have made his moves on interest rates and we will have to get on. Fonterra are indicating boosted payments to dairy farmers which will have benefits to rural economies, although a fair bit of the payout will no doubt go in debt reduction. Prudent financial management is at the core of any improvement to local services and this will be a real focus at FNDC in the next few years.
Councils have enjoyed the bumper times associated with rate growth from not only the steady increases in percentage costs of fees and rates but also the spin off from the large rises in land values on which these rates are based. This steady income growth coupled with dramatic rises in development charges has lifted financial pressure from council expenditure and allowed the rocketing bureaucracy to occur.
This waste needs to end and there needs to be serious investigation of the costs of doing everything both within council and more importantly on citizens suffering delays and expense as a result of the ponderous ways things get done up here.
Councillor Byers has kindly looked into why it has taken so long for a permit to be granted for some simple buildings in Ahipara. Staff have assured him that it is the applicant’s fault. (It always is!). Long lists of additional information are always produced just before the time limit to reply to the applicant. On inspection most of these are rubbish and typically include requests for information that they already have (in this case calculations for water tank reinforcing) or such life and death requirements as an extractor fan in the kitchen in order to prevent anyone in the buildings from dieing of exposure to the rather nice aroma of bacon and eggs.
Another supposedlly needed piece of information is the excavation permit for a house that requires no excavation other than the pole holes for the pole platform and the edge strip for the slab footings. No allowance for the weeks that drift by waiting for staff to return phone calls is made in the system, nor for the time wasted listening to recorded messages as busy ratepayers try and get through to staff whose unique direct dial numbers remain closely guarded secrets. This has to change and soon.
Nice to know that we can lead economic thinking from up here, and we will need to as we face the challenges of funding the much needed catch up in our infrastructure so the Far North can offer similar standards of roading and sewerage to the rest of NZ.
By the time you read this Bollard will have made his moves on interest rates and we will have to get on. Fonterra are indicating boosted payments to dairy farmers which will have benefits to rural economies, although a fair bit of the payout will no doubt go in debt reduction. Prudent financial management is at the core of any improvement to local services and this will be a real focus at FNDC in the next few years.
Councils have enjoyed the bumper times associated with rate growth from not only the steady increases in percentage costs of fees and rates but also the spin off from the large rises in land values on which these rates are based. This steady income growth coupled with dramatic rises in development charges has lifted financial pressure from council expenditure and allowed the rocketing bureaucracy to occur.
This waste needs to end and there needs to be serious investigation of the costs of doing everything both within council and more importantly on citizens suffering delays and expense as a result of the ponderous ways things get done up here.
Councillor Byers has kindly looked into why it has taken so long for a permit to be granted for some simple buildings in Ahipara. Staff have assured him that it is the applicant’s fault. (It always is!). Long lists of additional information are always produced just before the time limit to reply to the applicant. On inspection most of these are rubbish and typically include requests for information that they already have (in this case calculations for water tank reinforcing) or such life and death requirements as an extractor fan in the kitchen in order to prevent anyone in the buildings from dieing of exposure to the rather nice aroma of bacon and eggs.
Another supposedlly needed piece of information is the excavation permit for a house that requires no excavation other than the pole holes for the pole platform and the edge strip for the slab footings. No allowance for the weeks that drift by waiting for staff to return phone calls is made in the system, nor for the time wasted listening to recorded messages as busy ratepayers try and get through to staff whose unique direct dial numbers remain closely guarded secrets. This has to change and soon.
WHO’S NOT LISTENING TO HARD WORKING NORTHLANDERS?
The Far North is well placed to benefit from a number of long run world-wide trends such as movement of people towards the equator seeking to escape harsh winter temperatures, and a shift away from large cities by technically savvy folk able to utilise the advantages of broadband access.
Our levels of construction activity, steady at around 125 building permits and 35 resource consents per month reflect these trends and show this is the stable level which council should be able to handle. The sad statistic is that every one of those 125 building consents would have been issued late and outside the mandated times of twenty working days.
Even worse, at least half of the extremely stressful resource consents would not have been needed in the first place if we had a more enlightened approach to citizen’s wishes..
The Mayor suggests that we, the public are not listening to economic warnings, but in my view it is the Council that is not listening and gearing up to meet the economic activities of its citizens in a timely and helpful fashion.
Anyone who has had a building permit application in recently, will tell you that the first information you receive is a statement that the council cannot meet its statutory timeline requirements. This is at least open and honest and is an improvement on the normal behaviour of waiting the twenty working days, having a glance at the plans and sending out a letter by snail mail asking for more information.
This has been used as a regular delaying tactic by councils all over NZ and is deceitful. Examples of recently received 20 day letters include a demand for an excavation resource consent for a pole house. Pole houses are all out of the ground with no excavation!
Senior Council staff members, Patrick Schofield and Pat Killalea, who are responsible for building permits and resource consents are aware of the pressures and acknowledge difficulties with staff recruitment probably reflecting years of low public esteem for FNDC.
I am sure they know of difficulties with overpaid underqualified planning consultants that they are forced to employ to harass our citizens, but the problem will not be fixed while the Mayor and other councillors deceive themselves into thinking all is well. It is not!
The call centre is appalling, most of logged calls are people ringing again to get past idiotic welcoming messages, no staff ring back to answer messages and in this modern day staff do not contact customers by email.
Start Listening!
Our levels of construction activity, steady at around 125 building permits and 35 resource consents per month reflect these trends and show this is the stable level which council should be able to handle. The sad statistic is that every one of those 125 building consents would have been issued late and outside the mandated times of twenty working days.
Even worse, at least half of the extremely stressful resource consents would not have been needed in the first place if we had a more enlightened approach to citizen’s wishes..
The Mayor suggests that we, the public are not listening to economic warnings, but in my view it is the Council that is not listening and gearing up to meet the economic activities of its citizens in a timely and helpful fashion.
Anyone who has had a building permit application in recently, will tell you that the first information you receive is a statement that the council cannot meet its statutory timeline requirements. This is at least open and honest and is an improvement on the normal behaviour of waiting the twenty working days, having a glance at the plans and sending out a letter by snail mail asking for more information.
This has been used as a regular delaying tactic by councils all over NZ and is deceitful. Examples of recently received 20 day letters include a demand for an excavation resource consent for a pole house. Pole houses are all out of the ground with no excavation!
Senior Council staff members, Patrick Schofield and Pat Killalea, who are responsible for building permits and resource consents are aware of the pressures and acknowledge difficulties with staff recruitment probably reflecting years of low public esteem for FNDC.
I am sure they know of difficulties with overpaid underqualified planning consultants that they are forced to employ to harass our citizens, but the problem will not be fixed while the Mayor and other councillors deceive themselves into thinking all is well. It is not!
The call centre is appalling, most of logged calls are people ringing again to get past idiotic welcoming messages, no staff ring back to answer messages and in this modern day staff do not contact customers by email.
Start Listening!
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
I joined 150 other locals to listen to Opposition Leader John Key at the Community Centre last Friday and found it most interesting. I have known John from business circles before and found him to be intelligent, practical and down to earth in his approach, so I was keen to see how he was as a politician in front of an audience.
Those same aspects of his character came across in his address, which included possibly the most coherent assessment that I have heard of the Kyoto Protocol and its impact on NZ’s economy. He skirted neatly around the extremist views of some in the audience and dwelt on the vexed issue of NZ’s continuing under performance as an economy, giving the overall impression of a leader who will be much more of a challenge to the proven, strong leadership skills of our PM than the hapless Brash ever did.
John Key’s main points about our economy were that in spite of continued good world wide trading conditions we have still slipped down the rankings and were losing too many good citizens to the better wages on offer in Australia, and that there had been insufficient investment in infrastructure, coupled with too much growth of our central bureaucracy in remote Wellington.
As a merchant banker he explained that he is used to looking at companies and deciding whether to invest in them or sell, and investors looked for under performing assets that they could buy and then change the management to get growth and value from them. If NZ was a company he felt that although under performing, it had a lot to offer but it needed a change in management and that is obviously what his party is setting out to convince people before the next election.
That seemed like a good analogy to me, then I thought about the Far North and the same thing applies in a smaller scale. In spite of our climate, beaches, nice towns and attractive lifestyle we also are under performing as an economy losing out to Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and so on in the competition for resources, people and opportunities.
We also have failed to attract the right people including retaining our own bright young ones, failed to invest enough in infrastructure such as sewerage and roading, and lastly we have spent too much on a remote bloated bureaucracy at Kaikohe.
We get our chance to change the management this coming October at the local body elections. I think we should!
Those same aspects of his character came across in his address, which included possibly the most coherent assessment that I have heard of the Kyoto Protocol and its impact on NZ’s economy. He skirted neatly around the extremist views of some in the audience and dwelt on the vexed issue of NZ’s continuing under performance as an economy, giving the overall impression of a leader who will be much more of a challenge to the proven, strong leadership skills of our PM than the hapless Brash ever did.
John Key’s main points about our economy were that in spite of continued good world wide trading conditions we have still slipped down the rankings and were losing too many good citizens to the better wages on offer in Australia, and that there had been insufficient investment in infrastructure, coupled with too much growth of our central bureaucracy in remote Wellington.
As a merchant banker he explained that he is used to looking at companies and deciding whether to invest in them or sell, and investors looked for under performing assets that they could buy and then change the management to get growth and value from them. If NZ was a company he felt that although under performing, it had a lot to offer but it needed a change in management and that is obviously what his party is setting out to convince people before the next election.
That seemed like a good analogy to me, then I thought about the Far North and the same thing applies in a smaller scale. In spite of our climate, beaches, nice towns and attractive lifestyle we also are under performing as an economy losing out to Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and so on in the competition for resources, people and opportunities.
We also have failed to attract the right people including retaining our own bright young ones, failed to invest enough in infrastructure such as sewerage and roading, and lastly we have spent too much on a remote bloated bureaucracy at Kaikohe.
We get our chance to change the management this coming October at the local body elections. I think we should!
KEEPING THE FAR NORTH’S WONDERFUL NATURAL ATTRACTION
What a great weekend that was! Long overdue hot windless weather and clear skies just made for reminding us how lucky we are to live up here. If you didn’t get out on the boat, go to the beach or at least be outside then bad luck or perhaps you might as well shift to the deep-south and take advantage of the cheap housing down there.
A huge pod of dolphins came up the Mangonui harbour on Saturday morning herding smaller fish and bringing the Dolphin charter boats back to where they were moored before they headed out with tourists.
I have the fishing skills of a desert camel and still managed to catch a variety of legally sized fish, so the predictions of no more fish seemed wrong, at least during last weekend as we saw hundreds that didn’t take my bait. Big stingrays were easily seen both in the harbour and among many other species in the clear, clear waters off the Northern coast of the Whatuwhiwhi peninsula where any boatie lucky enough to be there enjoyed the wide empty expanses of blue sea under blue sky.
For those of you lucky enough to follow our coastline from the sea, I can report that long strips of the coastline still remain undeveloped and visually fairly natural, (if one considers open grasslands natural). The built up areas are not nearly as obtrusive as we are lead to believe by various planners whose efforts to keep the built environment contained have been moderately successful.
The preservation of this open unspoilt coastal look of the Far North deserves our consideration. It competes directly with the wishes of rich foreign investors seeking privacy and keen to buy and lock up chunks of our coastal heritage. It also competes with the average Kiwi’s dream of the bach at the seaside.
These two seemingly opposite desires can be managed by policies that promote further development of areas that are already compromised by quarter acre sections by concentrating coastal living into existing residential areas. More intensive subdivision with the necessary sewerage and stormwater services is preferable and allows the currently empty areas to be zoned so they still remain empty looking and real.
A huge pod of dolphins came up the Mangonui harbour on Saturday morning herding smaller fish and bringing the Dolphin charter boats back to where they were moored before they headed out with tourists.
I have the fishing skills of a desert camel and still managed to catch a variety of legally sized fish, so the predictions of no more fish seemed wrong, at least during last weekend as we saw hundreds that didn’t take my bait. Big stingrays were easily seen both in the harbour and among many other species in the clear, clear waters off the Northern coast of the Whatuwhiwhi peninsula where any boatie lucky enough to be there enjoyed the wide empty expanses of blue sea under blue sky.
For those of you lucky enough to follow our coastline from the sea, I can report that long strips of the coastline still remain undeveloped and visually fairly natural, (if one considers open grasslands natural). The built up areas are not nearly as obtrusive as we are lead to believe by various planners whose efforts to keep the built environment contained have been moderately successful.
The preservation of this open unspoilt coastal look of the Far North deserves our consideration. It competes directly with the wishes of rich foreign investors seeking privacy and keen to buy and lock up chunks of our coastal heritage. It also competes with the average Kiwi’s dream of the bach at the seaside.
These two seemingly opposite desires can be managed by policies that promote further development of areas that are already compromised by quarter acre sections by concentrating coastal living into existing residential areas. More intensive subdivision with the necessary sewerage and stormwater services is preferable and allows the currently empty areas to be zoned so they still remain empty looking and real.
IT’S NOT YOUR SUSPENSION, IT’S OUR BLOODY ROADS
It’s easy to think that all roads in NZ are like the bumpy shockers that we endure, but they are not and there are some obvious reasons why not, yet nothing is being done about them.
I recently drove from Wellington up through the Wairarapa, on through the Desert Road and up into Auckland and then up home. It was a lovely cloudless day and the dry brown countryside gave the land and sky a wonderful look like that of a fine landscape painting. Cafes have sprung up and rejuvenated what were once tired country towns making for great touring.
Motoring in such countryside on such a day is a great pleasure added to by the seemingly endless empty ribbons of smooth pothole free highway.
After a night in Auckland the journey continues past roadworks, dodging trucks, avoiding queues where possible and finally getting north of Whangarei where the vehicle starts bouncing and swerving as if something is slightly wrong with it. A quick check and no, it’s not the suspension, it’s our bloody roads.
Every straight, once laid flat is now a series of bumps and hollows, the repaired sections seem to be chosen randomly and don’t mesh with the existing, the traffic is intense and heavy trucks dominate. Why is this?
Well, roading funding is dished out according to population, so all Kiwis get equal access to roading funds. This is not equal access to good roads. Down south, rock is everywhere, roads are cheaper to build and do not settle simply because their geology suits roading better than our soft soils and expensive soft rock.
Also the population that get funded is the same population that use the roads. They don’t have a million Jafas using their roads free like we do.
It’s not as if we don’t have enough MPs up here to argue the case for equal access to good roads, but they’re too busy worrying over parents smacking the kids to bother. They should all be made to get together and fight for equal access to good roads for all Kiwis including those of us who live up here!
That would help
I recently drove from Wellington up through the Wairarapa, on through the Desert Road and up into Auckland and then up home. It was a lovely cloudless day and the dry brown countryside gave the land and sky a wonderful look like that of a fine landscape painting. Cafes have sprung up and rejuvenated what were once tired country towns making for great touring.
Motoring in such countryside on such a day is a great pleasure added to by the seemingly endless empty ribbons of smooth pothole free highway.
After a night in Auckland the journey continues past roadworks, dodging trucks, avoiding queues where possible and finally getting north of Whangarei where the vehicle starts bouncing and swerving as if something is slightly wrong with it. A quick check and no, it’s not the suspension, it’s our bloody roads.
Every straight, once laid flat is now a series of bumps and hollows, the repaired sections seem to be chosen randomly and don’t mesh with the existing, the traffic is intense and heavy trucks dominate. Why is this?
Well, roading funding is dished out according to population, so all Kiwis get equal access to roading funds. This is not equal access to good roads. Down south, rock is everywhere, roads are cheaper to build and do not settle simply because their geology suits roading better than our soft soils and expensive soft rock.
Also the population that get funded is the same population that use the roads. They don’t have a million Jafas using their roads free like we do.
It’s not as if we don’t have enough MPs up here to argue the case for equal access to good roads, but they’re too busy worrying over parents smacking the kids to bother. They should all be made to get together and fight for equal access to good roads for all Kiwis including those of us who live up here!
That would help
Wellington Law Production factory.
I’ve heard from several councillors that most of the delays and difficulties associated with rules, regulations, fees and slow responses are because of Government requirements for councils to meet all sorts of daft laws and requirements coming out of the Wellington Law Production factory.
When will the council stand up to the government and either tell them to get knotted or simply ignore them in the same way that the council regularly ignores us, the ratepayers (and increasingly the development contribution payers)?
Anyone bothering to visit www.dbh.govt.nz, the website for the Department of Building and Housing will find volumes of idiotic regulations devoted to stopping us falling over on verandahs or thrusting our way through endless versions of balustrades and guardrails. What is this fixation? Are civil servants and politicians really that clumsy that they need this amount of protection from themselves. We don’t.
Someone, somewhere has to lead a stop to this madness before they fence off the beaches and wharves of Northland in case someone gets in the water and drowns.
Same with pool fences. Get around to inspecting them in a few years time would be a suitable response and in the meantime make it mandatory that all kids learn to swim. That way it won’t matter if they fall in and in fact they’ll all love the fun and benefit from the physical activity.
Apply for a building permit and you will get letters back, (not emails, mate) covering an amazing array of things that don’t matter, including for instance the demand that the plans show the method of extracting cooking fumes. Presumably this is because someone thinks that the hospitals are full of people suffering from inhaling the aroma of bacon and eggs.
Anywhere on the coast now counts as an area for which wind turbulence is so great that specific engineering design is required. This is in spite of the fact that simple old Kiwi baches still survive in droves in the same wind patterns. We have allowed ourselves to be treated as a bunch of complete nannas!
The house I live in will be 100 years old this summer and is as solid as a rock in spite of the fact that it is over the sea and would absolutely fail nearly every clause of the current building code. Nor does it have any subfloor insulation, yet it is warm and cheery through winter and cool and airy in summer. It is just wonderful to live in and will be for another 100 years. Let it go, council!
When will the council stand up to the government and either tell them to get knotted or simply ignore them in the same way that the council regularly ignores us, the ratepayers (and increasingly the development contribution payers)?
Anyone bothering to visit www.dbh.govt.nz, the website for the Department of Building and Housing will find volumes of idiotic regulations devoted to stopping us falling over on verandahs or thrusting our way through endless versions of balustrades and guardrails. What is this fixation? Are civil servants and politicians really that clumsy that they need this amount of protection from themselves. We don’t.
Someone, somewhere has to lead a stop to this madness before they fence off the beaches and wharves of Northland in case someone gets in the water and drowns.
Same with pool fences. Get around to inspecting them in a few years time would be a suitable response and in the meantime make it mandatory that all kids learn to swim. That way it won’t matter if they fall in and in fact they’ll all love the fun and benefit from the physical activity.
Apply for a building permit and you will get letters back, (not emails, mate) covering an amazing array of things that don’t matter, including for instance the demand that the plans show the method of extracting cooking fumes. Presumably this is because someone thinks that the hospitals are full of people suffering from inhaling the aroma of bacon and eggs.
Anywhere on the coast now counts as an area for which wind turbulence is so great that specific engineering design is required. This is in spite of the fact that simple old Kiwi baches still survive in droves in the same wind patterns. We have allowed ourselves to be treated as a bunch of complete nannas!
The house I live in will be 100 years old this summer and is as solid as a rock in spite of the fact that it is over the sea and would absolutely fail nearly every clause of the current building code. Nor does it have any subfloor insulation, yet it is warm and cheery through winter and cool and airy in summer. It is just wonderful to live in and will be for another 100 years. Let it go, council!
HISTORIC PROGRESS
Last Wednesday, the 25th of October at 430pm an historic meeting took place at The Centre, that big opera house thing next to Master Plumbers in Kerikeri.
Gathered in the large meeting room (looking out over what appears to be a recreation of the prisoner’s exercise yard at Robben Island used by Nelson Mandela for all those years,) senior council staff finally sat down with the leading engineers, surveyors, developers and town planners of our region.
Clive Manley, the FNDC CEO and a team of most of his senior managers with the exception of the never-present roading engineer met with leading practitioners to discuss the controversial topic of Development Contributions, which are set to exceed rates as the main form of council income in years to come.
Fearing some sort of unrest FNDC brought a meeting conciliator who outlined what his response to any emotional outbursts would be. So what happened?
Well, exactly what usually happens when grown up business people meet! A sensible meeting took place that involved council outlining their Development Contribution Policy and practitioners asking questions about how it affected their clients and outlining some areas where the policies could be better explained or varied to meet unexpected outcomes.
Quite a few of the engineers, town planners and surveyors present, (including myself) have actually been plying our trades here for much longer than any of the council staff and we found it so useful to actually discuss such issues face to face with council, that all present agreed to hold these meetings at least quarterly and to discuss other issues.
With regard to Development Contributions, which add around $20,000 to the cost of any new house, FNDC were encouraged to publicise this information and directly inform the Real Estate industry so buyers of land and houses will know what’s in-store. For new topics, the subjects of Building Permits, the time taken and why every house also seems to need an excavation permit was suggested along with Engineering Standards.
Then the meeting had a Eureka moment, when council staff discovered that most practitioners are not that interested in formulating policy but are very interested in the implications of any new policy, as these always change behaviours and have different outcomes to those expected. The radical idea of trialling new policies for a test period of 3 to 6 months to see what happens and then adjust the policy settings was floated.
There is hope!
Gathered in the large meeting room (looking out over what appears to be a recreation of the prisoner’s exercise yard at Robben Island used by Nelson Mandela for all those years,) senior council staff finally sat down with the leading engineers, surveyors, developers and town planners of our region.
Clive Manley, the FNDC CEO and a team of most of his senior managers with the exception of the never-present roading engineer met with leading practitioners to discuss the controversial topic of Development Contributions, which are set to exceed rates as the main form of council income in years to come.
Fearing some sort of unrest FNDC brought a meeting conciliator who outlined what his response to any emotional outbursts would be. So what happened?
Well, exactly what usually happens when grown up business people meet! A sensible meeting took place that involved council outlining their Development Contribution Policy and practitioners asking questions about how it affected their clients and outlining some areas where the policies could be better explained or varied to meet unexpected outcomes.
Quite a few of the engineers, town planners and surveyors present, (including myself) have actually been plying our trades here for much longer than any of the council staff and we found it so useful to actually discuss such issues face to face with council, that all present agreed to hold these meetings at least quarterly and to discuss other issues.
With regard to Development Contributions, which add around $20,000 to the cost of any new house, FNDC were encouraged to publicise this information and directly inform the Real Estate industry so buyers of land and houses will know what’s in-store. For new topics, the subjects of Building Permits, the time taken and why every house also seems to need an excavation permit was suggested along with Engineering Standards.
Then the meeting had a Eureka moment, when council staff discovered that most practitioners are not that interested in formulating policy but are very interested in the implications of any new policy, as these always change behaviours and have different outcomes to those expected. The radical idea of trialling new policies for a test period of 3 to 6 months to see what happens and then adjust the policy settings was floated.
There is hope!
Have the Council declared war on the ratepayers and forgotten to tell us?
Earlier this year I was forced to cough up several thousand dollars to FNDC for parking and roading impacts of a completely code complying development in Mangonui.
I spent some money putting in nicely paved footpaths where none existed before and also pointed out that there were more carparks provided than the dwelling owners have yet to use. Nevertheless the money was demanded and duly paid.
I have waited to see what this investment would produce in the way of improved driving or parking experience for my fellow residents of Mangonui and up until last week there was nothing. No sign of the promised roadway widening and additional carparks opposite the Mangonui Boozer. Nothing I could see for the dosh.
Just the usual wide-open spaces as the crowds have flocked elsewhere. With the exception of a few days before Christmas and most of January, there are always more carparks in Mangonui than there are people to fill them. In fact most days of the year you can park a logging truck in Mangonui.
Of course if you are delivering groceries or mail to the Four Square in the morning in a big truck, you have to block the road due to the idiotic paved area with bollards right where the loading bay should be, but even then there are empty parks in other parts of town.
But this week the residents of Mangonui did receive something from FNDC for our rates and development levies. What’s more it arrived unannounced without the public notices and consultation that the rest of us have to go through. To the best of my knowledge it even arrived without consultation with the iwi, a complete no/no for mere mortals.
And what did we get? Well, not quite what I had in mind for all that money!
What we got was a parking infringement notice writer all dressed up in the uniform of a security company. What the residents got were a series of parking tickets for exceeding P30 and P120 notices that nobody had ever either noticed before or worried about before. Oddly enough you can park 24/7 right outside the Four Square guided by roading lines that the residents put in and paid for themselves, but only for 120 minutes apparently right outside apartments where people dwell and which don’t have any alternative parks.
What is this messenger telling us? What problem is he solving? Why have the council declared war on us without warning us? At least Bainimarama told the Fijians he was coming.
I spent some money putting in nicely paved footpaths where none existed before and also pointed out that there were more carparks provided than the dwelling owners have yet to use. Nevertheless the money was demanded and duly paid.
I have waited to see what this investment would produce in the way of improved driving or parking experience for my fellow residents of Mangonui and up until last week there was nothing. No sign of the promised roadway widening and additional carparks opposite the Mangonui Boozer. Nothing I could see for the dosh.
Just the usual wide-open spaces as the crowds have flocked elsewhere. With the exception of a few days before Christmas and most of January, there are always more carparks in Mangonui than there are people to fill them. In fact most days of the year you can park a logging truck in Mangonui.
Of course if you are delivering groceries or mail to the Four Square in the morning in a big truck, you have to block the road due to the idiotic paved area with bollards right where the loading bay should be, but even then there are empty parks in other parts of town.
But this week the residents of Mangonui did receive something from FNDC for our rates and development levies. What’s more it arrived unannounced without the public notices and consultation that the rest of us have to go through. To the best of my knowledge it even arrived without consultation with the iwi, a complete no/no for mere mortals.
And what did we get? Well, not quite what I had in mind for all that money!
What we got was a parking infringement notice writer all dressed up in the uniform of a security company. What the residents got were a series of parking tickets for exceeding P30 and P120 notices that nobody had ever either noticed before or worried about before. Oddly enough you can park 24/7 right outside the Four Square guided by roading lines that the residents put in and paid for themselves, but only for 120 minutes apparently right outside apartments where people dwell and which don’t have any alternative parks.
What is this messenger telling us? What problem is he solving? Why have the council declared war on us without warning us? At least Bainimarama told the Fijians he was coming.
Great Southern Debate should be done up here
I had the privilege of being one of the invited (and handsomely rewarded) speakers at a conference in Southland called by the combined councils down there to consider the way forward for their province for the next 20 years.
Under the charismatic leadership of Mayor Tim Shadbolt, a crowd of over 300 had paid a nominal entry fee for the day’s discussion aimed at coming up with ideas to lift their already good performance economically and socially. It was great to see the councils and communities focussing out 20 years compared to our 20 day focus on just getting building permits responded to.
First up speaker was an Australian demographer, Bernard Salt who provided fascinating data on the worldwide drift from rural farming provinces to cities and warmer coastal lifestyle communities with the odd exception like Queenstown in NZ and Phoenix in the USA. He linked the population movements to and from Australia over the last few decades showing the drifts reverse from time to time when things get better economically in NZ.
Northland fortunately benefits from the drift to the equator, however Invercargill’s long term population loss is a challenge. The brilliantly successful Zero Fees promotion at the Southland Polytech produced a lift in population of 4500 which turns out to be one of only two such reversals on the planet, the other being a town in rural USA that opened a casino.
Southland benefit from very strong institutions compared to other provinces. The Southland Community Trust puts $10million each year into the community as does the Invercargill Licensing Trust, resulting in wonderful facilities like the vast sporting complex, home to the champion Southern Sting Netballers and the amazing indoor velodrome next door which gives cycling such a boost to go with the famous Tour of Southland.
The unfortunate statistic for Invercargill is the relative absence of young people in the 18 to 35 age groups and the Licensing Trust, although generous in financial terms has resulted in some of the most boring pubs and very few of the small licensed bars and restaurants that places like Mangonui are blessed with. Many of the ideas for the future growth involved making the place more youth focussed.
Their tourism needs seem similar to ours with competition from the big traditional tourist destinations and there was strong support for the idea of the Four Corners of NZ, being Southland, Taranaki, Tairawhiti and the Far North as a type of national tour of the icnic Kiwi destinations.
All in all a thought provoking day lead by an iconic mayor who really promotes his home area.
Under the charismatic leadership of Mayor Tim Shadbolt, a crowd of over 300 had paid a nominal entry fee for the day’s discussion aimed at coming up with ideas to lift their already good performance economically and socially. It was great to see the councils and communities focussing out 20 years compared to our 20 day focus on just getting building permits responded to.
First up speaker was an Australian demographer, Bernard Salt who provided fascinating data on the worldwide drift from rural farming provinces to cities and warmer coastal lifestyle communities with the odd exception like Queenstown in NZ and Phoenix in the USA. He linked the population movements to and from Australia over the last few decades showing the drifts reverse from time to time when things get better economically in NZ.
Northland fortunately benefits from the drift to the equator, however Invercargill’s long term population loss is a challenge. The brilliantly successful Zero Fees promotion at the Southland Polytech produced a lift in population of 4500 which turns out to be one of only two such reversals on the planet, the other being a town in rural USA that opened a casino.
Southland benefit from very strong institutions compared to other provinces. The Southland Community Trust puts $10million each year into the community as does the Invercargill Licensing Trust, resulting in wonderful facilities like the vast sporting complex, home to the champion Southern Sting Netballers and the amazing indoor velodrome next door which gives cycling such a boost to go with the famous Tour of Southland.
The unfortunate statistic for Invercargill is the relative absence of young people in the 18 to 35 age groups and the Licensing Trust, although generous in financial terms has resulted in some of the most boring pubs and very few of the small licensed bars and restaurants that places like Mangonui are blessed with. Many of the ideas for the future growth involved making the place more youth focussed.
Their tourism needs seem similar to ours with competition from the big traditional tourist destinations and there was strong support for the idea of the Four Corners of NZ, being Southland, Taranaki, Tairawhiti and the Far North as a type of national tour of the icnic Kiwi destinations.
All in all a thought provoking day lead by an iconic mayor who really promotes his home area.
FNHL
Far North Holdings have received some well deserved criticism in recent weeks from a wide range of ratepayers, airport users, foreshore users and even a few pretend mayors.
For those who haven’t noticed, Far North Holdings is a council owned company that pleases itself at our expense while it engages in activities that ultimately supply a good standard of living to the Chief Executive and the one director from Auckland.
In theory it should be quite a good business acting in all of our interests but we have no say and no contact other than at the end of its food chain as ratepayers or users of various facilities that they have given themselves the right to charge us for.
Far North Holdings doesn’t hold an annual meeting to which we are invited to question the board and hear from them about next year’s plan in the way that a publicly owned company would. Questions usually result in some form of release from the Council’s spin doctor along the lines that there exists some form of secret agreement between FNHL and FNDC the details of which are too important for the likes of us to know about.
FNHL recently incurred the wrath of all users of Kerikeri Airport by not only implementing pay for use carparking before it is implemented in any of our busiest streets, but also doing it in a truly dumb manner.
Airport users are supposed to follow complicated directions from a machine that will issue a paid parking ticket for the period nominated. This assumes that passengers know when they are returning which they may well not, if off for a business or other trip and given that they are flying Air NZ the chances of arriving back even when you do expect to are low.
Vacuous statements from FNHL state that income will be used to pay for the carpark at the airport. What has actually resulted is that the airport carpark is now empty as a local person now offers a much cheaper and more convenient park and pick-up service which produces the same airport income that no charging would produce, NONE.
Given that ratepayers are levied to encourage tourism into the area it is bizarre that a council subsidiary should introduce carparking charges to reduce tourism.
And don’t get me onto FNHL charging mooring fees in addition to those already charged by Northland Regional Council who have managed moorings for years and installed them in the first place. Surely we could have an independent board of Northlanders monitoring FNHL so it does what we want!
For those who haven’t noticed, Far North Holdings is a council owned company that pleases itself at our expense while it engages in activities that ultimately supply a good standard of living to the Chief Executive and the one director from Auckland.
In theory it should be quite a good business acting in all of our interests but we have no say and no contact other than at the end of its food chain as ratepayers or users of various facilities that they have given themselves the right to charge us for.
Far North Holdings doesn’t hold an annual meeting to which we are invited to question the board and hear from them about next year’s plan in the way that a publicly owned company would. Questions usually result in some form of release from the Council’s spin doctor along the lines that there exists some form of secret agreement between FNHL and FNDC the details of which are too important for the likes of us to know about.
FNHL recently incurred the wrath of all users of Kerikeri Airport by not only implementing pay for use carparking before it is implemented in any of our busiest streets, but also doing it in a truly dumb manner.
Airport users are supposed to follow complicated directions from a machine that will issue a paid parking ticket for the period nominated. This assumes that passengers know when they are returning which they may well not, if off for a business or other trip and given that they are flying Air NZ the chances of arriving back even when you do expect to are low.
Vacuous statements from FNHL state that income will be used to pay for the carpark at the airport. What has actually resulted is that the airport carpark is now empty as a local person now offers a much cheaper and more convenient park and pick-up service which produces the same airport income that no charging would produce, NONE.
Given that ratepayers are levied to encourage tourism into the area it is bizarre that a council subsidiary should introduce carparking charges to reduce tourism.
And don’t get me onto FNHL charging mooring fees in addition to those already charged by Northland Regional Council who have managed moorings for years and installed them in the first place. Surely we could have an independent board of Northlanders monitoring FNHL so it does what we want!
FNDC TAKES FIRST STEP ON JOURNEY TOWARDS THE CUSTOMER
It can be almost satisfying to see large organizations take little steps in a sensible direction when one has been prodding them in that direction for a while, so it is worth acknowledging that last Friday our council hosted a number of business influencers to a meeting seeking better ways to do things for the ratepayer.
As Chairman Mao once famously said, “The thousand mile march begins with the first step” and they have taken it. Good on them but there is still a long way to go.
It was pleasing to hear that complaints over the phoning in system have been heard and that someone is working on having the 0800 council number set up so that it can be rung from a cell phone. Seeing as most enquiries come from builders on sites that have yet to have a full time landline this is very sensible, (to the point that one wonders why they didn’t have this facility in the first place).
We look forward to this and hope that a more even spread of staff who actually do return calls might follow. Next step will be getting hold of the right person with the right answers without listening to all that recorded stuff.
Many of the things that council annoy their customers with are not that hard to fix, so it is pleasing to see this new attitude and it is hoped that more staff do see ratepayers as customers rather than victims.
It will undoubtedly take a long sustained campaign to rectify some deep seated behaviours but it was good to see that there is a will among some of the more enlightened of council’s senior managers, (notably ones who have come from private companies), to get processes in place that will support an improvement to our economy.
Better, faster, simpler processes to support projects of a higher quality standard, both visually and in relation to environmental performance, is a sure fire way to lift our economic performance and I support these first few steps by council and hope they gain traction to benefit us all.
As Chairman Mao once famously said, “The thousand mile march begins with the first step” and they have taken it. Good on them but there is still a long way to go.
It was pleasing to hear that complaints over the phoning in system have been heard and that someone is working on having the 0800 council number set up so that it can be rung from a cell phone. Seeing as most enquiries come from builders on sites that have yet to have a full time landline this is very sensible, (to the point that one wonders why they didn’t have this facility in the first place).
We look forward to this and hope that a more even spread of staff who actually do return calls might follow. Next step will be getting hold of the right person with the right answers without listening to all that recorded stuff.
Many of the things that council annoy their customers with are not that hard to fix, so it is pleasing to see this new attitude and it is hoped that more staff do see ratepayers as customers rather than victims.
It will undoubtedly take a long sustained campaign to rectify some deep seated behaviours but it was good to see that there is a will among some of the more enlightened of council’s senior managers, (notably ones who have come from private companies), to get processes in place that will support an improvement to our economy.
Better, faster, simpler processes to support projects of a higher quality standard, both visually and in relation to environmental performance, is a sure fire way to lift our economic performance and I support these first few steps by council and hope they gain traction to benefit us all.
SOME BEAUTIFULLY PREPARED HOLIDAY READING
I’ve just had a week doing important government research with my surfboard in Rarotonga, well actually we had a holiday to celebrate the fact that one of the houses we are building in Kerikeri got a permit from the FNDC Building Permit Prevention Division. It was such a shock that we needed a week off to get over it and the permit only took, er… well ages.
Just before I left my beloved Northland, I was given a packet containing what I was told would be interesting reading. On opening I discovered a beautifully printed set of five volumes of text and lovely colour photos of various views of the Far North including one of my home in Mangonui. There were sepia photos of a model couple on beaches and in cafes used as back drops to a series of tables of depressing statistics such as our continuing 9th place in unemployment rates.
This gorgeous set of volumes turns out to be the FNDC Long Term Community Something-or-other Plan (LTCCP), a door stop of truly heroic magnitude, right up there with the Royal Commission on Social Policy. A number of countries don’t spend as much on the print quality of their banknotes as this document, and on reading it one immediately came to the conclusion that we will be missing out on a fair bit of tar seal to pay for it.
I doubt if many of you have read it so over the next few months as I resolutely plough through it, I will summarise bits. I only managed volume one over the break and this is entitled Our Community, but I couldn’t help thinking it should have been called Expensive Drivel. It is written in the style of a blue sky “Janet and John” school reader and has enough meaningless one liners to allow me to quote a different one weekly for years.
In essence the whole of volume 1 can be summed up as follows:- FNDC will consult with our people, both Pakeha and Maori to do better in providing roads, water supply, sewerage and storm-water management.
I can just see some spin-meister will tell us that the government made the council do it. Yeah right! Just like they make themselves pay for pledge cards! It could all be on one sheet of black and white paper with the money saved going on stuff we can actually use.
Just before I left my beloved Northland, I was given a packet containing what I was told would be interesting reading. On opening I discovered a beautifully printed set of five volumes of text and lovely colour photos of various views of the Far North including one of my home in Mangonui. There were sepia photos of a model couple on beaches and in cafes used as back drops to a series of tables of depressing statistics such as our continuing 9th place in unemployment rates.
This gorgeous set of volumes turns out to be the FNDC Long Term Community Something-or-other Plan (LTCCP), a door stop of truly heroic magnitude, right up there with the Royal Commission on Social Policy. A number of countries don’t spend as much on the print quality of their banknotes as this document, and on reading it one immediately came to the conclusion that we will be missing out on a fair bit of tar seal to pay for it.
I doubt if many of you have read it so over the next few months as I resolutely plough through it, I will summarise bits. I only managed volume one over the break and this is entitled Our Community, but I couldn’t help thinking it should have been called Expensive Drivel. It is written in the style of a blue sky “Janet and John” school reader and has enough meaningless one liners to allow me to quote a different one weekly for years.
In essence the whole of volume 1 can be summed up as follows:- FNDC will consult with our people, both Pakeha and Maori to do better in providing roads, water supply, sewerage and storm-water management.
I can just see some spin-meister will tell us that the government made the council do it. Yeah right! Just like they make themselves pay for pledge cards! It could all be on one sheet of black and white paper with the money saved going on stuff we can actually use.
FLOWERS IN THE CULTURAL DESERT
Who would believe that the Far North has a film festival at all, let alone one held over a three week period, not just in one theatre but in two cinemas both with very historic pasts? Well we do and it’s still going, so if you haven’t visited either Swamp Palace at Oruru or the Cathay Cinema in Kerikeri, then you’ve really missed something.
We can thank that delightful eccentric, Richard Weatherly whose love of cinema keeps us up to date with films released from all over the planet.
Richard has hunted out 17 great films from 11 countries, battling distributors for whom small far flung cinemas h are a harder way to make money than simply supplying the big multiplexes. So far Jindabyne, an Australian film about four guys whose annual fishing holiday trip into the real outback is disrupted by the discovery of a murdered girl’s body in the river is my favourite. They make the sort of poor choices that a few blokes here might make and the ensuing hassles remind us of the complexities of community life.
Swamp Palace at Oruru remains the most unlikely site for a cinema, particularly as much larger Kaitaia has not managed to screen movies for years in spite of a suitable venue at the Community Centre where territorial issues with the live theatre folk have deprived locals of films. Swamp Palace was once at Cable Bay where the Trans Tasman cable came ashore and was shifted to Oruru where it is wonderfully run- down, giving it a certain old world charm and providing fodder for council inspectors.
The Cathay is Kerikeri’s most important historic building but goes unrecognised by Historic Places Trust who are lost in the pc world of missionary history. Built in 1930 by expats from China it has had a colourful history including a long council battle over parking so the excellent restaurant there could open (at night when there are heaps of carparks unused).
We should all support both of these great old buildings and the fun that is in them.
We can thank that delightful eccentric, Richard Weatherly whose love of cinema keeps us up to date with films released from all over the planet.
Richard has hunted out 17 great films from 11 countries, battling distributors for whom small far flung cinemas h are a harder way to make money than simply supplying the big multiplexes. So far Jindabyne, an Australian film about four guys whose annual fishing holiday trip into the real outback is disrupted by the discovery of a murdered girl’s body in the river is my favourite. They make the sort of poor choices that a few blokes here might make and the ensuing hassles remind us of the complexities of community life.
Swamp Palace at Oruru remains the most unlikely site for a cinema, particularly as much larger Kaitaia has not managed to screen movies for years in spite of a suitable venue at the Community Centre where territorial issues with the live theatre folk have deprived locals of films. Swamp Palace was once at Cable Bay where the Trans Tasman cable came ashore and was shifted to Oruru where it is wonderfully run- down, giving it a certain old world charm and providing fodder for council inspectors.
The Cathay is Kerikeri’s most important historic building but goes unrecognised by Historic Places Trust who are lost in the pc world of missionary history. Built in 1930 by expats from China it has had a colourful history including a long council battle over parking so the excellent restaurant there could open (at night when there are heaps of carparks unused).
We should all support both of these great old buildings and the fun that is in them.
DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW WHAT THE SEA LEVEL WILL BE IN 50 YEARS TIME?
Thanks largely to former presidential Al Gore reinventing himself as a movie narrator the whole world has suddenly become concerned about global warming. This may or may not be a fine thing and at least might curb some questionable environmental behaviour, whether the link turns out to be as solid as some think.
I have long campaigned against poor earthworks processes that lead to massive erosion each time we get a heavy downpour and the need for better sewerage treatment to prevent ocean spills of sewage has been evident for decades. Not that these two are quite within the latest pro environment flavour or fashion, but you get the picture that general better care of the planet can’t be a bad thing.
Accompanying this hype is the usual sudden over-reaction from the powers that be who, now require ridiculous reports from anyone contemplating any development near the coast. By all means protect the coast and attempt to minimise damage but please, is requesting engineering reports to define the exact height of the next 100 year flood really sensible. Who could possibly know such a thing and what sort of engineer would put in writing any meaningful level.
I have lived through a number of floods supposedly called 100, then 150 year events and I am nowhere near that old. Our house is 100 years old and according to some alarmists the sea has risen all sorts of heights during this time. Fortunately for me the tidal marks on the old piles and seawall under the house don’t show anything like that, so either they are being alarmist or the seabed is moving up too.
It is interesting to see how accurate our weather forecasts have become now that we have satellite pictures, internet linked weather stations, computer predictions, whole government departments such as NIWA and so on beavering away predicting the future and worrying us all. Well not very accurate actually. Easter springs to mind when thousands cancelled their holiday plans for trips North because of dire weather warnings and what did we get, just the finest clearest skies with the best weather for Easter in years.
I don’t want to be labelled a denier or some other silly term, but personally when the authorities can’t get the next 3 days right I’m not ready to abandon the house for higher ground just yet based on their predictions for 50 years time, which is very unlikely to be much of a concern to me then anyway.
By the way wasn’t December freezing!
I have long campaigned against poor earthworks processes that lead to massive erosion each time we get a heavy downpour and the need for better sewerage treatment to prevent ocean spills of sewage has been evident for decades. Not that these two are quite within the latest pro environment flavour or fashion, but you get the picture that general better care of the planet can’t be a bad thing.
Accompanying this hype is the usual sudden over-reaction from the powers that be who, now require ridiculous reports from anyone contemplating any development near the coast. By all means protect the coast and attempt to minimise damage but please, is requesting engineering reports to define the exact height of the next 100 year flood really sensible. Who could possibly know such a thing and what sort of engineer would put in writing any meaningful level.
I have lived through a number of floods supposedly called 100, then 150 year events and I am nowhere near that old. Our house is 100 years old and according to some alarmists the sea has risen all sorts of heights during this time. Fortunately for me the tidal marks on the old piles and seawall under the house don’t show anything like that, so either they are being alarmist or the seabed is moving up too.
It is interesting to see how accurate our weather forecasts have become now that we have satellite pictures, internet linked weather stations, computer predictions, whole government departments such as NIWA and so on beavering away predicting the future and worrying us all. Well not very accurate actually. Easter springs to mind when thousands cancelled their holiday plans for trips North because of dire weather warnings and what did we get, just the finest clearest skies with the best weather for Easter in years.
I don’t want to be labelled a denier or some other silly term, but personally when the authorities can’t get the next 3 days right I’m not ready to abandon the house for higher ground just yet based on their predictions for 50 years time, which is very unlikely to be much of a concern to me then anyway.
By the way wasn’t December freezing!
COASTAL CONSERVATION, ARE YOU DOING YOUR BIT?
Every so often when a low tide takes place on the weekend, I wander around the foreshore under and beside our home in Mangonui and have a clean up of rubbish and other stuff left by the low tide. It is quite satisfying and is sort of like the occasional lawn mowing for people with normal grassed sections.
I can usually guarantee to fill a couple of shopping bags with bits of pipe, clothing, tyres, general rubbish and mostly glass. It is truly amazing how many bottles and glass shards are just dumped into the harbour to find their way onto the foreshore. A fair bit of this comes from fishing boats tied up at the wharf, which is disappointing as these are the very folk who make their living from the marine environment and you’d think that of all people they would show a bit more sense.
Kids play in this area at low tide so keeping the glass out of it has an immediate payback. Tourists often gather to watch the scene as they eat their fish and chips and in too many cases nonchalantly toss the wrappings straight into the scene that they are admiring.
The good news is that slowly the rubbish load is declining and there is definite evidence that mussels are increasing along the foreshore. In decades gone by sewerage effluent was simply discharged into the harbour by all residents of lower Mangonui, but thankfully the Doubtless Bay sewerage system eliminated this appalling practice.
We should all be pleased that slowly our coastal waters are cleaning up and the main problem now, other than over fishing, is completing the sewerage systems that have been oh, so slowly implemented in places like Russell.
The Russell sewerage scheme was first started back about the time I began my career as an engineer in the Far North. Sadly, in the time it has taken for me to have a complete career, and start other businesses, the council still haven’t got the Russell system completely functioning and who knows what our exposure is as ratepayers to various environmental claims by oyster farmers and others still upset by the ongoing pollution of the Bay of Islands from various sources.
Real practical everyday solutions to improving our coastal water quality will have long term positive payback for all ratepayers and each one of us can help by taking a bit more responsibility with what we chuck out.
I can usually guarantee to fill a couple of shopping bags with bits of pipe, clothing, tyres, general rubbish and mostly glass. It is truly amazing how many bottles and glass shards are just dumped into the harbour to find their way onto the foreshore. A fair bit of this comes from fishing boats tied up at the wharf, which is disappointing as these are the very folk who make their living from the marine environment and you’d think that of all people they would show a bit more sense.
Kids play in this area at low tide so keeping the glass out of it has an immediate payback. Tourists often gather to watch the scene as they eat their fish and chips and in too many cases nonchalantly toss the wrappings straight into the scene that they are admiring.
The good news is that slowly the rubbish load is declining and there is definite evidence that mussels are increasing along the foreshore. In decades gone by sewerage effluent was simply discharged into the harbour by all residents of lower Mangonui, but thankfully the Doubtless Bay sewerage system eliminated this appalling practice.
We should all be pleased that slowly our coastal waters are cleaning up and the main problem now, other than over fishing, is completing the sewerage systems that have been oh, so slowly implemented in places like Russell.
The Russell sewerage scheme was first started back about the time I began my career as an engineer in the Far North. Sadly, in the time it has taken for me to have a complete career, and start other businesses, the council still haven’t got the Russell system completely functioning and who knows what our exposure is as ratepayers to various environmental claims by oyster farmers and others still upset by the ongoing pollution of the Bay of Islands from various sources.
Real practical everyday solutions to improving our coastal water quality will have long term positive payback for all ratepayers and each one of us can help by taking a bit more responsibility with what we chuck out.
CAN WE REALLY JOIN THE BROADBAND AGE?
Much has been said about the need for relatively remote countries such as NZ and relatively remote areas within, such as the Far North needing to be connected to the world via high speed broadband. The internet does offer ways of overcoming the tyranny of distance and keeping us not only informed, but actual players in the rush the world has taken in connectivity.
It cab be easy to ignore all the developments occurring, but we just cannot afford to if we hope to stay competitive and offer opportunities for our young folk. Some commentators feel the need to understand the future and map it out on a business plan, but this is just not possible with the speed of technological change.
Just think how recently you heard of Youtube, and some of you still might not have, yet Youtube and other personal video traffic is already accounting for the majority of world internet use.
Auckland City Council are determined that their city will not to be left behind so they have formed an advisory group to lead discussions on what the city needs to keep it at the forefront of economic activity. Even though most councillors don’t really understand what the issues and the technologies are they have bravely backed this group of influencers to guide them on their journey.
I have the privilege to be one of the team members and we have wide ranging discussions on rapidly changing events. The obvious options do not readily reveal themselves with some seeking to roll out fibre and others waiting to see if Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) really happens and opens up the Telecom network to new players.
Some new services have arrived such as Wifi hotspots in Newmarket and Parnell allowing people to connect their laptops to the internet in most cafes and shopping areas in these two parts of Auckland. Queen Street will follow shortly and users on the Kordia backed system can easily open an account which will also allow them to surf the net in downtown Whangarei and several other NZ cities on the same account.
We need to be aware of these trends so that we are not left behind up here in the Far North. Imagine if our council lead such a group so that we just didn’t rely on Telecom, who to be fair have brought DSL to many via their rollout of broadband to those near an upgraded cabinet.
It cab be easy to ignore all the developments occurring, but we just cannot afford to if we hope to stay competitive and offer opportunities for our young folk. Some commentators feel the need to understand the future and map it out on a business plan, but this is just not possible with the speed of technological change.
Just think how recently you heard of Youtube, and some of you still might not have, yet Youtube and other personal video traffic is already accounting for the majority of world internet use.
Auckland City Council are determined that their city will not to be left behind so they have formed an advisory group to lead discussions on what the city needs to keep it at the forefront of economic activity. Even though most councillors don’t really understand what the issues and the technologies are they have bravely backed this group of influencers to guide them on their journey.
I have the privilege to be one of the team members and we have wide ranging discussions on rapidly changing events. The obvious options do not readily reveal themselves with some seeking to roll out fibre and others waiting to see if Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) really happens and opens up the Telecom network to new players.
Some new services have arrived such as Wifi hotspots in Newmarket and Parnell allowing people to connect their laptops to the internet in most cafes and shopping areas in these two parts of Auckland. Queen Street will follow shortly and users on the Kordia backed system can easily open an account which will also allow them to surf the net in downtown Whangarei and several other NZ cities on the same account.
We need to be aware of these trends so that we are not left behind up here in the Far North. Imagine if our council lead such a group so that we just didn’t rely on Telecom, who to be fair have brought DSL to many via their rollout of broadband to those near an upgraded cabinet.
BUILDING WARS
Much has been made of the apparent increase of local body costs due to central government passing legislation requiring local government to carry out new and expensive tasks for which no additional revenue has been provided.
There are examples of this, but in many cases these costs do not fall on local government. Instead they are passed on directly to end users like you and me. The council then hires more bureaucrats and the associated delays and costs are then blamed on central government.
Our council has recently admitted that there are severe short-comings in timing and delivery of consents and has stated things will be fixed (by the same team that let it get like this!). While this is laudable you have to be a bit suspicious of the timing with an election due soon.
Ever wonder why a PIM (project information memorandum) is needed by FNDC before an application for a BC (building consent). Told that this was a government requirement, I waited ten weeks to get the last PIM at the direct cost of $270 plus the indirect costs of several hundred dollars, so I rang the Minister who said that it wasn’t required, so FNDC have agreed now that these two bits of paper can be applied for simultaneously. Given that the PIM only told me the colour that could be used for the house, the PIM itself is a waste of time.
FNDC also told me that a house could not be occupied until a certificate of compliance (COC) was issued, meaning that nobody could build the frame, clad it, then move in and finish the house in the sweat-equity way that my generation did. A check with the minister showed that this was not the case either and the COC is apparently only needed for sale purposes.
All this is very confusing so the Minister flew up for a meeting and, bingo we’ve now got a direct line to query silly rules from central government and silly interpretations at local government level. Silly rules abound in the building sector from compulsory extractor fans in kitchens to stop anyone dieing of the smell of bacon and eggs to sloppy rules allowing on site effluent disposal systems that just won’t work.
Hopefully we can look forward to faster simpler processes and keep up the dialogue with the Minister that should have been there years ago before FNDC allowed itself to get in such a tangle. I do hope that this is not just a ploy to fend off angry ratepayers until after the election!
There are examples of this, but in many cases these costs do not fall on local government. Instead they are passed on directly to end users like you and me. The council then hires more bureaucrats and the associated delays and costs are then blamed on central government.
Our council has recently admitted that there are severe short-comings in timing and delivery of consents and has stated things will be fixed (by the same team that let it get like this!). While this is laudable you have to be a bit suspicious of the timing with an election due soon.
Ever wonder why a PIM (project information memorandum) is needed by FNDC before an application for a BC (building consent). Told that this was a government requirement, I waited ten weeks to get the last PIM at the direct cost of $270 plus the indirect costs of several hundred dollars, so I rang the Minister who said that it wasn’t required, so FNDC have agreed now that these two bits of paper can be applied for simultaneously. Given that the PIM only told me the colour that could be used for the house, the PIM itself is a waste of time.
FNDC also told me that a house could not be occupied until a certificate of compliance (COC) was issued, meaning that nobody could build the frame, clad it, then move in and finish the house in the sweat-equity way that my generation did. A check with the minister showed that this was not the case either and the COC is apparently only needed for sale purposes.
All this is very confusing so the Minister flew up for a meeting and, bingo we’ve now got a direct line to query silly rules from central government and silly interpretations at local government level. Silly rules abound in the building sector from compulsory extractor fans in kitchens to stop anyone dieing of the smell of bacon and eggs to sloppy rules allowing on site effluent disposal systems that just won’t work.
Hopefully we can look forward to faster simpler processes and keep up the dialogue with the Minister that should have been there years ago before FNDC allowed itself to get in such a tangle. I do hope that this is not just a ploy to fend off angry ratepayers until after the election!
Ban Graffiti and Brainless Behaviour before Fireworks
As a kid I really liked Guy Fawkes night. Dad and his mates would organise a bonfire and beers, Mum and her mates did the kai and all of us kids had great fun letting off crackers and rockets, a fair few of which have subsequently been banned.
Politics had their part to play in this with that shocker Muldoon passing a law to ban skyrockets in response to a petition from some ill advised concerned mother worried that every year or so some dopey kid looked into the beer bottle as the rocket came charging out. That law was interfering with natural selection. If that kid hadn’t copped the skyrocket it would have no doubt grown into a dangerous driver. All right don’t get too excited, but who raises kids that would do that!
Anyhow my point is that with all the relative danger of dads on the booze, bonfires without permits, rockets available, there were relatively few serious injuries or schools burned down. Compare that to these nanny state days when sales are limited, skyrockets banned, rules for Africa, stern Ministers threatening us with tennis balls and Fire chiefs admonishing us, yet the statistics of letter boxes blown up, fireworks dopily thrown into shops or at people, and all the paraphernalia of appalling behaviour things have got worse.
Banning fireworks won’t help. These are aimed at the same people who regularly pull up the nice native plants on our subdivisions, spray badly spelled graffiti on our walls, pull down anything they can topple, burn rubber on our roads, all generally while tanked on alcopops.
We’re not going to ban native plants or walls, so we need to have a look at why this is happening.
No personal responsibility coupled with alcopops too readily available is certainly one of the leading reasons. Progressively more non achievement orientated schooling hasn’t helped and removing the old whack around the ears of those acting stupidly removes the one thing the aggrieved party had left as a way to at least vent their displeasure.
I watched Guy Fawkes this year from the balcony of a multi storey apartment building in Auckland and it was a wonderful sight with flashes of bright colour bursting across the night sky and the joyful sound of kids in the park over the road enjoying the fun of fireworks.
Before the usual curmudgeons complain and call for bans, we should all look at the wider problem of poor behaviour that goes on all year long and just gets more press on Guy Fawkes night. If we could stop graffiti, thoughtless damage and theft we wouldn’t need to ban anything.
Politics had their part to play in this with that shocker Muldoon passing a law to ban skyrockets in response to a petition from some ill advised concerned mother worried that every year or so some dopey kid looked into the beer bottle as the rocket came charging out. That law was interfering with natural selection. If that kid hadn’t copped the skyrocket it would have no doubt grown into a dangerous driver. All right don’t get too excited, but who raises kids that would do that!
Anyhow my point is that with all the relative danger of dads on the booze, bonfires without permits, rockets available, there were relatively few serious injuries or schools burned down. Compare that to these nanny state days when sales are limited, skyrockets banned, rules for Africa, stern Ministers threatening us with tennis balls and Fire chiefs admonishing us, yet the statistics of letter boxes blown up, fireworks dopily thrown into shops or at people, and all the paraphernalia of appalling behaviour things have got worse.
Banning fireworks won’t help. These are aimed at the same people who regularly pull up the nice native plants on our subdivisions, spray badly spelled graffiti on our walls, pull down anything they can topple, burn rubber on our roads, all generally while tanked on alcopops.
We’re not going to ban native plants or walls, so we need to have a look at why this is happening.
No personal responsibility coupled with alcopops too readily available is certainly one of the leading reasons. Progressively more non achievement orientated schooling hasn’t helped and removing the old whack around the ears of those acting stupidly removes the one thing the aggrieved party had left as a way to at least vent their displeasure.
I watched Guy Fawkes this year from the balcony of a multi storey apartment building in Auckland and it was a wonderful sight with flashes of bright colour bursting across the night sky and the joyful sound of kids in the park over the road enjoying the fun of fireworks.
Before the usual curmudgeons complain and call for bans, we should all look at the wider problem of poor behaviour that goes on all year long and just gets more press on Guy Fawkes night. If we could stop graffiti, thoughtless damage and theft we wouldn’t need to ban anything.
ARE WE SAFELY POWERED UP HERE IN THE NORTH?
Have you noticed how sometimes things completely off your radar suddenly crop up as a problem and you wonder how did that happen, or how did I miss that. Like suddenly discovering that you have to pay for carparking at the Kerikeri airport and you don’t have any cash or time to understand the complexities of the parking machine before your flight goes.
Parliament is always passing some new law that adds complexity to life without us actually noticing it coming, so wise people try to scan the horizon regularly for things that might adversely impact us up here in the Far North.
We get so much consultation these days that one gets inured to the messages and some quite important things get through. Luckily for me I have always had business interests both here and elsewhere which coupled with being on a few boards of national organizations forces me to see trends from outside that many here might miss.
What this is leading me to, is one quite scary resource consent hearing that is taking place in Auckland soon which could have very adverse impacts on our lives up here and which no locals that I know have even seen, but which showed up in my board papers for Transpower, the country’s electricity transmission backbone.
Northland has only got the one main electricity supply feeder through Auckland and this has recently been upgraded to allow more power to be transmitted to Northland to meet the steadily increasing demand here. Due to one of the many quirks of the Resource Management Act (RMA) the Auckland City Council (ACC) have the right to consider whether these existing and recently upgraded power lines can operate at the newly designed figures of 220 KV or have to stay at the old rating of 110KV.
Nobody looking at these lines can tell what capacity they are running at or even if they are on at all, yet the ACC could actually limit the power to Northland at this hearing and nobody here even knows. This is because they only have to consult with neighbours, yet it is the consumers of Northland who need this increased capacity.
Accordingly the hearing will take place with no Northland support for Transpower’s upgrade to benefit Northland because the RMA system alerts the wrong people and we don’t have systems to ensure that our main organizations such as lines companies, major power users and councils get input on our behalf.
My hope is that this story will wake up those with responsibility for our needs and ensure that our voice is heard.
Parliament is always passing some new law that adds complexity to life without us actually noticing it coming, so wise people try to scan the horizon regularly for things that might adversely impact us up here in the Far North.
We get so much consultation these days that one gets inured to the messages and some quite important things get through. Luckily for me I have always had business interests both here and elsewhere which coupled with being on a few boards of national organizations forces me to see trends from outside that many here might miss.
What this is leading me to, is one quite scary resource consent hearing that is taking place in Auckland soon which could have very adverse impacts on our lives up here and which no locals that I know have even seen, but which showed up in my board papers for Transpower, the country’s electricity transmission backbone.
Northland has only got the one main electricity supply feeder through Auckland and this has recently been upgraded to allow more power to be transmitted to Northland to meet the steadily increasing demand here. Due to one of the many quirks of the Resource Management Act (RMA) the Auckland City Council (ACC) have the right to consider whether these existing and recently upgraded power lines can operate at the newly designed figures of 220 KV or have to stay at the old rating of 110KV.
Nobody looking at these lines can tell what capacity they are running at or even if they are on at all, yet the ACC could actually limit the power to Northland at this hearing and nobody here even knows. This is because they only have to consult with neighbours, yet it is the consumers of Northland who need this increased capacity.
Accordingly the hearing will take place with no Northland support for Transpower’s upgrade to benefit Northland because the RMA system alerts the wrong people and we don’t have systems to ensure that our main organizations such as lines companies, major power users and councils get input on our behalf.
My hope is that this story will wake up those with responsibility for our needs and ensure that our voice is heard.
NORTHLAND AGE 1 – A FRESH APPROACH
Welcome to the first of many columns. I’m transferring my attention from nationwide issues in the Sunday Star Times to Far North issues in the Age.
For those who don’t know me, I thought I’d background my experience so you can get an impression of the things I’m well versed in. I have had the pleasure of decades of living in the Far North firstly at Kerikeri, then Mangonui right over the seabed.
I have raised kids here, done my time on school committees, played, coached and administered Rugby, Surfing and Sailing here, started businesses that have succeeded and employed Northlanders in engineering, horticulture, construction, and apparel.
I have had the great fortune to have also had a career chairing and directing significant companies in NZ and Australia, including Northland Health, Tairawhiti Health, Land Transport Safety Authority, Vector, TVNZ and currently I am still the Chairman of Auckland District Health and Transmission Holdings which has 600 staff here and in Australia where it operates the Vodafone network among other things.
Many of these companies required serious fixing and you certainly learn from this experience. Transpower accidentally turned the power off to Aucklanders in June not long after I had predicted this would happen in the Sunday Star Times, and subsequent events have seen me appointed to Transpower to sort out reliable power delivery to both Auckland and Northland.
Nature has been very kind to Northland with a great climate, wonderful coastlines and endless gorgeous scenery. Although blessed by nature, somehow I can’t help feeling we should be more prosperous than we are. Are we putting in stumbling blocks somewhere?
On thinking about this I realise that I have spent the last decade mainly fixing things in the rest of the country and it is time to address some of the problems back here at home.
Several trends are working in our favour. People are moving to warmer climates, the advent of broadband is allowing a more mobile skilled workforce to live in the regions and infrastructure problems are driving Aucklanders to consider secondary towns.
We need to grasp these trends, improve our own infrastructure and get the new businesses and skills that these people will bring so that our children can have the prosperous bright future we would love to give them.
This will take vision, fresh ideas and leadership and I hope this column will be a trigger to this new positive attitude.
For those who don’t know me, I thought I’d background my experience so you can get an impression of the things I’m well versed in. I have had the pleasure of decades of living in the Far North firstly at Kerikeri, then Mangonui right over the seabed.
I have raised kids here, done my time on school committees, played, coached and administered Rugby, Surfing and Sailing here, started businesses that have succeeded and employed Northlanders in engineering, horticulture, construction, and apparel.
I have had the great fortune to have also had a career chairing and directing significant companies in NZ and Australia, including Northland Health, Tairawhiti Health, Land Transport Safety Authority, Vector, TVNZ and currently I am still the Chairman of Auckland District Health and Transmission Holdings which has 600 staff here and in Australia where it operates the Vodafone network among other things.
Many of these companies required serious fixing and you certainly learn from this experience. Transpower accidentally turned the power off to Aucklanders in June not long after I had predicted this would happen in the Sunday Star Times, and subsequent events have seen me appointed to Transpower to sort out reliable power delivery to both Auckland and Northland.
Nature has been very kind to Northland with a great climate, wonderful coastlines and endless gorgeous scenery. Although blessed by nature, somehow I can’t help feeling we should be more prosperous than we are. Are we putting in stumbling blocks somewhere?
On thinking about this I realise that I have spent the last decade mainly fixing things in the rest of the country and it is time to address some of the problems back here at home.
Several trends are working in our favour. People are moving to warmer climates, the advent of broadband is allowing a more mobile skilled workforce to live in the regions and infrastructure problems are driving Aucklanders to consider secondary towns.
We need to grasp these trends, improve our own infrastructure and get the new businesses and skills that these people will bring so that our children can have the prosperous bright future we would love to give them.
This will take vision, fresh ideas and leadership and I hope this column will be a trigger to this new positive attitude.
2007 First Article for Northland Age
Welcome to 2007. As a hopeless optimist I feel that this year may well lead to increased prosperity for all Far North residents, but as a realist I recognise that we will all need to do something positive to get this to happen.
Back about 50 years Martin Luther King had a big dream which was to move America to being a country where all people had the same rights, regardless of their colour and religion. They haven’t quite got there but a very large part of his dream is now reality. Sadly his dream cost him his life, but thousands live better because of it.
I have a small dream compared to Martin’s but it would lead to a lot of our residents
being better off and it just might happen with help from everyone. I dream that we can live with a council whose main aims are to promptly deliver well-priced and well-valued services to the ratepayers who will be respected for their financial contributions by council staff who have a customer focus and see themselves as there to serve the citizens, rather than the other way round.
Imagine a council that we were proud of where staff met us at times that suited us rather than suiting them, who could explain the district plan to us in clear language and then not have someone else reverse that advice later on. Imagine being able to ring the council and actually get through to the person you want, and if not, being able to leave a message that actually resulted in being rung back promptly. Imagine knowing exactly where the file concerning your property or request actually was rather than chasing it around the various district offices.
Imagine a council with policies that grew the local economy sufficiently to be able to offer our children interesting well paid future prospects here in the Far North, while preserving and improving our environment.
It must be possible, although it certainly isn’t what is happening now.
Does this vision ring a bell with you? I am sure that is what most councillors themselves would like to deliver, but sadly what we are being delivered is frustration, costs, fees and delays, which are holding back our economic development. We are losing opportunities to other areas. I’m not in favour of runaway development but I am in favour of a strong local economy that enables improved services and infrastructure to be delivered at a level that improves both our environment and the well being of our population.
Back about 50 years Martin Luther King had a big dream which was to move America to being a country where all people had the same rights, regardless of their colour and religion. They haven’t quite got there but a very large part of his dream is now reality. Sadly his dream cost him his life, but thousands live better because of it.
I have a small dream compared to Martin’s but it would lead to a lot of our residents
being better off and it just might happen with help from everyone. I dream that we can live with a council whose main aims are to promptly deliver well-priced and well-valued services to the ratepayers who will be respected for their financial contributions by council staff who have a customer focus and see themselves as there to serve the citizens, rather than the other way round.
Imagine a council that we were proud of where staff met us at times that suited us rather than suiting them, who could explain the district plan to us in clear language and then not have someone else reverse that advice later on. Imagine being able to ring the council and actually get through to the person you want, and if not, being able to leave a message that actually resulted in being rung back promptly. Imagine knowing exactly where the file concerning your property or request actually was rather than chasing it around the various district offices.
Imagine a council with policies that grew the local economy sufficiently to be able to offer our children interesting well paid future prospects here in the Far North, while preserving and improving our environment.
It must be possible, although it certainly isn’t what is happening now.
Does this vision ring a bell with you? I am sure that is what most councillors themselves would like to deliver, but sadly what we are being delivered is frustration, costs, fees and delays, which are holding back our economic development. We are losing opportunities to other areas. I’m not in favour of runaway development but I am in favour of a strong local economy that enables improved services and infrastructure to be delivered at a level that improves both our environment and the well being of our population.
A Committee for the Far North?
As Chairman of Auckland District Health Board, I was recently approached by members of the Committee for Auckland, an organization that I knew little about. They wanted to work with the health sector to institute a program of direct intervention for a small number of very expensive problem members of the community.
This work was based on research entitled “Million Dollar Murray,” where a detailed study of one of life’s derelicts had noted that over a four year period this guy had run up a bill of around a million dollars for costs met by the taxpayer to cover his many arrests, court appearances, referrals to hospital emergency wards, drug and alcohol counselling, emergency accommodation grants, various benefits and so on.
The program looks promising and no doubt some form of follow up integrating health with this committee will take place. It was, however the general work of this Committee for Auckland that really got my attention and forced me to think about whether there was merit in such a group up here.
The Committee is made up of leading Aucklanders covering the main business groups, universities, poly-techs and mayors. They haven’t allowed democracy to mess things up, and members cover a wide range of leadership roles. They don’t meet as a hopelessly large talk-fest but utilise the skills they have around a chosen set of tasks all leading to making Auckland a better city.
The handouts that they gave me were clear, simple and very powerful tools analysing the strengths and weaknesses of our largest city. In one very powerful graph they have demonstrated that Auckland actually contributes $4billion of revenue more to the government that it receives back in services, giving strong support to calls for more spend on roading and transport.
They have looked at similar cities and what should be expected as economic measures and this has lead them to identify projects and opportunities. They have lead pressure on the disparate Auckland councils to unite and do something about urban design access to the harbour-side.
Surely we could do with such a group providing accurate defendable information to move the Far North up the economic stakes of our nation. Any takers?
This work was based on research entitled “Million Dollar Murray,” where a detailed study of one of life’s derelicts had noted that over a four year period this guy had run up a bill of around a million dollars for costs met by the taxpayer to cover his many arrests, court appearances, referrals to hospital emergency wards, drug and alcohol counselling, emergency accommodation grants, various benefits and so on.
The program looks promising and no doubt some form of follow up integrating health with this committee will take place. It was, however the general work of this Committee for Auckland that really got my attention and forced me to think about whether there was merit in such a group up here.
The Committee is made up of leading Aucklanders covering the main business groups, universities, poly-techs and mayors. They haven’t allowed democracy to mess things up, and members cover a wide range of leadership roles. They don’t meet as a hopelessly large talk-fest but utilise the skills they have around a chosen set of tasks all leading to making Auckland a better city.
The handouts that they gave me were clear, simple and very powerful tools analysing the strengths and weaknesses of our largest city. In one very powerful graph they have demonstrated that Auckland actually contributes $4billion of revenue more to the government that it receives back in services, giving strong support to calls for more spend on roading and transport.
They have looked at similar cities and what should be expected as economic measures and this has lead them to identify projects and opportunities. They have lead pressure on the disparate Auckland councils to unite and do something about urban design access to the harbour-side.
Surely we could do with such a group providing accurate defendable information to move the Far North up the economic stakes of our nation. Any takers?
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